Ready, Aim, Fired

Despite his twinkling blue eyes and disarmingly crooked smile, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney possesses a tongue as sharp as his mind. Soon after he took office last year, he publicly scalded a four-star Air Force general for going behind his back to Congress. Military-service chiefs who oppose Cheney on budget cuts earn a solid verbal thump on the wrist. Last week Cheney fired the highly decorated Air Force chief, General Michael Dugan, for "poor judgment at a sensitive time" in speaking indiscreetly on secret and diplomatically touchy issues relating to the gulf crisis. Dugan was the first member of the Joint...

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