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Critics point to Clark's ill-advised support for an embargo against West European suppliers of parts for the Soviets' natural gas pipeline. (NATO allies flouted the embargo, and, last fall, Reagan was obliged to drop it.) Clark took over the Administration's El Salvador policy, and the resulting harder line has produced a backlash in Congress. He has generally backed Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger's resistance to budget cuts, even when it was clear that Congress would insist on trims. Clark is getting much of the blame for the politically costly skirmishing over Kenneth Adelman's nomination as arms-control chief; he was Adelman's main sponsor. And last month Clark encouraged Reagan to make his star wars missile-defense speech, despite the worries of other Reagan aides that it would reinforce the President's reputation for hawkish loose talk.
Clark has maintained generally cordial relations with the Secretaries of State and Defense. Indeed, he regards his good pal Weinberger practically as a client. Once each month or so, ostensibly to clear the air of tensions, he and Secretary of State George Shultz, accompanied by one aide each, hold a two-hour rap session. Yet that has not stopped the widening rift between the two.
Despite his much professed loyalty to the President and to "team play," Clark has lately run up against the major powers on Reagan's staff. In encouraging the President to speak his angry mind about El Salvador and the nuclear-freeze movement, Clark pointedly prevailed over White House Chief of Staff James Baker and others whom Clark in private dismisses as "civilians" and "political types." In January, Clark interceded against a White House reorganization that would have diminished the role of Presidential Counsellor Edwin Meese. This strained Clark's relations with Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver, who was the architect of the plan. Then in February, Clark tried to oust Press Spokesman David Gergen. "The tension around here is unbelievable," says one White House aide.
Tension between National Security Advisers and other ranking aides is not unique to Reagan's team. The larger problem is that the NSC is now headed by an amateur who, despite his managerial skill, reflects no real policy perspective beyond a rudimentary antiCommunism.
Policymaking has been further hindered by Secretary of State Shultz's reluctance to make waves or weigh in on difficult issues like arms control. Complains Maryland Republican Senator Charles Mathias: "There is too little depth and experience in foreign policy. Reagan hasn't any, Weinberger hasn't any, Clark hasn't any." In other Administrations, packed with scrappy egos, a strong, silent type at the head of the NSC might have fitted in well. But for this Administration, clearly, there is a need for someone at Clark's position who can bring prudence and substantive experience as well as order to the task. —By Kurt Andersen. Reported by Laurence I. Barrett and Gregory H. Wierzynski/ Washington