Defense pick Gates remembered as elegant, arrogant

WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) Robert Gates, in his first stab at large-scale government leadership, chastised the staff he inherited at a CIA division and said he would sic a ''junkyard dog'' on their flabby intelligence work.

That 1982 speech, according to analysts who heard it, created an intimidating impression still carried 24 years later by the man chosen to replace Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon amid criticism of America's management of the Iraq war.

''He frightened everybody,'' said Arthur Hulnick, a Boston University professor of international relations and 30-year CIA veteran.

Mr Gates, who has not spoken publicly since President George W Bush announced his plan to change the Pentagon's leadership last week, heads to Capitol Hill today to begin meeting with key senators who will decide if he gets the job.

Mr Gates, 63, directed the CIA from 1991-93 during President Bush's father's presidency and is now president of Texas A&M University. A veteran cold warrior who has a doctorate in Soviet history, Gates is viewed as a pragmatist on foreign policy and has advocated US dialogue with Iran and North Korea.

Until his nomination as defense secretary, Mr Gates was a member of the the Iraq Study Group headed by former Secretary of State James Baker that is looking at alternative strategies for Iraq.

One former senior US official who knows him well predicted Gates would influence US policy broadly, including on Iran, North Korea, China, intelligence, the war on terror and West Asia peace.

CONTRASTING IMPRESSIONS Congressional staffers say senators will consider Mr Gates's qualifications, history and his ability to take on a vast department and run the war in Iraq, which many view as being on the wrong path.

Interviews with some of Mr Gates' former colleagues paint two contrasting pictures of the man President Bush hopes will provide a fresh perspective on the war.

Some called him ''intimidating,'' ''arrogant'' and ''a tyrant.'' He was criticized as politically motivated by some who maintain Mr Gates massaged intelligence to fit President Ronald Reagan's hard-line anti-Soviet views in the 1980s -- a charge that could harm him in the Iraq debate.

''I don't expect him to tell truth to power, which I think is required of someone in a principal position,'' said Melvin Goodman, former CIA Soviet Affairs division chief and senior analyst who accused Gates of politicising intelligence during his Senate confirmation hearings in 1991.

And critically for many now inside the Pentagon, some of Gates' former CIA subordinates describe him as a man so demanding and so assured in his own intellect that he accepts little that does not agree with his views.

That same charge has plagued Rumsfeld.

''I'm expecting a lot more of the same,'' a US defense official said.

Still others say those charges are unfair and untrue.

Some who worked with Mr Gates later and during his time with the National Security Council are far more positive, calling him everything from ''elegant'' in presenting positions on national security to ''thoughtful'' and ''brilliant'' in analysis.

''He's one of the brightest guys around,'' said retired Navy Adm. William Studeman, who was deputy director of the CIA when Gates left the agency in 1993.

A White House spokeswoman said Gates would not grant interviews before his confirmation hearings, expected to begin the week of December 4.

Reuters SHB GC1305