Many past national security advisers have fancied themselves grand world strategists, yet have failed at the basic task of making the national-security apparatus run smoothly. Lt. Gen. Colin Powell, by contrast, is an unpretentious infantryman who gets his kicks by buying old cars and rebuilding them at home in his spare time. But he also is an experienced bureaucratic player who is skilled at operating the national-security system. As a result, Gen. Powell, named the new national security adviser last week, appears to be the right man for the job at this stage of the Reagan administration. The Reagan foreign policy agenda has been winnowed down largely to the quest for arms-control agreements with the Soviets and the search for change in Nicaragua. The time for grand new concepts has passed. Now Mr. Reagan needs someone who is respected inside the system and capable of ironing out remaining internal disputes quietly. Gen. Powell, who has been serving as deputy national security adviser, fits the bill. "He always impressed me as being a good inside politician -- a good infighter, yet also a peacemaker," says Michael Burch, who was an assistant defense secretary when Gen. Powell was Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger's top miltary assistant. "While I don't know that he's a great strategist, he more than makes up for it with common sense and getting the right people together at the right time and resolving problems before they happen." Secretary of State George Shultz and Frank Carlucci, the current national security adviser and Mr. Reagan's nominee to become secretary of defense, are both better known in Congress and will be more visible, selling the pending arms-control treaty and other administration policies. Gen. Powell, a genial and plain-spoken 50-year-old, is one of a special breed of Washington figures: He is well known within the tightly knit national security establishment, yet largely unknown to the rest of the nation. He has combat experience in Vietnam. He has been a senior aide under three cabinet officers -- Mr. Weinberger, former Defense Secretary Harold Brown and former Energy Secretary Charles Duncan -- and has known Mr. Carlucci since working under him in the Office of Management and Budget 15 years ago. Gen. Powell works the bureaucracy with a deft touch and he has a keener sense of public relations than many of his predecessors. When the Reagan administration was planning its invasion of Grenada, for example, Gen. Powell was serving as Mr. Weinberger's chief military assistant at the Pentagon. He was almost alone in the government in sensing that the Pentagon's press office should be given some warning of the impending operation so it could be prepared for the deluge of press inquiries certain to come after the operation was launched. Gen. Powell convinced Mr. Weinberger to warn the Pentagon public affairs office a day in advance. Pentagon press officers kept the secret, avoided directly lying to suspicious reporters before the operation was launched, yet were ready once news broke. By contrast, John Poindexter, then the deputy national security adviser, froze out White House spokesman Larry Speakes and even prompted him to lie about the operation just before it began. Gen. Powell also has shown that he can present issues to his boss without seeming to impose his own views -- a skill useful in maintaining the image of honest broker of ideas important for a national security adviser. Colleagues recall that when Gen. Powell thought an issue should be brought to Mr. Weinberger's attention, he often privately urged other officials to raise it at the defense chief's regular staff meetings. "Colin is the consummate staff man," says Lawrence Korb, a former assistant defense secretary. Gen. Powell was so trusted by Mr. Weinberger that he was one of the few government officials who knew of the secret arms sales to Iran, and of Mr. Weinberger's strong objections and efforts to find out more about them. Colleagues say it is extremely unlikely that Mr. Powell, both because of his own style and experience in the affair, would try to keep information from President Reagan as Adm. Poindexter did during the Iran-Contra affair. Recently, Gen. Powell has told visitors that the National Security Council staff should function as a "collegial infantry batallion." It isn't a term a grandiloquent national security adviser like Henry Kissinger would have used, but it's an indicator of the kind of efficient and noncontroversial NSC operation Gen. Powell can be expected to run.
Lt. General Colin Powell, who has been serving as Deputy National Security Adviser, was named the new National Security Adviser last week. He appears to be the right man for the right job at this stage of the Reagan administration. The Bush administration is in a state of disarray and disarray. He has combat experience in Vietnam. He has been a senior aide under three cabinet officers and 15 years ago worked under Frank Carlucci, the current National Security Advisor now appointed Secretary of Defense.