Weinberger remembered as tough, 'compassionate'

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Caspar Weinberger was remembered yesterday as a defense secretary who took on totalitarian regimes and helped to end the Cold War -- and also hid chocolate in his desk and liked to catch a daytime nap.

Mr. Weinberger, who was President Reagan's Pentagon chief, died last week at 88 in Maine. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery after a funeral service at nearby Fort Myer Memorial Chapel attended by Vice President Dick Cheney, former Reagan officials and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told mourners, who included Mr. Weinberger's widow, Jane, that Mr. Weinberger's life "rested on a bedrock of beliefs."

And though "he became 'Cap the Knife' in California and Washington," Mr. Powell said of Mr. Weinberger's reputation for efforts to slash government spending, "he was also ... 'Cap the Compassionate'" and a man of habits, such as a daytime snooze.

The guest list at the farewell read like a who's who of Reagan-era politics. It included former Reagan ally Mrs. Thatcher, 80, who has rarely appeared in public after suffering a series of small strokes, former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, former Attorney General Edwin I. Meese III, former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and Reagan Navy Secretary John F. Lehman.

Mr. Weinberger had supported Mrs. Thatcher's decision to dispatch British forces for the Falkland Islands war in 1982.

Also in attendance were Mr. Cheney, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace and Maine's two Republican senators, Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Mr. Weinberger "made changes that helped restore pride in our country's uniform and helped win the Cold War."

Mr. Weinberger oversaw the Pentagon's biggest peacetime spending increase.

He later faced federal felony charges of lying and concealing notes detailing White House discussions of the Iran-Contra affair, the sale of weapons to Iran to finance secret illegal aid to the Nicaraguan Contras. Mr. Weinberger was pardoned by the first President Bush in 1992, just before he was to go to trial.

The graveside ceremony included a 19-gun salute and a bugler playing taps. Mr. Weinberger's flag-draped casket was carried on a caisson to his burial spot on a shaded hill with a view of the Washington Monument and the Pentagon.

Mrs. Snowe called Mr. Weinberger "a genuine patriot" and said the world's totalitarian governments "met their match in Caspar Weinberger."

Born Aug. 18, 1917, in San Francisco, he graduated from Harvard in 1938 and earned his law degree there in 1941. He enlisted in the Army as a private with the United States entry into World War II and came out of the war a captain.

Mr. Weinberger served as President Nixon's budget director and later was publisher of Forbes and then chairman of Forbes Inc.

Besides his wife of 63 years, Mr. Weinberger is survived by their son, Caspar Weinberger Jr., and daughter, Arlin Weinberger.