Bechtel and Weinberger

Bechtel and Weinberger

Six weeks after George Shultz’s designation as company president, another member of the Nixon cabinet arrived in San Francisco to take up duties as the Bechtel Corporation’s general counsel.  The new recruit was Caspar Weinberger, of late secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. 

This was a rather odd appointment.  For a start, Weinberger’s father was the son of immigrant Bohemian Jews - not a plus with a company with extensive dealings with the Arabs and more than a little anti-Semitism in its own executive suite.  Moreover, while Weinberger had begun his career as a corporate lawyer, it had been years since he had practised law, a subject that never held much interest for him.  Nor did he claim to know much about business, especially the business of construction and engineering.  His expertise was as a manager, a cost-cutter, a political doer and fixer, and through the years it had served him well.  Indeed, if anything, the former cabinet secretary, OMB director and Federal Trade Commission chairman was overqualified for the post of general counsel.

Yet Weinberger had been recruited for the Bechtel job by the company’s general counsel, Bill Slusser, who was planning to retire.  However, as soon as 2 months after his appointment, Weinberger was aching to return to Washington and politics.  In 1976, he left the company to become Secretary of Defence under President Ronald Reagan.