Chuck Hagel

Chuck Hagel (2013)

Charles Timothy "Chuck" Hagel (* 4. October 1946 in North Platte , Nebraska ) is an American politician of the Republican Party . The Vietnam veteran was US Senator for the state of Nebraska from 1997 to 2009 . He has served on State Department and intelligence committees, and has taught at Georgetown University in Washington, DC since 2009 . From February 27, 2013 to February 17, 2015, he served as Secretary of Defense of the United States in the administration of President Barack Obama .

Career

Hagel was born in North Platte, Nebraska in 1946 to Betty and Charles Dean Hagel. His father was of German origin. Hagel attended St. Bonaventure High School in Columbus, Nebraska , and graduated from the Brown Institute for Radio and Television in Minneapolis in 1966 . He joined the US Army and served as an infantry soldier in the 9th Infantry Division during the Vietnam War . Because of his services there, he received the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry , the Army Commendation Medal , the Combat Infantryman Badge and twice the Purple Heart . Even today there are fragments of a land mine in his upper body, the explosion of which wounded him in March 1968. He retired from the military in 1968 with the rank of sergeant . He then worked from 1969 to 1971 as a news anchor and talk show host in Omaha ; In 1971 he graduated from the University of Nebraska there .

Between 1971 and 1977, Hagel served as an assistant on the staff of Congressman John Y. McCollister . After working as a lobbyist for the tire manufacturer Firestone in Washington, DC , he was from 1981 to 1982 deputy head of the Veterans' Administration , from which the present US Department of Veterans emerged ; he resigned after a disagreement with agency chief Bob Nimmo . He then started a cellphone company with friends, which was acquired by AT&T in 1998 for an estimated $ 1.5 billion. With his stake, Hagel became a millionaire and had the necessary financial resources to go into politics.

In 1996, Chuck Hagel took part in the election to the US Senate in Nebraska. He applied for the successor to the no longer running Democrat J. James Exon , but was considered an outsider to the incumbent Governor Ben Nelson . Surprisingly, Hagel received 56.1 percent of the vote. This made him the first Republican since Carl Curtis in 1972 to win a Senate election in Nebraska. Six years later, when he was re-elected, he achieved the best result in the history of this state with a share of the vote of 82.8 percent.

Hagel announced in September 2007 that he would not run for the Senate again the following year, but left open the possibility of serving his country in another capacity in the future. In the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, he was traded as a possible Democrat Barack Obama candidate for Secretary of Defense . Hagel was also under discussion for the post of Vice President under Obama. However, Obama chose Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense and Joe Biden as vice presidential candidate.

In 2009 he was elected Chairman of the Atlantic Council to succeed James Jones . Chuck Hagel is married to Lillibet Hagel; the two have two children and currently live in Virginia . On US policy towards Iran and the Middle East in general, Hagel said in an interview in June 2008:

“I am in favor of unconditional, direct negotiations. We are at a strategic impasse in the Middle East and that is our own fault. In the past seven years, the situation in the Middle East has gotten worse, no matter how you look at it. Our policy has failed. If we continue like this, the entire Middle East will be on fire. "

Obama, Petraeus and Hagel over Baghdad (2008)

US President Barack Obama nominated Hagel as the new Secretary of Defense on January 7, 2013 . After weeks of debates (see also Filibuster ) and a full-day hearing before the Senate on January 31, 2013, during which he had to comment on various controversial statements, the US Senate confirmed Hagel on February 26, 2013 with a relatively narrow majority of 58 to 41 votes as the new Minister of Defense. The following day he took the oath of office and succeeded Leon Panetta . Although Hagel is a Republican, neoconservative interventionists rejected his nomination because, firstly, he was critical of Israel's settlement plans and, secondly, because of his own past, he was hostile to the war and criticized the warlike foreign policy of the previous government.

Hagel is the first US Secretary of Defense to speak out publicly against nuclear weapons. Among other things, he was a member of the commission that drew up the Global Zero Action Plan for complete global nuclear disarmament by 2030. He was also the co-author of another report from the Global Zero initiative in 2012, which presented a plan to reduce the number of US and Russian nuclear weapons by 80% to 900 weapons each over the next 10 years. In a statement to the Senate hearing dated January 31, 2013, co-authors of this report Richard Burt , James E. Cartwright , Thomas R. Pickering and John Sheehan said in a press release that Chuck Hagel, like themselves, said reject unilateral disarmament. As long as there are nuclear weapons, the US must keep effective deterrents. However, the continuation of the nuclear weapons policy of the Cold War does not meet the requirements of the 21st century and is not in the interests of national security.

On November 24, 2014, Hagel announced his resignation from the office of Defense Minister. There are only speculations about possible reasons for the resignation. It was known that Hagel had different views on the politics of Syrian President Assad than President Obama. His successor Ashton Carter was sworn in on February 17, 2015.

plant

• Chuck Hagel (with Peter Kaminsky): America: Our Next Chapter. Tough Questions, Straight Answers . Ecco, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-06-143696-3

Web links

Commons : Chuck Hagel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wikiquote: Chuck Hagel  - Quotes

• Chuck Hagel in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Chuck Hagel in the nndb (English)
• Overview of Hagel's voting behavior in the Senate
• Chuck Hagel in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dpa: The new US Secretary of Defense is in office. Handelsblatt, February 17, 2015, accessed on February 19, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Lelyveld, Joseph. The Heartland Dissident . The New York Times Magazine , February 12, 2006. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
3. ↑ Dufour, Jeff. Glenn Close and Chuck Norris push pet projects . The Hill , online edition, Under The Dome, May 11, 2006. Retrieved March 4, 2007.
4. ↑ www.freitag.de
5. ↑ www.wallstreetjournal.de
6. ↑ Anti-war Republican and presidential hopeful Hagel to retire ( Memento from July 7, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) - (AFP) - Sep 10, 2007
7. ↑ US primaries: Obama wants to force Clinton's knockout with dollars. In: Spiegel Online . March 2, 2008, accessed December 18, 2014 . 
8. ↑ Marc Pitzke: US election campaign: Obama's triumphant tour frustrates McCain. In: Spiegel Online . July 22, 2008, accessed December 18, 2014 . 
9. ↑ The idea that we would bring democracy to the world was crazy from the start. Chuck Hagel in conversation with Olivia Schoeller in the magazine of the Berliner Zeitung on 28/29. June 2008
10. ↑ Fmr. Sen. Hagel Testifies at Senate Confirmation Hearing. Videos of the hearing on January 31, 2013 on: C-SPAN .org. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
11. ↑ Peter Winkler: Unpleasant result: Chuck Hagel new boss of the Pentagon. In: nzz.ch. February 27, 2013, accessed December 18, 2014 . 
12. ↑ www.defense.gov Senate Confirms Hagel as Defense Secretary ; Frankfurter Rundschau: US Senate elects Chuck Hagel into office
13. ^ New York Times, Jan. 7, 2013, p. 1
14. ^ Panetta Bid's Farewell to Defense Department Team
15. ↑ Hubert Wetzel: US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel - From Infantryman to Lord of America's Wars. In: sueddeutsche.de . January 7, 2013, accessed December 18, 2014 . 
16. ↑ Damir Fras: Chuck Hagel: Obama nominated Secretary of Defense. In: fr-online.de . January 7, 2013, accessed December 18, 2014 . 
17. ^ Robert Burns: Chuck Hagel, Nuclear Weapons Opponent, Would Be First Defense Secretary With Anti-Nuke Stance. ( Memento of the original from February 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Huffington Post , January 29, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2013. 
18. ↑ Global Zero: Global Zero Action Plan. February 2010 ( PDF ( Memento of the original from November 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , Accessed on April 20, 2013 ). 
19. ↑ James Cartwright , Richard Burt , Chuck Hagel, Thomas Pickering , Jack Sheehan, Bruce Blair: Global Zero US Nuclear Policy Commission Report. Modernizing US Nuclear Strategy, Force Structure and Posture. Global Zero, May 2012 ( PDF , accessed April 20, 2013).
20. ↑ Global Zero: Criticisms of Chuck Hagel's and Global Zero's Position on Nukes Misleading and Wrong. ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. A Statement by Ambassador Richard Burt, General (Ret.) James E. Cartwright, Ambassador Thomas Pickering and General (Ret.) John Sheehan. January 31, 2013, accessed April 20, 2013. 
21. ↑ US Secretary of Defense resigns Hail is leaving, who is coming? tagesschau.de, November 24, 2014, archived from the original on November 25, 2014 ; Retrieved November 24, 2014 .