AS the secretary of defense for President Reagan, Cas par Weinberger helped plan the invasion of Grenada, faced down the Soviet Union as communism teetered, and wound up being indicted on felony charges relating to the Iran-Contra affair. (He was pardoned by the first President Bush before trial.) He also served in President Nixon’s cabinet.
Now about to turn 88, he’s turned into a novelist. His new thriller, “Chain of Command” (Atria Books, $25.95), written with Peter Schweizer, draws on Weinberger’s decades as a Washington insider.
The story starts with a bang – the president of the United States is shot dead on page 11 – and Secret Service Agent Michael Delaney is the prime suspect.
As Delaney spends his time on the run, trying to the unravel the plot and clear his name, follow-up terrorist attacks sow fear across the country.
And the new president, Morgan Boyd, takes emergency extra-legal measures in his war on terror – deploying the Army in the streets of American cities.
For the assassination scene, Weinberger drew inspiration from “the confusion” that followed the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan, which left the president with a bullet in the chest, just inches from his heart. At that time, Alexander Haig, then the secretary of state, memorably and mistakenly told the country on national TV: “I am in control here.”
Other themes in the book have a more contemporary resonance. Conspiracy theorists will likely have a field day with Weinberger’s fictional Protocols and Procedures Section (Unit P), which, under presidential authority, imprisons, tortures and kills without a second thought.
From his home on Mount Desert Island, Maine, Weinberger talked about his book, which might make a top-notch thriller on the screen, and about current events.
In your view, how’s the war in Iraq going?
I think it’s going well.
As a former secretary of defense, do you still get intelligence briefings?
No. I could, I suppose, if I asked for one. Don [Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld] has occasional meetings at the Pentagon of a lot of formers and exes. And those are a very good chance to get caught up on what’s happening and put in ideas if you have any.
In your book, there’s the Freedom From Fear Act, and in real-life, the Patriot Act. What do you think of the real one?
There’s a strong desire to not permit people who carried out the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center to come in and go out and wander around as they please. [If our democracy] is abused, and you have something like 3,000 people killed, you get a strong feeling that stronger measures may be necessary, and we may have to give up a lot for a time.
The vice president-turned-president in the book is quite a villain. Do you know Dick Cheney, and would you send him a book, maybe as a joke?
I know him very well. If he wanted to see it, I’d be glad to autograph it for him. But he is certainly nothing remotely resembling what we had in mind in the book.
Who should star as Agent Delaney in the movie?
That fellow from “Saving Private Ryan” – Tom Hanks.
