Caspar Weinberger Caspar Willard " Cap " Weinberger , GBE ( August 18 , 1917March 28 , 2006 ) , was an American politician and businessman . As a prominent Republican he served in a variety of prominent state and federal positions for three decades , including Chairman of the California Republican Party , 1962 - 68 . Most notably he was appointed Secretary of Defense under Republican President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1987 . Born in San Francisco , California , Weinberger served in the 41st Infantry Division in the Pacific theater of World War II . His entry into politics was as a California State Assemblyman from 1953 to 1959 , and he would go on to serve as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford . An accomplished private sector businessman , he later became vice president and general counsel of Bechtel Corporation , and still later Chairman of " Forbes " . His tenure as Secretary of Defense is the third longest in U . S . history , and spanned the final years of the Cold War . He is also known for his key role in the administration ' s Strategic Defense Initiative and later indictments in the Iran - Contra affair . He was awarded both the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1987 and an honorary British knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II . Early life . Weinberger was born in San Francisco , California , the younger of two sons of Herman Weinberger , a Colorado - born lawyer . His mother , the former Cerise Carpenter Hampson , was an accomplished violinist . His father was of Jewish Bohemian descent , while his maternal grandparents were immigrants from England . Weinberger had stated that his mother ' s Episcopalian religion was " an enormous influence and comfort all my life " . Weinberger was named " Caspar " for a friend of his mother ' s ; his father began calling him " Cap " , a nickname that stuck into adulthood . Weinberger was a first cousin of the nationally - broadcast radio personality Don McNeill of " Don McNeill ' s Breakfast Club " . Caspar Weinberger ' s father Herman was the younger brother of Luella Weinberger McNeill , mother of Don McNeill . The 1910 Census shows Herman and Luella living in the household of Nathan Weinberger , the grandfather of Caspar Weinberger . Weinberger was a sickly child and required close nurturing from his mother ; in time , he overcame his poor health and shyness . He attended San Francisco Polytechnic High School . Weinberger ' s paternal grandparents had left Judaism because of a dispute at a Bohemian synagogue . He was reared in a home with no denominational ties , though with a general Christian orientation . In time he became an active Episcopalian and often expressed his faith in God . When he enrolled at Harvard University in Cambridge , Massachusetts , Mrs . Weinberger rented an apartment nearby for the first semester that Weinberger and his older brother , Peter , attended Harvard . She then returned to her husband in San Francisco . Weinberger received his Bachelor of Arts , " magna cum laude " , in 1938 and a Juris Doctor degree in 1941 , both from Harvard . He edited the Harvard student newspaper , " The Harvard Crimson " , and recalls in his memoirs entitled " In the Arena : A Memoir of the 20th Century " two specific interviews of which he was most pleased : one with the highly decorated soldier Theodore Roosevelt , Jr . , and another with Alabama - born actress Tallulah Bankhead . He entered the United States Army as a private in 1941 , was commissioned as a second lieutenant at the United States Army Officer Candidate School in Fort Benning , Georgia , and served with the 41st Infantry Division in the Pacific . At the end of the war he was a captain on General Douglas MacArthur ' s intelligence staff . Early in life , he developed an interest in politics and history , and , during the war years , a special admiration for Winston Churchill , whom he would later cite as an important influence in his life . From 1945 – 1947 , Weinberger worked as a law clerk for a federal judge before joining a San Francisco law firm . Political career . Weinberger entered the race for California assemblyman in the San Francisco Bay area in 1952 as a Republican at the persuasion of his wife , Jane Weinberger , who also served as his campaign manager . He won and was reelected in 1954 and 1956 . As the Chairman of the Assembly Government Organization Committee , Weinberger was responsible for the creation of the California Department of Water Resources and was instrumental in the creation of the California State Water Project . Although unsuccessful in his 1958 campaign for California Attorney General , Weinberger continued to be active in politics and was chosen by Nixon in 1962 to become chairman of the California Republican Party . Governor Ronald Reagan named him chairman of the Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy in 1967 and appointed him State director of finance early in 1968 . Weinberger moved to Washington in January 1970 to become chairman of the Federal Trade Commission . He is credited for having revitalized the FTC by enforcing consumer protection . He subsequently served under President Richard Nixon as deputy director ( 1970 – 1972 ) and director ( 1972 – 1973 ) of the Office of Management and Budget and Secretary of Health , Education , and Welfare ( 1973 – 1975 ) . While serving in the Office of Management and Budget , Weinberger earned the nickname " Cap the Knife " for his cost - cutting ability . For the next five years , Weinberger was vice president and general counsel of the Bechtel Corporation in California . Secretary of Defense . Although not widely experienced in defense matters , Weinberger had a reputation in Washington as an able administrator ; his powers as a cost cutter earned him the sobriquet " Cap the Knife . " He shared President Reagan ' s conviction that the Soviet Union posed a serious threat to the United States , and that the defense establishment needed to be modernized and strengthened . Belying his nickname , at the Pentagon Weinberger became a vigorous advocate of Reagan ' s plan to increase the Department of Defense budget . Readiness , sustainability , and modernization became the watchwords of the defense program . In his early years at the Pentagon , Cap Weinberger was known as " Cap the Ladle " for advocating large increases in defense spending . As Secretary of Defense , Weinberger oversaw a massive rebuilding of US military strength . Major defense programs he championed included the B - 1B bomber and the " 600 - ship Navy " . His efforts created economic and military - industrial pressures that were associated with the beginning of Perestroika and the beginning of the end of both the Cold War and the Soviet Union . However , this thesis was contested by the extensive study on the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union by two prominent economists from the World Bank - - William Easterly , and Stanley Fischer from MIT . “ … the study concludes that the increased Soviet defense spending provoked by Mr . Reagan ' s policies was not the straw that broke the back of the Evil Empire . The Soviet war in Afghanistan and the Soviet response to Mr . Reagan ' s Star Wars program caused only a relatively small rise in [ USSR ] defense costs . The massive US defense effort throughout the period from 1960 to 1987 contributed only marginally to Soviet economic decline . " The same study points out the key reason for the economic decline of the USSR was relying on centrally - planned industrial - expansion to drive economic growth , rather than driving growth by increasing worker productivity via incentives ; France and Japan were also mentioned ( in 1994 ) as other centrally - planned economies that could soon experience troubles . While the Reagan Doctrine was not a key factor in causing the economic implosion of the USSR , which was driven by internal contradictions , the Reagan proxy - rollback policy of the 1980s ( which replaced Détente that Nixon and Carter generally pursued during the 1970s ) was the key factor in preventing expansion of the Soviet economic empire , and sustenance of their declining domestic economy from external sources . Reagan was one of the few people to predict this possibility , and the only POTUS to do so since 1953 . The final piece of the puzzle was the Soviet leadership : Brezhnev , Andropov , and Cherenkov were hardline Communists , and prevented any significant changes , but Gorbachev was a reformer — and once economic reforms and political reforms began , they became unstoppable , as foreseen in 1977 : These events came at the cost of helping to triple the US national debt , and funding radicals . Weinberger pushed for dramatic increases in the United States ' nuclear funding , and was a strong advocate of the controversial SDI , an initiative which proposed a space - and ground - based missile defense shield . Unlike President Reagan and Secretary of State Shultz , Weinberger did not regard any of Gorbachev ' s actions — whether it was perestroika or glasnost — as reassuring indicators of his stated intentions . " Not only did Gorbachev give up all of the Soviet ' non - negotiable ' demands [ regarding the INF Treaty ] , but he gave us precisely the kind of treaty that the President had sought for seven years . That act of course does not mean - - any more than does the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan - - that the USSR has given up its long - term aggressive designs . " Initially , Reagan ' s views were in line with Weinberger ' s views , but he began to reevaluate his perception of Gorbachev ' s intentions in 1987 , the year Gorbachev accepted the U . S . proposal on INF . Iran - Contra affair . The Iran - Contra affair concerned the selling of US missiles to Iran . The funds received from Iran were then channeled to right wing guerilla fighters known as Contras , who were fighting the socialist leaning government of Nicaragua . Such funding had been specifically denied by the US Congress . Though he claims to have been opposed to the sale on principle , Weinberger participated in the transfer of United States Hawk and TOW missiles to Iran during the Iran – Contra affair . This resulted in scandal and several investigations which resulted in fourteen administration officials being indicted , including Caspar Weinberger who resigned before trial . Following his resignation as Secretary of Defense , legal proceedings against him were brought by Independent Counsel Lawrence E . Walsh . A federal grand jury then indicted Weinberger on two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice on June 16 , 1992 . He was defended by defense attorney Carl Rauh . Before he could be tried , Weinberger received a pardon from President George H . W . Bush , who was Reagans ' s vice president during the scandal , on December 24 , 1992 . Later career . Weinberger had been Secretary of Defense for six years and ten months , longer than any man except for Robert McNamara and Donald Rumsfeld . After Weinberger left the Pentagon , he joined Forbes , Inc . , in 1989 as publisher of " Forbes " magazine . He was named chairman in 1993 . Over the next decade , he wrote frequently on defense and national security issues . In 1990 , he wrote " Fighting for Peace " , an account of his Pentagon years . In 1996 , Weinberger co - authored a book entitled " The Next War " , which raised questions about the adequacy of US military capabilities following the end of the Cold War . He was a member of the Founding Council of the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford . Family . In 1942 , Weinberger married Rebecca Jane Dalton , who was born on March 29 , 1918 in Milford , Maine . A World War II Army nurse , and later author and publisher , she , according to " " [ c ] oaxed her husband . . . into politics and was a loyal Washington wife during three Republican administrations before she began to write and publish children ' s books " " . Jane Weinberger , a uterine cancer survivor , died on July 12 , 2009 , aged 91 , at Bar Harbor , Maine , following a stroke . The couple had a daughter , Arlin , and a son , Caspar . He is also related to Christopher Nels Weinberger ( April 6 , 1995 ) . Death . While residing on Mount Desert Island , Maine , Weinberger was treated for and died from complications of pneumonia at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor , Maine , aged 88 . He was survived by his wife , the former Rebecca Jane Dalton , their two children and several grandchildren . He was buried in Section 30 , Grave 835 - 1 at Arlington National Cemetery on April 4 , 2006 . Shortly after his death President George W . Bush in a public statement said : Then United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stated :