Farewell, Dark Prince

Friends and critics call Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle by many names -- Prince of Darkness, Darth Vader, evil genius -- and the witty Perle loves them all. By title, Richard (as he is invariably referred to in Washington) is merely one of eleven Assistant Secretaries, a third-echelon Pentagon aide. In practice, Perle is widely acknowledged to be a major architect of U.S. arms-control policy, though to his opponents he is a bureaucratic Machiavelli who deviously torpedoed all reasonable prospects for agreement.

When Perle, 45, submitted his long-anticipated resignation last week, he cited with pride his having blocked "any arms-control agreement that harmed national security." Perle maintains that he has nothing against arms treaties, but he insists that "you have to be prepared to resist the temptation to sign bad ones." Despite his reputation, Perle was the author of the so-called zero-option proposal for eliminating intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe, which has become the framework for current talks.

Perle's resignation came just as the U.S. unveiled its verification scheme at the INF talks. Some critics see the strict provisions as a major impediment to quick negotiation or perhaps even the death knell for an INF agreement. Perle shares none of this skepticism. He is confident, he said, that the "U.S. is on the verge of a breakthrough . . . which will for the first time eliminate an entire category of weapons."

Perle's departure from the Pentagon will free him to complete a novel that will show "how Government policy battles are fought out." Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger has persuaded Perle to stay in touch as a consultant, but concedes that "this place won't be the same without Richard." Former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger agrees, noting sardonically, "I'm glad he's leaving, but his departure lowers discernibly the average IQ of this Administration."