Washington – In the tumultuous days before John Bolton graduated from Yale University in 1970, he and his roommates leaned mattresses against the windows to keep out stray tear gas shells.
The trial of a top Black Panther in New Haven, Conn., had ignited riots and set off a national uproar. The National Guard patrolled the campus. A bomb went off at the hockey rink.
At commencement, student speakers compared the United States to pre-Nazi Germany and called for an immediate end to the war in Vietnam.
But one student sounded a contrarian theme.
“The conservative underground is alive and well here,” Bolton told his classmates and their parents, scorning a handful of hecklers.
“If we do not make our influence felt, rest assured we will in the real world.”
Bolton’s prediction would prove true, and for no one more than for this brainy son of a Baltimore firefighter whose nomination as ambassador to the United Nations is now bitterly contested. Ten years after graduation, he would join the Reagan administration to begin what would become nearly two decades of service in Republican administrations.
Seemingly untroubled by self-doubt, Bolton, whom former Sen. Jesse Helms once called “the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon,” has never shied from a dispute, nor hesitated to shatter a consensus.
In his office he displays a grenade designating him as “Truest Reaganaut,” a gift from former colleagues at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
From his battle, as a Justice Department official, for the doomed Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork to his dramatic declaration to poll workers tabulating presidential ballots in Florida in 2000 – “I’m with the Bush-Cheney team, and I’m here to stop the count” – Bolton has proved himself a fighter, fiercely committed to a bedrock American nationalism.
But now his brash performance as undersecretary of state threatens his nomination, as government officials high and low who have clashed with Bolton strike back.
Complaints that Bolton bullied intelligence analysts who rejected his views have particular weight with congressional critics, who are still fuming that administration claims about Iraq’s arsenal and al-Qaeda turned out to be wildly inaccurate.
But as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee extends its consideration of Bolton’s candidacy, President Bush has shown no sign of wavering in his fight to win confirmation for this least diplomatic of diplomats.
“See, the U.N. needs reform,” Bush said at a news conference Thursday night. “If you’re interested in reform in the U.N. like I’m interested in reform in the U.N., it makes sense to put somebody who’s skilled and who’s not afraid to speak his mind at the United Nations.”
Bolton wins such plaudits partly because of an extreme work style that sometimes has him firing off e-mail messages to subordinates from home at 4 a.m. before arriving at the office at 6. In his current job, he has required staff members to stand – along with him – at morning meetings, to discourage long-winded discussions.
“When you go in to brief John Bolton, as I found out early, you better be prepared,” said Thomas Boyd, who was Bolton’s deputy when he was assistant attorney general in the Reagan Justice Department and who remains a friend.
“He’s kind of like an appellate judge. He will read everything. If you have holes in your argument, he won’t work with you.”
“He’s tough, and he’s relentless, and he’s very logical,” said Frank J. Donatelli, a Republican consultant who has worked with Bolton both in government and party operations. “But I’ve never observed any kind of abusive behavior.”
What really puts off Bolton’s critics, Donatelli said, are his firm views.
“Even in the Reagan administration, John would usually be the most conservative person in the room,” he said.
The drive and ideological certainty that admirers believe make Bolton effective strike his critics as excessive.
Avis Bohlen, who worked under Bolton as assistant secretary of state for arms control, said she agreed with several of his initiatives, including scuttling a protocol to the international ban on biological weapons.
But she thought the United States should work with European allies to find a better approach to preventing biological weapons. Bolton did not.
“He was absolutely clear that he didn’t want any more arms control agreements,” Bohlen said. “He didn’t want any negotiating bodies. He just cut it off. It was one more area where we lost support and respect in the world.”
In handling disagreements, too, Bohlen said, Bolton sometimes went over the line.
“What I find unfortunate is that he had a tendency to go after the little guys,” she said. “I think Bolton is a bully.”
