CHICAGO — Seeking experience in a time of war, President-elect Barack Obama will keep Defense Secretary Robert Gates in that job — if only temporarily — and he has chosen a retired Marine general to be his national security adviser, officials said Tuesday.
Gates and retired Gen. James Jones bring years of experience to the Cabinet of a commander-in-chief with a relatively thin foreign-policy resume.
Obama, who rolled out the key components of his economic team this week, plans to announce his foreign-policy brain trust after Thanksgiving.
Gates, who has served as President Bush’s defense chief for two years, will remain in the Cabinet for some time, probably a year, according to an official familiar with discussions between the two men.
A Democratic official said Jones was Obama’s pick to head the National Security Council, the part of the White House structure that deals with foreign policy.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama has not authorized anyone to discuss the deliberations.
Gates, a moderate with long-standing ties to Republican administrations and the Bush family, would fulfill an Obama pledge to include a Republican in his Cabinet.
Retaining Gates provides stability for a stretched military fighting two wars during the turbulent changeover in administrations.
Gates once said it was inconceivable he would stay on past the close of Bush’s term Jan. 20. But the 65-year-old former spymaster recently turned mum on the circumstances under which he would stay, even briefly, in an Obama administration.
Keeping Gates might afford Obama a sort of extended transition in which critical military issues are left in trusted hands while Obama focuses most intensely on the financial crisis.
