Caspar Weinberger

Caspar W. Weinberger was a politician and businessman who served in a variety of prominent roles, most notably as Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1987—the third longest tenure for a Secretary of Defense in US history. Later, Weinberger became publisher and chairman of Forbes, where 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 coauthored a book entitled The Next War, which raised questions about the adequacy of US military capabilities following the end of the Cold War. Chain of Command is his first novel. Weinberger died in 2006.