TOUGH, SMART THE MOST ABLE CZAR EVER?

Embattled Clinton's hiring of former general called a stroke of genius

MEXICO CITY - Even now, White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey winces at the
mention of Jesus Guttierez Rebollo, Mexico's former top anti-drug boss.

A man of "absolute integrity," McCaffrey called him, only to see him jailed
weeks later in a shocking drug scandal.

"I get a gag reflex every time I hear Gutieirrez Rebollo, " McCaffrey said
A Mexican prosecutor tracked my buns down in Seattle" after the official's
1997 arrest, he said. "The Mexican government was humiliated. They figured
I'd be embarrassed, too."

It was a dark moment, one that McCaffrey blames on failings in U.S. drug
intelligence. But McCaffrey not only survived the episode, he went on to
become the most visible and, some analysts say, effective drug czar ever.

The former general, who recently returned from a four-day swing through the
Andean region, has boosted cooperation between the United States and
drug-producing nations during his 42-month tenure, analysts say. He has
seen drug use in the United States decline. And his relentless anti-drug
message has reached tens of millions of Americans. Last week, he joined
President Clinton to unveil a new set of anti-drug advertisements, part of
a 2-year-old campaign.

"I believe what impresses most people is his extraordinary intellectual
capacity,- said Phil Coleman, who runs an Internet site about the Drug
Enforcement Administration. "With a brain that works like a roomful of
Pentium 3s, he can sort through input and produce a coherent, practical
policy that works."

So enthused am some of McCaffrey's supporters that they urge him to run for
office. Said one DEA agent, "McCaffrey would make a superb VP choice for Al
Gore. Mother Nature didn't grow them any better than our drug war's 'First
Soldier.'"

McCaffrey is flattered by such talk, said Bob Weiner, his spokesman at the
National Office of Drug Control Policy. But politics "is something he's
never seriously considered."

"I've never heard it's on his agenda. But you never know."

McCaffrey, 56, was the most highly decorated and youngest four-star general
at the time of his retirement from the armed forces.

The former West Point graduate won the Distinguished Service Cross, the
nation's second award, two times for "extraordinary heroism" in combat in
Vietnam. He also got three Purple Hearts for wounds suffered in combat.

He commanded 26,000 soldiers during Desert Storm in Iraq and was commander
of the U.S. Southern Command from 1994 to 1996.

President Bill Clinton, plagued by bad publicity in his first term' over
his admitted experimentation with marijuana, "was brilliant" in naming
McCaffrey drug czar, said a former senior State Department official.

"It was a stroke of genius. Back then, every time we tried to get Clinton
to address the drug issue, all people could think about the president was:
'Hey, when was the last time you did drugsT Clinton was paralyzed. There
was no leadership at all on the drug issue for three or four years," said
the former official, whose duties included counter-narcotics.

McCaffrey "brought military bluster-to the job, the ex-official said. "Of
all the drug czars, he has had the most presence."

Presence, yes, and "he possesses great theatrics," but just try working for
the drug czar, said a former high-level DEA agent over beers and Diet Cokes
one recent night in Mexico City.

"I have no doubt he was a good Army general, but I've heard he drives his,
staff absolutely nuts," the former agent said. "I can see someone wanting
to throw a grenade in his tent."

Still, his supporters say, McCaffrey knows how to listen and doesn't
hesitate to use other people's ideas if they are better than his.

"He doesn't allow Personality to interfere with tough decisions," Coleman
said. "He is, pure and simple, a battlefield commander ... the kind that
wins wars."

In his trips to Mexico, McCaffrey has turned out to be more of a
peacekeeper than a warrior, often defending the country even as others
criticize what-they am as a surge in drug-related corruption.

Consider what happened in June when McCaffrey met with him counterparts in
Mexico City. The New York Times, the Dallas Morning News and the Washington
Post had just published articles on leaked U.S. intelligence reports
alleging drug corruption in Mexico.

Stern Words For The Press

McCaffrey told a gathering of correspondents that such stories were
irresponsible.

4111m a little bit outraged,- he said in specific reference to a Times
story exploring whether an aide to Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo had
protected traffickers. "It's really unfortunate that we trash some person's
reputation.

Asked whether he had any information putting the presidential aide under
suspicion, McCaffrey said, "I don't have any evidence. ... If I did, I
wouldn't tell you. I object to being I put in the position of either
endorsing or clearing foreign officials.

Mexican and U.S. anti-drug officials, he said later, "have been pretty
frank with each other in private."

Still, some former DEA agents grumble about what they describe as the drug
czar's penchant for political correctness," and they accuse him of turning
a blind eye to corruption to protect U.S.-Mexico trade relations.

McCaffrey makes no excuses for seeking greater cooperation with Mexico.

"There are always huge difficulties," he said. "On the other hand - - -
we've gone from marginal cooperation and considerable amounts of animosity
in dealing with one another to considerable, believable, practical
cooperation on the drug issue.

Mexico is trying to create a modem democracy and new institutions, and "we
ought to stay with them for 10 years and help create that kind of Mexico,"
he said. "We've got no options. We've got Canada, the United States and
Mexico sitting in the same economic lifeboat."

The challenge over the next two years, he said, will be to ward off the
"mischief makers" and sustain cooperation as presidential ram heat up in
both countries.

McCaffrey has visited Mexico at least a half dozen times since being named
drug czar and often begins his speeches in Spanish. Mexican analysts
generally see him as both articulate and charismatic.

"I see McCaffrey as the diplomat of drugs," Mexican investigative reporter
Ignacio Rodriguez said. "And if his job has to do with diplomacy, he's
excellent. But when I listen to all his blah, blah, blah, I realize he
talks about what's only for public consumption. He says nothing to pressure
or attack Mexico."

Others say the drug czar has no choice but to be diplomatic.

Amed with the bully pulpit

"He's a general without an an my,- the former State Department official
said. "He uses the bully pulpit as his only weapon."

And he reaches millions of Americans, his supporters say.

Since February 1996, he has appeared on TV and in newspapers more than
10,500 times, according to his office. He has been on "Meet the Press,"
"Nightline," "Today," , Good Morning America" and dozens of other programs.

"News coverage has magnified under McCaffrey," Weiner said. "All of that
makes an enormous difference. McCaffrey gets things done."

Coleman's Internet site, DEA Watch, gives the drug czar its highest rating
in surveys of current and former law enforcement officers.

"Just about every military Person, and a lot of DEA agents, think he's a
great guy" Coleman said