Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Stephen J. Hadley, President George W. Bush's new national security adviser, is a veteran of Republican administrations back to Richard Nixon's who boasts close ties to Vice President Dick Cheney.

As the successor to Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice, Hadley will be called upon to mediate among the various centers of foreign-policy power on Bush's team -- including Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Cheney.

``Steve Hadley's background is more Cheney,'' said David Rothkopf, who is writing a book on the history of the National Security Council. ``He will be supportive of the vice president's agenda.''

At the same time, say people who know him, Hadley's low-key manner will help smooth over the inevitable policy disagreements. He has a ``a very controlled ego'' and will be in a good position to ``help reconcile the views of his high-profile colleagues,'' said Sandy Berger, who served as national security adviser to former President Bill Clinton.

Hadley's ``been at the center of gravity of this administration and has not been uncomfortable with the direction the president has taken,'' Berger said. Bush's selection of Hadley, who as Rice's deputy has been running the day-to-day operations of the NSC for almost four years, is a ``statement of continuity,'' Berger said.

Cheney Ties

Hadley's Cheney ties date back to the presidency of George H.W. Bush, the current president's father. Hadley, now 57 years old, served as assistant secretary of defense for international security policy when Cheney was defense secretary. As assistant secretary to Cheney from 1989 to 1993, Hadley worked on arms control and U.S. military policy toward Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The link between Hadley and Cheney continued during the Bush administration. Hadley was seen by some as Cheney's eyes and ears at the NSC, the Washington Post reported July 25, 2001. Hadley said at the time that he was ``not at all'' Cheney's envoy, though his relationship with Cheney was ``a factor'' in his hiring, the Post said.

Hadley chaired an October 2002 meeting during which Pentagon officials briefed the White House, including Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, on a contract to manage Iraq's oil infrastructure before it was awarded, according to a letter by Representative Henry Waxman. The no-bid contract went to Cheney's former company, Halliburton Co.

Waxman Charge

Waxman, a California Democrat, said in the June 13, 2004, letter to Cheney, who was Halliburton's chief executive from 1995 to 2000, that the contract was handled by political appointees from the administration and not career procurement officials.

The U.S. General Accounting Office concluded in a report the following day that the open-ended contracts were ``properly awarded.'' The Government Accountability Office said 25 new contracts in Iraq, representing about 80 percent of reconstruction appropriations ``involved circumstances that the law recognizes as permitting other than full and open competition'' and met legal requirements.

The contract, originally estimated to be worth more than $7 billion, is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after an agent in the FBI's Moline, Illinois, office complained that Halliburton got special treatment.

Nixon, Ford, Reagan

Hadley's work with Cheney at the Pentagon is just one entry on a Republican foreign-policy resume stretching back 32 years. He worked as an analyst for the Defense Department comptroller from 1972 to 1974 and as a member of the NSC staff under President Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977. From 1986 to 1987, he served as counsel to the special review board established by President Ronald Reagan to investigate U.S. arms sales to Iran.

Hadley was an adviser on foreign policy and defense to George W. Bush during his 2000 presidential campaign, and the president named him to be his deputy national security adviser in January 2001.

``Steve is a man of wisdom and good judgment,'' Bush said this week in announcing Hadley's appointment. ``He has earned my trust.'' Hadley will be the nation's 20th national security adviser, a position established by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953. The position is not in the Cabinet and does not require confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

As Rice's deputy, Hadley functioned as her ``alter ego,'' sometimes checking her first impulses, she told the New York Times in 2001. ``I can sometimes jump from A to F,'' she told the Times. ``He backs me up to B and C, makes me think through the implications.''

Hadley was the first Bush administration official dispatched early in 2004 to try to discredit Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism adviser who accused Bush of not paying enough attention to the threat from al-Qaeda.

Taking the Blame

Hadley also took the blame for one of the Bush administration's most embarrassing moments in the debate over whether to wage war on Iraq.

Bush, trying to buttress his case that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, said in his 2003 State of the Union speech that the Iraqi leader tried to buy enriched uranium in the African nation of Niger.

Bush relied on British intelligence for his 16-word reference to the issue in the speech. U.S. intelligence officials doubted this finding and references to Niger were excluded from an earlier speech.

``I should have asked that the 16 words be taken out,'' Hadley told reporters at a press conference after questions arose about the accuracy of Bush's comments. ``I failed in that responsibility.'' Bush, through a spokesman last year, expressed ``full confidence'' in Hadley.

Scowcroft's Firm

Hadley, who received a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a law degree from Yale Law School, was a partner in the Washington law firm of Shea & Gardner and a principal in the Scowcroft Group, Inc., an international consulting firm headed by General Brent Scowcroft, the national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush.

Hadley was one of the authors of a 2001 report that suggested using the threat of nuclear weapons to deter or respond to chemical or biological attacks, the Washington Post reported.

U.S. nuclear weapons ``may be necessary'' to deter regional powers from using weapons of mass destruction, said a report issued in January by the National Institute for Public Policy, the Post reported.

In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations a month before the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003, Hadley said the U.S.'s greatest challenge in Iraq would be ``the process of economic and political reconstruction.''

``The goal -- which we are confident we share with Iraq's people -- is an Iraq that is whole, free, and at peace with itself and its neighbors,'' he said.

Rothkopf, chief executive of Intellibridge Corp. of Washington, which provides international analysis for companies and governments, describes Hadley as ``a lawyer; he's methodical; he's not a highly visible out-front kind of a national security adviser. He's much more likely to fall into the mold of the kind of Mr. Inside rather than Mr. Outside.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 18, 2004 00:14 EST