Bush Appoints Bennett Drug Czar : Adm. Watkins Named Energy Chief, Completing Cabinet

WASHINGTON —  President-elect Bush completed his Cabinet today, appointing former Education Secretary William Bennett to help lead “an all-out war against drugs” and naming retired Adm. James D. Watkins, an expert on nuclear energy, as energy secretary.

Bush, who had made nuclear expertise a qualification for the head of his Energy Department, said development of nuclear power for domestic as well as military needs was “not at all incompatible” with safety and environmental concerns.

He said both men faced tough jobs and praised them for “experience in tackling very difficult assignments and doing them well.”

Acknowledging that Bennett has been closely identified with the Republican Party’s conservative wing, Bush said that his new Cabinet-level “drug czar” would have to work with Democrats and Republicans alike but that he wouldn’t try to muzzle him. Bush praised the “vim and vigor . . . that made him a howling success” in President Reagan’s Cabinet.

Bush laughed off a questioner who asked how Bennett could lead a fight against drug use when he had not been able to quit a long-time cigarette-smoking habit.

“I’ll let him refer to anything on his personal habits and I’ll give equal time to all the smokers in the room,” Bush said.

Bennett, in brief remarks, said, “This drug business is a serious business and this government, this Administration intends to take it seriously.”

Watkins said he was taking the energy post with a commitment to make sure “safety is never subverted (and) the environment is adequately protected” while nuclear energy is developed.

Bush made the announcements at a news conference shortly before convening the first informal meeting of his Cabinet chiefs at Blair House, the government guest quarters across the street from the White House.

On other topics raised by reporters, Bush:

--Defended his decision to attend the funeral of Japanese Emperor Hirohito, although he said that if someone had raised the possibility of his current situation after his plane was shot down by the Japanese in 1944, “I would have found that hard to believe.”

--Applauded a Soviet announcement that that nation would reduce stocks of chemical weapons and said, “I’m glad the Soviets have joined us in that we’ve been doing that for some time.” Regarding international pressure on Libya to not produce chemical weapons, Bush said, “My view is that I will follow on what this Administration has been doing, to try to find verifiable ways of eliminating these things.”

--Said U.S. oil reserves are not threatened by labor unrest in Mexico’s oil fields and saluted the Mexican president’s “very bold” crackdown on the oil workers union.

Bennett, 45, the blunt-spoken education chief under Reagan and a leader of conservative forces, left government last September to lecture and write. In the newly authorized post of drug czar, he will face an uphill struggle overseeing government efforts to curb illegal drug traffic.