There are no greater witnesses to the excellence of President Obama’s choice to be secretary of Defense, former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), whom I applauded in a recent column, than the strong support Hagel is receiving from a long list of national security leaders who served under President Reagan. Reagan always believed, as Hagel does, that while military force is sometimes needed, the best course for the U.S. is to seek diplomatic solutions that avoid large-scale combat missions when possible. It is Chuck Hagel who is most in line with the Reagan worldview and the Republican and bipartisan traditions of American security policy, not his critics on the right.

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