Careerman Extraordinary

As General Eisenhower's diplomatic troubleshooter before and during the World War II North Africa invasion, U.S. Foreign Service Officer Robert Daniel Murphy worked with the French underground so brilliantly that he worked out an all-but-bloodless surrender of Algiers. Last week, rated by the same Eisenhower as the U.S.'s No. 1 global troubleshooter, Under Secretary of State Bob Murphy announced his resignation.

Murphy, a career diplomat extraordinary, was retiring because 1) he had just reached retirement age of 65; 2) after serving more than 30 of his 42 years of service abroad, he had no great interest in accepting a presidential offer as Ambassador to West Germany; and 3) he had an attractive offer to work in private industry. In accepting the resignation "with deep regret," the President wrote: "I am aware of the vast contribution you have made on behalf of all of us in your efforts to advance a just and secure peace."

Bob Murphy was in every sense a U.S.-style professional's professional. Born and bred in Milwaukee, the son of an Irish-American railroad steam fitter, Murphy worked as a railroad fireman, blacksmith, day laborer, construction straw boss, stenographer in a lithographing company, worked his way through Marquette Academy and George Washington University

Law School before joining the Foreign Service after World War I. As he rose through the corps, putting out diplomatic fires from North Africa to Berlin, from Trieste to Panmunjom, Suez, Tunis and Lebanon (TIME cover, Aug. 25, 1958), 3,400 Foreign Service pros came to look upon him as "Mr. Foreign Service." His trademark was an amiable smile overlaying a dependable core of toughness. Said he to a trouble-minded Lebanese rebel leader at the height of the Lebanon crisis in August 1958: "You know, we have the power to destroy your positions in a matter of seconds. We haven't used it. We hope we don't have to." He did not have to. Amid rising talk of an "understanding" with world Communism, Bob Murphy preferred to keep the peace with a discreetly muscular policy based on a cool assessment of Communism's performance and potential.

Inevitably last week there was speculation that five-star Ambassador Murphy was resigning out of policy differences with Secretary of State Christian Herter. Not so, said Murphy with characteristically blunt diplomacy. "Why," said he, "this speculation is bunk. I even heard on some radio program that the reason that I was quitting was so I could be out of the State Department if the Democrats came in next year and this would make me available to be appointed Secretary of State. How crazy can you get?"

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