Command Shake-Up

NATO's General Lauris Norstad has been tabbed as a boy wonder for so long that many people still think of him as a young man--an impression reinforced by his youthful appearance. He made brigadier general in North Africa in 1943, when he was 36--and looked 26. A year later, he was in Washington as chief of staff of the Twentieth Air Force, helping direct the 6-29 bombardment of Japan. After the war he played a major role in helping to set up an independent Air Force. He became U.S.A.F. European commander in 1950, and has been over there ever since. From the time he was named Commander in Chief of U.S. Forces in Europe and SACEUR (Supreme Allied Commander, Europe) in 1956, his name has been synonymous with the At lantic military alliance.

But if anything, Norstad, now 55, has been too successful in his post. His deep concern for European defense has made Airman Norstad a strong advocate of a Europe-based NATO nuclear striking force, which is unacceptable to the Ken nedy Administration. In 1960 he had a mild heart attack; by last January he talked seriously of resigning. A few months later, he suffered an unpublicized second heart attack. Last week the White House announced Norstad's resignation --and with it came a major shake-up in the top command of U.S. armed forces.

Fitting Choice. Norstad's successor as Commander in Chief of U.S. Forces in Europe will be the Army's General Lyman (Lem) Lemnitzer, 62, since 1960 chair man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was a fitting choice: Lemnitzer was one of the drafters of the NATO treaty, later helped parcel out arms to U.S. Allies as first di rector of the Office of Military Assistance in 1949. Though France's crusty President Charles de Gaulle growled "Je ne le con-nais pas" when he heard of Lemnitzer's selection, there is little doubt that the NATO member nations will approve him as the new SACEUR. But Lemnitzer's appointment does not necessarily betoken a change in U.S. thinking about NATO.

President Kennedy had another reason for shipping Lem Lemnitzer off to Europe. After last year's fiasco at the Bay of Pigs, the President hankered to get Lemnitzer out as head of the Joint Chiefs. Says one ranking Pentagon official: "The President just doesn't find Lemnitzer responsive to his needs." Norstad's resignation gave the President his long-awaited chance to install as the top U.S. man in uniform a tough soldier and incisive military thinker: Maxwell Davenport Taylor, 60, whom Kennedy brought out of retirement after the Cuban disaster to become his personal military adviser.

Taylor, who led the crack 101st Airborne Division in the Normandy invasion, retired as Army Chief of Staff in 1959, disgusted with the Eisenhower Administration's reliance on massive nuclear retaliation at the expense of conventional military forces. Early in 1960 he published The Uncertain Trumpet--a slashing attack that Kennedy used to advantage in the campaign. Taylor set forth the doctrine of "flexible response," which has become the backbone of defense policy in the Kennedy Administration. His appointment as chairman of the Joint Chiefs breaks tradition, for the job has always been rotated among the three services. But it will clear the Pentagon air of dark suspicions that Taylor has been undermining the Joint Chiefs' role as the source of military advice for the White House. Despite Kennedy's high opinion of him, some U.S. and European experts think Taylor's emphasis on conventional warfare is misguided.

Basketful of Fog. In last week's announcements came another shuffle: President Kennedy picked General Earle G. ("Buzz") Wheeler, 54, to take over as Army Chief of Staff from General George H. Decker, Lemnitzer's personal choice, who will retire when his term expires this fall. Decker is no sharp New Frontier-style soldier; one Pentagon hand finds him "as colorful as a basketful of fog." Wheeler, now Norstad's deputy in Paris, was an obscure major general in 1960 before the Pentagon assigned him to brief Kennedy on military intelligence matters during the campaign. Later, as di rector of the Joint Staff in the Pentagon, Wheeler caught the eye of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara as a quick-thinking, imaginative planner. Generals senior to Wheeler were grumbling last week at the selection, but both Kennedy and McNamara knew the man they wanted. Once Taylor and Wheeler take over their new posts, the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be Kennedy appointees to a man--except for Marine Commandant David Shoup, the only member Kennedy inherited who is to his liking.

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