Mann on the Move

Students of the Johnson Administration's hierarchy have long since earmarked Thomas C. Mann, 52, special presidential assistant and Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (TIME cover, Jan. 31, 1964), as a man on the rise. Last week Tom Mann rose: President Johnson appointed him Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, replacing New York's former Governor Averell Harriman, 73, whose title was Under Secretary for Political Affairs. The titles are interchangeable, and it is up to the President to decide what he wants to call his No. 3 State Department man, behind Secretary Dean Rusk and Deputy Secretary George Ball.

Harriman now becomes an ambassador at large, an amorphous position that the White House defined as "handling specific high-level assignments in the department and abroad." To take Mann's place at State, but not as a White House assistant, Johnson picked Jack Hood Vaughn, 44, who is currently the U.S. Ambassador to Panama and has spent most of the last 16 years in Latin American jobs.

Fellow Texan Mann has impressed the President ever since his appointment as Assistant Secretary 13 months ago. Johnson has often exclaimed to associates about Mann: "He's great!" With quiet skill Mann helped persuade 19 of the 20 nations of the Organization of American States (Mexico is still holding out) to join the U.S.'s economic trade embargo against Cuba. He also tightened controls over the disbursal of Alliance for Progress funds, helped build up the Inter-American Committee on the Alliance into a forum where Latin Americans can realistically criticize and improve on their own national self-help programs--which are the basis for Alliance financial aid. After Brazil's demagogic President Joao ("Jango") Goulart was overthrown, Mann responded quickly with aid that helped start Brazil toward economic stability.

Such is Mann's performance--and such is Johnson's impression of it--that the hierarchy students already are wondering if there might not be even bigger and better jobs awaiting him.

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