New Man at the U.N.

Within hours after Adlai Stevenson's death, President Johnson asked his advisers to begin compiling a list of candidates for the U.N. ambassador's post. Names were submitted by the dozen. But almost from the first, the President knew whom he wanted: Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, 56, former Secretary of Labor, who is short on foreign-affairs experience but impressively long on practice in the rough-and-tumble diplomacy of labor negotiations.

"Very Troubled." Getting Goldberg to step down from the Supreme Court was easier said than done, and the President started with his softest sell. By coincidence, Goldberg already had a White House appointment to bid pre-vacation farewell to Johnson three days after Stevenson died. While they talked, the President probed gently, asked Goldberg for his recommendations for Adlai's replacement, spoke about the importance of the U.N. job. When Goldberg left the White House, he had no notion that he was under Presidential consideration.

Two days later, when Johnson flew to Bloomington, Ill., for Stevenson's burial, Goldberg was invited to ride along with the presidential party on Air Force One. Again, during the flight from Washington and back, the two talked at length about the U.N. job. Again, the President did not ask the obvious question, but Goldberg got the drift. "I was very troubled," he said later. That night Johnson phoned the Justice at George Washington University Hospital, where Goldberg was visiting his ailing mother-in-law, and finally made the offer. Goldberg hedged, told the President that he did not think he was the best man for the job; that he was not sure he should leave the court. Johnson asked him to consider it overnight, and the next morning the President phoned again.

Reluctantly, Goldberg said he would take the U.N. post if Johnson really wanted him. "I want you," snapped the President. "Bring Mrs. Goldberg right over to the office."

When they arrived, both Goldberg and his wife seemed disturbed by the turn of events, but the President told them: "When a Southerner can sit in the White House, when a Negro can aspire to the highest offices in the land, when a man of deep Jewish background can be the spokesman of this country to the world--that's what America is all about."

Then the President went into the Rose Garden for a routine ceremony. That done, he went back to the White House, shouting over his shoulder to reporters, "I'll be back in a moment." He returned with Goldberg, his wife and son, Robert, 24, in tow. The President briskly told reporters that Goldberg was his man for the U.N. Then, as his wife stood by, her eyes sad, Arthur Goldberg made a moving acceptance speech. "I shall not, Mr. President, conceal the pain with which I leave the court after three years of service. It has been the richest and most satisfying period of my career," he said. "Throughout my life I have been deeply committed to the rule of law. The law gives form and substance to the spirit of liberty and to mankind's sacred stir for justice. It now comes that the President has asked me to join in the greatest adventure of man's history--the effort to bring the rule of law to govern the relations between sovereign states. It is that or doom--and we all know it. I have accepted--as one simply must."

After the initial surprise wore off, Goldberg's selection was widely applauded. More difficult to understand was why Goldberg had agreed to leave his lifetime job in the calm prominence of the court for the turmoil and uncertainty of the United Nations.* Among other things, Goldberg's move entails a salary cut--from $39,000 on the court to $30,000 as ambassador--although the U.N. post carries such perquisites as an embassy apartment in the Waldorf Towers ($33,000 annual rent), a limousine and a big expense account.

But Arthur Goldberg is first and foremost an activist--a man who thinks on his feet, enjoys the storm centers of conflict. Less than a year after President Kennedy had named him to replace the late Felix Frankfurter, ex-Labor Secretary Goldberg said a bit wistfully: "The Secretary's phone never stops ringing. The Justice's phone never rings--even his best friends won't call him."

Vigor, Strength & Anger. The son of Jewish emigrants who had fled czarist Russia, Goldberg grew up in poverty: his father used a wagon drawn by a blind horse to cart produce. Arthur went to Northwestern University Law School, where in 1930 he got a doctorate in jurisprudence and ranked No. 1 in his class. He got into the rugged world of labor law, in 1948 became general counsel for the C.I.O. and the United Steelworkers, helped plan the A.F.L.-C.I.O. merger. On Capitol Hill he met John Kennedy; they became good friends. Later Goldberg became one of Kennedy's most trusted associates.

As a Supreme Court Justice, Goldberg has been ardently liberal--always favoring the fullest use of the court's power in behalf of civil rights and civil liberties, willing to override a state law, a congressional act or a previous court ruling if he felt that they encroached on an individual's constitutional rights. He was an insistent, spirited questioner of lawyers arguing before the bench.

Although Goldberg's background bears little similarity to his predecessors'--Edward Stettinius, Warren Austin, Henry Cabot Lodge, Adlai Stevenson--all of whom were well-versed in foreign affairs before they went to the U.N., it seemed little cause for concern. Arthur Goldberg once said of the art of collective bargaining: "The main thing you must have is the ability to realize there are two sides to the story, and so to be generally calm and courteous in the handling of people in inflamed situations, but at the same time not to relinquish the position of leadership, which on occasion will require the calmness and courtesy to be submerged in a show of vigor and strength, and even anger."

No one could ask more than that of the U.S.'s new man at the U.N., and at week's end the Senate quickly gave unanimous consent to Goldberg's appointment. Quite clearly President Johnson's immediate aim in naming Goldberg was to put his negotiation skills to work toward solving the U.N.'s crippling financial crisis--caused largely by the Soviet Union's refusal to pay its part of the U.N.'s peace-keeping costs. Last week Goldberg said that he was well aware of "the gravity of the constitutional crisis facing the U.N." Then he added determinedly: "I share the conviction of the citizens of this country that that crisis must be resolved and the U.N. must go forward."

* Six Justices have quit the court for reasons other than retirement, including John Jay to become Governor of New York in 1795, Charles Evans Hughes to run unsuccessfully as the Republican presidential candidate against Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and James F. Byrnes to become chairman of the Economic Stabilization Board in 1942.

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