State's New Team

Having summoned newsmen to the White House Cabinet Room for a hastily arranged press conference, Lyndon Johnson blandly allowed that he had nothing to announce. After 17 minutes of aimless exchanges, Columnist Marquis Childs--who had been cued in advance by an Administration aide--asked the right question. "Mr. President, there are a number of vacancies in the State Department," said Childs. "Can you give any indication of when those will be filled?" With calculated casualness, Johnson replied: "Well, one became vacant yesterday--the Under Secretary, Mr. Ball--and that will be filled right now."

Thus, in a characteristic charade aimed at dramatizing the news he had planned to disclose all along, Johnson announced the appointment of Attorney General Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach, 44, to succeed George W. Ball, 56, who had long been impatient to resign as Dean Rusk's No. 2 man and resume private law practice. Beaming at the success of his ploy, the President went on to inform startled newsmen that he had filled two other major vacancies in the State Department. For the No. 3 job, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Johnson had selected Eugene Victor Debs Rostow, 53, former dean of the Yale Law School, who is the elder brother of Walt Whitman Rostow, the top White House foreign affairs adviser; Gene Rostow succeeds Thomas Mann, who resigned in June.

As Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs, the fourth job in the Foggy Bottom hierarchy, vacant since U. Alexis Johnson was named U.S. Ambassador to Japan in July, the President picked Foy Kohler, 58, a career foreign service officer who for the past four years has served ably as Ambassador to Moscow.

"Fudge Factory." The importance of finding a successor to Ball was heightened by the possibility that Secretary of State Rusk, suffering from fatigue and financial strain, may in time decide to step down. Johnson's first choice for Ball's job, and a possible successor to Rusk, was Washington Lawyer Clark Clifford, a former aide of Harry Truman. The bait was rejected by Clifford and other prospects. So L.B.J. decided to worry about Rusk's successor later, settled on the Attorney General.

Katzenbach has had only peripheral foreign policy experience, most notably in advising President Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. Nonetheless, he is brilliant, energetic and, as he proved in his negotiations with Congress over civil rights legislation, a sound diplomat. Named Acting Attorney General by Johnson after close friend and mentor Bobby Kennedy resigned to run for the Senate, it was five uncomfortable months before he was formally given the top job, but Katzenbach passed L.BJ.'s private loyalty test with honors by assuring the boss that he would serve in any capacity the President requested. His switch from the Cabinet to the State Department post means a considerable reduction in rank, not to mention a $5,000 salary cut (to $30,000), but Katzenbach was clearly eager to make the change.

As Under Secretary he will take over many of the administrative chores for which Rusk has neither time nor temperament. If only because of his lack of experience, Katzenbach is expected to be more flexible than Ball, a hardline "theologian" who pushed fervently for European unity and rigidly opposed the views of Charles de Gaulle. Ball--who this week will deliver a Washington valedictory entitled "Six Years in the Fudge Factory"--was known for his unofficial role as devil's advocate, questioning such decisions as the bombing of North Viet Nam.

Princely Protection. In view of his estrangement from the intellectual community, the President particularly savored the academic credentials of his appointees: in Katzenbach, Rostow and Kohler, he has, respectively, a Rhodes scholar, a holder of five degrees (three from Yale, two from Cambridge), and a Phi Beta Kappa. Rostow, an eloquent authority on foreign affairs, brings with him a taste for bow ties, waistcoats and fine wine--as well as his copy of Machiavelli's The Prince, which he expects to rely on "for protection."

Johnson next must appoint an Attorney General to succeed Katzenbach and an ambassador to replace Kohler. Though rumors were rampant (among those mentioned to head the Justice Department: Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman), the President squelched them with characteristic querulousness. Speculation about any forthcoming presidential appointment, he averred, "is the best indication that it is not likely to happen."

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