Choosing a Team

When Richard Nixon's entourage vis ited the White House, one campaign aide expressed surprise at how "cellularized" Lyndon Johnson's staff is. Nixon intends to change that. The group of personal assistants he began to assemble last week is being billed as a select cadre of versatile generalists, As one aide put it: "We don't want specific people locked into specific boxes."

The new group shapes up into two echelons, and will probably be smaller than Johnson's 20-member personal staff. Members of the top rank will carry the title of "assistant" or "counsel" to the President. The second level will consist of "special assistants." As do most Presidents, Nixon is drawing heavily on old subordinates and advisers who have served him through many campaigns. Six of the seven men Nixon named last week have no Washington experience. Three, in fact, are recent alumni of

J. Walter Thompson Co., the advertising agency whose mission was once described as the discovery of "what it is that makes this product the white pea in the pod." The first members of Nixon's White House team:

Bryce N. Harlow, 52, is the old man of the operation. He will be the assistant with primary responsibility for congressional relations--the President's chief lobbyist. But he is also expected to be a general adviser in a number of fields, including national security. An Oklahoman, Harlow served as General George Marshall's Capitol Hill liaison man during World War II, later headed the House Armed Services Committee staff and became a White House assistant under Dwight Eisenhower. During the Kennedy-Johnson years he was Procter & Gamble's chief Washington representative.

Harry Robbins Haldeman, 42, will generally oversee all staff operations. Bob Haldeman has been working in Nixon campaigns since 1956, when he began as an advance man. This year he left his job as head of J. Walter Thompson's Los Angeles office to become Nixon's chief of staff.

John D. Ehrlichman, 43, a Seattle attorney, will be a presidential counsel handling special assignments. His present job is recruiting talent for the sub-Cabinet level. He worked in Nixon's 1960 and 1962 campaigns, this year had the title of tour director, handling logistics for the traveling operation.

Raymond K. Price Jr., 38, and Patrick J. Buchanan Jr., 30, will be special assistants. During the campaign both served as speechwriters and idea men. They are expected to do much the same work in the White House. Price was once a LIFE reporter, later joined the old New York Herald Tribune and rose to become its chief editorial writer. Buchanan was an editorial writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Ronald Ziegler, 29, as a special assistant concentrating on press relations will not be a press secretary in the tradition of James Hagerty or Bill Moyers. His role will be largely restricted to giving factual briefings--as he did during the campaign--rather than offering interpretation on a policy level. Before becoming an advertising account executive under Haldeman, Ziegler served in Nixon's 1962 campaign.

Dwight Chopin, 28, will be the special assistant responsible for Nixon's daily schedule. A veteran of both Nixon's California gubernatorial race and Haldeman's branch office of J. Walter Thompson, Chapin will serve more as a "doorman," as one of the President-elect's aides put it, than as a high-powered chief of staff or appointments secretary in the tradition of Sherman Adams and Kenneth O'Donnell.

Several more White House aides remain to be chosen, and they, too, are expected to come from Nixon's campaign staff. Of one selection there was never any doubt. Rose Mary Woods, his personal secretary for 17 years, will continue in that job.

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