Making Haste Slowly

With more than a quarter of its top policy posts yet to be filled, the Nixon Administration has been making haste slowly--very slowly--in putting its stamp on the federal bureaucracy. When the Viet Nam "11 o'clock group," composed of middle-level officials from several agencies who review important operational questions, convened at the State Department last week, all the faces were familiar from the Johnson era. Though hardly trifling, the vitriolic, five-month-old dispute with Peru over seizure of U.S. oil properties is just now receiving close attention. The new Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Charles Meyer, a former Sears, Roebuck vice president in charge of hemisphere operations, was selected only this month. A special presidential envoy, New York Lawyer John Irwin II, was not sent to Lima until last week. Harry Flemming, head of the White House recruiting operation, promises a complete new team by May 1.

Muted Voice. One by one, in fact, Nixon is putting his own men into the key jobs. Two significant appointments made last week: General Andrew Goodpaster, 54, will become Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, replacing General Lyman Lemnitzer, 69, who has been head of NATO's military forces for more than six years. An old and trusted Nixon friend, Goodpaster was an unofficial White House chief of staff during the Eisenhower presidency and one of that Administration's most influential --if least visible--figures. That experience, and his easy relationship with Nixon, should serve the general well in his new assignment. A combat veteran of World War II (the Italian campaign), he was sent by the Army to Princeton after the war for a master's degree in engineering and a doctorate in international relations. His thesis: "National Technology and International Politics." Assigned to Viet Nam last July as deputy commander of U.S. forces under General Creighton Abrams, he was temporarily brought home at Nixon's request last December to help the incoming Administration formulate its defense policy. When he takes over in Brussels in July, he should provide the President and the alliance with a strong if muted voice, sensitive ears and a fine sense of diplomatic niceties.

The Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, 51, Notre Dame's president, will become new chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Since Hesburgh is a strong supporter of equal rights, the appointment may possibly assuage Nixon's less militant black critics. A member of the commission since 1957, Hesburgh has long been admired by Nixon. He won the President's special commendation last month--and stirred considerable controversy--when he warned that if demonstrators at Notre Dame broke the law, they would have 20 minutes either to repent or be expelled. Though it has no direct power, the commission nevertheless has considerable influence as a watchdog agency; its annual reports have often spotlighted patterns of discrimination.

The Eagle's Roost. Even as new names trickled from the White House, the Senate confirmed one of Nixon's less admired appointments: Philadelphia Publisher Walter Annenberg as Ambassador to Britain. A close friend who has played host to the President on his visits to Palm Springs, Annenberg was coldly received by J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who told a Washington Post reporter that he was "simply not up to the standards we expect for our premier diplomatic post." Indeed, Annenberg's lack of experience, together with his reputation for ruthlessness, has already caused private unhappiness in London. He will have a difficult job following courtly David Bruce, a diplomatic veteran who was greatly liked and respected in Britain.

Annenberg admitted that he was something less than an expert in foreign affairs. Despite its size (circ. 505,000) and wealth, his Philadelphia Inquirer does not employ a single foreign correspondent. But he did offer at least to redecorate the embassy residence. Judging from his homes in suburban Philadelphia and Palm Springs, that alone should be worth the price of his admission to the post.

One of the new ambassador's redecorating chores, however, promises a crisis. Calling the huge (35-ft. wingspread) gilded eagle that bestrides the U.S. embassy in Grosvenor Square an insult to the British,-Annenberg said that he would find a new roost for the bird. That may not be so easy. The eagle's creator, Sculptor Theodore Roszak, has threatened legal action if his work is removed. "The eagle," said Roszak, "is an integral part of the embassy." Besides, he added, the cost of tearing him loose from the building's steel beams would be enormous. Meanwhile, a well-turned verse of protest was making the rounds of American drawingrooms in London:

Dear Mr. Ambassador

Plenipotentiary, You may be the diplomats' choice of

the century, With talent to spare on matters

vice-regal

But please, if you will, sir, don't harm our poor eagle.

-Whose mighty lion outside their Washington embassy has always been accepted by the capital as an inoffensive national symbol.

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