Recruiting the Opposition

Richard Nixon employs more public relations professionals, policy packagers and image makers than any President in history. Yet credibility continues to elude his White House as it did Lyndon Johnson's, especially in regard to Indochina. This week the President reached into the ranks of the enemy--the Washington press corps--to take on John Scali, ABC's veteran diplomatic correspondent, as a full-time "special consultant" on Administration policies.

At the start of Nixon's term, Scali had turned down an offer to be Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. A determined digger who often gets a story simply by relentless badgering of sources, he mystified many of his colleagues by joining the Nixon team now. "I just can't figure it," said NBC's Herbert Kaplow. But the chance to help package policy rather than simply peddle it swayed Scali. "I see it as a unique opportunity," he says, "to see what it's like on the inside after 29 years of watching it from the outside."

Lending Perspective. Scali, who took the job after an 80-minute talk with the President, is known to feel that the Nixon Administration's press relations will not improve as long as Spiro Agnew continues "blunderbuss attacks from the pulpit." Scali's acceptance of Nixon's offer suggests that the President agrees. "My role," Scali says, "will be to sit and talk to the President about his information problems," As to Viet Nam: "I believe he is headed in the right direction--namely, out."

A balding, owl-eyed man of 52, Scali is a flashy dresser with an appreciative eye for good-looking girls. He spent 17 years as a diplomatic correspondent for the Associated Press in Washington before joining ABC in 1961. He is best remembered for a nonjournalistic role as go-between during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. He won the trust of the Russians, met a Soviet embassy staffer several times in Washington restaurants, and relayed messages to the White House that helped resolve the tense impasse.

Scali's function has been only vaguely outlined. Says a White House aide: "He has a lot of experience in foreign policy. He'll be able to give an additional point of view and lend perspective to the President." Scali will also take on at least part of Henry Kissinger's task of briefing small groups of newsmen and Congressmen on foreign policy. Even if Scali can't solve Nixon's image problem, he should be able to relieve Kissinger of the burden of being the only swinger in the White House.

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