A New Top Leatherneck

Alone among the armed services in an era of increasing permissiveness, the Marine Corps clings to its traditional hard-nosed tradition of unremitting spit-and-polish discipline. In exercising the Executive's quadrennial responsibility of selecting a new corps Commandant,

President Nixon last week signaled his approval of that approach. To succeed outgoing General Leonard Chapman Jr. he chose Lieut. General Robert Everton Cushman Jr., the senior three-star general in the Marines, as the 25th commandant in the 196-year history of the corps.

A 36-year veteran, Cushman at 56 has the physical presence of a Leatherneck on a recruiting poster--barrel-chested, hair closely cropped, posture ramrod-straight. His distinguished fighting record reaches from Pearl Harbor to Viet Nam. In a time of cerebral officers, he views the world through the eyes of a rough Marine combat officer.

Tenth in his class at Annapolis, Cushman fought heroically in the Pacific theater, winning medals at Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima. In Viet Nam he was an able successor to General Lewis Walt as commanding general, 3rd Marine Amphibious Force. For the past 21 years he has served as deputy director of the CIA, missing much of the ferment and debate that has shaken the services.

The Tank. For all of Cushman's rugged virtues, there were many in the Marines and in the Pentagon--including, some think, Chief of Naval Operations Elmo Zumwalt Jr. and Army Chief of Staff William Westmoreland--who would have preferred someone else in the top Marine slot. The popular choice in the Pentagon for the job was Marine Chief of Staff Lieut. General John R. Chaisson, 55. Something of a Renaissance officer in the mold of Zumwalt, Harvard-educated Chaisson is a brilliant speaker and a tough-minded intellectual whose interests range far beyond the boundaries of military thought.

Amid the cutbacks in military spending as the war winds down and the intense intraservice rivalry for weapons and manpower, the Marines need an able spokesman in "the Tank." That is where the thrice-weekly meetings of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are held to decide what operational requests will be presented to the President. Though the Marine commandant has a lesser influence in "the Tank," reflecting the size of the corps. Chaisson's supporters both in and out of the corps felt that he was the best man for that difficult role in a difficult time. Had Chaisson sat in the same Joint Chiefs of Staff group with Zumwalt, the quality of military debate might well have been raised to its highest level in that body's 24-year history.

A Great Guy. But the President, for his own reasons, passed over Chaisson and Assistant Corps Commandant General Raymond Davis, 56, the only other plausible candidate, for Cushman. The choice was partly personal. From 1957 to 1960, Cushman served as Assistant for National Security Affairs to then Vice President Nixon. When Nixon assumed the presidency eight years later, he appointed Cushman to the CIA, where his chief responsibility was to represent the agency on the United States Intelligence Board, which is the hub of the U.S. intelligence-gathering network.

The father of two grown children, Cushman enjoys an occasional game of chess or working in the basement shop of his McLean, Va., home. He keeps fit with a daily routine of jogging, and despite his no-nonsense approach to work, says a close friend, "Bob's a great guy to be with at a party. He's quick and sharp and a good joke teller." How will he handle his new assignment? Says Cushman: "I look forward with enthusiasm to taking over the task of maintaining our high professional standards."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.