Mr. Inside

In its search for a new Army Vice Chief of Staff, the White House last week passed over no fewer than 240 more senior generals. The President found his nominee in Presidential Adviser Henry Kissinger's West Wing office, where for nearly three years Major General Alexander M. Haig Jr., 47, has been serving as Kissinger's able deputy on the National Security Council.

Haig is regarded as a model of calm toughness. He organizes Kissinger's paper work, sometimes stands in for him at presidential meetings, and often serves as the butt of Kissinger's jokes. But he carefully avoids the spotlight. In his present job, Haig has made eight trips to Viet Nam, where he served with the 1st Infantry Division (and won a Distinguished Service Cross) in 1966-67. Kissinger calls him "one of the outstanding military men I've met," and the President is known to have favored him for both his dedication and loyalty, and because he impressed the White House as being the sort of top-notch young general that the Army badly needs.

In order to get some new blood circulating in the Pentagon, the Army advised 25 older generals last week that they must take early retirement. The Administration is still waiting (after three months) for the Senate to confirm General Creighton Abrams as its new Chief of Staff. The Senate Armed Services Committee has not yet finished its probe into the question of whether Abrams, while serving as U.S. commander in Viet Nam, knew that his Air Force chief, General John Lavelle, had permitted 23 unauthorized bombing raids over North Viet Nam.

Some Army men were disgruntled that the President, in promoting Haig and giving him two new stars to go with the job, had nominated a man who has never commanded a division or a corps. But others felt that the young, glamorous and politically sophisticated Haig might be just what the Army needed in combination with Abrams. As one Army general remarked: "As long as Al plays Mr. Inside and lets Abe play Mr. Outside, we'll be all right."

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