A Circle of Six on Mahogany Row

In revitalizing the State Department's neglected bureaucracy, Cyrus Vance has delegated considerable authority to his top-ranking deputies. But he has also established around him a select circle of six, whose help he especially seeks, regardless of their official titles:

Marshall Shulman, 62. Sporting an old-fashioned green eyeshade and cultivating the air of an absent-minded professor baffled by governmental bureaucracy, the longtime director of Columbia University's Russian Institute has become Vance's closest adviser and a key influence on Soviet-American policy. He and Vance often lunch on sandwiches in the Secretary's private hideaway office. At first only a part-time consultant who commuted between Washington and his Columbia professorship, Shulman was persuaded to join Vance full time after the Administration's initial overtures to the Soviet Union on SALT were abruptly rejected and detente was endangered. He has advocated a policy, favored by Vance, that emphasizes the cooperative as well as competitive nature of detente and stresses applying pressure through private diplomacy rather than public polemics. A World War II glider pilot, Shulman still likes to go gliding occasionally for relaxation.

Warren Christopher, 52. As meticulous, painstaking and self-effacing as his boss, the Deputy Secretary has been called "Vance's Vance." Also a lawyer, he has been the principal troubleshooter for the eastern Mediterranean region, recently concluding an agreement with Turkey by which the U.S. embargo on arms sales would be lifted in return for concessions by Turkey on Cyprus. He has also dealt with some even stickier problems: pushing the Panama Canal treaties, trying to convince Germany and Brazil that they should abandon a nuclear power plant deal and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt that he should publicly accept the neutron bomb. The busy Christopher heads an inner-agency committee charged with reconciling the Administration's human rights campaign with other policies. And when Vance is traveling, Christopher runs the department. "He's brighter than hell, a very important asset to Cy in holding the department together," declares Vice President Walter Mondale.

Leslie H. Gelb, 41. As director of the department's Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, the articulate Gelb has elevated that office from its near-dormant status under Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. His main influence has been on arms control policy, where he works well with SALT Negotiator Paul Warnke. The two were close associates in the Defense Department in the late 1960s. A co-author of segments of the celebrated Pentagon papers, a onetime strategic affairs specialist at the Brookings Institution and a former diplomatic correspondent for the New York Times, Gelb is distrusted by hawkish opponents of the Administration's SALT policy.

W. Anthony Lake, 39. Once a Kissinger protege at the National Security Council, Lake quit the NSC over the Nixon Administration's decision to invade Cambodia and was later wiretapped at Kissinger's suggestion. Now he is director of policy planning and most closely involved with formulating U.S. policy on Africa. Before his appointment by Carter, he wrote The "Tar Baby" Option, a book cautioning against American involvement in Africa on the side of white minority governments--a warning being heeded by the Carter Administration. Lake is responsible for offering long-term policy options to Vance, and he periodically writes the Secretary's speeches.

Matthew Nimetz, 38. Drawn from Vance's New York law firm of Simpson, Thacher and Bartlett, Nimetz is the State Department counselor and a general troubleshooter for his boss. He has handled such special and sensitive missions as arranging the return of the Hungarian crown, dealing with Micronesian demands for self-rule, seeking a settlement on Cyprus and coordinating the Belgrade conference on human rights for the State Department. A Rhodes scholar and whiz kid member of the White House staff under Lyndon Johnson while in his 20s, Nimetz has been tapped by Vance for the difficult job of coordinating the State Department's campaign to sell any proposed SALT agreement to Congress and the country.

Peter Tarnoff, 41. The only career foreign service officer in the inner cadre, Tarnoff is the Secretary's executive assistant. That means he is Vance's gatekeeper and traffic cop, making certain that subordinates go through channels to catch the boss's attention and that, in turn, Vance's instructions are carried out by the bureaucracy. He has traveled frequently with Vance, including missions to the Middle East, Europe and China. But his most valuable service may be to serve as the Secretary's sounding board and trusted ear when Vance puts his feet up at the end of a difficult day, sips a Scotch and unwinds.

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