THE COLD WAR

By Christopher Ogden/Washington

SHE WAS THE DIVINE hostess; he was the consummate courtier. Like a Washington version of Astaire and Rogers, she gave him sparkle and he gave her gravitas. They were the very definition of the Establishment: blue blood, big money and luxuriant hair, equally at ease at the White House or in her Georgetown salon, filled with French Impressionists and Democratic supplicants. Pamela Harriman, the chic U.S. ambassador to France, and Clark Clifford, the sleek counselor to Presidents, were friends and allies for a quarter-century, from the moment she married statesman Averell Harriman, a poker pal of Clifford's and Harry Truman's. When Clifford was swept up in the Bank of Credit & Commerce International scandal of 1991, Pamela stuck by his side.

Now that alliance is sundered, and these two scions of the Democratic Party could be testifying against each other in court. At issue are investment losses as high as $41 million from family trusts set up by Averell, a former ambassador to the Soviet Union and Britain, onetime Governor of New York and an heir to the Union Pacific railroad fortune. After his 1986 death, the trusts were overseen by Clifford; his former law partner, Paul Warnke, who was the top U.S. nuclear arms negotiator in the Carter Administration; and the widow Pamela. In September 1994, after monumental losses in the estate were discovered, Averell's two daughters from a previous marriage and their descendants sued the three for mishandling the investments. Three weeks ago, Pamela settled with the heirs, promising a "redistribution of family assets" in order to "correct inequities resulting from losses incurred on certain investments." Sources close to the dispute said Pamela would repay some $15 million and help the family pursue Clifford and the others.

All have denied any wrongdoing. Clifford, now 89 and in seclusion, is said by his lawyer to be "distressed about being drawn into this family dispute." Not least after having written the 49-page will that left almost all Averell's $100 million estate to Pamela. So much for gratitude.

--By Christopher Ogden/Washington