THE DEAN RUSK SHOW

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000200010111-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2000
• Sequence Number: 111
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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THE COMMITTEE. Some of Secretary
of State Rusk's interrogators at his recent two-
day appearance before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee. "The mere fact of his
testifying was an event of great moment."
Clifford P. Case, New Jersey
Joseph S. Clark, Pennsylvania
Frank Church, Idaho
Chairman J. W. Fulbright, Arkansas
Mike Mansfield, Montana
Wayne Morse, Oregon
WASHINGTON.
S HORTLY after Lyndon Johnson
became President, one of his
closest unofficial advisers re-
marked that the country was about
to learn something: "We're going to
find out whether or not we have a
Secretary of State."
The country has found out with a
vengeance. Dean Rusk is Secretary
of State. "One of the greatest in our
history," the President says. "He has
his hands on Vietnam," echoes Walt
Rostow, the President's Special As-
sistant for National Security Affairs,
"and on every other major thread of
policy."
Not only that, but he cuts quite a
figure in the nation at large. He is
a target of abuse for some - during
his visit to New York last November
3,000 people protested his presence,
pelting police with eggs, stones and
bags of cow's blood. He is a subject
of reverential admiration for others,
who express their feelings in a tor-
rent of appreciative letters. The mere
fact of his recent public testimony
on Vietnam before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, after a lapse of
two years, was an event of great
moment.
Not only that, but the emergence
of Rusk has been so dramatic that it
is even recognized by the self-effac-
ing Secretary himself. Concern that
his own prominence might rub off
on Senate opponents of the Adminis-
tration had been one of the reasons
he had initially refused to testify.
"Why," he asked at one point,
"should I contribute to Gene Mc-
Carthy's campaign?"
But how did so large a shadow
come to be cast by a man so bland,
pallid and cautious, so much the at-
tendant lord, that it was unclear
whether he really was the Secretary
JOSEPH KRAFT is a nationally syndi-
cated columnist who specializes in politics.
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34 THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE MACH 24, 1968
 Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000200010111-2
The Dean Rusk Show
of State? What happened to Dean
Rusk?
THE right answer is the answer
that springs to everybody's mind-
Vietnam. Dean Rusk may not be a
man for all seasons, but he is a man
for the season of adversity. With the
Administration at bay, Rusk has
come forward as the President's star
defender - a doughty, hard-bitten,
gritty adversary, ready to take on all
comers without yielding an inch, even
at the expense of playing the heavy
in a way that draws obloquy upon
himself while leaving all the grace
notes to the President. In everything
he does, and especially in the way
he does it, Rusk creates the atmos-
phere dear to Lyndon Johnson-the
atmosphere of a beleaguered Presi-
dent struggling mightily for the right
against treacherous foes at home and
abroad. "He is Colonel Rusk," says
the wife of one of his colleagues,
"manning the last outpost at Khesanh
on the Potomac."
The siege mentality of the Secre-
tary found almost perfect expression
in the recent Senate hearings. Rusk
testified, one man facing the 18 Sen-
ators on the committee, for a period
of 11 hours ranging over two consec-
utive days. Ceaselessly and unremit-
tingly he iterated and reiterated a
single tenacious theme of "over-
whelming importance" - the theme
that this country must stand by its
commitments. Despite the incessant
pressure, he never once yielded to
the demand by committee chairman
J. W. Fulbright that the Administra-
tion seek advance approval from the
Senate for any new increase in troop
strength in Vietnam. And when all
the verbal fireworks were over, noth-
ing seemed to have happened.
The Administration was satisfied
that its man had made a gallant
stand. President Johnson spoke of
the hearing publicly as "the Dean
Rusk show." After the first day, the
Secretary stopped off at the White
House for a short visit with the Presi-
dent and a few aides. One of them
said of the meeting: "I have never
seen people feet more warmly. We
were full of admiration for a col-
league, for his steadiness and lucidity
and courtesy. He handled himself with
grace under pressure."
Most of Rusk's senatorial critics
were rueful. "God, he's slick," one
muttered when Rusk, in the course of
his testimony, let it casually slip out
that he had been to see the President
one Sunday-after Mr. Johnson had
returned from church. A liberal Re-
publican, comparing the text of Rusk's
most recent committee appearance
with his testimony of two years ago,
said: "No wonder he knows all the
answers. He repeats whole paragraphs
almost word for word. That shows
how stubborn he is, how little he's
changed his mind."
At the State Department one of
Rusk's colleagues remarked: "It was
a vintage Rusk perfbrmance. He
showed the skill of a professional
negotiator in not yielding a single
point without getting something in
(Continued on Page 130)
THE WITNESS. Dean Rusk at the
hearings. "How did so large a shadow
come to be cast by a man so bland?"
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The Dean Rusk Show (Coot.)
(From Page 35)
return.. He never humiliated
anybody on the other side. He
defended the Vietnam effort,
but not with phony numbers
and bogus documents that
give an impossibly rosy im-
pression which is later used
against the President. He ad-
mitted setbacks, but in a way
that suggested this country
should, not cut losses, but
go on bearing this and other
burdens."
THE defensive qualities
which rose so strongly to the
challenge of the Senate hear-
ings are now equally apparent
in the face Rusk turns to the
public when there is no spe-
cial occasion-not that he has
ever been flamboyant. As the
product of a very simple Geor-
gia background, he has an in-
stinctive distaste for flashi-
ness, and he has never cut a
-dashing figure..In the past, his
actions at least sometimes had
the common. touch. He once
allowed himself to be photo-
graphed leading a group of
State Department officials to
a bowling match. On another
occasion, visiting Davidson
College in North Carolina,
where he was once a center
on the basketball team, Rusk
stepped into the gym and sank
a couple of long ones. Wash-
ington's equivalent of the jet
set years ago certified his
status as a square by giving
him the sarcastic nickname,
"Dean Baby."
But nowadays the Secretary
bolds himself aloof from the
public in a posture of Spartan
self-denial. Any hipt that he
is just a regular fellow, or a
good guy, is hushed up. Last
fall, for example, Rusk's young-
er son asked if two of his
Cornell classmates might spend
the night at the Rusk home
in Washington; they were in
town to participate in the pro-
-test march on the Pentagon.
The Secretary said, "Sure" As
it happened, the boys did not
pick up the offer. Still, knowl-
edge of the incident would
have appealed to many of
Rusk's critics. But he sat on
the story.
Similarly, although the re-
cent marriage of his daughter
Peggy to a Negro was a sub-
ject that would gain him points
with liberal foes, Rusk has re-
fused to comment on it. And
in the same vein, though it is
well known that on trips to
California the Secretary visits
the newlyweds at Stanford
University, he refuses to allow
the State Department press
office to confirm the visits.
The on-duty face which the
Secretary turns to the public
seems also to be the face he
turns to his family. By all
accounts, Pop, as the three
Rusk children call their father,
used to spend a. lot of time
at home-like other fathers;
watching television, particu-
larly the news shows, and
reading, notably in American
history. But now Rusk is rarely
home for dinner. When the
Rusks go out, it is almost
always to an official do. Even
at a rare private party, the
Secretary usually grabs an-
other guest and goes off to a
corner to talk business. His
wife has expressed wonder
to other official wives at their
,knowing when their husbands
were coming home to dinner.
Mrs. Rusk has an office at
the State Department and is
assiduous in filling in for the
Secretary at the receptions
offered by foreign embassies
for their various national
days. But though they work
closely together, the Secretary
on occasion even seems to do
the Spartan bit with his wife.
She was once asked whether
the Secretary was upset by a
particularly virulent protest
demonstration staged during a
recent visit he made to the
University of Indiana. "If he
was," she said, "he wouldn't
tell me."
WTHIN his own depart-
ment Rgsk is positively for-
midable. For one thing, he
works all the time. He reaches
the office around 9 o'clock
each morning and gets home,
usually after an official func-
tion, just before midnight. He
comes in to the office almost
every Saturday and usually,
for a little while at least, on
Sundays. This past year, he
worked both the Christmas
and New Year's weekends. In
the past seven years (he took
office on Jan. 20, 1961), he
has had fewer than seven
weeks of vacation.
According to a formal State
Department study of a typical
Rusk month, the Secretary's
activities come under five
major headings; advising the
President -11 visits to the
White House for a total of 17
hours, not including the time
necessary for preparation;
managing the department-
more than 100 meetings with
members of State's Washing-
ton staff and 19 separate
meetings with visiting Ameri-
can ambassadors; consulta-
tion with members of Con-
gress - II trips to the
Capitol, a total of more than
22 hours; discussions with for-
eign officials-one trip abroad,
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 ..,other to Texas ,,,,..&?h 'K CI-r~
e ormer gov n
head of State VIA d L.B.J. ranch, and 21 individual been Presidential possibilities
Still, the
appointments with emissaries -Adlai Stevenson of Illinois
ship is fros
from abroad, not to mention at the United Nations, Chester
shows it bett
13 luncheons, dinners and re- Bowles of Connecticut as Un-
the Assistan
ceptions at which -he played der Secretary, Averell Harri-
to prove the
host- and 19 others at which man of New York as Ambassa-
the boss. On
he was a guest; informing the dor-at-Large and G. Mennen
is always ji
public - three radio-TV inter- Williams of Michigan as As-
overinvolvem
views, seven interviews with sistant Secretary for Africa.
other reports
authors of books or magazine Crudely put, the theory was
tary has aske
articles, six background news that Rusk kept his nose to the
disagreeing w
conferences with regular State grindstone as a kind of coun
feels he shou
Department news correspond- ter-snob tactic, pointing up his
"I call him D
ents. own solid virtues as against
It's good for
The endurance required to the more flashy and glamorous Dean."
"
that kind of schedule qualities of the former gover-
Rusk's rela
month after month and year nors.
rest of the
after year is the more re But the Secretary has long
hardly be mor
markable in that Rusk does since asserted his mastery at
his personal
all the wrong things physi- the department. While no-
outside his o
cally. He is close to being a body pretends to understand
all the tim
chain smoker. He gulps down his relationship with Under
every memo
Scotches - often in the late Secretary Nicholas Katzen-
tion, "Sir."
afternoon, sometimes in the bach and Under Secretary for
White Hous
morning. He exercises only Political Affairs Eugene Ros-
and the depa
very rarely. From time to tow, they are new boys who
ery to wish
time, to be sure, there have do not challenge his primacy.
special assist
been signs of the strain. "I The Assistant Secretaries--
r
nothing to al
have seen him coming home
John Leddy for Europe, Wil-
which Forei
liam Bundy for the Far East,
larly nomin
from a trip abroad green with fatigue," a colleague in the
Lucius Battle for the Near East,
for State D
State Department says. On Covey
Oliver for Latin Amer-
indeed, he
his 59th birthday on Feb.
ica, Joseph Palmer for Africa
efforts at refo
9, Rusk told a group of
and Joseph Sisco for the
one high offi
newsmen (at an off-the-record
United Nations-are the Sec-
ment says,
background briefing, since retary
's men. Like him, they
gladly. "
made public) that criticism of have
all put in long years in
the Administration's Vietnam
the bureaucracy, most of them
policy had reached the point
I N days pa
as postwar drop-ins, who
in mid-
Rusk sought
when "the question is, whose joined the Government
authority in
side are you on?"
career after World War II
by aligning
But if the Secretary is some- service. Like him,
, they tend
overtired, he does have
the ability to make a quick,
overnight recovery-"I go to
sleep as soon as my head hits
the pillow," he says. Most of
the time he looks not green
but pink with health. Though
he walks in small steps for.
so big a man, he moves
with great speed. His carriage
is strikingly erect. Richard
Helms, director of the Central
Intelligence Agency, has mused
that "whatever keeps Dean
Rusk going ought to be
bottled." Benjamin Read, the
executive secretary of the
State Department, says: "Dean
Rusk is the Lou Gehrig of
government."
Still, there are plenty of = -- -
people around town who
doubt whether all the time
spent on the job is really nec-
essary. "I know," one State
Department official asserts,
"that he didn't need to come
in over last Christmas week-
end. There was nothing hap-
pening then." An Assistant
Secretary adds: "Work is Dean
Rusk's hair shirt."
THERE used to be a theory
that the Secretary's industry
was connected with the fact
that he was surrounded by
more prestigious figures. Early
in the Kennedy Administra-
WITH J.F.K.-President Kennedy and Dean Rusk at
the White House. During the years of the Kennedy
Administration, "it was unclear whether Rusk really
was the Secretary of State."
001?' notably with former
e of Defense Robert
personal relation-
ty, and nothing
er than the tales
t Secretaries tell
ir intimacy with
e asserts that he
bing Rusk about
ent in Asia. An-
that the Secre
d him to keep on
ith him when he
ld. A third says:
ean all the time.
him to be called
tionship with the
department could
e formal. Though
aides sit 20 feet
ffice, and see him
e, they preface
with the saluta-
He allows the
e, the Congress
rtmental machin-
on him dozens of
ants. He has done
ter the system by
gn Service regu-
ates mediocrities
epartment jobs-
has frustrated
rm. "Dean Rusk,"
cial in the depart-
"suffers fools
st, it was felt that
to buttress his
his department
himself with the
McNamara. And once there
may have been something to
this theory. Thus Rusk al- -
lowed Pentagon budgetary
considerations to dictate the
timing and manner of the can-
cellation of the Skybolt mis-
sile program though. State
Department officials warned
him that, because Britain's nu-
clear weapons were linked to
the Skybolt, cancellation would
create a crisis in Anglo-Amer-
ican relations-as it did.
For years one of the regular
complaints inside the State
Department was that, in his
handling of Vietnam, Rusk
was too prone to yield polit-
ical considerations for sup-
posed military advantages. A
particularly important example
of this occurred after the Ton-
kin Gulf incident of 1964 when
the Pentagon proposed basing
bombers in South Vietnam.
State Department officials, in-
cluding Assistant Secretary
William Bundy, argued against
the bombers, saying such a
move would be an over-re-
action apt to tempt the other
side to hit the bombers at
their bases. Rusk phoned Mc-
Namara on the spot and asked
if he really needed the bomb-
ers in Vietnam. When Mc-
namara said yes, Rusk ac-
cepted the decision as his
own, declaring, "In for a
penny, in for a pound." As
it happened, the bombers were
hit on the ground at Bienhoa,
one of the incidents which led
directly to the systematic
American bombing of North
Vietnam.
But the time has long since
passed when Rusk needed the
backing of the Pentagon. As
early as the fall of 1966, Mc-
Namara was turning to Rusk
for support with the President
in seeking a limitation on the
bombing pattern in North
Vietnam. In at least one case,
Rusk carried the day for limi-
tations after McNamara had
lost the argument. And when
McNamara's resignation was
announced, Rusk spoke of his
going in terms that denoted
absolute parity. He said: "1
feel as though I had lost a
twin."
In these circumstances of
bureaucratic parity, Rusk's af-
finity with the military is not
merely a matter of office poli-
tics but one of personal taste.
He has always been at home
among soldiers. As he recently
revealed, one of his ancestors
fought as a general in the
army of the Texas Free State.
He joined the R.O.T.C. at age
12 in Boys' High in Atlanta
he rose from captain to
colonel in World War II and
he was on the verge of be-
coming a regular officer in the
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 Approved For-Release 2001
07/26 :CIA-RDP70 0 csew for true
matters most precious to him. watcher has observed, "Rusk
A striking case in point is the is a minimum breakage man."
way he behaved at the time
of his daughter's marriage. DURING the Kennedy Ad-
Though absolutely no racist ministration, the President was
himself, he had seen prejudice mainly bent on trying to reach
at first hand in the Deep an understanding with the
South. He wondered aloud Soviet Union - the policy of
whether Southerners and con- detente. Pursuing that policy
servatives in the Congress inevitably meant friction with
might not treat him as (his American allies - notably the
words) a "Typhoid Mary," but West Germans, and to some
he was not worried about extent the governments of
what he personally might have Asia. While President Kenne-
to bear. "He talked to me dy and his closest associates
about it a little before the concentrated on the approach
wedding," " Under Secretary to the Soviet Union, Rusk con-
Nicholas Katzenbach says. centrated on reducing friction
"His concern was for the Pres-
ident and his standing in the
country."
I T is possible to find dozens
of cases where the Secretary
has subordinated his own
views to those of the Presi-
dent. During the Kennedy
years for example, Rusk was
not a strong enthusiast for
arms control measures, par-
ticularly insofar as they cut
across American military inter-
ests, or the interests of this
country's major allies. It was
Averell Harriman, not his boss
Dean Rusk, who negotiated
the partial test ban with Rus-
sia in 1963. Indeed, in a dis-
cussion of the proposed test
ban, Rusk once told Adlai
Stevenson that he would not
yield "one iota of military
strength to improve America's
moral position in the world"
But when President Johnson
at a meeting at Camp David
last year made it plain that he
wanted to get a nonprolifera-
tion treaty, Rusk, who was
known to have had grave res-
servations about the treaty,
went to work on it. He per-
sonally negotiated the basic
with the allies, traveling to
Bonn to soothe the late Ger-
man Chancellor, Konrad Ade-
nauer, or to Formosa to calm
the Nationalist Chinese.
Rusk has also been at tre-
mendous pains to minimize the
damage associated with the
Johnson Administration's for-
eign policy. He has been par-
ticularly concerned to limit the
harm done to American-Soviet
relations by events in Viet-
nam. He personally arranged
the Glassboro meeting between
President Johnson and So-
viet Premier Kosygin. He has
worked-with great effective-
ness-to head off military acts
in Vietnam which might par-
ticularly embarrass the Rus-
sians. It is mainly thanks to
Rusk that the port of Hai-
phong, where Russian ships
dock, has not been bombed,
and he has had a strong damp-
ening effect on any extension
of the war to Laos and Cam-
bodia in ways that would bring
this country into confronta-
tion with Russia.
Indeed, insofar as it has
been possible to maintain
working relations with Mos-
cow while still fighting in
draft with Soviet Foreign Min- Vietnam, the credit goes chief-
ister Andrei Gromyko. He per- ly to Rusk. "I'm not going to
sonally smoothed matters over claim that I know how to deal
with the West Germans who with the Russians," he told me
opposed the treaty. As much recently. "Too many diplo-
as any man, Dean Rusk can matic reputations carry that
probably claim credit for nego- claim on their tombstones.
tiating that treaty. But I do find that I can talk
Nor is his loyalty to the to the Russians in a straight-
President simply a matter of forward way without bluster
being willing to adjust his po- or propaganda. And I find that
sition on specific matters of when I talk to them that way,
importance. In a famous arti- they respond without bluster
cle published in 1960 in the or propaganda."
And once in that vein, once
magazine Foreign Affairs and he was not on the defensive
read by President Kennedy be- about Vietnam, Rusk could
fore appointing him Secretary go on to survey the record
of State, Rusk wrote that "the of the past seven years. "Ken-
President makes foreign poli- nedy and Johnson and their
cy." A subsequent article that Secretary of State," he said,
was supposed to define the "have tried to show that there
role of the Secretary of State does not have to be total hos-
never appeared. But it is a tility in the world. We haven't
good bet that in Rusk's view brought any new treaties of
the Secretary's job is to make alliance against other coun-
it easier for the President to tries to the Congress. We have
do what he has to do-to take b%snthu the pattern rn of
the heat, and reduce the dam-
age. As one long-time Rusk- (Continued on Page 140)
French ice cream:'
Itneediitendwith
Vanilla.
Vanilla is the usual
ihingwith
Pear Helene,
but it's not
the end.
We know some
pmp who prefer
Li ht up a meal with Cherry Jubilee
wwh Cher Vanilla. 010
The Rainbow
1rlait:
Ice creams
and ices
WWI
ty our taste
and imagination).
With all the ice creams
i in a ch or~louys Sh~er~yhave to
if you can't find your nearest
dealer, maybe
we can help:
[phone].
TinyTaste Refresher
o~u fi~asfiew~itadolop
Louis Sherry orange or lemon ice.
Louis Sherry.
True French
ice cream .
In 16 Red,
White and
Blue Flavors.
'1cH 24. 1966 Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP70BOO338R0002000.10111-2 135
 Approved For Release 2001/07/26: CIA-RDP7
Army until Gen. George Mar-
shall brought him over from
the Pentagon to the State De-
partment in 1946.
Perhaps the major handle
Rusk offers to a biographer is
the quality of his admira-
tion for Marshall, whom
he more and more holds up
for emulation. Some peo-
ple who knew the general
feel Rusk falls far short of his
model. "The main thing about
Marshall," one says, "is that
he went after the jugular of
events, the mainstream of his-
tory. Rusk is a detail man.
He goes after Clause 47-B."
But to say that is to miss
the point about Rusk. For
what Rusk most admires in
Marshall, he says, is "his very
high sense of public duty."
The Secretary frequently cites
a Marshall dictum: "Soldiers
have morale problems. Officers
don't "
The most striking embodi-
ment of that creed is Rusk's
unflinching acceptance of his
role as the Administration's
heavy in the Vietnam war.
Time and time again it has
fallen to him to darken the
outlook for peace. Thus, in
February, 1967, when Soviet
Premier Alexei Kosygin, at a
televised press conference in
Britain, raised hopes for nego-
tiation, Rusk was deflating
those hopes in a press confer-
ence held only hours later.
Rusk played his spoiler role
even more strikingly when
President Johnson broached
his famous formula for peace
in a speech in San Antonio,
Tex. The President expressed
a willingness to stop the bom-
bardment of North Vietnam in
exchange for prompt and "pro-
ductive discussions" with the
other side. He said the United
States would "assume that
while discussions proceed,
North Vietnam would not take
advantage of the bombing
cessation." To "assume" so
was a notable softening of a
previous demand that Hanoi
give some advance sign, and
the President got the credit
for easing up the terms.
A little bit of credit on the
same theme also went to the
new Secretary of Defense,
Clark Clifford. In the Con-
gressional hearings prior to
his confirmation, Clifford in-
dicated that the phrase, "not
take advantage," meant only
not increasing the flow of
supplies from North to South
Vietnam above the "normal"
level-a softening of the previ-
ous formula which seemed to
insist on the termination of
the flow of supplies.
But when the Tet offensive
caused Washington to harden
its position last month, Rusk
did the dirty work. In a
speech on Feb. 14 he said: "At
no time has Hanoi indicated
publicly or .privately that it
will refrain from taking mili-
tary advantage of any cessa-
tion of the bombing of North
Vietnam." And that state-
ment, of course, implied that
the United States was no
longer "assuming" that the
other side would not take ad-
vantage of a bombing cessa-
tion and wanted some ad-
vance sign-a return to the
position taken before the San
Antonio formula.
I N presenting the tough line,
moreover, Rusk does not
mince words, or seek cover in
complicated circumlocution.
He has always been known
for his capacity to turn out
pithy-some might say corny
-colloquialisms. For example,
the "eyeball-to-eyeball" de-
scription of the Cuban missile
crisis was his. He states his
case on Vietnam with an in-
ventive fertility that is truly
extraordinary: "We want to
talk, but the other side won't
pick up the phone".....The
war will be over as soon as
the other side decides to leave
its neighbor alone" . . . "You
can't end half a war." If noth-
ing else, the Secretary is the
leading rhetorician - indeed,
the poet laureate-of the Viet-
nam debate. It is typical that
after the seizure o! the U.S.S.
Pueblo, he came t p with still
another lapidary phrase: "My
strong advice to -the North
Koreans is to cool it."
Rusk's statement of his posi-
tion has undoubtedly helped
win him wide support. Most
of the Congress is with him;
the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, in an unusual
step, recently presented him
with a letter of confidence
signed by all but two mem-
bers. And the Secretary has
had rousing ovations recently
in speeches before groups of
veterans and labor leaders and
at a Lions convention.
Within 48 hours of his re-
cent appearance before the
Senate Foreign Relations Com-
mittee, Rusk received 1,000
telegrams. They ran 10-to-1
in his favor. And his day-long
televised appearance before
the same committee two
years ago also yielded hun-
dreds of letters, favorable to
Rusk in a ratio of 10-to-1. A
real-estate man from Colum-
bus, Ohio, wrote: "In my
humble opinion you come
closest to filling Lincoln's
shoes." A Miami housewife:
"If I had any doubts before,
they were all erased by your
eloquent answers." A young
mother from Oklahoma: "I
wanted to grab my flag and
shout GLORY-several times."
A teacher from Salt Lake City
WITH L.B.J.-President Johnson listens to Rusk at a White House meeting. Rusk has
come into his own during the Johnson Administration as the President's "star defender" on
the issue of Vietnam-"a doughty, hardbitten, gritty adversary, playing the heavy in a way
that draws obloquy upon himself while leaving all the grace notes to the President."
sent "congratulations on your
policy of no appeasement."
But the plain speaking which
wins such plaudits from sup-
porters of the Vietnam war
rubs salt into the wounds of
the doubters. A former presi-
dent of the Rockefeller Foun-
dation and professor at Mills
College, Rusk was once a
campus familiar, one of the
all-time champion degree col-
lectors. Now he gets picketed
at Indiana University and has
to cancel a scheduled appear-
ance at Stanford to avoid
pickets. Former colleagues in
the Kennedy Administration-
notably Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
and Richard Goodwin of the
White House staff and Roger
Hilsman of the State Depart-
ment-have assailed him pri-
marily for not stating his
views forthrightly within that
Administration, for being, as
Schlesinger wrote, "a Buddha"
And many members of the
Washington press corps have
had a bellyful of Ruskian
homilies. One press jest has
Rusk taking a reporter aside
and whispering to him, in con-
fidential tones, "Off-the-rec-
ord, and strictly between us
and not for publication, I will
say that the war would be
over if the other side stopped
fighting."
In response to Vietnam
critics, the Secretary draws
heavily on the officer-enlisted
man theme - the distinction
between solid men of respon-
sibility and frivolous, self-in-
dulgent fault-finders. Thus, on
a recent session of the TV pro-
gram Meet The Press, a re-
porter who asked whether the
Vietnamese might not be put
off by American bombing of
sections of Saigon and Hue in
response to the Tet offensive
was told: "I have no doubt
there are some people in
South Vietnam who are grum-
py." And at the Feb. 9 back-
ground briefing the Secretary
had this to say in response to
a question suggesting the pos-
sible lack of advance intelli-
gence of the Tet offensive:
"Now during World War II
there was never a time when
you couldn't find a reason to
bitch at your allies or at intel-
ligence or the commander of
the adjoining unit or the quar-
termaster who wasn't giving
you your portable toilet seat
at the right time. There wasn't
a time when you couldn't find
something to bitch about."
In response to students who
criticize Vietnam policy, Rusk
cites their vulnerability to
"the organized effort by the
Communist apparatus" and
then takes up the theme of
the generational gap: "The
young people who haven't ex-
perienced any other war feel
that the war in Vietnam is
something that is all fresh and
different, that it has nothing
to do with other crises. A lot
of the arguments I hear now
against the war are the same
ones people used once in the
thirties, the same sort of
things people said to me in
the thirties in arguing against
arming or preparing for a war
against Germany."
To his former colleagues in
the Kennedy Administration,
with their critical public rev-
elations of private top-level
talks, the Secretary speaks of
the responsibility officials have
to maintain privacy of com-
munication. He says that
when he leaves office, "I don't
expect to take papers away
with me. I'm somewhat like
Secretary Marshall in that
regard."
To the intellectual commu-
nity, he cites thc case of the
naive scientist: "Friends used
to say of Einstein that he was
a genius in mathematical
physics, an amateur in music
and a baby in politics. Now,
I -think that an idea stands or
falls on its own merits, and
the fact that a man knows
everything there is to know
about enzymes doesn't mean
that he knows very much
about Vietnam or how to or-
ganize a peace, or the life
and death of nations."
AS for critics in the press,
the Secretary said of one cele-
brated commentator who
wrote an article critical of
Rusk's handling of Vietnamese
peace negotiations: "When a
man gets $40,000 for an arti-
cle, I cease to believe in his
veracity." And at the Feb. 9
background briefing, the Sec-
retary said: "None of your
papers or your broadcasting
apparatus are worth a damn
unless the United States suc-
ceeds. They are trivial com-
pared to that question. So I
don't know why, to win a
Pulitzer Prize, people have to
go probing for the things that
one can bitch about when
there are 2,000 stories on the
same day about things that
are more constructive in char-
acter."
These comments, of course,
are only further evidence of
Rusk with his dukes up -
the siege mentality. They
don't begin to represent the
case that can be made for the
Secretary. Indeed, the best
case is one the Secretary can-
not himself make directly be-
cause it turns on his relation-
ship with the President.
Abundant evidence suggests
that Rusk is usually acting
less on his own initiative than
on that of the man in the
White House. His sense of
duty is strong to the point of
subordinating himself to the
President's interest even on
134 Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000200010111-2 THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE