JFK'S MCGEORGE BUNDY--COOL HEAD FOR ANY CRISIS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000200090136-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2000
• Sequence Number: 136
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/0
, ATI ON %I sit %I RS
ruiuluc?ttng i'rn rttriuI e, into Alarcla11d's
scandal-racked savings-:uad-lo.ui iodns-
ti. With striking Irrgnency, the pursuit
has won id from the thickets of fiuauce
to the brambles of politics, Late last
year, for example, indictments tic ere
handed dowta against two Dernot,ratic
congressmen, Frank Boykin of Alabama
and Thomas Johnson of \1aryland,
charging them with conflict of interest
and conspiracy in involved dealings %k ith
Maryland savings-and-loan fines.
The Charget Democratic Speaker
Boone and five codefendants v, ere
charged with helping set up the Secu-
rity Financial Insurance Corp. of Balti-
more in a scheme to defraud investors
in S&L firms insured by the company.
A grand jury said Security Financial
used the mails to palm off deuuotastrably
shaky S&L institutions as solid enter-
prises. Security Financial is now defunct
-and so are twelve of the 27 associa-
tions it purported to insure.
The indic?tineut alarmed many of
Buenos fellow delegates. Insiders esti-
inate that roughly a quarter of the 142
House members have interests, t tI one
sort or another, in saviuks-and-loan
operations. In fact, both the S&L in-
dustry-and the scandals-prolitctatcd in
Maryland primarily because the eyer-
sympathetic legislature enacted no
meaningful rules io the field until 196I.
Given this history, the reaction of the
Maryland House to ltootws indictment
was not surprising. Announcing it "leave
of absence" from the speakership, Boone
ceremoniously turned over the gavel to
delegate Marvin Mandel, Ixofessed his
innocence to the packed chtumber ("I
will be vindicated"), then strode to his
regular Baltimore County seat on the
floor where he expects to continue to
serve pending the outcome of a trial.
As he stepped down, fellow dele-
gates gave The Bear a standing ovation.
Moore: the tilteaker 'tees down
JFK's McGeorge Bundy-
Cool Head for Any Crisis
'rte note was handed to President
Kennedy at 9:30 one night last week,
joist :ts he settled down in the White
Ilouse projection room with Mrs. Ken-
nedy acid some guests to watch a
screening of "The Ugly American." He
rise promptly to return the call. The
urgent caller was McGeorge Bundy, his
Special Assistant for National Security
\itairs. with first details of the week's
most dramatic turn: the Cuban MIC
attack on it U.S. shrimp boat.
flow should the U.S. react? Should
the news be released immediately?
"It's more important to get the story
straight than to put it out at once," said
the President. From his home, where he
had received the "hot" message from
his duty officer at the White House
Situation Room, Bundy then gave the
news to Secretary of State Rusk, Defense
Secretary McNamara, and CIA Chief
McCone. \'Vith each, he explored the
implications; all were against making a
"midnight judgment." Bundy phoned
the President again, and the decision
was taken to wait until morning for the
"take all necessary action" order.
By habit forged in crisis after crisis,
the President looks to "Mac" Bundy,
boyish-looking at 43, for the first word
of the tough, sometimes awesome; ques-
tions posed by cold war in the nuclear
age-and a firm grip on all the possible
answers. With his pink cheeks, sandy
hair, springy step, and faintly quizzical
expression behind plain glasses, Bundy
could easily piss for a Washington
junior civil servant. Yet he is one
of the most influential men in the
t?.S. Government.
Along_ with his role as the President's
adviser on crunching global problems,
Bundy is director of the National Se-
curity Council and boss of its high-
powered staff. From the White House,
he coordinates the many arms of gov-
ernment involved in "national security"
-State, Defense, Treasury, Atomic En-
ergy, Disarmament, Central Intelligence,
Foreign Aid, even Agriculture-slashing
across bureaucratic lines to deal with
Cabinet members and agency heads.
As a speechmaker (and a persuasive
interpretive source for the press), he
helps to transmit as well as shape U.S.
policy, as in Copenhagen last year when
he expressed'U.S. disapproval of "small,
separate, national deterrents" and sup-
port'for a unified, multilateral European
nuclear force.
SublislueIs Above all, Bundy's
growing prestige and power flow directly
from the source of all executive power
-the President of the U.S. W. Kennedy
has come to respect him, -trust him,
and communicate-almost subliminally--
with him. "They think alike," explains ad
NSC staff member. "Bundy knows the
President's mind. He knows what the
President wants. The President's inten-
sity is perfectly complemented by
Bundy's ability to move things."
Although uniquely a product of his
own relationship with the President,
Bundy's role stems from an old political
tradition-the "kitchen cabinet" dating
back to Andrew Jackson's backstairs
cronies-and the latter-day need to cope
with the complex, crushing burden of
the U.S. Presidency. .
John F. Kennedy has no Colonel
House, Harry Hopkins, or Sherman
Adams. In the Kennedy Inner circle,
Bundy shares a place with a handful of
advisers, all of whom-like the man they
advise-are tough, brainy, and energetic.
They are Robert Kennedy, Defense
Secretary McNamara, and Presidential
aides Theodore Sorensen and Kenneth
20 Approved For Release 2000/05/24: CIA-RDP70-00058R000200090136-0