Adviser Walt Itostow is a busy eiponent of Vietnam The Most Happy _Fella

policy—and is still enthusiastic about it in the White House Rostow is often to be found in L.B.J.'s office briefing him on new

by THOMAS THOMAS by

B. MORGAN MORGAN B.

\ gets a better understanding of that that of understanding better a gets \

A

policy. policy.

protests in Congress or in the the in or Congress in protests

track." Getting to know him, one one him, know to Getting track."

zealous Johnsonian convinced that that convinced Johnsonian zealous happy fella in the White House, a a House, White the in fella happy

plays a singular role in the process process the in role singular a plays

Special Assistant to the President President the to Assistant Special

comes close. Unfazed by antiwar antiwar by Unfazed close. comes

our Vietnam policy is "on the right right the "on is policy Vietnam our

for national security matters, matters, security national for

of making Vietnam decisions as as decisions Vietnam making of streets, Rostow is perhaps the most most the perhaps is Rostow streets,

solutely doubt-free human being. being. human doubt-free solutely But Walt Whitman Rostow, who who Rostow, Whitman Walt But

son of discontent would be an ab- an be would discontent of son

The political, economic and mil- and economic political, The

n unusual discovery in this sea- this in discovery unusual n

pects of foreign affairs have have affairs foreign of pects

reaucrat, one of the new breed of of breed new the of one reaucrat,

since 1961, a full-time federal bu- federal full-time a 1961, since

administration in Washington and, and, Washington in administration been a consultant to every postwar postwar every to consultant a been

rope. Rostow is an especially especially an is Rostow rope.

get selection for World War H H War World for selection get

bombing North Vietnam. He has has He Vietnam. North bombing

staunch advocate of the efficacy of of efficacy the of advocate staunch

bombing raids on occupied Eu- occupied on raids bombing

traits of Soviet and Chinese soci- Chinese and Soviet of traits

and a tract on—of all things- all on—of tract a and

theory of economic development development economic of theory

tional style," a widely respected respected widely a style," tional

ety, an analysis of America's "na- America's of analysis an ety,

his many books and essays are por- are essays and books many his

nomic history at M.1.T. Among Among M.1.T. at history nomic

been Rostow's study for nearly 30 30 nearly for study Rostow's been

years, out of Yale and Oxford, by by Oxford, and Yale of out years,

way of the graduate faculty in eco- in faculty graduate the of way

2

tar-

) interval." interval." )

to work with him at this searching searching this at him with work to

time! I'm proud to have a chance chance a have to proud I'm time!

the man! To have the will and the the and will the have To man! the

tory. The strength and grace of of grace and strength The tory.

ergy is one of the most admirable admirable most the of one is ergy he balances his attention and en- and attention his balances he

things in modern presidential his- presidential modern in things

ing test in Vietnam, he can carry carry can he Vietnam, in test ing

on a global foreign policy. The way way The policy. foreign global a on

President Johnson," Rostow says, says, Rostow Johnson," President

T

partisan. partisan.

"is that in the face of this gruel- this of face the in that "is

has become an unembarrassable unembarrassable an become has

Johnson and his foreign policy, he he policy, foreign his and Johnson

"action intellectuals." On Lyndon Lyndon On intellectuals." "action

a a he interesting thing about about thing interesting he developments abroad or offering opinions—his own and those of others

In the foreign policy-making nam war, for example, involve In the day-to-day operations of process, Rostow serves as techni- Rostow and the NSC staff with the the National Security office, Ros- cian, adviser and White House Departments of State, Defense, tow-the-technician is on constant spokesman. "It's God's work," he Treasury, Agriculture and Com- personal call from the President says. On the technical side, he is merce, the Bureau of the Budget for, say, more information or a the daily source of the President's and the CIA, Congress, the RAND progress report. Less often, Ros- summary of world events digested Corporation and other "think tow-the-adviser is asked for his . from information reported from tanks," numerous universities, own point of view on strategy and i the Departments of State and De- professional pundits, planners and tactics. As technician, he is respon- fense, the intelligence network and systems analysts, to name a few. sible for preparing the agenda of 1 the daily press and other media. He The most significant output of the the President's Tuesday policy also coordinates the work of the staff takes the form of "decision luncheon with the Secretaries of 20-man National Security Council papers"—advisory presentations Defense and State. As adviser, he staff: the primary two-way bureau- of opinions, facts, options and pri- makes his contribution at the lunch- cratic link between the President orities—for the President's "yes, eon itself, with all due deference and all those sufficiently interested no, see me" reply. It is at this point to the Secretaries. As technician, he in foreign policy goals to contrib- that Rostow also functions as an hands down presidential action-de- ute an opinion on better means to adviser. He usually has an opinion cisions to the appropriate bureaus. achieve them. Aspects of the Viet- and expresses it in writing. As adviser, he is called on for CONTINUED

At a White House Tuesday Lunch, Rostow sits with tor Helms, Rusk, Johnson, McNamara, Joint Chiefs (clockwise around table) Humphrey, CIA Direc- Chairman Wheeler and Press Secretary Christian. Thus when Rostow speaks, usu- morning. The decision papers are Roston, ally in tones of stentorian opti- CONTINUED the last things he reads at night. In mism, it is difficult not to believe between, Rostow and the President that he has the inside dope. It has speech drafts. "The art of this are never long out of touch, by to be impressive when Rostow tells phone or in conference, in the Oval job," Rostow says, "is keeping the a reporter "off the record" that he two functions separate." Office or, at times of crisis, in the has a "gut feeling" we're winning map-lined, bunkerlike Situation Talking about his duties, Ros- in Vietnam. (It must be said, how- tow emphasizes the technical side. Room, which is part of Rostow's ever, that Rostow has lately dissi- suite in the basement of the West He pictures himself as a "two-way pated some of his influence on the communicator" whose "low-visi- Wing of the White House. His pri- Washington press corps because, vate office is a fair-sized room that bility task" is "98%" information- as one reporter puts it, "of his to- al. He says he passes along all in- would look out on Mrs. Johnson's tal dedication to Johnson's poli- pleasant green gardens if the cur- formation impartially because "I cies.") It is also impressive when know I'd be blown clear out of the tains were not perpetually drawn he tells an audience in Leeds, En- for security. The furnishings are water if I used this job to lobby for gland that "History . . . will show my own ideas." He cites his smooth attractive—a contemporary desk, in Southeast Asia . . . that the in- chairs and tables, plus a comfort- relations with Dean' Rusk and ternational status quo cannot Robert McNamara as proof of his be able leather couch. Books overflow altered by use of external force" from shelves along one wall onto self-restraint. —obviously assuming the U.S. Over-all, Rostow's influence on side tables and the floor. Three presence in Vietnam as part of the small TV sets (one for each net- the course of government, while status quo. Even in private conver- not insignificant, is substantially work), a globe and a bowl of fruit sation among his fellow bureau- provide, respectively, an atmo- less than that of the two Secretar- crats, Rostow's words and argu- ies or, at least, the vast bureaucra- sphere of urgency, sophistication cies they represent, or some of the and simplicity. The color print of President's old friends like Clark Ins daily fare the President on the wall is ad- Clifford, Averell Harriman and is appalling dressed to Rostow "from his Abe Fortas, or in reality, for that friend, Lyndon B. Johnson." There matter, Ho Chi Minh. events, but at are also some paintings by Peter But he has another kind of influ- night lie sleeps Rostow, age 15. The telephone has ence that, while it can't be mea- a direct line from the President ("One long ring, that's him," Ros- sured, can't be discounted either. ments carry extra weight, especial- Rostow speaks for the White tow says), intercom lines to the Sit- ly among those with less clout but uation Room and its adjacent com- House at press briefings, from lec- a greater sense of the uncertainty terns and in conversations around munications center Wine fieirn it and contingency of events. We goes to Moscow) and trunk lines "the town." He speaks not only as have it from the White House that the man with more access to the to State and the Pentagon. Rostow is one of the five most im- When Rostow talks on the President than any other foreign portant men in Washington. Who policy adviser, but also as the op- phone, his secretary often listens in the others may be isn't said. But, at her desk in the outer bullpen, erator in charge of the nerve cen- one gathers, were there no Walt ter of U.S. foreign affairs. It fol- making notes for him. She is a shy, Rostow on President Johnson's matronly woman who, performing lows that his listeners must assume staff, he would have to be invented. that he is virtually as well-informed that function, reminds one of a Rostow is on call 24 hours a day, desk sergeant getting it all down for as the President himself. "He reads seven days a week. When the Pres- the cables," as they say. If knowl- the police blotter. Voices on the s.1 ident travels, Rostow travels. His lines endlessly talk about the war edge is power, secret knowledge is roundup of world events is the first all the more powerful. in Vietnam, the crisis in the Mid- thing the President reads in the dle East, civil war in Nigeria, guer- rillas in Bolivia, starvation in this year's decline in the number India, riots in Hong Kong, the H- of ARVN troops in actual combat, kind of man you'd name as trustee bomb in China, De Gaulle in the increase in American casualties for your wife and children. France and Stokely Carmichael in or other signs of counterproductiv- orbit. Rostow's daily diet consists ity in the war. of appalling events, with Vietnam Rostow's most striking charac- Just past 51, Rostow is square- as the main course. But none of it teristic is his seeming absence of built, tallish and trim. He plays ten- seems to get him down. "At anxiety. He is a gray, harmless- nis three mornings a week, indoors night," he says, "1 sleep." looking man with soft green-blue and out, all year round. He always Then there are his charts. For eyes behind light-rimmed glasses travels with his racket and sneak- visitors, Rostow often produces that give him the look of your kind- ers. "Only two times I didn't," he three large white squares of card- ly professor. He has good teeth and says, "were to Bonn for Adenau- board with neat graphs in black ink smiles often, as when he says, er's funeral and on a Polaris sub- showing "progress" in Vietnam. "Well, we're trying to keep a war marine." His clothes match his One chart traces the improvement from starting today." People who easy disposition. His suits are in the ratio of Vietcong-North know him, from the President on mostly gray, his rep ties rarely go Vietnamese army weapons-losses down, invariably remark on his with his socks. By the end of a day, to ARVN losses. The second rep- lack of hostility, animus, bile, bit- he may be grizzled, coatless, tie- resents the decline in VC /NVA in- terness or pique, and, conversely, less and a little unbuttoned. When cidents of sabotage, terrorism and on his sweetness, magnanimity, ge- the President sends for him, he harassment. The third illustrates niality, buoyance and all-around spruces up. the increasing number of VC /NVA goodness. His enemies lament that His habits are temperate. Once killed-in-action compared to the he would make a better target if he CONTINUED- decreasing number of ARVN weren't so goddamned nice. The KIAs. There is no chart to show President says, simply, he's the

Rostow likes to play with analo- gies, comparisons and historical Rostow parallels. At one time or another, CONTINUED President Johnson in Rostow's conversations or speeches has been compared with Simon Bolivar, in a while, he'll smoke a metholat- Winston Churchill, both Roose- ed cigarette, but a pack lasts him velts, Woodrow Wilson and John several days. Sometimes he amuses Kennedy. himself by writing songs. As a Hero-hunger seems to gnaw at youth at summer camp, he used to his vitals, but it is offset by his lack play piano accompaniment for si- Unbletshitaglg, he of more ordinary yearnings. Mon- lent movies. He also put on camp poi rb L.B.J. with ey, for „example, is far dawn on shows and once directed fellow Rostow's list of values. His job camper Cornel Wilde in The Em- Churchill, Bolivar, pays $30,000 and carries the usual peror Jones. "If I hadn't decided both itoosevelts perquisite of a phone-equipped, to do what I'm doing, I might have chauffeur-driven car from the fed- earned my keep as a tune writer," eral motor pool. He has a small ad- he says. ditional income from the continu- Rostow's mind is a sharp, fast, ing sale of his books. But no doubt flowing political instrument. He he could earn much more as a has a prodigious memory, with an teacher, writer and lecture circuit- uncanny capacity for reproducing rider. "Helping the President," he the precise sense of long conversa- says, "is the most rewarding thing tions. He speaks with the urgency a man can do." of an evangelist and writes very Criticism of his ideas or his style nearly as fast as he talks. President doesn't seem to bother Rostow, al- Kennedy, a speed-reader, once said though one can't be sure he would that Rostow ("The Professor," he let on if it did. Unmerciful lam- called him) was the only man he poons of Rostovian optimism and knew who could write faster than intellectualism going the rounds he, the President, could read. from Cambridge to New Haven to New York to Bethesda leave him tagon about bringing in a man ty Affairs, which did not sound so from State. But the President ap- unruffled. The Atlantic monthly important. Then Bundy reorga- parently felt a need to appease last spring published a squib writ- nized the National Security Coun- Bundy's fans, who had expressed ten by Harvard's James C. Thom- cil to facilitate Kennedy's control shock over the appointment of a lo- a former member of Ros- son Jr., over foreign affairs and, inciden- quacious hawk to fill the nest (or tow's NSC staff. It imagines a tally, greatly enhanced the spec- saddle) of "the iron knight of the meeting in the Situation Room ifications for his own job and soft line." Like Lou Gehrig's old chaired by "Hon. Herman Mel- Rostow's. Bundy's NSC soon be- No. 4, Bundy's title—Special As- ville Breslau," Special Assistant to came known as "the little State sistant for National Security Af- the President for National Security Department." But late in 1961, fairs—was retired. Rostow was Affairs. A sampling: "In general, Kennedy sent Rostow to head the named simply Special Assistant to he [Breslau] felt, the events of the Policy Planning Council after all. the President. These subtle distinc- previous days were a wholesome CONTINUED tions are important: Rostow's was and not unexpected phase in South a less imposing title, shared by gar- Vietnam's growth toward political den-variety presidential speech- maturity and economic viability. writers, envoys, domestic-side The fall of Saigon to the Vietcong aides and other members of the meant that the enemy was now White House staff. The President confronted with a challenge of un- also made several other moves to precedented proportions for which indicate a general reduction in rank it was totally unprepared: the ad- for the National Security office, in- ministration of a major city. . . ." Rostow CONTINUED cluding the signal that Bill Moy- After reading Thomson's satire, ers, press secretary and foreign af- a friend of Rostow's in Washing- fairs spokesman, would ton phoned a friend of Thomson's It was still a good job, but now be taking a greater interest in NSC opera- in Cambridge saying, "If James ' not as attractive as it had been. tions. Finally, the disparaging Thomson wants to make war on In a letter to Kennedy, Rostow word got out that Rostow's pro- the Administration, we're ready wrote: "I am going from being a motion had been approved by for him." Rostow himself abides. parish priest in Rome to being a Dean Rusk on the condition that a "I believe the President is doing bishop in the provinces," which carbon copy of any schemes sub- right in Vietnam, the world and at gives you another idea of Rostow's mitted to the- President by Walt home," he says. "I've never been analogical facility. Rostow would be sent to Rusk's of- more at peace in a job." Rostow labored at State in rel- All this is not to say that Ros- ative obscurity, producing ideas on tow is a stranger to trouble and dis- economic development, the Ger- appointment. His rise to power, man problem, and so on, that fice at the big such as it is, has been no boat ride. mostly fell on Rusk's deaf (to Ros- State Department. And who, through it all, includ- He was adviser to the 1960 pres- tow) ear. He also served as Am- ing the latter embarrassment, never idential candidate John F. Kenne- bassador and U.S. Representative dy, and contributed two of the to the 1nter-American Committee complained, never argued and nev- er lost his bounce? Nor did Ros- most effective slogans of his cam- on the Alliance for-Progress. Then paign: "New Frontier" and "Let's on April 1,1966, a few months aft- tow crow when, in the ensuing get this country moving again." He er Bundy had resigned to become months, Moyers quit to be a pub- lisher on Long Island and he him- was part of the Kennedy brain trust head of the Ford Foundation, and wrote, essentially, the new President Johnson tapped Rostow self surfaced not only with Bundy's job, free and clear, but also with President's first foreign aid mes- to return to the White House. Moyers' role as spokesman! Like sage to Congress. He had a right to•expect an important role in the Alfred E. Neuman, Rostow is not 'The good Lord mad at anybody, and apparently Kennedy government. never decreed never has been. all problems The full flavor and depth of Ros- tow's beliefs about U.S. foreign .t first, he had wanted the job A policy, their righteous rationality, of chairman of the State Depart- are solvable' and his corresponding view that ment's Policy Planning Council and was disappointed when Dean Jack Valenti was Rostow's most the direction of history is inevitable and going the American way would Rusk turned him down in favor of important sponsor and, because of require a small volume. (Rostow a more prosaic career man. He got Rostow's sentiments on Vietnam, has already written it: instead a White House assignment there was no protest from the Pen- View from the Seventh Floor as McGeorge Bundy's Deputy Spe- in 1964.) But one cial Assistant for National Securi- may dip briefly into conversations with Rostow for a sense of his midst of a great transition: from a trained historian," he says. "I narrow nationalism to internation- thought. have learned that men who say they "The central historical fact of al partnership; from the harsh spir- have no theory are controlled by our time," he says, "is the diffu- it of the Cold War to the hopeful bias. As a social scientist, I've sion of power away from Washing- spirit of common humanity on a stood for the view that a man ton and Moscow. It is the inev- troubled and threatened planet.' " should make explicit his implicit itable result of the spread of the He makes the leap from the presuppositions." Cold industrial revolution. We are not War to common humanity, At M.I.T. in the late '50s, Ros- assum- strong enough to shape the world, ing that no responsibility today is tow wrote his magnum opus, The but there are forces out there that too great to be beyond the reach United States in the World Arena, want the kind of world we want of A mericanpower, limited though including an appendix setting and—taking a sober, unsentimen- it may be. He promises that there down his "concept of the national tal view of what's happened in this are no promises we cannot keep— interest," which, he stated, was generation—there is reason for perhaps because in his own life- central to his judgment. The es- hope. It's dangerous. It's a lot of experience so much of his own sence of his Romanesque concept work. It's no time for cheap opti- promise has been, for better or is that the combination of Amer- mism. But there's no reason for worse, fulfilled. ica's geographical position and despair." material resources renders the U.S. inferior to the combined resources Itostow's wife Elspeth is a tall, of Eurasia (which Rostow defines ostow is most passionate willowy blonde who teaches histo- R as Europe, Asia, the Middle East about Vietnam. "The duty of ry at American University in and even Africa), including its mili- men," he says, "is to prevent war Washington. Her grandfather was tary potential. This makes "the and buy time. You have to do your a New England sea captain. They American relationship to the pow- duty. The good Lord never decreed have been married 20 years. She er balance in Eurasia . . . central that all problems are solvable. calls him "Popsy" and he calls her to the nation's security problems." You do what you do against a "Angel." Besides their son Peter, It follows, he wrote, that it is in background of 20 years of build- the painter, they have a daughter the American interest (a) that no ing and maintaining an environ- Ann, 12. hostile power should dominate Eu- ment for peace. . . . The troubling The Rostows live in a fine old rasia and (b) that the "societies element in the Vietnam debate is \ ti two-story brick house with a big of Eurasia [should] develop along the public's lack of knowledge of backyard in the Cleveland Park lines broadly consistent with [our] Ho Chi Minh and General Giap, district not far from Washington own ideology, for under modern who have devoted their lives to Cathedral. The district became conditions it is difficult to envisage taking over the French colonial popular for New Frontiersmen the survival of a democratic empire in Southeast Asia and who early in the Kennedy administra- [American] society as an island in decided on aggression in 1959. tion. The Rostows do not care to They've been obsessed with it. a totalitarian sea." swing at Washington cocktail par- . . . About the bombing of North ties, but the President often in- Vietnam, we have a good con- A busy decade vites them to the White House science. Throughout this period ,. at M.I.T. honed for social events: From-time to we have offered to stop bombing time, they spend an evening with on fair and decent terms. And his thinking the McNamaras. we unilaterally held off bombing about America Many of Rostow's favorite peo- a number of times without re- ple do not live in Washington. Max sponse. The fact is, we look upon Millikan, for example, is at M.I.T. Rostow denies that he is a proph- North Vietnam with more com- running the Center for Internation- et of Pax Americana. He has the al Studies that he and Rostow CONTINUED speech he delivered last February founded in 1951. Their association in Leeds, England to prove it. The has lasted more than 3G 'ears. Mil- passion than any previous enemy." first sentence, in which he quotes likan remembers Rostow at Yale Listening to Rostow, one waits President Johnson in a line he him- as a 15-year-old member of the in vain for a sense of tragedy, or self is said to have written, is per- class of '36. "He did lots of work dismay, or the slightest doubt haps as good a summary as any with little strain," Millikan says. about the assumptions and essen- of his own vision of the future: "He knew what he thought about tially military means chosen by the "In his State of the Union address everything. He had passion in his Johnson administration in pursuit on January 10 of this year, Pres- reasoning. He took positions vig- of peace. Instead, he has a snug the- ident Johnson said: 'We are in the orously and . . . wanted to argue ory for almost everything—includ- for what he believed in." ing a thsary theories. "I am Rostnw'c tild",. brother, Eugsns Victor, who was named after Eu- the Bay of Pigs invasion for the gene V. Debs, says Walt has always CIA. One of the two men assigned ostow went on to teach at Ox- been the same—"ebullient and by President Kennedy to review the R ford, interrupted by two years in cheerful." Eugene is Under Secre- ill-fated invasion plans before the Geneva as a member of the Eco- tary of State for Political Affairs. final decision to move was Walt nomic Commission for Europe. In A third brother, Ralph Emerson Rostow.) Rostow won a Rhodes 1950, aged 33, he joined the fac- Rostow, runs a ladies' apparel Scholarship to Oxford. He began ulty at M.I.T. By this time, re- shop in Ann Arbor, Mich. The his doctoral thesis in England, then search boosted by data from the boys grew up in Irvington, N.J. and finished at Yale. new high-speed computers had New Haven, Conn. "Our mother," Eugene says, "is triggered a postwar social science At 15, he explosion in the U.S. Part of the CONTINUED knew what he fallout was the funding of the Cen- ter for International Studies at thought about M.I.T. to see what the flood of new Roston, everything information about human behav- CONTINUED ior everywhere might mean to for- eign policy makers in Washington. In 1941 he turned down a job as Part of the money came from the energetic and optimistic. A club an economist to join the newly CIA. "I make no apology for this," woman. Father was more solitary. formed OSS as a civilian researcher Rostow says. He came from Russia in the early and analyst. "There was never any Entering a prolific decade, he un- 1900s. We were shaped by a partic- conflict in Walt's mind," Elspeth dertook Center studies that pro- ular tradition of Tolstoyan ideal- Rostow says, "between thought . duced a stack of books, including • ism. We were Jewish but anticleri- and action or operations and The United States in the World Are- cal. Our grandfather wanted Jews academia. He was an operator first, na. to go back to the soil. Our father then a teacher. That's the se- And while on a sabbatical at worked his way through Pratt In- Cambridge he wrote his "alterna- stitute carrying papers. He loved tive to Marxism," a treatise on the Chekhov. When he read the news process and stages of economic of Chekhov's death, he walked the quence." In London, during the growth. Basically, his thesis has streets of NewYork crying. He was war, Rostow was secretary to the been that technological and other a metal worker and a socialist. Jockey Committee, the joint Allied growth factors are far more signif- Gradually we shed the socialist tra- air force unit making daily selec- icant in the development of nations dition, but we still have the idea tions of bombing targets in Eu- than "the class struggle." Some from it that everything is related rope. He was an Army major by economists, especially in Europe, to everything else. There is no such 1945 and holder of the Legion of greeted the "alternative," with its thing as politics or economics in Merit. "I was growing up," he concept of "take-off" into mod- isolation." says, "in a situation of conflicting ernization, as one of the most origi- The boys' father died when Walt pressures." nal pieces of economic thinking was 21. He remembers him as a Right after the war, Rostow since Keynes. Later, while still re- man with clear ideals, as reflected worked on German-Austrian rep- spectful, they cooled, having found in the names of his three sons. "1 arations in the State Department. CONTINUED was very lucky in my parents," he The idea of European unity was in says. "They were very much in the air: France's Jean Monnet had love. They had faith in themselves been talking about it in Washing- Rostow's theories more descriptive than useful. and their children." It seems Ros- ton all during the war. Rostow Rostow had not been tempted by tow has always been more self-as- drafted a memo developing a con- full-time government w ork during sured than most people. "I've cept of regional cooperation as an the '50s—it was a Republican era known what I wanted to do since I alternative to narrow nationalist and he was a Democrat. But he was 17," he says. "I set two goals. solutions in Europe. Impressed, consulted regularly in Washington One was to pose an alternative to Monnet persuaded Under Secre- with such presidential advisers as Marxism. The other was to bring tary of State Dean Acheson to urge C. D. Jackson and Nelson Rocke- modern economic theory to eco- it on the conservative Secretary of feller. He also chaired the Rocke- nomic history." He recalls that his State, James Byrnes, who finally feller Brothers Foundation foreign interest in the new economics of the turned it down. But the Rostow policy panel that came up with the '30s was inspired by a college memo was a significant contribu- "open skies" plan for international chum, Richard Bissell Jr., who had tion to Western thinking that led, arms supervision through air re- studied with Keynes in London. in 1947, to the Marshall Plan for connaissance that President Eisen- (Years later, Bissell masterminded European recovery. hower presented to the 1955 sum- mit conference. "There has been no year from 1941 to the present," Rostow says, "that 1 did not do some government work or other." Rostow moved to Washington early in 1961. On the National Se- curity staff, McGeorge Bundy chose to bird dog the Congo, Ber- lin and Cuba issues for the Pres- ident and gave Laos and Vietnam to Rostow. Kennedy had conclud- ed that guerrilla warfare was, in fact, a new kind of aggression and ordered his aides to study ways of dealing with it. gage the ultimate source of aggres- As it happened, by the time of One of the first to respond was sion they confront." In effect, Ros- the assassination, Kennedy had Rostow, who had spent time at tow was arguing four years before sent about 16,000 advisers to Viet- M.I.T. during the late '50s boning the fact for the bombing of North nam but no regular fighting troops. up on guerrilla operations and Vietnam and using one of his fa- Rostow in this period emerged as counterinsurgency. In a speech at vorite words, "inevitably," to jus- one of our most dogged theoreti- the Army Special Warfare School, tify his case. cians of counterinsurgency and an Fort Bragg, N.C., in June, 1961, arch advocate of a military solu- Rostow said: "It is important that tion in Vietnam. During his years the world become clear in mind His solution seemed drastic in at the Policy Planning Council, the . . . that the operation run from 1961, a time when President Ken- big decisions on Vietnam were Hanoi against [South] Vietnam is nedy and others in the White made without his advice. But he as clear a form of aggression as the House were telling the South Viet- put in a direct plea for escalation violation of the 38th Parallel by the namese that they would have to with a memo requested by Pres- North Korean armies in June carry the brunt of the battle them- ident Johnson in early 1964, not 1950." selves and when those who argued long after the death of President for political solutions still felt they Kennedy. Thereafter, with a steady In the end, had a chance to prevail. It later be- stream of memos and speeches, came wryly known as "Rostow's he urged escalation in Vietnam his cheerless Plan 6," to be used as a last resort. on anyone who would listen. As early views In October 1961, Kennedy sent reports of the first bombing raid became policy Rostow to Vietnam as part of a on the North, in February 1965, mission headed by General Max- came off the ticker in the White well Taylor. Rostow helped write House communications center, For those who would argue that in- Taylor's report which, in effect, Rostow hurried over from his of- stability in the South was caused translated Rostow's assumptions fice at State to monitor the news. less by guerrilla attacks than by the about our interest in the conflict In a way, it was the beginning of- . lack of a strong nationalist alter- into a recommendation not only his return from the provinces. native, Rostow offered his conten- for an immediate increase in Amer- Sitting in his office in the base- tion that guerrilla attacks added an ican advisers from about 1,500 to ment of the White House, now just intolerable burden to a govern- as many as 18,000, but also for the a flight of stairs away from the ment that might otherwise be vi- deployment of 10,000 U.S. regu- President of the United States, able. He also predicted that, with- lars, with a contingency for six divi- Rostow was asked not long ago if out international action to stop the sions, to repel a possible Korean- his theories and opinions about aggression, "those against whom type invasion from the North. The American policy in Vietnam had aggression is mounted will be driv- Taylor (Rostow) report thus ech- been in any way changed by casu- en inevitably to seek out and en- oed earlier recommendations for a alty figures, antiwar sentiment or major military commitment by events like the riots in U.S. cities. Vice President Lyndon Johnson af- Rostow said no, there had been ter his own mission to Vietnam in no change. "We're very steady in the spring of 1961. this house," he said. Rostow leans against a column at the rear of the White House