12/4/3- the President he could resign, as some have done, or he could adapt his views to those of his chief, as others have Controversy Stalks done. The exception was John Foster Dulles. President Eisenhower, with his chain of An Impassive Rusk command concept of the office, dele- By Marquis Childs gated to Dulles the initiative. And JUST FIVE years ago a reserved, quiet Dulles, with his long background in for- mannered foundation president, whom eign affairs, his ambition, his aggressive not a single American in 10,000 had ever self-confidence, was only too eager to heard of, stepped from comfortable take it. anonymity into the very eye of conflict The office as a consequence was in- and controversy. President-elect John F. flated with Dulles, a resourceful phrase- Kennedy asked Dean Rusk to be Secre- maker, a news-maker, keeping himself tary of State in the Cabinet he was in the public eye. At the same time, in forming. the view of critics of the Dulles era, he If Rusk ever regretted his decision he inflated the aims of American policy far has given no sign of it. In the turmoil of beyond the means and the will to carry an office that concentrates on the indi- out those aims. Rusk's defenders believe vidual who occupies it and belted by the that it is against this distortion of the full force of every foreign policy crisis, office that he is compared and found he has continued to maintain a discreet wanting. personal reserve. Rusk, the man, is un- CJ failingly subordinate to the dedicated ON VITAL foreign policy issues such public servant. as Vietnam, Rusk's almost invariable No office except the Presidency is sub- custom is to restate positions firmly ject to such a glare of public, interest. marked out by the President. In his And the President, by reason of the emi- history of the JFK years Schlesinger nence of his office, is often sheltered quoted Kennedy as saying that he meant from the slings and arrows of misfor- to drop Rusk after the 1964 election. tune that assail the Secretary of State. This stirred indignant defense of the As has happened to every Secretary of Secretary. Earlier while Kennedy was State almost without exception, going still in the White House a journalist back even to the quiet era when Amer- with frequent access to the President ica's place in the world was on the quoted him as saying of Rusk: periphery of power, Rusk is a figure of "He's got guts. And his judgment is controversy. good. And in final analysis those are the One of the reasons Kennedy chose qualities a Secretary of State needs. I him was because he meant to be his own wouldn't want to make a final decision Secretary of State and the President- on a vital matter involving our security elect knew this was Rusk's concept of until I'd heard his view . . . " the office. He was to be an instrument If President Johnson had thought of carrying out the policy of the chief ex- replacing Rusk the Schlesinger attack ecutive. The president of the Rockefeller assured his tenure so long as he cares Foundation, as Rusk was, wrote in For- to stay. Only recently the President let eign Affairs in 1960: "The President, it be known that he considered Rusk with the aid of his Secretary of State the greatest Secretary of State in this and the support of the Congress, sup- century. As he gave complete loyalty to plies the leadership in our foreign rela- Kennedy so Rusk gives unstinting loyal- tions." ty to Johnson. c+4, Secretary of State watchers over the RUSK HAS been scrupulous in inter- years have said it's an office in which preting that definition and this is one you can't win. All you can hope for in reason for the criticism directed at him a time of revolutionary troubles is to publicly by historian Arthur Schlesinger hang on, hoping for a few breaks that Jr., and privately by others in the Ken- will even up the score. The Congo, Rho- nedy wing of the Democratic establish- desia, Vietnam, Egypt, Germany, France ment. He fails to come up with initia- —they are all on the Secretary's door- tives. He is too neutral. No one knows step, each with a demand for first pri- where he really stands. This is the main ority as he parcels out his 12-hour day thrust of the discontent with the Secre- in carefully measured half hours. tary of State. While he had served in the State De- But a glance at presidential history partment, Rusk can hardly have fore- shows that Rusk, with one conspicuous seen what acceptance of the Kennedy exception, is in the tradition of Secre- offer meant. taries of State. Presidents have almost e 1965. Ignited Features Srruttcate invariably asserted their constitutional right to direct foreign policy. And if the Secretary didn't like the policy set by