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Show Ri- TttU Jfi VDehind the hreaalineA .... r One of the most intriguing least publicized aspects of the persident-elect's ' selection, of Mr. Dean Rusk as his Secretary of State is the effect of the appointment ap-pointment on New York's GOP Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Rusk if, of"' course, stepping down as President of the Rockefeller Rocke-feller Fund to head the key post which may other leading Democrats Demo-crats felt should have beenRe-d crats felt should have been theirs. ' ' ' . Rockefeller, or rather Rockefeller Rocke-feller brothers, will have to find a successor to Rusk to head the $350,000,000 philanthropic fund. The irony of the Rusk appointment appoint-ment is that while many leading Democrats wondered who President-elect Kennedy's Secretary of State would be, the. likelihood likeli-hood is that Republican Gov. Rockefeller knew in advance of the official announcement. , For Rusk, while he was being first mentioned for Secretary of State, said he "would have to weigh the opportunity for service serv-ice in government against his personal obligations," which means that he surely would have . discussed with the Rockefellers the possibility that they would have to seek out a successor. Some might say that the Rockefeller Rock-efeller clan might not actually have learned the precise role Rusk might play in a Kennedy Administration with these advance ad-vance discussions were most likely held. But the fact is that the post of Secretary of State is the only post that Rusk, a former Assistant Secretary of State under un-der .Dean vAcheson, had been mentioned for. , term bid in 1964. ' ? For this reason it has become an , open, secret that Kennedy already al-ready has put himself to work on ' the . difficult task of healing the split among New York Demo-prats, Demo-prats, in order to run a strong candidate against Rocky in '62. Kennedy's brother, Robert is working closely with the President Presi-dent elect on this. Kennedy is not only thinking ahead in Rockefeller's case, but in Vice President' Nixon's too. .. Kennedy knows all to well that while he, believes! Rocky may or ' may ' not : have been ' a stronger Republican rival than Nixon, that Nixon was a formidable formid-able opponent in an all too close election.' In 1964 barring an unlikely major failure of his Prfesidency Kennedy is almost certain to be stronger candidate in any re-run with Nixon that he was in '60. The "experience issue' would be on Kennedy's side in '64, the Catholic issue" incidental, the GOP out of power. ... However, Kennedy is nothing if not thorough.a nd he wants to be sure Nixon does not rise to challenge him again. Kennedy feels that Arizona's GOP Senator Goldwater would be easiest to defeat. So Kennedy, while strengthening strengthen-ing himself vis-a-vis Rockefeller in New York is also paying inaugural in-augural attention to California's politics. Should Nixon seek the California Cali-fornia governorship preparatory to a second crack at Kennedy, as many friends urge, the President Presi-dent elect plans to run a strong Democrat candidate against him, tod. Kennedy's fondest wish is . However, this is the least of the ways in which Rockefeller is affected by the appointment of his potent Fund's , President as Kennedy's Secretary of State. The real fear among ardent Rockefeller Republicans is that Rusk's appointment indicates the Kennedy administration intends to adopt the Rockefeller Fund program in, meeting the "Challenge "Chal-lenge of the Sixites." . With the head of th eRocke-feller eRocke-feller Foundation serving as the Kennedy Secretary of State, Mr. Rockefeller may find himself hard put to freely criticize the foreign pouicies Rusk will pursue. pur-sue. Rockefeller, therefore, who is known to harbor hopes of seeking seek-ing the Presidency in 1964, may hardly be free to criticize policies poli-cies he himself also would most likely favor, during the next presidential campaign. Some might say that this is an adroit maneuver on Kennedy's part in picking Rockefeller's aide as his Secretary of State. But it is only part of a major Kennedy drive to meet Rockefeller's Rocke-feller's expected challenge for the presidency in 1964. Kennedy privately tells friends that he feels he would have lost in his bid for the presidency had Rockefeller, whom he regards as able and highly popular, been the Republican presidential nomine. nom-ine. His victory over Nixon was close enough as it was, though Kennedy regarded Nixon as a weaker rival that he says Rockefeller Rocke-feller would have been. And Kennedy knows full well power of Rockefeller's wealth. Kennedy now is seeking to weaken Rockefeller in 1962, realizing that if h& is stopped in his bid for re-election to the governorship of New York, he would not win the GOP presidential presi-dential nomination1 to challenge Kennedy in an expected second to be able to beat both Nixon and Rockefeller in 1962 gubernatorial guberna-torial races ending with a threat of a major second term test in 1964. Ordinarily it would be silly to consider 1964 while the votes still are being counted, or recounted, re-counted, from 1960 but the thin vote majority in November has set both parties to sharpening their political knives. Republicans Republi-cans are certain they can win next time. Kennedy knows he will have to win a bigger popular mandate from the electorate to enact all of his program, even if he has to wait four years. Meantime, Kennedy is making a deliberate effort to bring key figures identified with the GOP into his administration, not just to win bipartisan support for his program in Congress, where Republicans Re-publicans and Southern Democrats Demo-crats are already talking of a coalition to block it before his program is even presented, but Kennedy knows the GOP would also be hard put to criticize and block a program or run against it in 1964 of persons identified with the GOP helped, plan and execute it. Such persons figure in all of the three top Cabinet posts. The Rockefeller Foundation's Dean Rusk has become Secretary of State. The Ford Motor Co., pro-Republican, pro-Republican, has lost its president to Kennedy's Department of Defense, De-fense, and Kennedy named as Under Secretary of State Dougla Dillon, a Republican, as Secretary Secre-tary of the Treasury. Even if Kennedy is not even minutely motivated by political factors in his Cabinet selections, they are likely to play a political role in the months and years between now and 1964. Man lives by affirmation even more than he does by bread. Victor Hugo. |
