A PUGNACIOUS PACIFIER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000200220013-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 24, 1998
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: April 2, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

APR 2,V
Approved For Release 1999/09/07 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R
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w... :: MARY A4cGRORY
A year ago, w ben 110017t_
Komer. was made President
Johnson's special assistant on
the pacification, of Vietnam,
Secretary of State Rusk
offered him. the following
counsel:
"If you are not cordially
.disliked within six months, the
President and I won't feel you
are doing the job." , .
So brilliantly did Komer
succeed that when the Presi-
dent recently told the Tennes-
see legislature that he was
sending Komer to Saigon to.
pacify on the scene, a yelp of
protest from American civil-
ians went up that could be
'heard from here to Hanoi.'
Komer was castigated by
his future daily associates as a
courtier who tells a President
?.:only what he, wants to hear
and a hounder of subordinates.
Komer, a genuine enthusi-
ast-a friend says he. has "an
India-rubber personality" -
and a green-beret optimist, is
philosophical about "hatchet
man" charges.
"A certain amount of that
ain't a bad thing," he said the
other day in his Executive..
Office Building quarters.
iBcsides, he feels that civilians
in a war zone cannot operate
on a "business as usual" bads..
"Nor does he think we can
pound on the Vietnamese, to
clean up graft and corruption
as long as there is any incom-
petence or slack in the Ameri
can sector.
Just to avert any possible
mass resignations, however,
'he dashed , from Guam ,. to
'South Vietnam..
? "I showed them I' didn't
have horns and I told them
"You guys have been, doing a:
good job," Komer reported.
1"! 5? i ?; n UY' M fl for il'
L.,,79 I
respecter omcr or naving is cabinet that h e
been a "no-man." appointment was "a good
"Why wouldn't I. tell him ... thing." . -
t`e straight stuff?" asked' Komer's personality in
.Comer. "I'm not from Texas. ? 'person, as distinguished from
I'm not a membO of the in- ? . on paper, is not corrosive.
group. The only respect he Rather suggesting the
could have for me comes from, dachshund with his round
,lie way I do my work."
Kon'ter's abysmally bad ,?brown eyes, long nose and
.press arises in part from a eager manner, he is cordial ,
hcnchant for writing what his and articulate, and plainly
Inrmcr White House boss, dedicated to the task at hand.
l:cGearge Bundy, calls "Gee It is a -daunting one. He .
whiz-f oddamit kind of cables must funnel through the Viet-"
that make no' friends in thee; namese the distribution of
field." rice, fertilizer, ; concrete for
Another old friend says, roads and metal for school-
"Boo lends to get combative house roofs. He must oversee
one paper. I think he should . AID, USIA and CIA personnel.,.
sleep on some of his memos." He must work with the armies
Komer prides himself on the' of both countries. He must j
fact that two presidents have show the Vietnamese officials ?1
admired his memos. In fact,' ` how to run their country and
iresident Johnson once ex- .. make Vietnamese peasants
horteci Kamer to instruct : think they are already doing
certain long-winded cabinet so. . \
members in his own crisp, He expects to work his usual
cablase style. Komer of course seven-day week. Mrs. Komer,
did not follow through. a vivacious blonde, is allowed
A Phi Beta Kappa Harvard to go with him, but will stay i
graduate, he spent 15 years'as home watching over the three
an analyst in CIA-"I was in.. teen-age children of Komer's
the ivory tower, never in the . first marriage.
.-pook business.':. He . was Komer likes the Vietnamese.:
recommended by William P.'-.,. people. A gifted amateur chef,
Bundy to his brother Mc- who specializes in Oriental
George when the latter was dishes, he also likes their
setting up his "Little State cooking. After seven visits, he
Department" in the White-, believes they are on their way';
Ilouse basement during' the to representative self-govern-i.
New J ?ontier Days. ' ment. He thinks the regional,
Komer - and McGeorge elections next month and the.
Bundy worked amicably and,., national elections in September'
zestfully together for , three , 'will not throw up a leader of
t gars. r McGeorge Bundy, not the stature of Ho Chi Minh-
easy than to please, says of .. with whom southerners are'
Is fotmcr deputy that he "is ,;increasingly disillusioned-but.
ti rribly clear-headed and ' will counter a famous person
sensible and tenacious." ality with a democratic sys-.
ambassador to Saigon, Ells Premier Ky, he thinks, is
lnrdia-Pakistan and Dutch-. date. The constituent assem-;
Indonesian tangles. ' bly, bourgeois, urban and.
,
popular deputy ambassador".'. "I was always Glow-posture ?`. landlord oriented, did not.
whom he will replace. ' guy." he says. "I was always advocate land reform, but Ky,.
He also scotched rumors that
he had none after his old
friend
William C. Porter, tbe.'
He resents the charge he is a pleader on the score of the potential candidate, has.
a "yes-mail" to President ' understanding the Asians." "Pretty soon those people
Johnson, He treasures a letter At -Guam, Premier Ky, will have ?a congressman to
written' after a 19G3 Middle r:ind.ul. of the anti-Komer write to," says the hopeful
' Eastern expedition; in' which u;aoar: at home, came to': pacifier. "That could make all'.
the then vice president said he homer and assured him he. the difference." , - :; _ ....
Approted For Release 1999/09/07 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000200220013-8
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