KATZENBACH FINDS STATE DEPARTMENT BUREAUCRACY AN IMPEDIMENT TO REFORM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400280003-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 12, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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Sanitized Approved F-ar P
d'zenbach:fYnds State Department ureaucr
CPYRGHT .an Impediment to Reform
1VA I
!nanted Attorney General Nicho-
i las deBcl,cvjile Katzenbach to
tho important, but lower ranlt-
linh, position of Under Secre-
Itary of State.
11 Mr Katzenbach believed then
that he had a Presidential man-
date for two tasks-to restore
the department's "primacy"
among the Government agen-
cies operating overseas, and to
improve its prickly relationship
with Congress.
Now, a year later, there is
not much ;tg;, that Mr. Katzen-
bach has -,in the active sup-
4 port o' Secretary of State Dean
4 Rusk`ir.establishing "primacy,"
or that he has had much impact
on Congress.
An official who admires him
V3 ,
said:
"I'm disappointed in Nick.
' A poll of eight committed
cant figure out what he's; members soon afterward elicit-
doing." ? ed comments about his appear-
'A Mental Retreat' ante such as "nervously
From time to time now his uncertain," "dogmatic" and
post Mr. Katzenbach had hoped. P.
and shortly afterward Dr.
Schelling concluded that it was
time to return to-Harvard.
"Tom Schelling's decision was
a tough blow for Nick
" said a
,
friend of both men. "It not only
knocked out eight months of
,effort, but the whole depart-
ment knew that Nick had
failed
"
.
Mr. Katzenbach still enjoys,
g
at least theiibl bkif
vseacng o!
Mr. Rusk, who told a visitor re-
cently that his subordinate`
-Iwopld make "one of the great:
U
He's got the brains and pres-~ bons Committee last August. He discussed foreign affairs.
tine but for the life of me I i
friends find Mr. Katzenbach de. ."acrimonious."
presser,, or, as one put it, "in a The incident, which was
mental retreat." Yet, at other Widely discussed here, lent
times, he seems serene, imper? credence to the belief that the
turbabie and as ironically witty normally placid Mr. Katzenbach
as ever. was becoming increasingly frus
("I'm not sure I see much , trated' in the Department of
correlation betwe h t T d . -State.
en w
They also say that Mr. Rusk's
preoccupation with a few vital
areas allows crises elsewhere to
burst onto the President's desk
without the work at lower lev-
els that could eliminate policy
differences on them among the
great agencies of Government.
Much could be done to rem-
edy this, the critics say, with
modern management techniques
that would make the State De.
a o partment more truly the "ex-
;'here and how the State Depart- . Nonetheless, Mr. Katzenbach ?
ecutive agency on foreign af-
iiment runs, he wryly told ai Estill seems to be plugging dog 'fairs.
'
IV Sltor six months after he had gedly at the task nearest his Soon after his a oin
taken his oath. Not long after; heart: bringing order into the pp appointment
that, he began a luncheon' conduct of foreign affairs.
speech to foreign affairs writersI At least 34 Government agen- on Oct 3 1968 Mr K t
nder Secretiflli"
ares o a tme..
Nonetheless, Mr. Rusk's fail=
ure to support Mr. Katzenbach's
;reforms and his refusal to give
1him any clear authority. anocar..
to have handicapped his subor.'?
dinate.
There is also Mr. Katzen-:
bach's natural. diffidence and;
his minor experience.in foreign;
affairs. ??
"You've got to be a bastard'
In that job," said an official
in another agency. "Nick isn't;
built that way. He's too nice a
guy.
Crisis Management
Moreover, the real status
symbol in Government today is
""crisis management," and when
crises arise most senior offi
cials seek a role In them.
In this courtly, but ruthless,
power struggle on the State De-
partment's seventh floor, Mr.
Katzenbach has been at a disad.
vantage.
"Nick has had bad luck ever
since he came into the depart-
ment," an observer said, "He
was away in Africa when the
Middle Easts crisis broke and
he got back to find Mac Bundy!
and Gene Rostow running it for,
the President and the Secretary.,
He was in Saigon when the!
Congo crisis broke."
"He hasn't," he said,''"really..
by saying: Gies now operate overseas, and bath began to seek an assistant
"If any of you gentlemen! the State Department's influ- who could spread these tech.
learn anything in the next 30 ence over foreign operations is 'niques throughout the depart.:
(minutes I'd be grateful if you'd shrinking. Men t.
,tell me later what it was." Of the 46,000 noncombat '+ After three months' search
I "Nick Katzenbach was sue- Federal personnel overseas, less the chose Dr. Thomas C. Schel?
cessful and happy at Justice," a than 10 per cent work for the !:ling, a professor of economics
close friend said. "The lines of State Department. Of every 'at Harvard. Together they
command ran uo and down and Government dollar. only 3 per pressed hard for the adontinn
authority is diffuse, and every- nondefense purposes
and of graming, to better organize U r . - tzenbach's staff
,
one seems to be drinking every- this ? the State Department's .;the department's information ,meetings say he has an unerr?
one else's bath water." - share is one-eighth. on what other agencies were, ing instinct for the political
Moreover, Mr. Katzenbach doing and thereby Improve its ' bases that must be touched
Th'e President's Adviser planning and operations. around Wa:hin ton before pro-
!ap;~cars to have ruffled te
' m. .
pers in his first major test;-I Mr. Rusk, however, believes [resistance early ? spring, however,, posals become g policy.
'ony as Under Secretary of ; that the Secretary of State is resistance to Dr. Schelling and. { But then, they complain, he
before the Senate Foreign more the President's adviser on Mr. Katzenbach - was rising seems indecisive.
IRclations Committee on Au. foreign affairs than the execu- within the department. Eventur, 1 problem, we've analyzed the
gust 17? tive head of a major operating tally, Idmar Rimestad, a seaProblem and looked at all the
His vociferous, finger-point- agency. )soned administrative official,; policy angles, the meeting
His critics say mono was named Deputy Under Sec-1 breaks up without any sense of
Ing' defense of President John. y p- ` direction," one said recentl
olizes Mr. Rusk's attention on a retary for Administration, the Y.
der thekTonkinwBa powers
resolution few key issues, while he leaves . " - Nick never says, 'We'll go this
y the State, Department to :run OWway, Or 'We'll do that.' We just
annoyed both hawksd
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Nicholas.deB. Katzenbach before the Senate Foreign'Rela
got his teeth Into any of the
big ones yet."