Twelve Bland Men

AFTER THE election Richard Nixon tried to mollify his intellectual critics by appointing a few of their spokesmen to sub-Cabinet posts, but last Wednesday night he reaffirmed his fundamental ties with the Quiet Americans who elected him. Nixon's entire Cabinet show--from the patronizing note about "high marks" for Walter Washington, Mayor of the District, to the line about "respecting" Dean Rusk for the "dignified" way he blindly ignored any suggestion that the war might be a mistake--was aimed at TV sets in warm middle-class living rooms.

During the campaign Nixon promised to reconcile disaffected groups to his Administration "by giving them a piece of the action." His first appointments, besides assuring the academic community that even Nixon appreciated it, suggested that Nixon the President-elect viewed problems more reasonably than Nixon the Republican nominee had. Henry Kissinger as National Security Assistant seemed to imply caution on the arms race; Lee DuBridge as Science Assistant seemed to indicate concern for basic research; Paul McCracken as head of CEA seemed to be a shift from medieval fiscal policy to full employment economics; and of course Daniel Patrick Moynihan as the new Urban assistant seemed to promise help for the poor after all.

But when he named his Cabinet, Nixon ignored the need for symbolic reassurance to other alienated groups, especially the blacks. Instead he chose twelve reflections of his own purely Republican image. With one exception -- Princeton-educated Secretary of Labor George Shultz -- the Cabinet appointees fit the bourgeois ideal of the self-made man who struggled from the family farm or through the carpentry shop to prominence in law, business, or Midwestern universities.

All of the Cabinet members are completely dependent on the President-elect for their new political existence. Nixon first named his closest friends and then filled up the remaining slots with men who would probably not have been national figures in any other Republican Administration. Politicians who had once tried to establish a base beyond their own constituencies were selected only if their attempt failed completely--Governor George Romney, who will be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, dropped out of the Presidential race against Nixon before the first primary, and Governor John Volpe, who will head the Department of Transportation, was trounced in his favorite-son bid for the Massachusetts primary by a last-minute Rockefeller write-in. By picking men totally devoted to him by instinct and political necessity. Nixon has created a Cabinet that is, to a greater extent than other Presidents have dared, a personal extension of the Presidency.

NIXON demonstrated in the campaign that he is an organization man, but the Cabinet as an institution will be too unwieldly for him to use. Instead his policy-making bodies will be the National Security Council, the new Urban Affairs Council, and an informal economic group. Intellectuals who were pleased when Nixon named his assistants for these groups might have relaxed too quickly. Nixon has suggested that, instead of the active roles in decision-making that McGeorge Bundy and Walt Rostow have played, Kissinger and Moynihan will just be idea men for his Administration. Although no one can repress Moynihan or ignore Kissinger, Nixon's close advisers who will be on the NSC and UAC because of their Cabinet posts will be much more likely than the two academics to influence Nixon's decisions.

Secretary of State William Rogers, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, and Attorney-General John Mitchell will serve on the NSC. The President-elect is extremely close to Rogers and Mitchell, and he respects Laird. Mitchell and Rogers will help Nixon form his own thoughts, and Laird will press if he disagrees with them.

Despite his expert knowledge of the Pentagon, Laird is a frightening prospect. In 1962 he wrote a book about "the strategy gap" which tried to establish a philosophical basis for nuclear superiority. Two years later he wrote Goldwater's platform. More scathingly than most Congressmen, he condemned Robert McNamara for accepting nuclear balance as a goal of national security policy. Like Nixon, he is pragmatic enough to reverse his policy positions for political reasons. If Kissinger can convince Nixon of the dangers in the arms race which Republicans promised during the campaign, Laird would probably compromise, as he did on his hawkish views of the war. Laird did admire the way McNamara controlled the Pentagon, so he will probably continue the management program in some form despite his public outcrys against "cost-effectiveness."

Laird--intelligent, partisan, combative, behind-the-scenes boss of the House Republicans--probably agrees with observers who expect him to be the most powerful man in the Cabinet. Besides serving on the defense subcommittee, Laird was ranking GOP member on the House Appropriations HEW-Labor subcommittee. His strong views on urban problems, plus his intimate knowledge of legislative procedures, will probably cause him to try to influence the Administration's domestic and Congressional strategies.

Nixon intends Robert Finch, his closest friend, to be the central figure in domestic policy as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Finch is a "moderate" Republican, just like his boss. But he gets along well with California's right-wing extremists. He directed U.S. Sen. George Murphy's campaign in 1964, and he ran comfortably on Ronald Reagan's ticker for Lieutenant-Governor. Perhaps both men have decided that the cities deserve more than tax incentives to lure business into the ghettoes, but they have no indicated any change of heart since the election. Nixon's biggest contribution to the urban crisis has been to appoint Rogers--a county bond specialist--as Attorney-General instead of the J. Edgar Hoover type his campaign promised.

The other members of the Urban Council will be Romney, who will have trouble articulating any plans he does develop, and Volpe. Employees in Volpe's department, who have been trying to develop comprehensive mass transit programs, already have visions of Inner Belts tearing through central cities in the next four years.

Even Moynihan might fit in too well with the Nixon team. Besides writng for Laird's recent collections of "Republican Papers" and calling for a liberal alliance with conservatives to preserve order, Moynihan cheers Republicans with his "decentralize the bureaurcay" and "make the lower class the working class" rhetoric.

Nixon's worst selection was Maurice Stans for Secretary of Commerce. An Old-Guard Republican whose only virtue was that he raised a lot of money for Nixon's campaign, Stans is supposed to lead the effort to involve business in the ghetto. Almost as bad is Walter Hickel, Secretary of Interior, whose business-development mind will find it hard to understand why conservationists are interested in natural resources. Clifford Hardin, Secretary of Agriculture, evidently does not have any policy for farmers, but his most important decisions will probably be on emergency supplies for undernourished families in the Deep South, and relations with huge agricultural complexes like the California grape companies and their employees. His book, Overcoming World Hunger, could indicate a general concern for problems like these. In the Post Office Winton Blount will probably lend added support to the recent business advisory committee recommendations to turn the Post Office into a public corporation.

Nixon's best appointment was David Kennedy, a banker who deserves to be head of the Treasury Department. A compassionate man interested in the cities but with the aura of responsibility needed to impress other bankers, Kennedy will probably make the Treasury an important voice in deliberations over domestic and fiscal policy and international monetary reform.

With a homogeneous Cabinet sharing Nixon's outlook, the second-level officials will become even more important, especially in State, Labor, and Treasury. The clearest early indication of Laird's attitude at the Pentagon will be what type of man he names to replace Alain Enthoven, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis, or whether the post is filled at all. The new Commissioner of Education can indicate what the Administration's attitude toward student protesters will be and its decision on the financial crisis of higher education Nixon's soft approach to civil rights enforcement might be hardened if a crusader is named to that post in the Justice Department.

Beaming at his Cabinet last Wednesday, Nixon seemed confident that these men could help him develop the policies to re-define America's role in the world and reconcile the dissidents at home. But his selections promsie to unify the Administration much more effectively than the nation. The people who are not attracted by the Cabinet members--the poor and especially the blacks, the students, and the intellectuals--are the ones who must be attracted instead by the policies the twelve bland men help Nixon develop. To judge the Administration's posture from the Cabinet selections, Nixon will be trying to bridge the Alienation Gap with both feet in the suburbs