Harvard Group Aids Nixon in Transition

President-elect Richard M. Nixon has revealed that he has instituted several recommendations offered by a Harvard-based study of problems in the transition to a Republican administration.

The study group, sponsored by the Institute of Politics, submitted its recommendations to Nixon shortly after the election and met with him in New York on November 26. The specific nature of the recommendations has not been released.

Participating in the study group are Philip E. Areeda '51, professor of Law; Henry A. Kissinger '50, professor of Government; Ernest R. May, professor of History; and Itek Corporation president, Frank Lindsay.

It was Kissinger's work with this group and its paper on national security procedures that brought him to the attention of the incoming administration, Nixon said. Kissinger will serve as Nixon's national security affairs assistant.

'Fruitful Collaboration'

The group started its study of transition problems in September, 1967, as an "interesting intellectual exercise," Areeda said. But now, it is engaged in a "very fruitful collaboration" with the new administration.

The work of the group considered not simply the 70 days between election and inauguration but the period from election day until the new President submits his first budget in January of 1970. The first year of the administration will be a "settling-in-period," May said.

It is in this first year that Nixon will face a number of problems unique to the period of transition. It was in the first-year phase that President Kennedy's administration produced the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

Historical Basis

The group grounded its study on historical evidence of problems faced in the Truman-Eisenhower and Eisenhower-Kennedy transitions. A number of key personnel in those transitions were consulted.

Last summer, the group started to prepare papers on White House staff organization, personnel recruiting problems, liaison between the in-coming and out-going Presidents and administrations, national security procedures, and other such topics.

In August, they sent the Republican nominee their first general brief. Another paper on the recruiting of middle level federal officials was in Nixon's hands before Election Day, and the President-elect received the remainder of the studies shortly afterward.