Speculation On Effect Of Moves

Press, Volume C, Issue 29682, 28 November 1961, Page 17

Speculation On Effect Of Moves

(N Z. Press Association—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, November 27. The United States Government changes announced last night by President Kennedy were described by Administration sources as a move designed to assure better coordination of United States foreign policy planning and operations.

Reuter’s Washington correspondent said intense diplomatic speculation had resulted in Washington. The most dramatic development was the removal of Mr Chester Bowles as Undersecretary of State, even though it had been expected for some time. But equally interesting Was the shakeup in top State Department posts responsible for policy planning, the Far East, and Latin America. Mr Averell Harriman, the new Assistant-Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, is considered to be the most experienced statesman of President Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” President Truman's “Fair Deal,” and now Mr Kennedy’s “New Frontier.” He now assumes operating responsibility for United States’ policy toward China and in Laos, Vietnam, and other areas where ferment, swift-moving changes, and fears of Communist penetration and subversion have brought the President face to face with pressing problems. Mr Richard Goodwin, the new Deputy Assistant-Secre-tary of State for Inter-Ame-rican Affairs, is believed to be popular with Latin American nations, for his ideas and zeal in implementing President Kennedy’s “Alliance for Progress” in the hemisphere. The Under-Secretary of State in charge of Economic Affairs. Mr George Ball, was promoted to the post of Under-Secretary of State, and as such becomes second to the Secretary of State (Mr Rusk). Mr Ball has been Acting-

Secretary of State on several occasions during Mr Rusk's absences in the last few months. Mr Bowles has been engaged recently in travelling round the country making speeches. Critics of Mr Bowles as Under-Secretary said that he lacked administrative ability and did not fit into a post which gave him responsibility for running a vast department. Diplomatic observers noted that Mr .George McGhee would be responsible for political affairs, not economic affairs, in the post in which he succeeded Mr Ball. It was thought that Mr Ball would retain his great influence over any responsibility for foreign economic affairs, which includes supervision of developing policy for a more liberal trade programme, and United States policy toward the expanding European Common Market. The New York "Herald Tribune,” declaring that President Kennedy had “finally fired Chester Bowles.” said the shake-ups were believed to reflect the President's growing discontent with the organisation of the State Department at its highest levels. “The disenchantment has been focused on. but not limited to, Mr Bowles, the controversial diplomat who made a fortune on Madison avenue (Manhattan), and served as Governor of Connecticut, a Congressman and Ambassador to India before becoming a thorn in the side of the ‘New Frontier’,” the newspaper said in a Hyannis Port dispatch.