FOREIGN RELATIONS: Career Man for Rio

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In the stormy aftermath of Clare Boothe Luce's resignation as Ambassador to Brazil, President Eisenhower last week turned to a career man to be envoy to the biggest, most populous neighbor in Latin America. The new nominee: John Moors Cabot, 58, foreign service veteran (since 1926), currently U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, and Bostonian of first-family lineage.

Jack Cabot is a Harvardman ('23) and Oxonian ('25), a good tennis and squash-rackets player, who tastefully collects art objects from around the world, and has a proper, frosty appearance. But the frost melts away when he smiles and stretches out a huge hand in greeting. He speaks five languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, English and German), and in more than 30 years of U.S. diplomacy has led a fast-moving life in Latin America, Europe and Asia. Items:

¶ In the Dominican revolution of 1930 which established Rafael Trujillo as the country's warlord, Third Secretary Cabot served as liaison between the two sides, helped negotiate the peace, was commended for bravery and upped two grades in the foreign service.

¶ In Yugoslavia in 1947, Counselor of Embassy Cabot was credited with a major role in persuading Tito to break with Moscow.

¶ As the Chinese Communists completed their capture of Shanghai in 1949, he courageously stuck out a two-day siege, marked by bursts of machine-gun fire, that cut off the American consulate building.

Neither a swashbuckler by nature nor a parlor diplomat (he loathes parties, puts up with them only as part of his job), Cabot is known around the State Department as a skilled troubleshooter who works at his job and writes sharp, effective reports. His technical qualifications for Rio include duty at seven posts south of the border (his wife, an American, was born and reared in Mexico City), a swing through Latin America in 1953 with the President's brother, Dr. Milton Eisenhower, and service as U.S. delegate to a number of Latin American conferences. Prognosis for his Senate confirmation: smooth and uneventful.