National Affairs: Ambassadors?

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To man the major U.S. embassies, John Kennedy will concentrate on the diplomatic pros—but he is not unwilling to make a few political gestures. These were the names swirling around Foggy Bottom last week: Definitely slated to go to the Court of St. James's is Careerist David K. E. Bruce, who came within an ace of being named Secretary of State. Well-liked Llewellyn Thompson Jr. will remain in Moscow until the next congress of the Communist Party this autumn, when Veteran Kremlinologist Chip Bohlen is likely to undertake his second tour of duty as Ambassador to Russia. "Tommy" Thompson will then move to another key post, perhaps replacing able Ambassador Walter Dowling in Bonn.

In the running for the prestigious post in Paris are Under Secretary of State Livingston Merchant and two retired Army generals who blasted the Eisenhower Administration defense policies: onetime Chief of Staff Maxwell Taylor and onetime Research and Development Chief James Gavin. Merchant will definitely pluck some plum, if not the Paris embassy then another major one. Among several contenders for the ambassadorship to Japan are John D. Rockefeller III, Harvard's Edwin O. Reischauer and Jeffrey Parsons, who is likely to be replaced as Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs by U. Alexis Johnson, at present Ambassador to Thailand.

As ambassador to Rome, Kennedy considered Lawyer Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.—to pay off F.D.R. Jr. for his brass-knuckled campaigning in the West Virginia primary election and to build him up possibly to challenge Nelson Rockefeller for the New York governorship in 1962. While the Rome post might be good for a lot of Italian-American votes, F.D.R. Jr. has almost certainly decided not to take—at least for a while—an Administration job. In that case, the next choice for Rome is Encyclopaedia Britannica Chairman William Benton, the onetime Connecticut Senator and big-time Kennedy campaign contributor.

Longtime Careerist George Kennan, whose tough talk made him persona non grata to the Kremlin and whose "containment" policies made him persona non grata to the Dulles-era State Department, will step out of seven years of political exile and go to Yugoslavia—if, as expected, Marshal Tito will accept him. Already packing his bags for India is Harvard Economist John Galbraith, author of The Affluent Society. He will replace Ellsworth Bunker, who, as an able diplomat and devoted Democrat, is in line for another top ambassadorship, most likely to Brazil.