THE ADMINISTRATION: Backdown

W. Walton Butterworth, 46, Louisiana-born Princeton graduate and a onetime Rhodes scholar, was ousted this week from his job as Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs. A central figure in the long argument over U.S.-China policy, he was the target of a concentrated Republican attack when the Senate was asked to confirm his appointment less than a year ago. Senator Vandenberg had called his naming a "very great mistake" which meant, said Vandenberg, "continuation of a regime which inevitably is connected with a very tragic failure in the Far East." Nevertheless, Administration forces in the Senate jammed him through. Now the Administration was definitely sidetracking him: his new, subordinate job will be to help write a Japanese peace treaty.

To succeed him, State appointed Dean Rusk, 41, Georgia-born graduate of Davidson College and also a onetime Rhodes scholar. Rusk, who was deputy chief of staff of U.S. Army forces in the China-Burma-India Theater, joined State in 1946, helped handle hot policy questions in U.N., rose to Deputy Under Secretary, now was on State's hottest spot.