Lawrence S. Eagleburger, a longtime aide to then-secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger, has been named deputy secretary of state by President-elect George Bush, and several other well-known figures from previous Republican administrations were named to key ambassadorships.
These appointments and those of close State Department aides to Secretary of State-designate James A. Baker III unveil key personalities of the Bush-Baker team that will guide U.S. diplomacy in the next four years.Like Bush and Baker, the new appointees are considered pragmatic, middle-of-the-road figures with extensive foreign policy or other government experience. Along with recent statements by Bush, this suggests a foreign policy that is likely to be more centrist than was the case in the early years, at least, of the Reagan administration.
According to the Bush transition office, those selected include:
- United Nations Ambassador Vernon A. Walters to be ambassador to West Germany. Walters, a retired lieutenant general whose many government posts included deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has long been a favorite of conservative Republican administrations.
- Henry E. Catto to be ambassador to Great Britain. A wealthy Texan and friend of Baker, he previously served as ambassador to El Salvador, chief of protocol and Defense Department spokesman.
- Donald P. Gregg, a former career CIA official who has been vice presidential national security adviser to Bush for nearly 61/2 years, to be ambassador to South Korea. Gregg, who served as CIA chief in Seoul in the mid-1970s, became the subject of controversy in the Iran-Contra investigation because of his ties to the Nicaraguan contra supply network.
- Joseph V. Reed Jr., currently the highest-ranking American in the United Nations secretariat, to be chief of protocol. Reed, a longtime Rockefeller family aide, helped the deposed Shah of Iran come to the United States for medical treatment in 1979. He has been ambassador to Morocco and last April became a U.N. undersecretary general.
Among the others named to key State Department posts in written announcements late Friday were two associates of Baker in his earlier jobs who had been widely expected to join him at Foggy Bottom.
They are Margaret D. Tutwiler, who was a senior assistant to Baker for the past eight years at the White House, Treasury Department and Bush campaign, who was named State Department spokeswoman and assistant secretary for public affairs; and Robert B. Zoellick, who was a key assistant to Baker in the Treasury Department and Bush campaign, to be counselor of the State Department.
Dennis B. Ross, a former member of the National Security Council staff who has been foreign policy adviser on the Bush campaign staff, was named State Department director of policy planning. Ross, who has a background in Soviet affairs and Middle East experience, is reported to have been persuaded by Baker to become his chief policy planner rather than take a White House post.
Also recruited by Baker from a list of potential White House appointees was Janet G. Mullins, who was named assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs. The future chief State Department lobbyist was a Bush campaign aide and formerly an administrative assistant to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
M. Alan Woods, administrator of the Agency for International Development since November 1987, was named to continue in that job in the Bush administration. Woods has served in a variety of White House and Defense Department posts.
There was no indication of when the rest of the several dozen senior State Department and key ambassadorial posts will be filled. Baker has reportedly indicated that he may not reveal most of the rest of the State Department team until he has been confirmed by the Senate.
Geryld B. Christianson, staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the committee plans hearings on the Baker nomination on Jan. 17 and 18, and hopes to vote on his nomination Jan. 19, the day before the presidential inauguration. He said the committee will scheduled hearings as soon as possible thereafter on Eagleburger.
Christianson said he did not know if the recent controversy regarding Gregg would pose a major problem for his confirmation. He said the committee staff had been instructed to check the names of all nominees against documents gathered by the Iran-Contra investigating committee to examine any involvement with those issues.
Eagleburger, 58, was a Foreign Service officer before serving as a staff aide to Kissinger in the Nixon White House and later as a top Kissinger aide in the State Department.
He was ambassador to Yugoslavia in the Carter administration and assistant secretary and undersecretary of State in the first three years of the Reagan administration. Since mid-1984, he has been Kissinger's chief New York aide, with the title of president of Kissinger Associates, a consulting firm.
Brent Scowcroft, who was also a senior aide to Kissinger in the Nixon administration and was recently the Washington representative of Kissinger Associates, has been named by Bush to be his White House national security adviser.