Word: mcnamara
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...past year, Rusk has emerged as one of the three men who serve as the President's most trusted advisers in national security matters-particularly Viet Nam. The others: Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and Special Presidential Assistant McGeorge Bundy...
...distilled ExComm began taking shape about a year ago. Irritated over a steady stream of news leaks from National Security Council meetings, the President asked an aide: "Do we have to have all of these people?" He began scratching names off the list, finally winnowed it down to Bundy, McNamara and Rusk. He still meets regularly with the NSC, but when he really wants to speak his mind-or hear others speak theirs-he summons the Big Three...
Softer Line. One reason for the President's heavy reliance on the Big Three is that he can rarely depend on top congressional Democrats for the kind of support on Viet Nam that Bundy, McNamara and Rusk give him. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, for example, treads a far softer line, and only last week Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman J. William Fulbright was calling for a halt to U.S. air strikes. It was Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, in fact, who took to the Senate floor to defend Johnson's policy against Fulbright by declaring...
...obvious dissimilarities, the Big Three have some important bonds in common. Each has a Phi Beta Kappa key and a striking record of success before joining the Government. Bundy, 46, was Skull and Bones at Yale, became dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences at 34. McNamara, 48, became the $400,000-plus-a-year president of Ford at 44. Rusk, 56, was a Rhodes scholar, became president of the Rockefeller Foundation...
...Kibitzers Allowed. Of the three, Johnson remains most impressed-almost awed-by McNamara. Often the President phones him before 7 a.m. for a rundown on Viet Nam. Less decisive than McNamara, Rusk is nevertheless valuable to Johnson not only as a loyal conduit for his policies but also as a skillful operator on Capitol Hill and a man of quiet reason. Johnson repays Rusk's loyalty. When critics asked why he did not reach into the lower echelons of the State Department for advice as Jack Kennedy often did, Johnson replied, "Hell, I go to Dean Rusk...