QUARTET AT THE TOP

ONLY one rational argument could be made against the new team of diplomat-warriors that President Johnson has assigned to Viet Nam: the success of its predecessors. U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, 64, during two tours and 29 months of duty in Saigon, has jjj overseen the wrenching political transition from Ngo Dinh Diem to Nguyen Cao Ky with rare aplomb. Lodge's deputy, William J. Porter, 52, took a scant 18 months to turn "rural pacification" from a Utopian dream to a viable program. But if the departing officials set a fast pace, the new team that Lyndon Johnson presented last week gives every promise of being able not only to keep it up but to improve on it.

The Gutsy Duck. To replace Lodge, who saw U.S. troop strength in Viet Nam rise from 16,000 to 420,000 during his current 19-month tour, Johnson tapped Ambassador-at-Large Ellsworth Bunker, 72. A courtly, starched-collar Vermonter who in 1951 left the sugar industry for diplomatic duty, Bunker is a tall, spare man who is known as a deft negotiator. As Ambassador to Argentina, he dealt with Dictator Juan Peron during a period of rabid Argentine anti-Americanism, had the satisfaction of seeing him exiled. In other troubleshooting assignments, he served as a mediator between Indonesia's Sukarno and The Netherlands during the 1962 West Irian crisis and as a go-between in the Yemen controversy a year later. Most recently--and impressively--he served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States during the delicate 1965 Dominican negotiations.

In Santo Domingo, while bombs burst and tempers seethed, the elderly diplomat coolly presided over around-the-clock negotiating sessions that ultimately produced not only a stable, non-Communist government but one of the few free elections in Hispaniola's history. Dominicans nicknamed him "El Pato Macho" (the gutsy duck). "He showed up on the palace steps every morning," says Lyndon Johnson with undisguised admiration, "and held that government together with his bare hands."

When possible replacements for Lodge were being considered over State Department kaffeeklatsches in Washington, many a Foreign Service officer muttered ruefully: "If only Bunker weren't so old . . ." Actually, in everything but chronology he is one of the youngest men in the department. Last January Bunker married comely U.S. Ambassador to Nepal Carol Laise, 49, honeymooning in the tiger-infested Himalayan foothills outside Katmandu. During an ambassadorial stint in New Delhi (1957-61) that won him abiding affection among Indians,

Bunker shot bison in the jungles of Mysore for relaxation. As for his ability to withstand Viet Nam's heat, Bunker, who seems to take his own temperate zone wherever he goes, regularly worked 20-hour days in steaming Santo Domingo without losing his starch.

The Blowtorch. To ensure that Bunker would be free to concentrate on the broad aspects of the war, the President appointed an old Texas friend as Deputy Ambassador. Dallas-born Eugene Murphy Locke, 49, who since last June has been U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, will take over Bill Porter's role as meeter, greeter and all-purpose paper hanger in the Saigon embassy. A blond, burly classmate (Yale Law, '40) of such notables as Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Potter Stewart and Poverty Potentate Sargent Shriver, Locke was a Navy gunnery officer during World War II; his ship landed a Marine force in the Solomons led by Lieut. Colonel Victor ("Brute") Krulak--now Marine commander i.i the Pacific. During his nine-month stint in Rawalpindi, Locke skillfully reassured President Mohammed Ayub Khan of continued American interest after the IndianPakistani border war of 1965.

While Locke handles the embassy's day-today proceedings, the key job of pacification will fall to another Johnson favorite: Presidential Adviser Robert Komer, 45. A former CIA agent known as "The Blowtorch" for his incendiary manner, Komer will doubtless take over Porter's Office of Civilian Operations (OCO), which was put together in less than two months last year to combine and direct all U.S. civil operations in the field. Already, 4,000 of South Viet Nam's 14,000 hamlets are adjudged "secure"; under the scorch of Komer's torch, at least 1,100 more will be added this year. It is difficult to gauge, however, whether Saigon embassy personnel are more dismayed to see Porter leave or Komer arrive. Plainly, the first job confronting Komer will be to win the confidence of leary officials.

Firepower v. Footwork. The President's new platoon also includes a military star: Lieut. General Bruce Palmer, 53, who was appointed last week as commander of Field Force II--a composite outfit of infantry, artillery and armored divisions that recently attempted, in vain, to wipe out the Viet Cong base headquarters near Cambodia. Palmer--who commanded the 23,000-man force in the Dominican Republic--replaces Lieut. General Jonathan Seaman. Having already proved his diplomatic deftness, Palmer will now have to adapt to a type of warfare where firepower counts less than footwork. j

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