Post for Poats

After being picked by President Johnson for the No. 2 post in the Agency for International Development, Rutherford ("Rud") Poats had to wait six months for Senate confirmation of his appointment. The opposition to Poats was led by Indiana Democrat Birch Bayh, whose objections increasingly seemed to be motivated as much by vindictiveness as by vigilance. Last week his colleagues bypassed Bayh and voted down a motion that would have recommitted Poats's nomination to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Senate then confirmed him, 61-24.

Bayh, 39, first clashed with Poats, 44, when he was chief of AID for the Far East and overseer of the crash program to bolster South Viet Nam's chaotic economy during the herculean U.S. buildup in 1965-66. After Bayh learned that AID officials had bought galvanized steel from Korea for quick shipment to Viet Nam, he lambasted Poats and insisted that AID purchase primarily U.S. steel. Though the Senator comes up for re-election next year in a state that has a large steel industry, he claimed his opposition to Poats was based purely on his belief that Poats had bungled the buildup. While Poats himself conceded that parts of the program had "grossly inadequate management," he argued logically enough that "when the chips are down, you often take the risky course." The risks undoubtedly cost the U.S. hundreds of thousands of dollars in goods lost to pilferage and corruption, but most Senators agreed that Poats's gamble had paid off, if only by saving the Vietnamese economy from collapse.

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