Not-So-Secret Agents

Sometimes they are called "Big Brother," sometimes the "Whiz Kids," often just "the White House Presence" --but never to their faces. Quietly, they have moved out of the inner circles of the White House and into key positions in the balky federal bureaucracy that President Nixon is determined to tame. From their new posts, often as second-level deputies in the departments, they can both influence policy and keep the President posted on how well it is being carried out--as well as who might be getting in the way.

This expanding circle of presidential "agents" is largely the creation of two of Nixon's closest and toughest aides, John Ehrlichman and H.R. (Bob) Haldeman, referred to openly and jocularly by Ohio Republican Senator William Saxbe as those "two Nazis Nixon keeps around him." A key operator in selecting and placing the agents is Fred Malek, 36, former chief of the White House personnel office, who has now acquired a pivotal Government-wide supervisory job as Deputy Director of OMB, the Office of Management and Budget. Nixon had given Malek the choice of a Cabinet position ("a small department, but still flattering," Malek recalls) or the No. 2 Budget job. His choice of the OMB spot, at Nixon's urging, indicates the declining importance of the Secretaries in Nixon's eyes.

A self-made millionaire (from a South Carolina tool company), Malek joined the Administration in 1969 as Deputy Under Secretary of HEW. He soon proved himself a fierce administrator. When Nixon ousted Interior Secretary Wally Hickel for his criticism of the Administration, it was Malek who swept into Hickel's office and told six of his top aides to clear out their desks by the end of the week. After John Mitchell left the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, it was Malek who ran the committee from his post as deputy director.

The men chosen by Malek & Co. are in their 30s or 40s, bright and able, although in some cases wholly unfamiliar with the departments to which they have been assigned. By department, the Nixon changes include:

TREASURY. Edward L. Morgan, 34, who was a deputy to Ehrlichman, is now an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. A University of Arizona graduate and a lawyer, he is a protege of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, who got him a job as an advance man in the 1968 Nixon campaign.

INTERIOR. John C. Whitaker, 46, who was briefly secretary of the Cabinet and then assistant director of the Domestic Council staff, is now Under Secretary of the Interior. A geologist who once worked for the Standard Oil Co. of California, he has been a Nixon campaign associate for nearly 20 years. Although Interior Secretary Rogers Morton insists that he welcomes Whitaker, the two were rivals in Maryland political battles.

TRANSPORTATION. Egil Krogh Jr., 33, who worked in Ehrlichman's Seattle law firm during his student years, has become Under Secretary of Transportation. Krogh was only a year out of law school (the University of Washington), and had never actually practiced law when Ehrlichman brought him to Washington in 1969 as Deputy Counsel to the President. A few months later he became Deputy Assistant for Domestic Affairs, a position that included some work on transportation policies. But he has no other background in the field.

HEW. Frank C. Carlucci, 42, a college friend of former OEO Director Donald Rumsfeld, is now Under Secretary of HEW. Rumsfeld got him to join OEO in 1969 after he had worked in Africa and Brazil as a foreign service officer. He followed Rumsfeld as OEO director, then moved to the White House in 1971 as Associate Director of OMB.

DEFENSE. The spot for a White House agent has not been filled yet but has been kept open by the refusal of the Nixon staff to accept Defense Secretary Elliot Richardson's choice for an assistant secretary. He wanted a longtime associate, Jonathan Moore, for the job but reluctantly agreed to place Moore in a lower position.

When that Defense job is filled, Nixon will have either a former member of his staff or a man of proven compatibility at or near the top of every Department except Labor.

One Nixon admirer in the Government admits that all these White House agents "could stifle creative thinking" by other officials who want to offer constructive criticism but fear that any candid doubts about Nixon policy would quickly get back to the President as expressions of disloyalty. On the other hand, argues the White House, the changes may well serve to make the federal bureaucracy more efficient. Concedes one insider: "I know there are a lot of people who look at these White House men and think Big Brother is watching. Well, maybe that's good."

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