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A clean slate for State

He dropped out of Stanford University with poor grades. He flunked out of Loyola University Law School. He did pass the California bar exam--on his second try. Then he became Governor Ronald Reagan's chief of staff in 1967 and did so well that his boss appointed him to the California Supreme Court. Now Reagan has named William P. Clark Jr., 49, Deputy Secretary of State, even though the appointee admits that his only firsthand experience for the job "was 72 hours in Santiago" in 1967.

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, Clark was asked if he could name the Prime Minister of South Africa. Said he: "No sir, I cannot." Who is the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe? Said Clark: "It would be a guess." Questioned about U.S.-Taiwan relations, Israeli settlements on the West Bank and U.S. policy on nuclear nonproliferation, Clark kept answering: "I do not have a personal view."

Clark held that he would only be an administrator, carrying out the policy set by Reagan and Secretary of State Alexander Haig Jr. That did not reassure the Senators, who nonetheless recommended his confirmation by 10 to 4. Said Democrat John Glenn of Ohio: "This will be on-the-job training of the highest order."

The foreign reaction was more acerbic. The Amsterdam daily Volkskrant called Clark a nitwit. The Johannesburg Citizen labeled him the "Don't Know Man." Editorialized the London Daily Mirror: "America's allies in Europe--Europe, Mr. Clark, you must have heard of it --will hope he is never in charge at a time of crisis." Yet the Daily Mirror joked that Britain once had a Foreign Secretary who was "alleged to believe that Sodom and Gomorrah were sisters." qed

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