28. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to President Kennedy1

The more I see of the developing pattern of responsibility in the Department of State, the more I am inclined to share the view of Dean Rusk and Chester Bowles that the key job over there will be the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. This has not been so in the past, but in the pattern which is now developing this officer will necessarily be a point of responsible action and coordination for many of the things in which State must take the lead, and must also work in close cooperation with the Defense Department and CIA. The man who fills this job will have to be an active and decisive person, quite different from the ordinary foreign service type.

[Here follow four paragraphs concerning personnel options.]

McG. B.2
  1. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Departments and Agencies Series, State Department, 2/21/61–3/5/61. No classification marking.
  2. Printed from a copy that bears these typed initials.