Office of the Historian

81. Memorandum From James C. Falcon of John W. Macy, Jr.’s Staff to John W. Macy, Jr.1

Washington, June 18, 1966.

SUBJECT

  • The Requirements to be Met in Replacing George Ball2

Harry Schwartz, Executive Director of SIG, tells us that we should give utmost attention to finding a first class, dynamic, and uncommitted executive to replace George Ball. Schwartz suggested we consider the following profile:

1.
The replacement should have all the generally desired personal and intellectual qualities that would constitute him as a first-class person.
2.
The person should be dynamic and energetic-the work-load on Ball is enormous. One of Ball’s main reasons for leaving is that he is bone-tired.
3.
The replacement should be uncommitted and have no particular interest in any given region of the world nor any identification with particular causes (MLF, keep China in or out of the UN, increase or decrease our role in Viet Nam, etc.).
4.
The replacement should be totally dedicated to being a Chief of Staff for the Secretary of State and be able and willing to do everything that the Secretary either will not do or is unable to do.
5.

The replacement should have a clear understanding of how to be an effective modern manager.

Schwartz said that National Security Action Memorandum 341 laid down the framework for the establishment of SIG and gave to the Secretary of State and the Department of State the authority “to direct all foreign affairs” and authorized the Under Secretary of State to make decisions as Chairman of SIG. The need for the right kind of person to pull this off is paramount. We should only consider persons who meet the above profile.

James C. Falcon 3
  1. Source: Johnson Library, Office Files of John W. Macy, Box 693, State-Under Secretary. No classification marking.↩
  2. Ball discussed his decision to resign in his memoirs, The Past Has Another Pattern: Memoirs (New York: W.W. Norton, 1982), pp. 424–433. For additional information on the decision, see David L. Di Leo, George Ball: Vietnam, and the Rethinking of Containment (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), pp. 156–158; and James A. Bill, George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U.S. Foreign Policy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997) p. 75.↩
  3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩