249. Memorandum From the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)1
SUBJECT
- UNDP Job
I talked to Fred Bergsten in an effort to solicit some additional ideas for the UNDP position. As you know, Marshall Wright was pushing Graham Martin. Fred Bergsten said that Anthony M. Solomon is the most highly qualified candidate, but unfortunately he was a member of the last Administration for a short period and is a Democrat. Fred also mentioned the possibility of David Rockefeller (who I think will turn it down) or Chuck Percy (who I think will suspect he is being [Page 448] offered the job so that we can replace him with a more Senatorial candidate. This ploy might be much too obvious and I also think Percy might be a troublesome appointment in any event.)
My own instinct suggests that we might absorb some of our better Congressional or Gubernatorial losers, perhaps even Bush of Texas who seems to be an outstanding fellow with a considerable potential future as a Republican leader. Another possibility might be a defeated candidate such as Ray Broderick of Pennsylvania who is an excellent lawyer and outstanding individual. Appointments of this kind favor a high degree of background, but I have yet to see one of these jobs that requires more than solid philosophical views and firm loyalty as well as ingrained intelligence.
If you would like, I can ask Flemming to come up with a good candidate although I suspect he would tend toward political hacks.2
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 299, Agency Files, USUN, Vol. V. No classification marking.↩
- Kissinger checked the “Yes” option, and drew a line from the end of the first sentence to the bottom of the page, where he added the handwritten note: “Pres likes Rudolf Petersen.”↩