A Matter of Money

From the moment that former Army General James ("Slim Jim") Gavin assumed his duties as U.S. Ambassador to France last year, he came under snipers' fire at home and abroad. He did not speak French and did not know diplomacy, they said. As a World War II paratroop commander, a major general at 37, the Army's chief of Research and Development at 48, he was a contentious man who had quit the Army in 1958 because his views were rejected. How could such a man tiptoe among diplomats? Thus when Gavin's resignation was announced last week, the snipers nodded knowingly.

Gavin did differ sharply with the Kennedy Administration on one of the touchiest issues which separate the U.S. and France: President de Gaulle's insistence that France create its own nuclear force apart from NATO. In plainly worded reports home, Gavin argued that De Gaulle is determined to build his atomic force with or without U.S. cooperation, and that the U.S. might as well help on everything short of the warheads themselves. Kennedy presented Gavin's arguments to the National Security Council, then advised him that the U.S. still objected to the whole notion. But White House and Paris officials agree that the nuclear issue had no substantial bearing on Gavin's resignation. Declared a White House aide: "The President wants ambassadors to report their true feelings. There was never any break, not even a nick, in the personal confidence of the President in Gavin." Insists Gavin: "There is no tie-in between my departure and national nuclear policy -none whatever. I am fully behind the President in his nuclear policy vis-aa-vis France and Europe."

Gavin was admitted to the frosty presence of President de Gaulle as often as a U.S. ambassador might expect to be, and French newspapers never failed to point out that his first visit to France was on Dday, by jump with his 82nd Airborne Division. Last week France's most influential newspaper, Le Monde, warmly praised "his profound learning, his total honesty, his devotion to his duty."

The basic reason for Gavin's resignation involved neither policy nor performance. It was mostly a matter of money. A career soldier, who had served only briefly (1958-61) as a top executive of the industrial research firm of Arthur D. Little, Inc., Gavin, at 55, was worried about educating his four young daughters and building an estate. As ambassador, he drew an annual salary of $27,500 and had been given an increased expense allowance of $25,650 -but in today's era of mass wine-and-dine diplomacy, he was losing money.

His most likely successor: Career Diplomat Charles ("Chip") Bohlen, 57, who is not particularly in the chips either.

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