White House Farewell

There are many different kinds of presidential press secretary. Some deal only with the press; others become close advisers to the chief executive. Billy Don Moyers, 32, is certainly among the latter. To a degree unmatched by any press secretary before him, Moyers became perhaps the top policy adviser to the President of the U.S. He not only worked directly on many of the legislative matters of the Great Society, but took on the most disparate tasks--from foreign-policy trips to speechwriting to image-building campaigns--at which Lyndon Johnson needed help. Because of a trusting, father-son relationship with the President, Moyers also knew how to handle his difficult boss with a directness that few Johnson aides enjoyed.

It was thus somewhat of a surprise when Moyers announced last week that he will leave the White House, after 17 grueling months as the President's public voice and private confidant, to become publisher of Long Island's prosperous newspaper Newsday (circ. 415,000). Ordained a Baptist teacher, he has been with Johnson ever since he joined his Senate staff in 1959 after graduating from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Moyers won the trust and liking of the hypercritical Washington press corps after he took over from the ailing George Reedy in 1965. Like everyone else, he did not find Lyndon Johnson exactly easy to work for. Lately he has been upset by the widening of Johnson's credibility gap; Moyers passed the word to all reporters, for instance, that the President would campaign furiously after his return from Asia, then had to remain mute when Johnson denied that he had ever planned to do so.

Financially Strapped. Moyers' first offer from Newsday President Harry F. Guggenheim, who is 76 and has no heirs, came last August. Moyers said no, but Guggenheim tried twice more. By the third time (in mid-October), Moyers' older brother James had committed suicide. Bill, a father of three himself, took over financial support of the family, along with that of his mother and father and several of his wife's relatives. On his $30,000-a-year White House salary, he was strapped.

Moyers wrote a long, no-nonsense letter telling the President of his money problems, his personal ambitions to do something on his own and the attractive offer from Newsday (reportedly $100,000 a year, no stock, but full editorial control of the paper when Guggenheim dies). One weekend, the two rambled together over Johnson's Texas ranch for several hours; when they returned to the house at dusk, the President told Moyers that he should take the job. Moyers still brooded about his departure; just a day or so before he announced his decision, he offered to stay, but Johnson refused to consider this. In New York, Moyers, who gets along well with Bobby Kennedy, will undoubtedly have a voice--and perhaps a future--in the state's talent-starved Democratic Party.

Disappearing Circle. Moyers is the last of Johnson's original White House crew remaining on the scene. Gone from the Administration are Johnson's own recruits (Walter Jenkins, Jack Valenti, Reedy, Horace Busby, Eric Goldman), as well as men who served both Kennedy and Johnson (McGeorge Bundy, Ralph Dungan, Kenny O'Donnell, Arthur Schlesinger, Richard Goodwin, Dave Powers, Pierre Salinger, Jerome Wiesner, Ted Sorensen). Jake Jacobsen, another of Johnson's inner-circle aides, will also depart early next year. Moyers' replacement will be George Christian, 39, a former Texas sportswriter (the Temple Telegram and International News Service) who was Governor John Connally's press secretary before going to the White House as an administrative assistant in May of this year. Although Christian is known to be tough, quick-witted and able, he will concentrate on being a press secretary. At the moment, there is no one in the White House who would be foolish enough to try to fill Bill Moyers' shoes.

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