CONSTRUCTION AND REFORM

OUTSIDE the White House, carpenters banged together sturdy planks of high-grade pine to construct the inaugural-parade reviewing stand. With far less noise and motion, the man who will take the salute on Jan. 20 was also building, and also using first-rate materials. President-elect Richard Nixon, having picked most of his administrative staff, began to select policymakers.

One of the most important choices was still unofficial at the end of last week, but Nixon left little doubt that he would appoint California Lieut. Governor Robert Finch as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Finch, 43, one of Nixon's oldest friends and political associates, will be no ordinary Cabinet member. He will oversee Nix on's entire domestic program. Finch may also eventually head a new agency. Nixon has tentative plans to ask Congress to combine HEW with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, forming a new Department of Human Resources. The purpose of the merger would be to unite all urban, welfare, public-health and education programs under a single executive--one with total access to the President.

NSC Resurrection. Nixon can also be expected to keep his door and ear open to two others named to important posts. Paul W. McCracken, 52, an economist, a University of Michigan professor of business administration, and a member of Dwight Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisers, will become chairman of Nixon's CEA (see BUSINESS). Harvard Government Professor Henry A. 'Kissinger, 45, who has served as a Government consultant and was a foreign-policy adviser to Governor Nelson Rockefeller during the preconvention period, will be Nixon's assistant for national-security affairs.

The appointments that were publicly announced received virtually unanimous praise. But it was Kissinger's that attracted the most attention--because of the man (see following story), because of the sensitive nature of the post, and because Nixon labeled Kissinger his instrument for a "complete reorganization and restructuring of the entire White House security planning machinery." If Kissinger and his new boss have their way, that will mean the resurrection of the National Security Council as a major organ of government.

Established in 1947 by the legislation that also created the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, the NSC-was designed to integrate military, diplomatic and economic policies. Harry Truman did little to develop the NSC, but under Eisenhower it became an important force and acquired two subordinate branches, a planning board and an operations-coordinating board. Critics of the system charged that the NSC structure amounted to an obstructive bureaucracy. The Kennedy Administration did away with the subsidiary boards and operated on a more informal basis, with McGeorge Bundy running the White House's "little State Department." Lyndon Johnson continued the Kennedy practice, first with Bundy and then with his successor, Walt Rostow.

All Relevant Choices. During the presidential campaign, Nixon frequently criticized the Democrats for handling the foreign field on a crisis-to-crisis basis without sufficient advance planning. Talking of the Eisenhower years, Nixon said that the NSC had been "the con- trolling element in our success in keeping the peace." He attributed "most of our serious reverses abroad since 1960 to the inability or disinclination of President Eisenhower's successors to make effective use of the council."

Whatever the system employed, there can be no argument that a world power must constantly seek to anticipate major problems and to be prepared with fresh ideas to cope with them. Kissinger said that his major assignment would be to "make certain that the planning mechanism of the Government functions more effectively and presents to the President all of the relevant contingencies and choices." This implies liberating Kissinger from much of the hour-to-hour drudgery--the monitoring of cables from abroad and memoran dums from agencies in Washington--that kept Bundy and Rostow tied to the "situation room" beneath the White House. It also means that greater freedom of action in routine matters will be entrusted to the operating departments, particularly State. Nixon, said Kissinger, "urged me to make sure that his staff and his advisers free themselves for long-range thinking to prevent crises from happening, rather than spend all of their energies on managing crises that might have been avoided."

Under No Gun. Like most proposed reforms, Nixon's looked fine on paper. Whether in fact they will prove more efficacious than the present system is uncertain. Much will depend on the quality of the brainpower assembled under Kissinger, the ability of the State Department and the Pentagon to function more independently than at present while still satisfying the President, and whether the pace and press of developments abroad permit the top echelon of Government the luxury of deep thought.

While still President-elect, contemplating both foreign and domestic affairs and the shape of his Administration, Nixon is enjoying the exertion of power without the pressure of urgent responsibility. "He's not under the gun," says one aide, "not in his own mind. He's going to be damned sure it's put together right, and with the right people." The announcement of Cabinet officers was due this week, but Nixon was not rushing matters. He was not even in a hurry to nominate a new Chief Justice, although he has frequently criticized the Supreme Court's decisions on police practices and criminal law. Earl Warren's resignation, originally submitted to Johnson last June, now will not take effect until the end of the cur rent court term, probably in six months. Thus the work of the court will not be disrupted.

Nixon's decisions were shaped behind continued on next page an extraordinarily effective screen of secrecy. Of the few news leaks that occurred, the principal one--Finch's selection--came as a result of a crack by Nixon himself. At a Los Angeles philanthropic dinner, Nixon referred to the Lieutenant Governor as "Secretary Finch." Then Finch hinted which Cabinet post it would be. Other appointees' names were being quietly relayed to the FBI for security clearance. With Ramsey Clark's permission, the pipeline circumvented the Attorney General's office to keep the names safe from Washington's gossip merchants.

Despite such precautions, some of Nixon's personnel plans--and problems --did seep out. His latest choice for Defense Secretary was Democratic Senator Henry Jackson of Washington. A senior member of both the Senate Armed Services and the Joint Atomic Energy Committees, Jackson has been a steady advocate of developing new weapons systems and modern equipment for the military. Despite his interest in the field, however, Jackson was expected to turn down the bid to join a Republican Administration. John Kenneth Galbraith declined the Moscow embassy. Hubert Humphrey turned down the United Nations ambassadorship. J. Edgar Hoover, who will be 74 on New Year's Day and has continued, by presidential dispensation, to serve for four years past the normal mandatory retirement age, was told by Nixon that he could remain as FBI director if he wishes. The general assumption is that Hoover will so choose.

Jottings. But the overriding characteristic of the Nixon operation in the first postelection month was a mood of calm unusual for such periods. Those who witnessed the frenetic settling-in process of John Kennedy eight years ago remember crowds and bustle at New York's Hotel Carlyle, rush trips to Palm Beach, announcements on the doorstep of Kennedy's Georgetown home. This is not Nixon's nature. His travels are announced in advance. His entourage remains relatively small, his work habits orderly. On a typical Saturday, he will work in an easy chair, his feet on an ottoman, his eye occasionally wandering from the yellow legal pad on his lap to the college football game on television.

In the midst of the play-by-play, he takes a call from Hubert Humphrey or Robert Murphy, his liaison man with the Administration on foreign affairs. There are other calls--scores of them-and a constant round of conferences.

Nearly 20 separate study groups have been set to work preparing recommendations on education, health, crime, fiscal policy, and all the other concerns Nixon must soon cope with. The CIA intelligence summary comes in daily, just as it does to Lyndon Johnson. Nixon makes notes in black ink with an old-fashioned fountain pen, and from those jottings his Administration was gradually taking shape.

*Chaired by the President and including the Vice President, the Secretaries of State and Defense, and the director of the Office of Emergency Planning. The President's assistant for national security and an executive secretary head the council's staff.

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