Wanted: A Superambassador

The post of U.S. Ambassador to Moscow has been vacant for three months now, and both the Kremlin and the State Department are getting impatient for President Nixon to choose someone soon. Russian officials hope His Excellency will be a political appointee with little expertise in Soviet affairs, preferably a businessman who will devote himself to promoting trade -avoiding all ideology or messy matters like Jewish emigration and intellectual dissenters.

Many State Department professionals, however, are hoping against hope that the new ambassador will be one of their own. If Nixon does decide on a Soviet expert, there is a consensus among Foreign Service officers that it will be Malcolm Toon, a veteran Kremlinologist who has served two previous tours of duty in Moscow, and is currently Ambassador to Yugoslavia.

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