Behind the Headlines Muskie As New Secretary of State

President Carter’s selection of Edmund Muskie, Maine’s Democratic Senator, as his new Secretary of State to succeed Cyrus Vance is understood here to have been at the suggestion of his special Mideast Ambassador, Sol Linowitz, who also helped persuade Muskie to accept the past in his 66th year.

Muskie and Linowitz attended Cornell Law School together in the late 1930s and have been close friends socially and politically over the years. When he ran for nomination as President in 1972, Muskie counted Linowitz among his supporters. Linowitz, in his months as the President’s negotiator on the Panama Canal Treaty and in the West Bank-Gaza autonomy talks, often had Muskie as a dinner guest at his home.

While the appointment of Muskie, which the Senate is certain to confirm quickly, was a surprise, the fact that the President went into the Senate to make his choice was not unexpected. It was understood, when news broke of Vance’s resignation, that the President would seek a prominent national figure to take charge of the State Department in a vastly different period in American foreign affairs.

Widespread reports that Linowitz or Robert Strouse, Carter’s re-election Campaign Manager, were in the running were not taken seriously in more knowledgeable circles. There was a feeling the President would elevate Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher but with Muskie’s acceptance, Christopher was asked to stay in his present position.

MAJOR MIDEAST POLICY CHANGES UNLIKELY

Muskie’s accession is seen as unlikely to bring major changes in U.S. policy in the Arab-Israeli situation. President Carter himself sets the policy and much of its detail. Muskie like Linowitz, reportedly agrees with him on the basic elements or he would not have accepted the assignment.

Muskie’s record of 16 years in the Senate his third term expires in 1982-and six years in the House shows a positive record in friendliness toward Israel’s needs and Jewish community concerns. However, he voted for the Carter Administration’s package of military equipment for Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel when friends of Israel strongly apposed it because they thought increasing the arsenals of the Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia, would upset the Israeli-Arab power balance.

A former bide to Muskie recalled to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Vance called Muskie “at the last minute” and persuaded him to vote for the package.

On Soviet Jewry matters, Muskie has been consistently supportive of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment which ties U.S. government credits to the Soviets to freer Soviet emigration and elimination of harassment of emigrants’ families.

UNIQUE FEATURE OF MUSKIE’S APPOINTMENT

A unique feature of Muskie’s appointment in American political history is that three citizens of Polish origin are in foremost positions in the U.S. foreign affairs establishment. The others are Zbiginew Brzezinski, head of the National Security Council, and Rep. Clement Zablocki (D. Wisc.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Another who is prominent in world affairs outside of Poland itself, it has been noted, is Israeli Premier Menachem Begin who, like Brzezinski,

Their common ethnic background however is no assurance their relationships will develop unruffled. A prime topic in Washington is whether the President will listen more to Brzezinski, as State Department officials have long complained and which ultimately resulted in Vance’s resignation, or whether Brzezinski will become less prominent with Muskie’s ascendancy as on elder statesman with support of long-time associates on Capitol Hill.

Fully aware of the discussion over the rivalry between Vance and Brzezinski, who had become dominant in foreign policy strategy, particularly as it affects the Soviet Union and China, and now possibly between Brzezinski and Muskie, President Carter has declared his confidence in Muskie’s capabilities by his service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee which oversees all U.S. expenditures including foreign aid and military funds. But the President also noted that he is free to receive advice from whatever quarter he chooses.