Joseph J. Sisco, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs since early 1974 and a leading collaborator on the formulation of American policy in the Middle East for more than a decade, is leaving the State Department in July to become president of American University in Washington University trustees unanimously voted Sisco to the post Monday night and announced his appointment yesterday. The State Department confirmed his resignation.
Sisco has been closely identified with Middle East affairs since 1962 when he became Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, the bureau that is concerned with the United Nations. In 1969, with the advent of the Nixon Administration and when he had completed four years as Assistant Secretary for International Organizations, he became Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs under Secretary of State William P. Rogers.
Over the next five years, during Rogers’ tenure, he was deeply immersed in the Arab Israeli conflict. He is credited with contributing much to the formulation of the so-called Rogers Plan which would have Israel withdraw from territories it occupied in the Six-Day War. Aspects of the plan were revived recently although it had been said that the formula was dormant and even defunct.
HELPED BLUE-PRINT INTERIM ACCORD
Sisco also is said to have been deeply involved in blue-printing the interim agreement formula under Rogers called step-by-step diplomacy in recent years, to bring about Israel’s withdrawals from 1967-held territories.
In addresses before both American Jewish and Arab audiences and in other forums he frequently spoke of “lost opportunities” by the parties in the Middle East, language that has been interpreted as meaning Israel allowed chances for diplomatic progress to slip past it.
Sisco, 59, had been offered the post of president of Hamilton College in 1974, several months after Henry A. Kissinger was named Secretary of State. At that time, Sisco was Assistant Secretary. Kissinger persuaded him to remain at State with a promotion to the Undersecretaryship, the Department’s No. 3 position. Speculation as to his possible successor dwelt on personalities both inside the Department’s hierarchy and outside. Among those suggested as possibilities were Lawrence Eagle-burger, Deputy Undersecretary for Management, and Robert McCloskey, Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations. Both are close to Kissinger.
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