Deadline: June 30

As the U.S. races to complete the transfer of power in Iraq by the end of June, the Administration is increasingly seeing much of its job as a p.r. effort. The goal: to make it appear that the transition is going smoothly and to ensure that if a full-fledged democracy isn't up and running by the time Iraqis take charge of their government, whatever the U.S. leaves behind looks as if it's headed in the right direction. "The actual transition to democracy is paramount," says Deputy National Security Adviser James Wilkinson. "But democracy in Iraq won't be successful unless there are realistic expectations."

So last week came the announcement that U.S. forces were releasing several hundred nonviolent Iraqis who were being held for anti-American activities a small start in getting angry locals to sign on to Washington's plan for self-rule. Bush's Baghdad team is also distributing a million leaflets throughout Iraq urging participation in caucuses for a constitutional assembly and interim administration. Over the next couple of months, up to 25,000 Marines will replace the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, and the Marines are getting etiquette lessons to help them win the hearts and minds of the locals something the Marines have, in any case, long felt they're better at than the Army.

That's just the start. Bush's spin doctors have made lists of every event in the coming months that needs to be "managed" in order to make the transition look fluid and orderly. Crucial, they say, will be "setting expectations" for everything from stabilizing the electric grid to securing the annual hajj pilgrimage and opening the nation's airports. It will all build to a climactic moment the departure of U.S. civilian chief Paul Bremer. Administration officials want to avoid at all costs a chaotic scene that would remind Americans of that notorious helicopter getaway from the embassy compound in Saigon in 1975. Says a top official of Bremer's departure: "You're going to see that handled very, very carefully."