New Administration: Open Mind

For a while, the chairmanship of the Atomic Energy Commission seemed to be the most unpopular top-level job in Washington: the AEC chairman must not only possess considerable administrative ability, along with scientific and technological know-how, but he must also be able to thread his way through highly emotional issues while keeping the U.S. on a straight, or at least a safe, nuclear course.

President-elect Kennedy offered former TVA Chairman Gordon Clapp, an experienced Washington hand, the AEC post, but Clapp wanted no part of it. Neither did Physicist James Fisk, president of Bell Telephone Laboratories. Then, last week, Kennedy found...

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