Some of the other men who served under John Kennedy left Washington years ago, iridescent with the celebrity of Camelot, and found a measure of fortune. Dean Rusk stayed on to work for Lyndon Johnson. Rusk was never exactly part of the New Frontier's clan anyway; he was taciturn, stubborn, spartan, undeniably intelligent, distrustful of personal publicity, given to seven-day work weeks at the State Department.
Some even thought that his self-abnegation was a pose of some kind. But after L.B.J.'s presidency was capsized, Rusk withdrew further into his privacy. To have been Secretary of State was, for him, an honor...
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