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Precisely how all of this will be attempted is still unclear. During the campaign, for instance, Nixon declared that the U.S. must help Israel maintain clear military superiority over the Arabs. Last week, however, William Scranton, Nixon's roving fact finder, said while in the Middle East that the U.S. should adopt a more "evenhanded" approach. He repeated the phrase after reporting to Nixon in New York. Scranton's implication was clear: the U.S. had been unfair to the Arab states. Nixon himself has not indicated any modification in U.S. policy, and Israel's Moshe Dayan said after conferring with Nixon that he did not anticipate any reduction of U.S. support for his country. But Scranton's remarks at least hinted that the Nixon Administration would look for new ways to mollify the Arabs.
Common Beginnings, Parallel Paths
Then there are tough questions of what to say to the Chinese Communists in February, when talks at the ambassadorial level might conceivably begin to defrost relations between Washington and Peking; how to react if the Russians move again in Eastern Europe; what new directions foreign aid should take. No one expects Rogers to make snap answers or to advocate wrenching moves. His appointment, in fact, was welcomed in Washington by Democrats and Republicans alike. Chairman J. William Fulbright of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who has found little good to say about Democrat Dean Rusk, said of Rogers: "He is a man of unquestioned integrity and ability. Although he has not had extensive experience directly in the field of foreign relations, I feel sure that his common sense and good judgment will serve the country well." Majority Leader Mike Mansfield called Rogers "an excellent choice." Years ago Nixon said of his friend: "He is more cautious than I am as to what ought to be done in most instances. I will take chances and move aggressively sometimes when he would not. This is good, for I know that he can always see the pitfalls of any course of action."
Perhaps another reason for the Nixon-Rogers bond is the remarkable similarity of background and development. Both were born to families of modest means in small towns 55 years ago, Rogers in Norfolk, N.Y., where his father was a cashier in a paper mill. Both boys went to work early, Rogers at age 14 as a photographer's assistant. They had to scrape for their education: scholarships, some help from his family and income from an assortment of jobs (dishwasher, waiter, door-to-door salesman of brushes) got Rogers through college at Colgate and law school at Cornell. Both excelled as law students. They each married relatively young, Rogers to Adele Langston,* a classmate at Cornell Law, who gave up her own career to rear three sons and a daughter.
World War II brought both men Navy commissions. They even trained at the same Rhode Island base before shipping out to the Pacific, but they did not really get to know each other until 1947.
By then, Nixon was a newly elected Congressman and Rogers the counsel for the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. It was in this period after World War II that Nixon formed most of his