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The fuss over finding a Secretary of State caused another hitch in Kennedy's plans last week: he publicly offered Adlai Stevenson the post of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Stevenson publicly hesitated to accept for a few days. Plainly he wanted to know what State Secretary he would be working for.
Treasury & Defense. For the job of Secretary of Defense, Kennedy made a definite offer to Robert Strange McNamara, 44, newly installed president of the Ford Motor Co., and a man paid $410,000 last year at Ford. A lean, intellectual
Californian, Bob McNamara is a former assistant professor of accounting at Harvard and a Detroit production expert with few peers. But after only a month as Ford's president, McNamara was understandably torn between loyalties, as well as faced with a conflict of interests, and delayed an answer.
For Treasury Secretary, a leading candidate at week's end was C. Douglas Dillon, 51, Manhattan investment banker who served as U.S. Ambassador to France from 1953 to 1957, has been Under Secretary of State in the Eisenhower Administration since 1958. At a time when the U.S. balance of payments shapes up as a critical problem, Dillon would bring to the Treasury solid experience in both finance and foreign affairs. Choosing him would not give Kennedy the "clean sweep" he had once wanted of top Eisenhower administrators.
Then there were other jobs to fill. One was ticketed to Byron ("Whizzer") White, 43, onetime All-America halfback. He might get Attorney General if Kennedy's first choice, his own brother Robert, declines. Arthur Goldberg, 52, special counsel for the A.F.L.-C.I.O., was being discussed as Secretary of Labor or Solicitor General. The choice for Sec retary of Agriculture still seemed to lie between South Dakota's Representative George McGovern, 38, and Fred V. Heinkel, 62, president of the Missouri Farmers Association. There were rumors that Illinois' veteran Negro politician, Representative William Dawson, would make Postmaster General, but the Postmaster General's post was one of the least of Kennedy's worries.
As he mulled over such Cabinet possibilities last week, Jack Kennedy reminded himself that even F.D.R. had slipped, particularly in the cases of Treasury Secretary William Woodin and Commerce Secretary Daniel Roper. Dwight Eisenhower, too, Kennedy felt, had been unacquainted with some of his initial selections, and made some poor choices. Jack Kennedy meant to do better. "I don't want to make any mistakes," he said. "I want to get the best people."