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One reason for Kissinger's exhausting routine is that he still serves as presidential adviser for national security affairs and National Security Council chairman as well as Secretary of State. Another reason is that since moving to Foggy Bottom, Kissinger, between overseas trips, has been attempting to overhaul the creaky machinery of the U.S. State Department. Some staffers complain that Kissinger is too aloof and fails to delegate enough authority. On the other hand, notes Ambassador-at-Large
Robert McCloskey, 51, "there is a sense of excitement among the professionals.
Kissinger's coming has made them feel not only on center stage but also part of the decision-making process."
Answering Cables. Kissinger has gathered an energetic, able team of aides and advisers, including Winston Lord, 36, head of his planning and coordination staff, Department Counselor Helmut Sonnenfeldt, 47, Executive Assistant Lawrence Eagleburger, 43, and Press Aide George Vest, 55. He has be gun to pluck more talent out of the State Department to augment this group. Assistant Secretary of State Joseph J. Sisco, 54, the longtime Middle East expert, was persuaded to back out of a college presidency (Hamilton College in upstate New York) and was promoted to the No. 3 spot, Under Secretary for Political Affairs. The No. 2 job of Deputy Secretary is held by an able former Ambassador to Bonn, Kenneth Rush, 64, who oversees administration.
At the regional level, Arthur Hartman, 48, a Kissinger favorite, was recruited from the U.S. Mission to the European Community to oversee European affairs as Assistant Secretary. Sisco's old job of Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs was last week given to his capable longtime assistant, Alfred ("Roy") Atherton, 52. Jack Kubisch, 52, who was in the Paris embassy during Kissinger's secret sessions with Le Due Tho, now runs Inter-American Affairs. Robert Ingersoll, 60, who tried conscientiously to patch up U.S.-Japanese relations as best he could as Ambassador to Japan, was called home from Tokyo five months ago to become Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
A few years ago, Kissinger deprecatingly noted that the most impressive function of the State Department was answering cables. Receptivity is not enough, and no longer is the department allowed to wait for things to happen and then figure the best way out. All of State's bureau heads have been given the same mandate from Kissinger: to define precisely the foreign policy options in their areas. One sign of Kissinger's progress in trying to vitalize the department: ambassadors who formerly went to the White House for information on foreign policymaking are calling again at State.
The foreign service has so far not shown as much Kissinger imprint, partly because Kissinger does not always have the final say in the selection of ambassadors. Two important posts, however, have been filled during Kissinger's tenure as Secretary with promising results. In Egypt, where President Sadat has resumed diplomatic relations that were broken off by the 1967 war, Careerman and Arabist Hermann Eilts, 52, like Kissinger an emigrant from Germany in his youth, has assumed the re-established ambassador's post.