00:00:00READ: We're talking about the soiree in honor of the Rusks at the very end of
the Johnson Administration. And in came some very generous contributions toward
a present, so we got something that would be on permanent display in the State
Rooms in the State Department and for him more personally. Chip [Charles Eustis]
Bohlen told us that Dean had admired several times, when he was in the embassy
in Paris, a painting of Ben [Benjamin] Franklin minus wig in Paris during his
days in the 1780s. And Clem [Clement E.] Conger found a marvelous reproduction
painter. We brought back the original and commissioned the reproduction, and the
final product looked identical. But it was a marvelous evening. We talked to the
00:01:00President's appointment secretary, and he and Mrs. [Claudia Alta Taylor "Lady
Bird"] Johnson immediately agreed to come over, and gave the warmest of remarks.
RICHARD RUSK: I heard those, yeah.
READ: Then his final morning departure I remember, in a way that he probably
doesn't remember, waiting with him in his own office. I think there were just
the two of us at one point and it was early that morning, or I guess it might
have been lunch time. But anyway, there was a huge stream of people coming in or
leaving through the C Street entrance below, and Dean turned around and said,
"What do all these people do?"
RICHARD RUSK: "What do all those people do?"
READ: Yes. Because so often he would know what had to be done and couldn't
understand why it took an army to do it. I found it a marvelously poignant
remark. But at any rate, he went, and Bill [William Pierce] Rogers was finally
00:02:00ensconced. I guess he left right at the hour of the inauguration. I can't
remember. I think it was before Rogers had come back. And he went down and said
a few words to a law group that had gathered in the front diplomatic entrance to
the Department. Hundreds of people had turned out for the occasion.
RICHARD RUSK: Were his remarks recorded? Did anyone get a copy of that?
READ: They may have been in the newsletter of the Department. I don't know.
RICHARD RUSK: What was the gist of his remarks?
READ: Well, it was just an expression of great respect for the Foreign Service
and the Department, people who were so often the butt of the public criticism
and criticism by politicians. There was another thought I had before we break up
00:03:00today, Rich. I think I did mention it on the occasion of the 75th anniversary
party in Washington. In his relationship with his successors he was unfailingly
helpful. He never made life more difficult for them. And you can't say that of
practically any other Secretary during this period. When Rogers, who was savaged
very badly during his term of office as Secretary, was most wounded, I remember
00:04:00seeing Dean and him lunching together at the Metropolitan Club. And I know what
a solace it was to Bill.
RICHARD RUSK: Really? This happened several times?
READ: I can't say. When Henry [Alfred Kissinger] was in office--and your father
hadn't been one of his greatest admirers during Henry's professorial days and
later when he had been at odds with Rogers--but after Henry became Secretary of
State he was immensely helpful to him. I knew Henry quite well. And I remember
breakfasting with him the morning of my own appointment back in the government,
and he just said in such a heartfelt way that, "I can't tell you how indebted I
feel to Dean Rusk."
RICHARD RUSK: He told me that. I haven't interviewed him yet. But he said, "Dean
Rusk is a hero to me and I want you to know it."
READ: He hadn't always thought that, you know. He had been critical of him
during Vietnam. I remember when Henry told me that Rogers had been appointed. He
00:05:00didn't say it was Rogers because it was still not revealed. He said, "We have
appointed a man who in a year's time is going to better than Dean Rusk." Well,
we know what he ended up thinking. And we know also today, and with the full
luxury of hindsight how much he admires Dean Rusk and his virtues. Even
[Alexander Meigs] Haig [Jr.] has told me that Dean was always there when he
needed him and wanted advice. I don't know how often he sought it or anything
else, but Haig felt that way: and of course, [Cyrus Roberts] Vance and [Edmund
Sixtus] Muskie the same.
END OF SIDE 1
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