Background Only Marshall GREEN Office talk Aug 28 1969 Very high on Rogers which is why McCloskey urged talking to him Why Claims he is open minded no frozen positions very good questioner operates by intuition which serves him well even though he lacks experience He draws people out No grim posture as predecessors had has good sense of humor is non doctrinaire This may be abrasive for some people but I like it and it went down well with leaders in gsia He did best job of drawing out Chiang Kai-shek that anyone could 0 - Does he know the background Marshall started to say yes and I looked at him and then he conceded well alright he does lack the backgnindund and I imagine he does sametxmes resent fact that other people have the background which he lacks But he makes up for it in style and style - is vitally important We have always been too rim In about Asia we have acted as if nothing has changed since the lies era we have been frozen on all kinds of things passports trade etc And Rogers comes along with a fresh look like a breath of fresh air There are plenty of people who know the details for him to draw on One thing about him he doesn't want to be told anything twice He resents that and tells you so Also if he gets conflicting accounts he wants to know why StateAWhite House relationship Sure Kissinger is very bright and able But its wrong to call it the Kissinger shop a It's the Nixon shop Nixon regards himself as quite an authority on Asia You can be sure Kissinger is doing nothing that Nixon doesn't want done Nixon is making foreign policy If the State Department is going to be a service organization why not What's wrong with that Sure there are some irritations This sweeping demand for NSC papers But we're in the process of resolving that problem it will be solved soon Every Secretary of State operates somewhat differently and every President operates somewhat differently Relations on the Seventh floor are better now than I've ever seen them You know what it has been in the past When Harriman was up there he'd make his mind up about something and no one could budge him He had his able qualities of course Then there was Bowles for a while and know how it was Now the Seventh floor is acting in harmony you can feel that in the dept In an aside on Dulles Dulles used to sit there with the Joint Chiefs and others and make major decisions and then reach over telephone Eisenhower and ask if he had any objections Eisenhower would say No of course not Foster But don't you think you are working too hard When are you going to take a vacation G noted that western White House operation with its time factor has required unusual switch to doing most State W House business in the afternoons instead of mornings Marder                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu