Back from Limbo

In the early days of the New Frontier. Chester Bowles was a conspicuous and important man--Under Secretary of State and an insider in major White House foreign policy decisions. But after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, ex-Adman Bowles aroused Kennedy's anger by telling newsmen that he had disagreed with the invasion plans. For that mixture of indiscretion and disloyalty. Kennedy dropped Bowles from his No. 2 post in the State Department and gave him a new job that was long on title--the President's Special Representative and Adviser on African, Asian and Latin American Affairs--but short on authority. During his 16 months in this job, Bowles has traveled to 37 countries. At the time of last fall's Cuban crisis, he was in far-off Nigeria, preparing to raise a flag above the U.S. pavilion at an international trade fair.

Even in his wanderings, Bowles managed to make himself heeded. Last August he surfaced with a persuasive memorandum suggesting that the U.S. cut off foreign aid to nations that "lack the competence, organization and will" to use it intelligently. He also sold the President two conclusions he formed from observing the work of U.S. embassies in Africa. Asia and Latin America: ambassadors' tours of duty should be considerably lengthened (they had been averaging only 17 months), and their responsibilities should be broadened to cover U.S. aid. military and information programs in their bailiwicks.

Last week word came from the White House that the President had named Bowles Ambassador to India, a post he filled in 1951-53 as an appointee of Harry Truman. Bowles will replace Economist John Kenneth Galbraith. who wants to go back to Harvard. Perhaps Kennedy has forgiven Bowles. Or perhaps, looking ahead to 1964, he thought there might be a bit of political risk in keeping Bowles in limbo. Bowles still has a band of admirers among U.S. liberals, some of whom used to think of him as presidential timber.

At any rate, both Bowles and the Indians have reasons to be pleased. During his previous tour in India, Bowles sometimes seemed to have gone native in his judgments as well as his behavior, but his you're-as-good-as-we-are approach--riding a bicycle through New Delhi streets, sending three of his children to Indian schools--endeared him to the Indians. And Bowles can congratulate himself upon returning to the big time, despite the oddities of the new U.S. embassy in New Delhi (see MODERN LIVING). India is the biggest of non-Communist nations, and with the Chinese Communists perched on its northern borders, it is one of the U.S.'s most important ambassadorial posts. "If one wanted to be rid of him," said a State Department official, "I could think of ten other places to put him--but never India."

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