THE ADMINISTRATION: Leave-Taking

As shot and shell continued to fall around the Pentagon last week, Deputy Defense Secretary Roger M. Kyes announced his resignation. Because many editors assumed it had something to do with McCarthy, it got bigger headlines than it would ordinarily rate.

Kyes seemed surprised that anyone would think he was fleeing from Joe’s barrage. Said he: “I am not known as a man who runs from a fight.” Actually, he had agreed to come to Washington for only a year, and his time was up. But he was persuaded by Defense Secretary Charles Wilson, his old boss at the General Motors Corp., to delay his leave-taking until May 1. When the word leaked into newspaper columns, Kyes decided to make the announcement.

He will stay around long enough to help explain the new U.S. defense program to Congress, which has come to regard him highly. In the Pentagon, too, tough Roger Kyes used his year to become a man who is respected, if not beloved.

To succeed Kyes the White House turned to Navy Secretary Robert Anderson, who has won recognition as a real find of the Eisenhower Administration. Anderson, who has not let the admirals run his office, has shown an ability to express the principles underlying U.S. foreign and defense policy.

Other departures last week:

¶ C.D. Jackson, 51, resigned effective April 1 as President Eisenhower’s adviser on cold-war planning. He will return to TIME Inc.

¶ Donold B. Lourie, 54, former president of Quaker Oats, left his post as Under Secretary of State for Administration.

¶ Arthur H. Dean, 55, Wall Street attorney and former law partner of Secretary of State Dulles, formally resigned as special U.S. envoy to the Korean peace talks at Panmunjom.

¶ John F. Kane, 39, a Truman Administration holdover, resigned as special assistant (for public relations) to Army Secretary Robert Stevens. Announced reason: Kane did not like the Republican Administration’s handling of the McCarthy-Army row. Wrote he to Stevens: “If those who are infinitely more skilled in politics and publicity could have your courage, there would be a quick end to this fight.”