World: The President’s Shuttler

A diplomat’s diplomat. The quintessential foreign-service officer. A cool professional who never betrays emotions. These are some of the phrases that his colleagues use to describe the man whom President Carter has selected as his special ambassador to the Israeli-Egyptian political talks. Alfred Leroy (“Roy”) Atherton Jr., 56, Cyrus Vance’s Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, deserves equal praise for sacrificial obedience. After 30 years in the foreign service, 14 of them dealing directly with the ever boiling Middle East cauldron, Atherton would have preferred a more relaxed ambassadorial assignment. As Author Edward R.F. Sheehan said of Atherton in his chronicle of shuttle diplomacy, The Arabs, Israelis, and Kissinger, “He yearns to escape Washington, to win a quiet embassy where he can glimpse the Mediterranean, take naps in the afternoon, enjoy the laughter of his wife.”

Instead of all this, Atherton is taking on an arduous mission that may run for years and still end in failure. His glimpses of the Mediterranean will be limited to what he can see on shuttle flights between Cairo, Jerusalem and Damascus (as well as Amman and Riyadh). One consolation at least is that Wife Betty will be along.

Atherton’s new job is all the more difficult because he will be following in the contrails of both his own boss and Henry Kissinger. As Secretaries of State, they were able to speak directly for their Presidents, and could make decisions on the spot. While Atherton clearly lacks that kind of authority, he is ideally suited for the latest shuttle. Reason: he is more familiar than any other American diplomat with the technical problems that will dominate the political discussions.

An electrical engineer’s son who worked his way through Harvard waiting on tables and selling newspapers, Ather ton earned a master’s degree in history in 1947. When he joined the foreign service, he had an eye on a career in Eu rope. After a stint in West Germany, he was transferred to State’s Near Eastern and South Asian bureau—NEA in Foggy Bottom shorthand—and given assignments in Damascus and the Syrian city of Aleppo in the turbulent 1950s. While based in Syria, Atherton defied an unwritten State Department rule by taking a vacation in Israel, on the theory that it would help him understand both sides of the Middle East controversy.

Reassigned to Washington in 1965, Atherton rose steadily, from desk officer to director for Israel and Arab-Israel Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary for NEA under Joseph J. Sisco and finally, in 1974, Assistant Secretary. A workaholic, he spends at least twelve hours a day six days a week and half of Sunday in his office.

In a distinguished career, Atherton has suffered one embarrassment. It involved the 1976 publication of Sheehan’s book on Kissinger and Middle East policy. Atherton, who had taken copious notes during shuttle negotiations, with Kissinger’s implicit approval, briefed Sheehan on what took place. As it happened, publication of the book coincided with a much publicized Kissinger complaint about Capitol Hill leaks of CIA information. Embarrassed by what appeared to be a leak in his own department, Kissinger called Sheehan’s quotes unauthorized; Atherton publicly assumed blame and was given a “serious reprimand.” Last week, however, Kissinger described his onetime aide as “the very best kind of foreign-service officer.” Said the old reprimander: “He helped keep our Middle East policy alive through four Administrations, and he’s an extraordinarily fine and decent human being on top of it.”