The Administration: While Wick’s Away

No doubt Charles Z. Wick has some enemies. But is anyone really interested in harming the director of the U.S. Information Agency? He seems to think so. In 1981 he became a special deputy U.S. marshal, which allowed him to pack a pistol. He spent $32,000 in USIA money on security devices for his house; he later reimbursed the agency. Last week his preoccupation with safety surfaced again.

Before he left for Japan, the State Department asked the American embassy in Tokyo for a bulletproof limousine, a police escort and transportation for four armed bodyguards. Ambassador Mike Mansfield was unaccommodating. The bodyguards would have to find public transportation; the embassy had no armored limo; Japanese police would not provide extra security. Concluded Mansfield’s cable: “There is no known threat to Mr. Wick in Japan.”

Wick has a knack for embarrassing public imbroglios. Recently he got into trouble for overseeing a USIA “blacklist” that banned dozens of Americans from the agency’s overseas lecture circuit. An aide who lied about the existence of the blacklist, Leslie Lenkowsky, has been forced by Congress to leave the agency at the end of next week. Wick, however, is not contrite: while the boss is traveling in the Far East, Lenkowsky will act as USIA director.