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Secretary Rogers Inaugurates Modernized Operations Center

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FORMAL OPENING-Secretary Rogers cuts the ribbon at the newly modernized
Operations Center. Looking on is Theodore L. Eliot, Jr., Special Assistant to the
Secretary and Executive Secretary of the Department.

tion management system and a thoroughly modern Department Operations Center. Funded by Congressional appropriations of $188,000, the reconstruction project began in September 1971 and was completed in November 1972.

The Executive Secretariat, established in 1947, is charged with providing 24-hour-a-day support for the Secretary and his principal deputies, with managing the polic ycommunications flow within the Department, and between the Department, the White House, and other agencies involved in foreign affairs, and coordinating action on the foreign policy directives and instructions from the President and the Secretary of State.

The Secretariat's Information Management section has developed and put into operation the Secretariat Automated Data Index System, known by its acronym SADI. SADI has revolutionized the Department's information management and has set a precedent in the field. SADI now provides the Secretary of State and his staff with precision control of all documents handled by the Secretariat and almost instantaneous access to them. Numerous government agencies and private corporations are sending teams to the Secretariat to observe the innovative solutions to the problems of document control and retrieval.

The Operations Center, the Department's around-the-clock nerve center, is the focal point for much of the information flowing into the Department from U.S. posts abroad, the White House, government agencies, and all the media services. The modernization project has enhanced the Operations Center's ability to meet its three principal responsibilities: alerting the Secretary and other Department officers to important breaking events; providing concise briefings on those developments; and helping to coordinate U.S. Government actions when an immediate response is required.

Flanked by an impressive array of new telephonic and telegraphic equipment, the Center's Watch Teams are in continuous contact with their counterparts in the White House, the Pentagon, CIA, and other centers. Telephone consoles are linked to the worldwide military communications system. The Operations Center is pre

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pared to reach major diplomatic posts at a moment's notice.

Of the million and a quarter telegrams now pouring into and out of the Department each year, more than 80,000 are directed to the Center for determination if immediate action is required. The installation of new communications equipment and highspeed teletypes has greatly reduced the time required to process messages.

Adjacent to the Operations Center is the Department's specially-designed Task Force area. This area is intended primarily for use in fast-breaking crisis situations and is designed to allow four separate working groups to operate at one time. It is directly linked to the Operations Center's communications array, and connected to a new conference room equipped to provide triple-screen graphics projection and simultaneous interpretation of two languages.

The modernization of the Executive Secretariat will serve two major goals: providing the Secretary of State with the kind of support he needs to advise and assist the President on foreign policy matters, and insuring that the Department of State is ready to meet its foreign affairs responsibilities by using effectively the new tools of today's most advanced communications technology.

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CHECKING THE CABLE-Secretary Rogers and Charles H. Thomas, Director of the
Operations Center, S/S-O, left, check an advance copy of a cable that has just
arrived and which was passed to them by Stephen Worrel, foreground, Associate
Operations Officer. In the background, left to right, are Robert Morris, Operations
Assistant, and Richard Viets, Deputy Director for Operations.

"The Most Modern Communications... the Most Capable People"

Secretary Rogers paid tribute to both people and machines at the ribbon-cutting ceremony formally opening the newly modernized Operations Center on November 30.

"Although we are proud of the machinery and are proud of the technology that's involved," he said, "none of it works very successfully unless we have qualified people. . . . I think we have the most modern communications and information mechanisms that there are today. I also think that we have the most capable people in this Department, the Department of State, of any foreign ministry."

"The Foreign Service officers are men and women of tremendous ability and great dedication, and I am sure that all of us who have the privilege of working with them share the belief that the United States is fortunate indeed to have such dedicated men and women working for the United States."

Speaking directly to the media representatives present, the Secretary added: "I would hope that as you go through the building you will

notice not only the physical attributes, the technology, but would also keep in mind that it works well because of the people that we have in the Department of State."

Of the equipment, he added, "We have to continue to improve it as we go along, and we have to add to it as technology improves, but we are now able to communicate all over the world quickly to help our tourists, our businessmen and to get information from officials around the world.

Principal guests at the ceremony were Arthur Sampson, Acting Administrator of the General Services Administration; William B. Macomber, Deputy Under Secretary for Management; Counselor Richard F. Pedersen, and these former Executive Directors of the Department: Fisher Howe (1956-58), Assistant Secretary for European Affairs Walter J.

INDEXING-Paul M. Washington, Director of the Information Management unit, S/S-1, gives the Secretary a demonstration of the multiple uses of the Secretariat Auto

mated Data Indexing System.

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AT OPERATIONS CENTER-Secretary Rogers and guests are welcomed at the opening of the modernized Secretariat complex during their visit on November 30. Seated at the table, left to right, are Walter J. Stoessel, Jr., Assistant Secretary for European Affairs; Richard F. Pedersen, Counselor of the Department; Arthur Sampson, Acting Administrator, General Services Administration (hidden); Secretary Rogers; William B. Macomber, Deputy Under Secretary for Management; Ambassador (Ret.) Lucius D. Battle; Fisher Howe; Benjamin Read. Secretary Rogers and the guests later toured the Center.

that in 1969 the Secretary had asked for the development of the most modern foreign affairs Secretariat in the world. He reviewed the progress the Department has made toward that goal during the past three years: the increase in the speed of communications; the computerized handling of communications and documents; and the improved Secretariat liaison with our intelligence and military counterparts.

Mr. Eliot cited for special recognition Mr. Sampson, James A. Edgins, A/OPR, the construction supervisor for the project; Fernleigh R. Graninger, Chief of the Audio Visual Services Division (A/OPR/VS), Mrs. Llewellyn Thompson, for her assistance in the area's art decoration, and Karl D. Ackerman, who supervised the project for the Secretariat during his tenure both as Director of the Operations Center and Deputy Executive Secretary for Management. Mr. Eliot concluded his remarks by emphasizing that "none of this would have been possible without the support and inspiration of one manthe Secretary of State."

Secretary Rogers also thanked Mr. Sampson "for the very excellent as

sistance" he and his associates in the
GSA gave to the Department during
the Secretariat's reconstruction pro-
gram.

Following the ceremony, the Dep-
uty Executive Secretary for Manage-
ment, Dudley W. Miller, escorted the
Secretary and the guests on a tour of
the refurbished area.

After a briefing in the Operations Center by S/S-O Director Charles H. Thomas, the Secretary participated in a teleconference (conversation by teletype) with Ambassador Martin

J. Hillenbrand at Embassy Bonn. Following an inspection of the redesigned task force area, Paul M. Washington, Director of the Information Management unit (S/S-I), gave the Secretary a demonstration of the multiple uses of the Secretariat Automated Data Indexing System.

The tour concluded with Secretariat Staff (S/S-S) Director Nicholas Platt's explanation of his unit's support functions and Miss Dixie Grimes' demonstration of some of the new equipment in that office.

Executive Seminar Set for January 26

The School of Professional Studies of the Foreign Service Institute will offer another one-week Executive Studies Seminar at Front Royal, Va., beginning January 26.

FSI designed to improve management effectiveness in the Foreign Service. Courses in the series are:

1. The 21⁄2 day management segment of the Basic Course for Junior Officers.

2. The Executive Studies Seminar for officers of mid-career level, of

These seminars (one was given in December) emphasize selfdevelopment, motivation and goal fered approximately five times per orientation, how to exert influence, and other management instruction of utility to participants at the mid-carreer level.

The Executive Studies Seminar is the second of a series of four courses developed or under development by

year.

3. An Advanced Executive Studies Seminar (under development) for Senior Officers of section-chief (counselor) level.

4. The Deputy Chiefs of Mission Seminar.

PRESIDENT NIXON LOOKS FOR SUCCESS

Phase II of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Begins in Geneva

Phase Two of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) opened in Geneva on November 21. Administrative problems involved in alternating between Helsinki and Vienna, which had been the arrangement for SALT ONE, had led the United States and the Soviet Union to agree on Geneva as the fixed site for the negotiations.

The U.S. Delegation is headed, as before, by Ambassador Gerard Smith, Director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. The Deputy Director of ACDA, Ambassador Philip J. Farley, is alternate chairman of the delegation. The other principal members are Paul Nitze, former Deputy Secretary of Defense; Dr. Harold Brown, President of the California Institute of Technology and former Secretary of the Air Force, and Lt. Gen. Royal B. Allison, USAF, Assistant to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff for Strategic Arms Negotiations. Ambassador J. Graham Parsons, who served on the delegation during SALT ONE, retired this past summer.

After two and one-half years of intensive negotiations, SALT ONE resulted in a definitive treaty limiting ABM systems to two sites for each party, prohibiting a nationwide ABM defense, and allowing only a small number of ABM launchers, interceptors and radars at these sites.

on

The treaty also provides for important qualitative limitations ABMs, including an agreement not to employ future types of ABM systems. By agreeing to keep ABM systems to a very low level, the stimulus for expansion of offensive weapons systems has been reduced.

Certain offensive weapons systems were covered by an Interim Agreement, which freezes the existing aggregate of strategic offensive missile systems for a five-year period. Both sides have expressed the hope that a permanent agreement can be reached before the expiration of the five-year period. This is the principal task of the renewed SALT negotiations.

As was the rule for SALT ONE, the negotiations will be private, but a general view of what can be expected for the second phase may be gained from remarks made by Secretary Rogers in his address to the United Nations on September 26. The

Secretary enumerated the following Ambassador Smith, which was read

"general aims":

"First, our endeavor will be to negotiate on offensive weapons. In so doing we shall seek to expand the scope of strategic offensive weapons included in the limitations and to establish an equitable balance in the major delivery systems.

"Second, we will wish to examine carefully qualitative limitations which could enhance stability.

"Third, we will aim to reduce levels of strategic arms. As President Nixon said to this General Assembly in 1969, our objective is 'not only to limit the buildup of strategic arms, but to reverse it.'

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In a letter of November 20 to

President's Letter to

Following is the text of a letter written by President Nixon to Ambassador Gerard Smith, Director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, on the eve of inauguration of Phase II of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in Geneva: Dear Mr. Ambassador:

Three years ago you and colyour leagues embarked on one of the most critical negotiations in our history. At that time there was little assurance that we could find common ground for discussion, let alone agreement on issues that had not been fully faced in the post-war period and that affected the vital security of the United States and the Soviet Union. The successful conclusion of the agreements signed on May 26 was a milestone not only in Soviet-American relations, but in the larger effort to create a more peaceful world.

These agreements, important as they are, cannot be a cause for complacency. We have taken the first step and the foundation for new

at the opening meeting of SALT TWO, President Nixon expressed the hopes of the American people for the new round and observed: "Now you face a task which in many respects is even more complex and more difficult, for both sides will now be obligated to make long-term commitments, in a permanent agreement, to a stable strategic relationship for this decade and beyond." But the President added farther on: "The achievement of the SALT agreements, as well as the Basic Principles governing our relations with the USSR, lead me to believe that your current efforts will meet with new success."

Ambassador Smith

agreements has been created. Now you face a task which in many respects is even more complex and more difficult, for both sides will now be obligated to make long term commitments, in a permanent agreement, to a stable strategic relationship for this decade and beyond.

In my letter to you three years ago I observed that no one could foresee the outcome of the negotiations, but I also expressed my conviction that arms control was in the mutual interest of our country and of the Soviet Union. We have learned in the last three years that such mutual interests do, in fact, exist. The achievement of the SALT agreements, as well as the Basic Principles governing our relations with the USSR, lead me to believe that your recurrent efforts will meet with new success.

As you and your Soviet colleagues begin a new round of discussions, you have with you the hopes of all the American people-and indeed the hopes of all mankind.

LET'S HOPE SANTA WILL
SOCK IT TO US
US WITH

U.S. SAVINGS

BONDS!"

SERVED IN CABINET

Rumsfeld, Volpe Named Ambassadors

President Nixon early this month named two members of his first-term Cabinet as Ambassadors. They are:

-Donald Rumsfeld, Counsellor to the President and Chairman of the Cost of Living Council, to be the new U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels.

-John A. Volpe, Secretary of Transportation, to be the new U.S. Ambassador to Italy.

Both nominations require confirmation by the Senate.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Rumsfeld will succeed Ambassador David M. Kennedy, who is retiring. Mr. Kennedy, a former Secretary of the Treasury, has held that post since March of this year.

In announcing Mr. Rumsfeld's selection, Ronald L. Ziegler, White House Press Secretary, told newsmen at Key Biscayne, Florida, that the President felt that Mr. Rumsfeld's background in U.S. domestic affairs. "will complement his abilities as a negotiator, making him uniquely qualified to serve on the NATO Council at a time when the U.S. and Europe are increasingly interdependent economically and socially as well as militarily."

Mr. Ziegler said that in accepting Ambassador Kennedy's resignation, "the President expressed his regret at the Ambassador's departure and his deep appreciation for Mr. Kennedy's important contributions to both domestic and foreign policy over the past four years as Secretary of the Treasury, Ambassador-at-Large and Ambassador to NATO."

Mr. Ziegler added that Ambassador Kennedy will be available for special assignments by the President.

Mr. Rumsfeld, who is slated to be the U.S. Permanent Representative on the NATO Council, served as Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity from 1969 to 1970.

In 1970 he was named a member of the Domestic Council and Counsellor to the President.

Since October 1971 he has served as head of the group which administers the Administration's wage and price controls.

Mr. Rumsfeld was born in Chicago on July 9, 1932 and graduated from Princeton University in 1954. He served as a Representative from the 13th District (Cook County) in Illi

Mr. Rumsfeld

Mr. Volpe

nois in the 88th, 89th, 90th and 91st Congresses.

In announcing Mr. Volpe's selection as U.S. Ambassador to Italy, Mr. Ziegler said at Camp David, Maryland, on December 7:

"He will be retracing a journey that brought his parents to America as penniless immigrants at the turn of the century."

Mr. Volpe will be the first American of Italian background to head the U.S. Embassy in Rome.

If confirmed by the Senate, he will succeed Ambassador Graham A. Martin, a veteran diplomat, who will be "receiving another important assignment in the Administration in the second term," Mr. Ziegler added.

Mr. Volpe has served as President of the John A. Volpe Construction Co., 1933-60; Chairman of the Board, 1960-69; member of the Massachusetts Commission on Public Works, 1953-56; Federal Highway Administrator, 1956-57; Governor of Massachusetts, 1961-63, 1965-69; and Secretary of Transportation since January 22, 1969.

Born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, on Dec. 8, 1908, Mr. Volpe is a graduate of the Wentworth Institute and the holder of 23 honorary degrees.

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NEW ENVOY-Edward W. Mulcahy signs his appointment papers as the new Ambassador to Chad at a recent ceremony in the Thomas Jefferson Room. Looking on are Mrs. Mulcahy and Ambassador Lazare Massibe, Chad's envoy to the U.S.

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