Strobe Talbott Expected to Get State Dept. Post

Strobe Talbott, President Clinton’s top expert on Russia and other former Soviet republics, will be appointed deputy secretary of state today in a move calculated to give the Administration a new and articulate spokesman for its troubled foreign policy, Administration officials said Monday.

By selecting Talbott, once Clinton’s roommate at Oxford University, Secretary of State Warren Christopher seems to have taken a long step toward achieving one of his own major objectives: increasing the amount of attention that the President pays personally to foreign issues.

Talbott left Washington Monday for Southern California, where Christopher is spending the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Sources said that the secretary of state wanted to take advantage of the holiday news lull to assure a high-impact announcement at a press conference today in Los Angeles.

Talbott would succeed Clifton Wharton Jr. in the State Department’s No. 2 post. Wharton, a respected former university president, was forced out in November. At the time of Wharton’s resignation, officials said that Christopher had decided that a high-profile deputy with extensive foreign policy experience was needed.

Unlike other candidates on Christopher’s short list, Talbott is not a career foreign service officer. But as a journalist and a scholar, he has devoted his entire career to foreign policy, especially concerning Russia.

Officials said that Talbott will continue to play a leading role in setting U.S. policy toward Russia and other former Soviet republics. The Administration considers its evolving relationship with Washington’s former Cold War adversary to be at the top of its foreign policy priority list.

According to a senior State Department official, Christopher has relied increasingly on Talbott’s advice on all issues, not just Russia policy. The official said that Talbott already had eclipsed Peter Tarnoff, undersecretary of state for political affairs, as Christopher’s chief adviser even before he was tapped for the new post.

Talbott, former Washington bureau chief of Time magazine, is an accomplished television performer. His polished public personality fills a void left by Christopher’s own wooden television style.

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Moreover, the Talbott appointment fits in with Christopher’s campaign to persuade Clinton to devote more time to foreign policy. Christopher has urged the President to focus more of his attention on setting overall foreign policy goals and to raise the priority the White House gives to foreign relationships.

Talbott has long been a confidant of the President. With an official mandate that will cover the whole spectrum of foreign policy, he may be able to widen Clinton’s focus on international relations. Now, some officials said, Clinton concentrates primarily on domestic policy, turning to foreign issues only when there is a crisis.

A Russia scholar at Yale before his days at Oxford, Talbott translated and edited the memoirs of former Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev. The book, published from a smuggled manuscript after Khrushchev’s fall from power, was considered a publishing coup and a major contribution to understanding the U.S. government’s Cold War adversary.

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In his current State Department job, Talbott has broad responsibility for policy toward all of the former Soviet republics. He has been an outspoken advocate of U.S. economic and political aid to Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and the forces of reform.

The strong showing of ultranationalist and anti-reform candidates in this month’s parliamentary election in Russia make it more difficult for the Administration to win approval of aid for Russia from a budget-conscious Congress. But Talbott has argued that the results of the election indicate that it is more important than ever to provide tangible support to Russian reformers.

Clinton is scheduled to visit Russia next month for a meeting with Yeltsin. Christopher and Talbott are expected to be at his side during those talks.

Talbott’s name surfaced in speculation about the deputy secretary’s job almost as soon as Wharton announced his resignation. However, officials said that Christopher did not make up his mind until the last few days.

Wharton, who came to the State Department after a distinguished career in business and higher education, seemed miscast as Christopher’s deputy. Although he received generally high marks for his work on reorganization of the department, especially the foreign aid program, Wharton was so low key as to be almost invisible.

Christopher--beset by policy reversals in Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia-Herzegovina--decided that he needed a deputy with a firm background in diplomacy and a flair for selling U.S. policy to the public.

Officials said that other candidates on the Administration’s “short list” included Winston Lord, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs; Thomas Pickering, ambassador to Russia; and Morton Abramowitz, a former ambassador who is now head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.