George Shultz

AT THE TOP

As I was going up the stair I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish, I wish he'd stay away.

George Shultz. He won't be secretary of state, and he won't stay away. People keep telling him to run foreign policy and to come up with winners. "Take charge, George," his underlings urge.

"Give us some ammo to use against the Pentagon and the White House."

But George wants to hold the

ammo. "I'm here to back up the Big Man,"he replies. The Big Man likes team players. A1 Haig was not a team player; he got angry and made a lot of noise. "Get on the team," George tells his staff when they complain.

George thought he had a handle on arms control, until Ronnie's friend Judge Clark set up his own operation. He thought he was solid in the Middle East, until the White House dumped his man and sent its own to shuttle around the Levant. He thought he was covered in Central America, until

Ronnie summoned Henry Kissinger from the Great Beyond.

And then there's the Soviet Union. Should he side with the fundamentalists who see Moscow as the root of all evil? Or with the pragmatists who would cut a deal?

Poor George. What to do?

He's waiting for the Big Man to tell him. But sometimes the Big Man doesn't know. Sometimes he's even wrong. Maybe George should tell him what to do.

But George isn't there.

Speak up, George. Or stay away.

-RONALD STEEL