Washington Report, April 5, 1982, Page 3

New Staff with More Clout

The National Security Council, more than 14 months after President Reagan took office, has finally put together a Middle East affairs staff which may be able to play a meaningful role in policy-making.

The appointment of Howard Teicher in late March completes a reshuffle of the Middle East team, at a time when National Security Advisor William Clark has begun to establish strong lines of authority over the foreign-policy process at the White House. Mr. Clark's predecessor, Richard Allen, who held the position until last January, had limited access to the President and relatively little impact on policy.

The Middle East team now consists of Mr. Teicher and Geoffrey T.H. Kemp, who has been on the staff since the beginning of the Administration. Mr. Teicher replaces two staffers -Raymond Tanter and Douglas Feith, who were dismissed by Mr. Clark in mid-March.

Mr. Teicher was recently a staff assistant at the State Department to former Counselor Robert McFarlane, who is now the Deputy at NSC to Mr. Clark. Mr. Teicher served during the Carter Administration in the office of International Security Affairs at the Defense Department. He is not an area specialist, but is regarded by many who know him as having an open mind to the area's problems. Messrs. Tanter and Feith were regarded within the NSC as "ideologues," with strong pro-Israel biases.

Presidential Access

Mr. Clark, 50, who was Deputy Secretary of State for the first year of the Administration, brings to his job an intimacy with the President which he established while he served as Mr. Reagan's chief of staff in the governor's office in California. In those days he also befriended Edwin Meese III and Michael Deaver, top advisors to the President, and Caspar Weinberger, who is now Secretary of Defense.

During his three months on the job, Mr. Clark has made use of his access to the President to establish himself as the main instrument for presenting foreign policy options. Meeting each morning with Mr. Reagan, he generally brings with him an expert from one of the departments or from his own staff. Insiders at NSC say that in addition to listening to options, the President has come to rely more and more frequently on his old friend's advice. Mr. Clark has also been assuming functions formerly carried out by cabinet agencies. For example, the National Security Staff, rather than the Defense Department, is presiding over a major review of the American military posture.

Mr. Clark has been moving with deliberation in bringing in his own staff. Early on, he took aboard Mr. McFarlane, who is an ex-marine and former special assistant for national security in the Nixon and Ford administrations, to replace Admiral James W. Nance in the number two position. When he was at the State Department, Mr. McFarlane had carried out several assignments for the Secretary of State, including a mission to the Middle East last July after Israel raided a French-built nuclear reactor in the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, and caused an international furor. Mr. Clark dismissed nine staff members in mid-March, including Messrs. Tanter and Feith.