Huntington May Receive Top Level Pentagon Job

Samuel P. Huntington, Thomson Professor of Government, is currently under consideration for a high-level post in the Defense Department, but sources said yesterday he would be a controversial choice and may not get the appointment.

Defense Secretary Harold Brown is apparently considering Huntington for Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, a post that involves overseeing military commitments. Brown has met with Huntington at least once in the last two weeks.

Huntington and spokesmen for both the Defense Department and the White House yesterday declined comment on the rumored appointment. Any decision will not be official until President Carter announces his choice for the position.

Major Michael Birch, a Pentagon spokesman, said yesterday that Carter will probably announce his choice in the near future, but said he could not predict exactly when that announcement will take place.

A Washington source said yesterday that although Huntington's name is being strongly urged by some members of the new administration, other members of the Carter team have said they would object strongly to his appointment.

Tell it to the Vietnamese

Several members of the Government Department said yesterday a Huntington appointment would be controversial in part because he articulated the "forced-draft urbanization" thesis that the Pentagon used to justify bombing the South Vietnamese countryside in the late '60s.

More recently, Huntington wrote a controversial article for the Trilateral Commission about democracy in the United States, in which he argued that expanded participation may fragment the nation's political consensus.

Dean Rosovsky said yesterday he has asked Huntington, who has been on leave this semester, to keep the University informed about his status here.

Rosovsky said he expects to know whether Huntington plans to stay at Harvard before next semester begins on February 7.

The New York Times reported Monday that Brown plans a major Pentagon reorganization that could eliminate the post for which Huntington is being considered. Brown subsequently denied that report, however.

All Aboard

The Times also reported that Graham T. Allison Jr., professor of Politics at the Kennedy School, is under consideration for a Defense Department post.

But Allison said yesterday that although he has been working with the Pentagon's transition staff, he has not discussed a possible appointment with Defense Department officials.

If Huntington goes to Washington, he will be the sixth of the 16-member editorial board of Foreign Policy magazine to join the Carter administration.