Who Would Replace Paine?

As he accepted Paine’s resignation on July 28, President Nixon asked him to suggest potential successors. Paine replied quickly, telling Nixon that “it would be best to seek a replacement from outside” of NASA; this ruled out George Low and Wernher von Braun as candidates. Paine provided a list “of seven principal candidates of national stature.” They were: James Fisk, president, Bell Telephone Laboratories; Thomas Jones, chairman, Northrop Corporation; Ruben Mettler, president, TRW Systems; Howard Johnson, president, MIT; Charles Townes, University of California, Berkeley; Frank Borman, who was in the process of leaving NASA; and George H. W. Bush, then a member of the House of Representatives and a candidate for the Senate from Texas (and a future president). Paine’s personal recommenda­tion was to select Borman, who was “the right age and temperament,” would “add technical experience and charisma to your administration,” could “deal effectively with the Congress,” would “be received with enthusiasm by NASA and the press,” and “can do an outstanding job maintaining the momentum in securing increased cooperation in space.”22

Flanigan added several other names to Paine’s list. One was Roger Lewis, chief executive officer of General Dynamics. He asked several people, including science adviser DuBridge, General Bernard Schriever, and Donald Kendall of Pepsi Cola, a Nixon confidant, to evaluate the various candi­dates. Flanigan tried to persuade Paine to remain in his job until a successor could be confirmed, but Paine said that this was not possible, and that in his judgment George Low was “entirely competent to manage the Agency for two months.” Flanigan reported to the president that, after first being interested in the NASA position, Borman had “indicated a change of heart, saying that he had no great interest in the job.” Even so, Flanigan was sure that “Borman would take the job if he knew you [Nixon] wanted him to have it.” Flanigan added that “much as I would like to see the position held for George Bush should he not win in Texas, I have serious reservations about leaving it unfilled for two months,” since this might be interpreted as indicating that “NASA and the Space Program were not important to the Administration. Given the current condition of the space industry, this would be an unfortunate inference.” Donald Kendall and Nixon assistant Leonard Garment knew Roger Lewis and indicated that “he appears to be an exceedingly able individual and would make an excellent spokesman for NASA and the Administration.” Based on this assessment, Flanigan recom­mended offering the NASA job to Lewis.23

It is not clear from the available record whether that recommendation was accepted and Roger Lewis rejected the offer, or whether action was deferred.

At any rate, Lewis was not nominated, and a month later, Flanigan was still seeking ideas for people to become NASA administrator.24 Paine left NASA on September 15, 1970; the next day, George Low became NASA’s act­ing administrator. Rather than being only a short-term replacement, Low would serve in that role for the next eight months. It fell to him to take the next steps in defining the program that NASA would pursue in the 1970s, particularly in terms of the negotiations with respect to NASA’s FY1972 budget. In taking on that responsibility, Low would be dealing with a mix of new and continuing members of the Nixon White House. His style was very different than that of Tom Paine, but he had little more success than Paine in getting the kind of commitment to a major future program that NASA so badly wanted.