Editing Dean Rusk (section)

===End of term===
Nixon won the election and Rusk prepared to leave office January 20, 1969. On December 1, 1968, citing the halt of bombing in North Vietnam, Rusk said that the Soviet Union would need to come forward and do what it could to forward peace talks in southeast Asia.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1968/12/02/page/9/article/rusk-urges-soviet-peace-role|title=Rusk Urges Soviet Peace Role|first=William|last=Kling|date=December 1, 1968|newspaper=Chicago Tribune}}</ref> On December 22, Rusk appeared on television to officially confirm the 82 surviving crew members of the [[USS Pueblo (AGER-2)|USS ''Pueblo'']] intelligence ship, speaking on behalf of the hospitalized President Johnson.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1968/12/23/page/1/article/rusk-breaks-pueblo-news-on-television|title=Rusk Breaks Pueblo News on Television|date=December 22, 1968|newspaper=Chicago Tribune}}</ref>

In the last days of the Johnson administration, the president wanted to nominate Rusk to the Supreme Court.<ref name="Langguth 533">Langguth, A.J. ''Our Vietnam 1954–1975'', 2000 p.533</ref> Although Rusk had studied the law, he did not have a law degree nor had he ever practiced law, but Johnson pointed out that the constitution did not require legal experience to serve on the Supreme Court and "I've already talked to Dick Russell and he said you'd be confirmed easily."<ref name="Langguth 533"/> However, Johnson failed to reckon with Senator [[James Eastland]], the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who was also a white supremacist and a supporter of segregation.<ref>Langguth, A.J. ''Our Vietnam 1954–1975'', 2000 p.533-534</ref> Though Eastland was a fellow Southerner, he had neither forgotten nor forgiven Rusk for allowing his daughter to marry a black man. Eastland announced he would not confirm Rusk if he were nominated to the Supreme Court.

On January 2, 1969, Rusk met with five Jewish American leaders in his office to assure them the US had not changed its policy in the Middle East of recognizing the sovereignty of Israel. One of the leaders, the American-Israeli Public Affairs committee's Irving Kane, said afterward that Rusk had successfully convinced him.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1969/01/03/page/7/article/arab-recognition-of-israel-still-u-s-goal-says-rusk|title=Arab Recognition of Israel Still U.S. Goal, Says Rusk|first=James|last=Yuenger|date=January 2, 1969|newspaper=Chicago Tribune}}</ref>