Talbott Selected for No. 2 Post at State Dept. : Government: Christopher names Clinton’s friend, citing his foreign policy expertise and youth. Easy Senate confirmation is predicted.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher officially named Strobe Talbott, a former journalist and old friend of President Clinton, as deputy secretary of state on Tuesday, saying it was a combination of Talbott’s foreign policy expertise, youth and experience outside of government that prompted his selection.

Talbott, 47, currently an ambassador-at-large at the State Department and special adviser on the former Soviet Union, will take on his new responsibilities while continuing to be the department’s point man on that region.

Talbott, who has only eight months of diplomatic experience, vaulted over several senior officials to the department’s No. 2 post. Appearing at Christopher’s side at a news conference at the Federal Building in Westwood, Talbott said: “I relish the chance to broaden out a bit and be a part of what I see is the great adventure of the United States trying to lead the rest of the world in building a true post-Cold War international security order.”

Christopher, who is spending the holidays in Santa Barbara, said: “It seemed to me very desirable to have somebody from the President’s generation, an experienced mature person like Strobe Talbott, someone who brings the vigor and drive and aggressiveness of youth.”

Clinton said he was “delighted” at Christopher’s selection of Talbott.

“I have known and respected Ambassador Talbott for over 25 years and have always found him to be a man of great ability, intellect and vision,” the President said in a statement from Little Rock, Ark., where he is vacationing.

Talbott faces Senate confirmation hearings next month. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, predicted easy confirmation and praised Talbott as understanding “more than most people the enormous long-term stakes there are in the former Soviet Union.”

Talbott will become Christopher’s alter ego while the secretary is on his frequent travels across the globe. Christopher’s first deputy, Clifton Wharton Jr., resigned amid reports he was dissatisfied that he had not been given much of consequence to do in the job beyond administrative tasks, such as assessing the U.S. aid program.

Talbott heaped praise on Christopher and pledged to work closely with career diplomats and with Clinton’s national security adviser, Anthony Lake.

“Over the year that Secretary Christopher and I have been working together in rather close quarters . . . I have had numerous occasions to admire his judgment,” Talbott said. “I hope that his judgment is up to its normally high standards in the personnel decision he is announcing today.”

Before making the selection, Christopher said he consulted with an array of top officials, including former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who recommended he select a strong policy expert outside the foreign service bureaucracy.

Talbott fits that description. Before joining the Clinton Administration he was a writer and editor for Time magazine. Talbott has known Clinton since 1969 when the two shared a room as Rhodes scholars at Oxford University. Christopher and Talbott are also associates going back 15 years, once serving together on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Christopher said he intends to focus more on strategic concerns in 1994, such as the former Soviet republics.

Profile: Strobe Talbott

Background on Strobe Talbott, nominee for the post of deputy secretary of state:

* Age: 47

* Education: Bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale; Rhodes scholar at Oxford.

* Career: After years as correspondent, he was named Washington bureau chief for Time magazine in 1985; named editor-at-large in 1989; appointed ambassador-at- large and special adviser on the former Soviet Republics by Clinton in April, 1993. He has written five books and was the translator of the late Russian leader Nikita S. Khrushchev’s memoirs.

* Personal: Wife, Brooke Lloyd Shearer, White House Fellowships director; children, Devin Lloyd and Adrian Nelson.