SCHWARTZ OUSTER WORRIES JOHNSON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000101140005-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2014
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: March 9, 1966
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/01/06: CIA-RDP73-00475R000101140005-6
NEW YORK TIMES
MAR 9 1966
0 r8CFPNARTZ OUSTER
!WORRIES JOHNSON
?; He Is Said to Fear Loss of
? , 1.. Support Among Liberals
*?
By JOILN D. POMFRET
specie to The New York Times
? ?
? . ? WASHINGTON, March 8
? ',President Johnson was described
today by informed sources as
? ;seriously concerned about the
possible political repercussions
:. of action that forced Abba P.
;Schwartz out of his high post
in the State Department.
Mr. Schwartz submitted his
'resignation to the White House
Friday night as administrator
of the Bureau of Security and
? Consular Affairs. He said it had
been offered 24 hours after he
had learned that he was to. be
ithe principal . victim of. a ? reor-
ganizaUon abolishing his
bureau.
This morning, informed
sources said, Mr. Johnson was
In touch with Secretary of State
Dean Rusk to inquire whether
some way could be found to
keep Mr. Schwartz In the de-
tpartment to handle refugee
matters.
Mr. Schwartz was an early
member of Americans for Dem-
ocratic Action, a liberal wing
of the Democratic party, and a
oiose friend of Mrs. Franklin
D. Roosevelt. His standing is
high among liberal Democrats
nationally, and particularly with
Liberal Democrats in New York.
During the 1964 election cam-
paign, Mr. Schwartz cam-
paigned In the New York Jew-
ish community for Senator
Robert F. Kennedy, who said
today: "His departure Is a loss
to the government he served."
The President' is aware that
his own status with New York
Liberal Democrats has been slip-
ping, principally? because of
their doubts about his Vietnam
?- ?
policy. He recently has inquired
of visitors what he can do to
restore his standing with these
Democrats.
The President was said to be
concerned lest his standing be
further eroded by the Schwartz
affair.
For many in the academic
community to whom such mat-
ters are important, Mr. Schwartz
had come to represent a policy
of eliminating what they felt
were petty and unwarranted
restrictions on treeckon of
American citizens to travel
abroad.
Academic sources reported to-
day that there was considerable
concern as to whether the de-
parture of Mr. Schwartz ,might
signal reinstatement of more
stringent restrictions on travel.
One Important liberal acad-
emician, Prof. John Kenneth
Galbraith of Harvard Univer-
sity, said in a telephone inter-
view from Cambridge, Mass.:
'If every time the State De-
Abba Schwartz it has to fire'
him, it is something about
which the whole liberal com-
munity is going to be eon-.
cerned and deeply angry. I am.
sure that, the President could
not have been aware of the
situation."
In New York, R. Peter.
Straus, a candidate for the Re-
form Democeatic designation in
the 19th Congressional District
In Manhattan, disclosed that he,
had urged the President and.
Mr. Rusk to change the deci-
sion that forced Mr. Schwartz
out.
Mr. Straus, who Is president
of radio station WMCA, wants
to be the Reform Democrats'
choice to run against Represent-
ative Leonard Farbstein In the
Democratic primary In June.
He said In telegrams to the
President and the Secretary
that ? the resignation of Mr.
Schwartz could only be taken
as "a bad blow to the liberal
immigration policies that began
with the Kennedy Administra-
pertinent uncovers a liberal itUce Uon;", ' ? . ?? ? ,. ?,.? ? ;
' ? ?
. . .
:????
Declassified in Part - Sanitized C9joy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/01/06: CIA-RDP73-00475R00010114nnn