WHY CARTER WANTS SCHLESINGER TO STAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100170034-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 19, 2007
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: June 14, 1979
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/19: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100170034-9
ARTICLE A-?Z'a,:,7a NEW YORK HIES
ON PAG 14 JCTir_~ 1979
STAT
in a mlitical and s\Vhy Carter Mfants I cial vacuum.-
-9 ? people who are the greatest political li-
In ih . r.ap .. 1. . n -% 7, abilities to the President. They are the
Special to The New York Times eted some high national security post. teem, respects them, needs, them."
1J1'.4SHINGTON, June 13- President At embassy dinners he seemed less in- Others contend that the political cost.
Carter's determination to stick with terested in talking about energy than in of forcing Mlr. Schlesinger out of the-
James R. Schlesinger, despite Con- jousting eagerly with liberals over how Administration could be too high. As a.
James
pressures for his resignation to handle the Russians. conservative Republican with hard-
and despite advice from senior White In mid-March, pressures for him to line foreign policy views, they assert,
House aides that the blunt-spoken- quit boiled over. During a testy hearing he could become an outspoken oppol
Energy Secretary has be- before the Senate Energy Committee, i neat of the President's arms control
come a political liability, two Democratic liberals - George Mt- treaty with the Soviet Union if pushed
News tells a great deal about Govern of South Dakota and John A. out of office.
Analysis Jimmy Carter. Durkin of New Hampshire - called `Jim Schlesinger out of the Governs.
The President has al- - 1Mr. Schlesinger's policies "a disaster" went is much more dangerous than
ready established arepo- and demanded his resignation. said Jim Schlesinger in the Government t-Department tation for loyalty to subordinates under "I have offered it several times," a high Enemy t him out w der-
Bert Lane Andrew Young and - Mr. Schlesinger snapped back. "This is clef. They don t wane him out waner-
_milton Jordan. His intimates sa ing around, speaking against SALT.
Y not a responsibility that is entirely ? And President Carter cannot dismiss
that, with critics assailing Mr. Schles pleasurable on a day-today basis." Mr. Schlesinger and make him a scape.
inger, the President is far from recep-
tive to the idea of getting rid of him- Mr. Schlesinger goat for public dissatisfaction with the
that the President had refused to let i Administration's energy policy, White
"His natural loyalty has been rein him resign.. , House officials say, because that would
forced by seeing one member of his Ad- The ties that unite them areperson- be .admitting that the policy was
ministration after another made. the. al. They were forged early in the Car- -wrong.
whipping boy of the press and Con- y when the two men Both the President and Mr. Schles1
ter' Presidency said one White House official. worked together, in virtual isolation inger have been insisting that the, heart
"He's not going to fire Schlesinger in from political advisers, to devise The o
this situation." f the energy problem lies with the re-
"
Ad
i
i
ti
'
Mr. Schlesinger-himself was thinking
of looking for another job a few months
back, after the final push for the iron-
rated Carter-Schlesinger energy plan
passed by Congress. Mr. Schlesinger's
allies in the Administration were sue-
getting aim as a rep acement for Adm.
5tarYsheld,ru her, the cantroversiai Di-
rec'.c'r, of Central Inte$i once.
s
ng
e
ru
a
truth
.
,
his
that.
puritanical accent on conservation and
his disdain for America's profligacy all
appeal to Mr. Carter's own views. The
President readily borrowed the Secre-
tary's battle cry - "the moral equiva-
lent of war"- against wasting energy.
"The President believes in Schles-
inger," commented one Presidential
aide. "He's fascinated by that kind of
Person Schlesinger. Mi_ emote Blumen-
thal, Harold Brown Admiral Turner,
1? rzesinS - academic. Oro es-
sip , bri t, sometimes arrogan t,
people who thirilk ngs thm!!&h ration-
Approved For Release 2007/06/19: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100170034-9
Well, Harold Brawn doesn't fit that
To friends, Mr. Schlesinger acknowl- category, but Schlesinger is one of
edged that he was bored r nning the those people- the technocrats of poli
Energy Department and that he cov- cy. Jimmy Carter feels at home with
m
n
stra
on
s first energy pro- fusal of Con
! gress and the public face
grain. Theirs was the affinity of prob- ~ up to the long-term energy shortage
loin solvers instinctively fashioning a and to begin readjusting the American
textbook answer to the nation's energy way of life to that new reality.
problem rather than trying to create a Almost everyone in the Carter entoi
politically palatable program. . rage echoes what Mr. Carter himself
As a Republican who was Ronald .( reportedly contends in private: Chang..
`? Reagan's foreign policy adviser in 1976, ' ing energy secretaries would pot
4, change the facts. Anyone who replaced
Mr. Schlesinger is ideologically an odd Mr. Schlesinger would inevitably cotae
man out in the Carter Administration. to the- same conclusions about energy
On energy policy, he has clashed with policy and would soon fall victim to the
liberals on the domestic policy staff, same fusillade that- Mr.. Schlesinger
headed by Stuart E. Eizenstat. On for.
now bravely endures,' `
eign policy, he has collided with Secre-
of State Cyrus You know, if you think. about ener-
tary R. Vance, who is gy, Schlesinger is Carter and Carter is
more tolerant toward the Soviet Union Schlesinger," said one highly placed.
than he is. On economics, his gloomy Administration official. "If the. Preaf-
energy forecasts have occasionally , dent fires Schlesinger, it's his saying
upset Treasury Secretary W. Michael ' yes, there are real problems here be-
Blumenthal, who has been trying to yond the problems in Congress and in -
bolster the dollar. the country. It's Jimmy Carter saying
But none of this seems to trouble- that the problem is the Administra
President Carter. Mr. Schlesinger's Lien's fault. And he cannot accept
bent for
tati
th
b
t
l
"