◆ SpookStack

For Release Saturdsy or Sunday, December 17 or 18, 1966, or thereafter. THE TENSION MOUNTS The plot thickens, For cue thing, those who is the past have opposed J, Edger Hoover are rushing forverd ~~ without, many of thas, giving eny consider- ation at all to the evidence at hand -- to side with Robert Kennedy in the Curreat contest as to which of ths two wen is to be believed, the dangerous ground rules being, in this case, one or the other, but not both. Take Mr. Murray Keupton, of the New Republic and the New York Post. Mr. Kempton can't stand the FBI because the FEI can't stand Communists, and Comamists are Itke Halen Curley Flynn, whose face belongs on American pie-mixes. Kempton eryptographers will know exactly what I mean; others will have to take wy word for it that Mr. Keapton is absolutely and undeviatingly loyal in his disapproval of anyone engaged in concerning himself with the internal security: vhence the source, {f not the coloration, of his special dislike for J. Eqgar Hoover. "In the moat maladroit analyaia of the sesson, Mr. Kempton writes that "for 20 years we have robed as our chief judge of loyalcy to the nation « man notably incapable of personal loyalty. ‘hen Hoover is in trouble , be will cura in any- body except whoever happens to be President at-the mowent, Former Presidents are no exception; in 1953 Hoover testified to the House Un-American Activities Comaittes that Harry Truman had prometed a government employe even after he *kmew’ from FAI reports that the aan was a Communist agent.” From such analysia one supposes that we must distrust Mr. Hoover because he will tell the truth when called upon to do so, even if the truth is at the expense of a former attorney general or a President of the United States. Some Call that treason, , But then some go to Kempton for thought, which is like heading south when in search of the North Pole. And Mr. Kempton is not alone, though his alembic captures the subtlest xays of confusion, He is supported by othera, who rail at Mr. Hoover and clamor (as in the case of Mr, James Wechsler of New York) to have him fired, and go on to imply that LE he 2a not, why that is evidence that President Johnson is behind-it-all, pressing his end of che vendetta; or that J, Edgar Hoover is seeking out means to punish Bobby Kennedy fer hia valiant stand on civil rights. Such are the passions, and thus irrational, that rage over the controversy. A few voices come through asking, softly but stubbornly, the relevant questions, They are: how such bugging is going on, und what are the effective limite of the powers of the attorney general and the courts in the matter? If John knova James and James knows Prank Costello, do John’s conversations with James get tapped? Or to go one step closer to the heat, do Janess conversations with Costello get cepped? But surely that is inevitable, since if Costello is te be tapped and he is other than « soliloquiat, he muat be rapped while relking to somebody. MORE ~— Released Exciasively Tore THe WASHINGTON Star SYNDICATE, INC, 444 Madison Ave, New York, N. ¥. 10022 Tes 212-EL 5-7137