Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-12-10


The White House said tn,
without foundation" but com
that Mr.. Kennedy did tell his
advisers to cooperate, and that
some of them refused to do so.
Life said yesterday that the
Presidents intention was for
two Saturday Evening Post
writer's to prepare q chronology
Of the Cuban crisis. but that
their resulting story tended to
make out Mr.. Stevenson as an
appeaser.
Mr.. Stevenson has denied the
role attributed to him in the
Post by writer's Charles Bartlett
and Stewart Alsop. After
three days of controversy. Mr..
Kennedy expressed fullest con-
fidence" in the United Nations
Ambassador.
Called for Strong Position
Life disputed point-by-point
the Post account Of Mr.. Stew
enson's Cuban crisis role. It
said that Mr.. Stevenson, rather
than advocating q soft stand,
as the Post had indicated, Gin
sisted that a very strong United
States position be taken at
once"
The Life article. by its WASH
ington bureau chief John l..
Steele, named no source for
its report which said IN part:
For weeks it was widely
known in Washington that the
President, specifically and d.
rectly, had charged Bartlett,
an old and intimate friend who
is capital correspondent for the
Chattanooga Times, to help
prepare q semi-official chro-
nology Of the events Of the
October crisis.
Bartlett joined talents with
Stewart Alsop, the Saturday
Evening Posts Washington
editor.
Thereafter, on White House
orders, the doors of the State
Department and the Central
Intelligence Agency were
thrown open to the two re-
porters. Neither writer talked
with Stevenson.
Mr.. Stevenson has described
the Post article as q classic
example of irresponsible jour-
nalism" and said it was ''fal-
laciouS from beginning to end,
in every detail"
There was no explanation of
how the two Post writer's could
have erred in reporting Mr.
Stevenson"S position, as Life
maintained, If they had ac-
cess to the secret Government
files that Life said they had.
The files ostenSibly would have
included proposals expressed at
the Security Council meeting.
Pierre Salinger. White House
press secretary. commented on
the Life article at Palm
Springs, Calf, where the Pres
ident was relaxing. THAT story
is absolutely and completely
without foundation" Mr.. Sal
niger said, according to the
Associated Press.
Denies Kennedy Role
In an interview in yester-
days Star, Mr.. Salinger said
the President did not talk
to Mr.. Bartlett about this piece
(the Post article) and this
piece did not result from any
information which Mr.. Bart
lett got from the President. :.
I can state categorically that
the President played no role
whatever in this piece, or as
far as I know in any other
piece Mr.. Bartlett has ever
written"
Mr.. Bartlett, in Washington,
said he would not comment
on the Life article. But in a
story in The Star yesterday,
he wrote that the practice for
Presidents to have particular
newspapermen as allies and
use them as pipelines for White
House views was a dead one.
The Star was told that Sec
rotary Of Defense Mcnamara
refused to let any Pentagon
officials talk about crisis de-
tails 70 reporters.
Because Of Mr.. McNamara's
refusal, Mr.. Bartlett and Mr..
Alsop did not get the stories OF
the Secretary Of Defense, Dep
uty Secretary Of Defense Ros-
well Gilpatric, Assistant Sec
rotary Of Defense Paul Mite
or Gen. Maxwell d. Taylor.
chairman Of the Joint Chiefs
Of Staff. These were the most