DREW PEARSON S -/I609 Otepka Promotion Delights Nazis

WASHINGTON — Nobody in officials, the most important Washington would take se- being Walt Whitman Rostow, riously the small neo-Nazi the MIT professor who be- movement headed by Willis came President Kennedy's national security adviser. Ros- Carto and his front, the Lib- tow's father was a Socialist erty Lobby, were it not for who during World War I had the long list of congressmen so admired Socialist leader who are in their debt, thanks Eugene Debs that he named to campaign contributions. one son Eugene Debs Rostow, 1 The situation might be com- the other Walt Whitman Ros- pared to that in Germany tow, in honor of the great when nobody took Adolf Hitler liberal American poet. and his Munich beer hall There were anti-Semitic I brown shirts seriously until overtones in Otepka's taking certain Ruhr industrialists de- classified papers to Sen. cided to back them. Dodd, since Rostow is JeWish. Today in Washington the There was another impor- Liberty Lobby, thanks to its tant aftermath. Rostow be- influence in Congress, has been getting some unpub- licized results. Its most im- port a n t tri- umph is the promotion of Otto Otepka, last remnant of Joe McCar- 1,.= thy's era, to DREW PEARSON a $36,000 job on the Subver- sive Activities Control Board. Equally important was the nomination of Otepka's vigor- ous right-wing attorney, Rog- er Robb, to the U.S. Court of Appeals. It was the persistent cross- examination by Robb of State Department officials, plus the persistent campaign of the Liberty Lobby, plus help from the John Birch Society, which led to Otepka's promotion from the $14,000 State Depart- ment job from which he was dropped to the job on the sub- versive board at over twice his previous salary. The facts in the case are extremely important. Otepka got into trouble with Secre- tary of State Dean Rusk when he took classified papers to Sen. Tom Dodd of Connecti- cut, later censured by the Senate when his own files were copied by his employes. The classified papers Otep- -AP WIREPHOTO. ka gave Dodd pertained to the OTTO F. OTEPKA security clearance of several came one of the leading 1966, read: "The Barristers hawks of the Kennedy-John- Club: Power and Prejudice, son administrations. Many of 245 Lawyers—All White Gen- his friends and associates are tiles." convinced that this was to On July 13, 1965, the Post quoted Barristers Club Presi- prove he was not pro-Commu- dent Hugh R. H. Smith as say- nist, as alleged by Otepka ing "there are Jews on the and the Liberty Lobby. waiting list now." However, it At any rate, it was Rostow took three years to get the who went to Saigon in the one single Jewish lawyer elec- late summer of 1961 and rec- ommended to President Ken- nedy that he heavily increase American military involve- ment. American troops in South Vietnam rose from 1,000 to 18,000 as a result. Later Rostow gave similar hawkish advise to President Johnson, his friends believe, to counteract the unfair accu- sations of the Liberty Lobby and other right wingers who kept up a steady barrage against him because of his Jewish, socialist background. ted in 1968. Otepka's confirmations are Another triumph for the Lib- Ten years before, U.S. Judge Phil Hart, Mich., Edward erty Lobby is the appointment Charles Fahy had resigned Kennedy, Mass., Birch Bayh, of Otepka's attorney, Roger from the club in protest Ind., Quentin Burdick, N.D., Joseph Tydings, Md., Robert Robb, to the D. C. Court of against its restrictive mem- Appeals, second highest court bership. He has long sat on Byrd, W. Va., Sam Ervin, in the United States. the Court of Appeals on which N.C., all Democrats, with Hi- Robb served as attorney for Robb will also serve — if ram Fong, Hawaii, Hugh the Atomic Energy Commis- confirmed by the Senate. Scott, Pa., Charles Mathias, sion when it purged Dr. Rob- Robb, as an inner circle Mr., and Marlow Cook, Ky., ert Oppenheimer during the member of the Barristers Republicans. Joe McCarthy witch - hunting Club, obviously was familiar days. He has represented va- with its discrimination policy. rious other spectacular right- He probably did not know KC Will Hear wing or conflict - of - interest about the Nazi sympathies of clients such as Fulton Lewis, Willis Carto, founder of the Judge Blessing Sherman Adams, Bernard Liberty Lobby, prior to 1966. Juvenile Court Judge Leo Goldfine and Air Force Sec- But in that year this column B. Blessing will address the details regard- retary Harold Talbot. published the Bienville General Assembly, Robb is an able, vigorous ing the Liberty Lobby and Fourth Degree, Knights of Co- Carto's philosophy and as a re- lawyer. But what makes his lumbus, at 8 p.m. tomorrow appointment to a high court sult of a suit brought before at the home of Marquette signigicant at a time when the Court of Appeals — and Council, 314 St. Charles. the Liberty Lobby and its Neo- won by this column — the Nazi leader Willis Carto are details became familiar to the The assembly will conduct a throwing their weight around public, especially to D. C. Mother's Day program May is the fact Robb has also been lawyers. 10, with a Mass at 7 p.m. at a power in the exclusive Bar- It's doubtful President Nix- St. James Major Church, 3736 risters Club, Washington's only on knew much about the Lib- Gentilly blvd. State KC Trea- legal organization with a long erty Lobby's background. The surer James K. Seghers will record of barring Jews and danger is he deferred to such address a banquet following Negroes. potent senators as James the Mass at the Gentilly Only one Jewish attorney. Eastland, the big Mississippi Council Home, 4339 Eastern. Allen Kay, has been admitted cotton planter who is chair- The complete renovation of the in the club's 40 years. man of the Senate Judiciary This happened only after White House in 1948-52 did not Committee, and Sen. Tom uncover its cornerstone. A Art Buchwald, the columnist, Dodd, a member of the com- withdrew from addressing the mittee. mine detector failed to locate Barristers Club four years ago Other committee members a polished brass plaque that when he learned they barred who will vote on Robb's and marks the stone. Jewish members. Following this, the Washington Post in 1965 and 1966 published two articles revealing Jews and Negroes were barred. A post headline of Dec. 12,