qauarsfieull ilibiKorif: Doughty Bac ker of Nixon

By Morton 1;rig;c17e4f for a vacation, took out a bank loan of chicaeo Sun-ThnCs $3,000, got a friend to contribute $2,000, President Nixon might have pre- and bought an ad in one newspaper, ferred having his old friend, Donald . Kendall of Pepsi Cola, lead a national He opened a $100-a-month office in campaign of the faithful in his defense. Providence, R.I., and founded a group Instead he got a doughty retired called the National Citizens Committee from Rehoboth, Mass., who is doing a for Fairness to the Presidency, whose much better job. letterhead contains names no more no- In classic corporate style, Kendall got table than actress Anne Baxter, Mrs. a letterhead full of national notables to- Herbert Stein, wife of the chairman of gether—including comedian Bob Hope, the President's Council of Economic the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, Mamie Advisers, and Maj. Gen. Julius Klein Eisenhower and industrialist David of Chicago. Packard—and founded Americans for From the committee's modest begin- the Presidency. nings last summer, a pro-Nixon move- Kendall's group placed ads in 145 ment has blossomed that now includes newspapers, raising $200,000. From 233 supporting groups containing, Rabbi larger individual contributors whose Korff estimated,. 2,300,000 members names it will not disclose, it got another growing at the rate of 25,000 to 30,000 $150,000. It has opened an office in the per week. high-rent district of Washington, hired The Kendall organization, by com- the former congressional relations di- parison, has gathered some 35,000 sup- rector of the Cost of Living Council, porters, according to its field director, and put together a new ad campaign to Robert E. Bradford. be mounted in the near future. The White House's official liaison Rabbi Baruch Korff with Presi- Rabbi Baruch Korff, on the other man for "supporting groups" on the- im- dent Nixon at rally last month. hand, began with $1,200 he had saved See SUPPORT, All, Col. 1

that Teamsters union Presi- counselling a youth ap- dent Frank E. Fitzsimmons proaChing his bar mitzvah SUPPORT, From Al was the group's largest con- or a couple about to em- bark on the adventure of peachment question, Bruce tributor — at $25,000 - Korff said he saw to it that marriage. Herschensohn, said Korff's the information was put out. Even though he has had is the largest and most ef- extensive interviews lately, fective of them all and that He also volunteered that insurance tycoon W. Clem- with the President and Vice he has had little contact President of the United with Kendall's. ent Stone has contributed Although Herschensohn $3,000, and that the Republi. States, he said that he would said that he spends "about can National Committee is rather be back at his reli- eight hours a day, or half dunning the organization gious duties than involved my time" on supporting for $4,855 that it spent mail- in politics. groups, both the White ing out letters to heads of "I don't know if I even House and Korff vehement- households in the districts like politicians," he said. ly deny that the Korff com- of members of the Judiciary "So many of them go for mittee's activities are pro- Committee. the jugular and lose sight grammed by the President's In appearance, the Wash- of the real virtues of man. staff. i n g t on headquarters of They forget that "there is The Korff committee has Korff's committee are remi- not a righteous man who sponsored two Washington niscent of nothing so much does not know sin or a sin- rallies attended by Mr. Nix- as the dingy digs of the late ner who does not have some on, and is planning a third campaign organization of redeeming features." on July 18 around the theme Sen. George McGovern (D- There is a marked con- "Target 38"—the 38 referr- S.D.). trast between Korff's gen- ing to the members of the In a narrow old building tle conversation and his House Judiciary Committee with a matchbox-sized ele- pro-Nixon campaign rheto- considering President Nix- vator, the office is paper- ric. The latter tends to be on's impeachment. strewn and apparently fur- harsh: his opposition is !Abe Korff estimated that total nished from a second-hand rankest consortium of sabo- contributions to his commit- store. teurs." History will judge tee so far amount to $1 mil- Korff is nearing 60, but the media "for what they lion. In contrast to Brad- looks older. He speaks de- are—assassins." Dr. Daniel ford, he volunteered to liberately and gently in a ElIsberg, who gave the Pen- allow a reporter to "amine Ukranian accent, sprinkling tagon Papers to the press, the group's contributor list. his conversation with quota- is a "thief," a "spy" and a When the committee's tions from the Torah and "traitor." treasurer was reluctant to from Jewish folksayings. It The Rev. Robert Drinan, part with the information is not hard to imagine him an anti-Nixon member of the Judiciary Committee, is "a mad monk, like Ras- equate that cause with the putin." other cause," he said. "The A friead who does not Irgun—this was to salvage share Korff s politics, Rabbi the remnants of genocide, Nathan Roses of Provi- to atone for the iniquity of dence, RI., said Korff "is the whole world and rebuild a very gentle and compas- sionate Malt" a nation. At the same time, Rosen "How, can you remotely said, "He is a very unusual equate this to Ellsberg? personality. He esponses mi- Here's an individual who nority causes that other did more to turther Ameri- people seem to neglect. He can involvement in Vietnam gives himself to causes, and than many of his Teers. nothing will stop him from Let's suppose he had a a cause that he wants to change of heart. Do you pursue." turn traitor? Do you become In tracing his personal a spy? You can have a history, Korff said that "a change of heart without per- man is born as an infant, fidy, without theft. You can- a man is responsible for his not equate the birth of a own creation, but the condi- nation with an Ellsberg." tions in which he lives help In his current cause, shape him. Mine was Korff said that it is the shaped by bloodshed and presidency that he is trying terror." to preserve, not merely Mr. He refers to the death of Nixon. his mother in a Russian po- "Those whose hatred we grom, and his destiny, at are trying to counteract not the age of 23, was to nego- only Wish to destroy Rich- tiate with the Nazi govern. ard Nixon," he said, "but the ment "to buy at $25 presidency. or $26 a head." is a link in the chain of the . An adviser to the War presidency, and when you Refuge Board, "I had to weaken that link, you will plead with President Roose- destroy the chain." Finally I got them through to Turkey and appealed to Mr. Nixon, he said, is the the man who became Pope victim of a "vendetta" by John XXIII to make them the press and, perhaps, of a Christians in order to save conspiracy by "the unknown their lives." element of the CIA." After the war. Korff said, Now, he said, Mr. Nixon is "I worked with Menachem being judged by a group— Begin (now a member of the the Judiciary Committee— Israeli parliament) and that is stacked against him. aided the Stern group and " 'Who shall ascend to the the Irgun in smuggling aims mountain of the Lord, who shall sit in His holy place— See SUPPORT, A15, Col. 1 he who has a clean hand and a pure heart,' " said the rabbi. That standard, he said, Ju- SUPPORT, From All diciary Chairman Rep. Peter W. Rodino Jr. ID-N J.Ydoes and refugees" into Pales- not meet, by virture of hav- tine. ing received campaign con- He acknowledged, in in- tributions from "the arch- terviews now, that the Irgun deacon of impeachment, Zvai Leumi and Stern gang George Meany," president were terrorists, and he does of the AFL-CIO. not approve of the deaths In July, Korff said, his they caused, but said: "After committee's rally, "will fo- all, the was cus on the malignancy in not handed its freedom on a the House Judiciary Com- silver platter, either." mittee," meaning the mme- Korff would not stand for bers who, he said, have de- a comparison to be drawn clared themselves in favor between his aiding terror- of impeachment. ists in a cause in which he "Those who have not been believed—the birth of Israel affected should quarantine —and Dr. Ellsberg's engag- the malignancy," he said, ing in "theft" in the cause meaning that the purpose of which he claims he was the rally will be to cause serving—salvation of democ- undecided committee mem- racy in the United States. bers to force the seven who "You cannot• remotely have declared their position to disqualify themselves.