OFFICIAL RESIGNS IN DISMAY

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31539, 29 November 1967, Page 17

OFFICIAL RESIGNS IN DISMAY

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) WASHINGTON. Nov. 28.

Mr Charles Frankel, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, has resigned because of disagreement with Administration and Congressional policies.

He has been dismayed over the United States Vietnam policy, his associates said. However, the main cause was an even greater disappointment at failure of Congress to appropriate money for educational and cultural attaches abroad to handle the exchange programme, they added.

The White House announced that President Johnson has accepted Mr Frankel’s resignation, as from December 31. His letter of resignation, dated November 15, said only that he wanted to return to private life. ,

Mr Frankel, aged 49, a noted academic, is expected to return to Columbia University. Officials said Mr Frankel joined the Department of State in 1965 with high hopes that he was to administer a growing programme of cultural and educational exchanges with foreign nations, but soon found the bureaucratic straitjacket too confining. Congress, in 1966, authorised the appointment of attaches at embassies abroad to oversee the enlarged exchange programme, but subsequently refused to appropriate the necessary funds.

Mr Frankel also has been opposed to America’s policy in Vietnam, but since this was not his field he did not

come into direct conflict with Secretary of State, Mr Dean Rusk, and others on the issue. He is known to have a very high regard for Mr Rusk, despite his feeling that the secretary is wrong about Vietnam. Mr Frankel said he did not want to discuss the reasons for his leaving, but wanted it made clear that “I am not marching out in protest.” He said he thought there was ample scope for acade-

mica in the Government and wanted to say nothing which would discourage them from serving their country. He received his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1946 after serving in the United States Navy with the rank of lieutenant during the Second World War. He was a member of the philosophy department of Columbia from 1939 to 1965, and a professor from 1956 to 1965.