Quayle denies special treatment

Press, 24 August 1988, Page 12

Quayle denies special treatment

The embattled Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, Dan Quayle, trying to stifle a controversy over his Vietnamera military duty, said, yesterday he asked for no special treatment to join the National Guard. Former commanding officers said no influence was used on his behalf. “I asked no-one for special treatment and

none was needed because there were vacancies in my unit before, during and after the time that I joined the Indiana National Guard,” the 41-year-old Indiana senator said in an address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. Mr Quayle, who was little known nationally before the Vice-President, George Bush, chose him

as his running mate, has been mired in controversy over whether improper influence got him into the mainly home-service National Guard in 1969 and whether he entered it to avoid possible Vietnam War combat duty. Mr Quayle is strongly hawkish on military issues. But the flap appeared not to have hurt Mr Bush

in the opinion polls, with a new poll yesterday showing him taking a sixpoint lead over the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis — a swing of 23 points since before last week’s Republican national convention. However, the CBS News poll, which showed Mr Bush leading 46 per cent to 40 per cent for Mr Dukakis, also found the

Democratic Vice-Presi-dential nominee, Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, preferred by 41 per cent, with only 28 per cent for Mr Quayle. Mr Quayle, from a wealthy and influential newspaper publishing family, has admitted his family made some telephone calls on his behalf, but says he did nothing improper.