June 17, 1971

Sen rejects, 55‐42, McGovern‐Hatfield amendment to selective service act that would have required withdrawal of all US forces by Dec ‘31; earlier, Sen defeated, 52‐44, compromise amendment to same bill by Sen Chiles that set Juno 1, ‘72 withdrawal date; considerable reluctance seen to impose deadline on Nixon; Sen Stennis urges that Pres not be relieved of responsibility in handling war; Hatfield says Cong has const responsibility for the war and the power to end it

R F Cudak, serving 7‐yr prison term for mail theft, tells Sen subcom he committed nearly 200 thefts involving more than $100‐million worth of goods at 17 airports between Sept ‘66 and Sept ‘70; says he stole cash, jewelry, stocks, bonds, furs, travelers checks and other valuables from US mail, REA Express and airfreight shipments; says $21.5‐million robbery at Kennedy Internatl 3 yrs ago was committed by W D Ricchiuti and J Schaefer, 2 of his associates; says most of his thefts had been at airports around NY and in Ra but that he ‘hit’ airports as far away as Las Vegas; says he began stealing shortly after being employed at Kennedy Internatl by Northwest Orient Airlines; illus

Dem party's new formula for allocating conv delegates among states is invalidated by Fed Judge J L Green; ruling backs arguments of reform leaders; if sustained on appeal, it will increase conv strength for larger states; challenge to formula, adopted by Natl Com in Feb, was brought by coalition of reform groups and party leaders, including state chmn, vice chmn and natl committeemen from NY and Calif, Pol Reform Center, ADA, H J Samuels and other individual Dems; Natl Com atty Califano defends apportionment formula; says he will appeal ruling to Sup Ct if necessary; reform leaders seek to force Natl Com to adopt ‘1‐Dem, 1‐vote’ formula, 1 that would base relative conv strength soley on how large a vote each state cast for Dem candidate, either in last election or avg over several elections; Natl Com formula is based 47% on party Pres vote and 53% on Electoral Coll strength; potential effects of decision detailed

NYC Health Dept warns parents of tens of thousands of children who have not been immunized against polio and measles of danger of outbreak in light of start of polio season and high incidence of measles cases; speculation on reasons why poor parents do not take advantage of free vaccination offered in city's 87 child health stations; Health Dept's efforts to track down children who have not been immunized noted; chart detailing suggested child immunizations

Govt Operations Com (Moorhead) subcom to hold hearings on Govt's classification procedures and on policies of withholding data from Cong and pub on ground of exec privilege; Moorhead says classification of secret Pentagon study of Vietnam war, which NY Times pub until Nixon Adm got ct order temporarily barring further pub, was done not so much to save security but to ‘save some red faces'; Vice Pres Agnew holds what is proper amount of classified information that should be released is matter for professional judgment