The Klotz Botch

The memo landed on the desks of Commerce Department officials from Secretary Luther Hodges on down to the Weather Bureau director, the maritime administrator and the commissioner of patents. The message was pointed: "At a White House meeting of Cabinet assistants, we have been advised again that speeches of Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officers do not contain sufficient reference to the President and his personal interest in, and compassion with, the problems which face the nation. Liberal quotations from his speeches, past or present, should be used ... It is also to be kept in mind that, in making announcements of local projects, the President should be given a credit line in the lead paragraph."

The directive to build up Jack Kennedy's image fell into Republican hands, and the G.O.P. publication Battle Line gleefully printed it last week. Almost from that moment, the memo was memorialized as "The Klotz Botch."

The title came from the memo's author, Herbert W. Klotz, who serves as special assistant secretary to Secretary Hodges. At a recent White House meeting of Klotz and his counterparts from the other departments of Government, someone suggested that it might be a good idea for officials to give President Kennedy greater play in their speeches and announcements. Everyone else has treated the matter casually, but Herbie Klotz, filled with zeal, hurried back to his office, composed his memo, and sent it flying around the Commerce Department.

When the memo became public, New Frontiersman Klotz heatedly criticized Battle Line for reprinting it. "The Republicans," he said, "must have damn little to write about." Beyond that, he was unfazed: "Sometimes a little emphasis to accentuate the positive is helpful. I feel very happy." As for the Administration, in quieter times it might have been squirmingly embarrassed. But the way bigger news was breaking, the White House paused only for a brief tch-tch at The Klotz Botch. "Herbie's plenty gung ho," shrugged one Presidential aide, "but in the wrong direction." Said White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger dryly: "I don't think anyone in the Administration thinks the President's name is not in the papers enough."

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