Investigations: The Senator & the Lobbyist

• Share

Though he assured the Senate Select Committee on Standards and Conduct that he had "nothing to hide," Thomas Dodd had a lot to explain. Defending himself before six of his peers last week against charges of misconduct, the senior Senator from Connecticut lengthily and indignantly denied any wrongdoing. Taken at face value, his testimony bared instead an unexpected streak of naiveté.

The Senator conceded his liking and respect for Julius Klein, a Chicago-based lobbyist and public relations man whose clients include West German interests. Their relationship, focal point of the ethics committee's initial sessions, was recorded in a voluminous correspondence that Dodd had kept in unlocked files.

"Destroy This Letter." It was this collection of Klein-Dodd letters that disaffected aides had removed, copied and fed to Columnists Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson. Their series of articles accusing the Senator led to the investigation (TIME, July 1). One abrasive letter from Klein in November 1963 upbraided the Senator for not rising to his defense during an investigation of foreign lobbying by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Dodd is a member. "What are you afraid of?" demanded Klein. "Do you consider friendship a one-way street?

All I can say is I am ashamed of you." Dodd did his best to placate the lobbyist, who returned to the offensive with repeated, sometimes brusque requests that the Senator help him to overcome German doubts about renewing Klein's lucrative public relations contracts.

In August 1964 Klein sent Dodd the draft of a letter that he wanted dispatched—over Dodd's signature—to Dr. Ludger Westrick, an aide to Chancellor Ludwig Erhard and a key figure in the dispute about the continuation of Klein's contracts. "Please destroy this letter," Klein added. "I made no copy." Dodd duly sent Westrick the missive, which oozed polysaturated praise of Klein in Klein's own words ("He has the confidence of my Democratic and Republican colleagues and is especially close to our leaders"), but preserved copies of the correspondence because he saw nothing "sinister" about it. Klein's troubles persisted, and Dodd sent Westrick a second ghosted letter describing Klein as an "adviser and counsel" cherished not only by Congressional Democrats and Republicans but also by the Administration.

"Not Ashamed." Dodd explained under interrogation that he had relayed the letters almost verbatim because he was "hurried or harried," and in any case agreed with Klein's view of Klein. The Senator also believed that Klein had been unfairly characterized in the German press as being on trial during the Foreign Relations Committee investigation. Before Dodd went to Germany in April 1964, he was admittedly "anxious to do anything I could" to set Klein's record straight. Yet Dodd insisted that he did not make the trip as an "advocate or agent" for the lobbyist but as a fact finder for the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. Though he saw several West German officials, he said that he mentioned Klein only once, to former Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, and then only after Adenauer raised the subject.