Galbraith Retells Goldberg's Story

John Kenneth Galbraith, Warburg Professor of Economics, has offered his own version of Arthur J. Goldberg's 1965 resignation from the Supreme Court, contradicting that of former president Lyndon B. Johnson published in Johnson's memoirs in Wednesday's New York Times.

According to Johnson, he had a conversation with Galbraith at the White House shortly after the death of Adlai Stevenson, then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, in which Galbraith told him that Goldberg was "bored" with the court and wanted a more challenging position.

Johnson said he later discussed with Goldberg the possibility of an appointment as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, but Goldberg had told him he was more interested in foreign affairs. The next day, Johnson said, Goldberg called presidential assistant Jack Valenti and requested the U.N. appointment.

An article by Neil Sheehan accompanying the memoirs in Wednesday's Times quotes Goldberg as calling Johnson's story "an Orwellian version." Describing his position on the Supreme Court as "the culmination of a life's ambition," Goldberg told the Times he left the court reluctantly in the hope of changing the president's policy concerning the war in Vietnam.

Goldberg told Peter Lisagor of the Chicago Daily News. "I could not be--and never was--'bored' with the great work the Supreme Court is charged with doing under our Constitution."

Galbraith said yesterday that if Goldberg had used the word "bored," it was an error.

"Shortly after Stevenson's death. Johnson talked with me about a possible successor. I proposed Goldberg on the basis of a conversation which I had had with him in which he said that the change from an active life to the court was a traumatic one." Galbraith said.

"It was certainly my impression that Goldberg was reluctant to leave the court and left only under the President's persuasion." Galbraith said. He said he suggested Goldberg to Johnson because he knew how the Justice stood on the war.

Johnson's memoirs, entitled "Vantage Point," ran for ten days in the Times and the Washington Post. Doris Kearns, assistant professor of Government ton leavel, wrote much of the memoirs for Johnson