Give Allen Permanent Leave

THE SERENDIPITOUS CASE OF Richard Allen suffers from a problem of definition. The furor aroused by the national security adviser's receipt of $1000 from a Japanese magazine and subsequent memory lapse on the subject obscures the more important questions about him. We certainly don't know his motives in the case; but we must agree with his own assessment that he showed "bad judgement." But regardless of his culpability in the thousand-dollar-caper, Allen has demonstrated both before and after his appointment to this key post a remarkable unsuitability to it. President Reagan would be doing us all a service by dismissing Allen immediately.

Allen's career before he came to the Reagan White House was a long journey in and out of the revolving doors of government and "consulting"--a murky profession in which his sole responsibility seems to have been the use of his government contacts. The shabbiest of Allen's clients was Robert Vesco, the convicted swindler and professional refugee, who paid Allen $10,000 a month to do whatever it is a government consultant does. A Japanese automobile company also paid Allen a substantial sum to cultivate its interests in the government-consulting netherworld. All of these activities, however distasteful they might be, appear perfectly legal, but they raise disturbing questions about Allen's fitness to help guide the foreign policy of a nation. Allen seems to know this, for he has now admitted to making "mistakes," like failing to list his consulting clients and giving the wrong date of the sale of his business on a conflict of interest disclosure statement.

The magazine affair thus should be seen in the context of Allen's previous activities. He was just doing "old friend" Tomotso Takese a favor by setting up the interview and did not want to offend the Japanese visitors by refusing the thousand dollars. But Allen should have remembered that the "gift" violated American standards of ethics, the standards a high White House official is obliged to uphold. His entire career, in fact, has displayed a personal moral code highly inappropriate for a man in his position. Because of this continued record of memory lapses, mistakes, and most importantly, questionable morality on Allen's part, President Reagan should turn Richard Allen's administrative leave into a permanent firing.