No Reagan Complex

The White House last week attacked Stanford University in a strongly worded letter for stipulating that a proposed Reagan Presidential complex not include a public affairs center which would have been run by the Hoover Institution, a loosely affiliated political think tank.

The letter was written in response to a Board of Trustees warning that a Hoover-administered center "has little chance of approval." And it appears to rule out any chance that a Reagan complex will come to Stanford unless the Board accepts in its entirely the plan proposed by Hoover and endorsed by the White House.

Signed by Presidential Counselor Edwin Meese and addressed to Board President William Kimball, the letter charges that University President Donald Kennedy has broken a longtime commitment to the Presidential library complex by opposing the idea of a Hoover-run center.

"Frankly, I do not understand the specific reasons why you and some of the other trustees apparently are opposed to having the proposed center for public affairs administered by the Hoover Institution," said Meese in the letter.

Kennedy said that the letter would have little influence on Stanford's decision.