Log of Secret JFK Recordings Causes Stir; A Few of the Tapes to Be Released By June

The John F. Kennedy Library's release this week of a log describing 600 tapes of Oval Office conversations recorded during the Kennedy Administration has created interest among historians and surprise among some of those taped.

Though the library announced in 1973 that Kennedy had taped conversations without the knowledge of participants, the release of a 29-page log identifying the officials and the discussion topics has created a new stir.

The log describes conversations occurring between July 1962 and November 1963, on topics ranging from the Cuban missile crisis and the growing U.S. involvement in Vietnam, to domestic issues including labor conflicts and civil rights issues. It mentions more than 100 public officials, such as former presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman and several of Kennedy's top aides.

Kennedy, who controlled the taping system by notifying his secretary outside the Oval Office, also recorded two conversations with Archibald Cox, Loeb University Professor, who was then solicitor general. One conversation dealt with the crisis in admitting a Black student to the University of Mississippi, another on the Tidelands oil issue in Louisiana.

Cox, now head of Common Cause, a public interest group, was unavailable for comment yesterday, and a secretary in Washington said he refused to discuss the matter.

Surprise

The release surprised several Kennedy associates, Theodore C. Sorenson, an administrative special counsel, said he was "dumbfounded." Sen. Russell B. Long (D-La.) said yesterday. "I consider it highly improper for anyone to record the conversation of a friend without information that a recording is being made."

But Richard E. Neustadt, Littsuer Professor of Public Administration, who served as consultant on organization, said, "I don't find it surprising given the availability of technology." James C. Thomson, Jr., curator of the Nieman Fellows, who worked in the State Department, also played down the significance, saying. "Everyone was taping everyone else. The major problem in the early Kennedy years," he added, "was the fear that [then-Attorney General] Robert Kennedy was taping all of us."

The historical value of the tapes will not be known until the actual transcripts are released. Dan H. Fenn, Jr., director of the library, said this week they would "become the primary source on how John F. Kennedy's mind worked." Neustadt said that they would serve as "appropriate supplements to documents," stressing the insight from the tone of voice used by those taped. Their value also hinges on the quality of the tapes, he added.

Some of the recordings, mostly the phone conversations, are very clear, while there is "weaker quality" in tapes of meetings, Fenn said He was not sure how they compared to the tapes President Richard M. Nixon made during his administration.

Fenn said yesterday that work began on the tapes--consisting of 68 dictabelts--in 1976 when the library obtained them. The log, a "finder's index," was completed recently, and some transcripts will be released early this summer, he added. Some tapes, containing classified information, will have to be cleared with the State Department and may never be available in their entirety.

The Kennedy Library, a branch of the national archives, has reported problems recently in dropping attendance Fenn was uncertain that the attention resulting from the release of the tapes would boost visitation, but said it would probably increase the amount of research done there.