Eisenhower Club Rejects Claussen Membership Bid

The Harvard Eisenhower Club has rejected the application of Frederic P. Claussen '59 for membership because of his "expressed hostility" to the "purposes and continued existence of the HEC."

Claussen, vice-president of the Harvard Young Republican Club, said he was "quite disappointed." This "dictatorial" action "is surprising," he said, since two weeks ago Eliot Bernat '60, president of the HEC, claimed the HYRC was governed "dictatorially" by a "corrupt group." Claussen commented that Bernot "should not criticize another club when his own house is not in order."

Bernat made his accusations before the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Republican Party, in an unsuccessful appeal for a Republican charter for the Eisenhower Club. Claussen gave no importance to the fact that his mother is a member of the Executive Committee which rejected Bernat's petition.

Claussen would be admitted to the HEC if he would "repent of all his conservative beliefs" and become "more liberal," Bernat claimed. Claussen called this stand "quite strange, since I am vice-president of an organization chartered by the Republican Party, of which Eisenhower is the leader. It is paradoxical that any club supporting Eisenhower should reject my application for membership." Like most of the HEC's 30 members, Bernat supports the Stalker-Peterson faction of the HYRC, while Claussen is a member of the Dawson group.

Bernat denies that the conflicts within the HYRC have been carried over to the Eisenhower Club. Claussen will be reconsidered when he decides the HEC "is not as bad" as he presently "thinks it is."

This action followed Bernat's announcement of a membership drive for the club.