White House Denies Action In Stilts Veto

P. Kenneth O'Donnell '49, special assistant to President Kennedy, emphatically denied last week that Kennedy had pressured Gov. Volpe into vetoing the John Briston Sullivan petition for a 15-story office building on stilts in the Square.

Interviewed at the President's office in the White House, O'Donnell asserted that there was no factual basis for a New York Times story that Kennedy had entered the controversy by "quietly letting his views be known in the right places."

Although Kennedy knew about the Sullivan petition to buy Cambridge Common land across from Littauer Center, O'Donnell maintained that "the President had nothing to do with Gov. Volpe's veto of the bill."

According to the Times story, Kennedy had instructed O'Donnell to contact leading Massachusetts Democrats and urge that they work against the bill.

It was also reported that McGeorge Bundy, former Dean of the Faculty and now Kennedy's special assistant for national security, had been asked by Cambridge friends, including members of the University, to seek White House intervention. Kennedy had asked Bundy to rally support among local Republicans, the Times said.

O'Donnell told the CRIMSON that Volpe's veto and the State Senate's subsequent 19-17 decision to uphold it were not caused by any pressure or influence from the Kennedy Administration. He implied that any pressure placed on Volpe came from local sources, such as the University and the Cambridge Civic Association.