LBJ Assures Galbraith That U.S. Will Protect Papandreou from Junta

John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, has been told that President Johnson will "make some representation" in behalf of Andreas Papandreou, son of the former Premier of Greece, who has been imprisoned by the ruling military junta of Greece.

Galbraith called the President last Thursday, urging him to "do everything possible" to protect Papandreou's life. Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, Under Secretary of State, relayed the President's assurances to Galbraith later that day. Galbraith said that "the President had told [Katzenbach]...to tell me to assure associates of Mr. Papandreou that he [the President] was instructing the State Department to intercede."

An ad hoc committee of students and faculty from Harvard and M.I.T., which has circulated a petition to "restore constitutional government and human rights" and "safeguard the lives of all political prisoners" is concerned that the junta is using Papandreou's fate as a ploy to extract aid from the U.S.

But the committee's concern for Papandreou is secondary to its aim of "restoring democracy" and "ending the military junta" in Greece. Their petition was signed by 350 professors from Harvard, M.I.T., Tufts, and Wellesley, and copies were sent last Friday to President Johnson, U Thant, Hubert Humphrey, Senate and House Leaders and Massachusetts Senators Edward W. Brooke and Edward M. Kennedy '54.

The ad hoc committee is now joining forces with the newly-established "Committee for the Restoration of Democratic Government in Greece." This New England organization is dedicated to convincing the U.S. to "disavow" the junta.