Sheehan Says Kissinger Told State Department to Brief Him

Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger '50 authorized his subordinates to brief a Harvard research fellow on Kissinger's negotiations in the Middle East, and the officials may, "by their own admission," have gone "too far," the research fellow said in a speech at Lowell House last night.

Edward R.F. Sheehan, research fellow for the Harvard Center for International Affairs, authored a controversial study of the negotiations that provoked State Department criticism and led to "reprimands" of two officials in the department.

Sheehan, speaking in the Lowell Junior Common Room before an audience of 50, has hinted before that two State Department officials gave him information for his article in the spring issue of Foreign Policy magazine.

He remained vague last night on exactly how much detail was actually supplied by Kissinger or with his consent.

"I refuse to discuss my sources until the State Department steps forward and admits it was my source--although just one of them," Sheehan said.

Sheehan denied a charge that he received verbatim transcripts of Middle East diplomatic meetings in return for a promise to glorify Kissinger.

"I was sympathetic to him while I criticized him. It is fashionable to blame Kissinger for everything. I wasn't fashionable and I'm happy for having praised him," Sheehan said.