Congressman Says Carter Used Double Standard in Singlaub, Brown Cases

Rep. Joshua Eilberg (D. Pa.) has charged President Carter applied a double standard in refusing to remove Gen. George S. Brown as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff while reassigning Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub for questioning the President’s policy on removing troops from Korea.

Releasing a letter from the President yesterday, Eilberg rejected as “inadequate” Carter’s statement saying, “I certainly would never permit any abridgement of the constitutional rights of personal privacy” in deciding not to relieve Brown from his command. “When General Singlaub challenged the authority of his Commander-in-Chief he was promptly removed from his command–as he should have been,” Eilberg said in commenting on Singlaub’s dismissal as Chief of Staff in South Korea. “But when Gen. Brown challenged the authority of the United States Constitution, he was not even reprimanded much less removed from command–as he should be,” Eilberg added. “I deeply regret that the President has applied a double standard of justice to Gen. Brown and Gen Singlaub.”

Eilberg had written to the President urging him to relieve Brown following the General’s comments approving governmental surveillance of citizens. Eilberg wrote Carter that Brown’s remarks were “an assault on the Constitution” and he was “disappointed” that the President has “not made it clear to Congress and the American people that you share their contempt for General Brown’s remarks.”