He wrote to the president. He said two things: one, that his treatment at the hands of the EEOC was unAmerican; and, two, that the president had promised in the campaign to abolish the EEOC, and he wanted to hold the president to that promise.

It was my responsibility to figure out how to respond to this complaint that had been received. And how we responded was by protecting the EEOC from interference by the president in any political way, by protecting the EEOC from this sort of complaint.

We did not go to the president and say, You've got to do something about the EEOC. We didn't pass on the objection at all.

And the point of the letter -- when you read the whole memorandum, you see two points.

The first is that I was unable to determine, in the short time I had to respond, whether or not the president had made such a pledge to abolish the EEOC. I simply didn't know. And I said that in the paragraph, if you read it. And that's what the truth of the matter notwithstanding is referring to: the question of whether or not the president had promised to abolish the EEOC.

I say right in the memo that we cannot determine that. And whether his treatment was unAmerican or not is beside the point; we don't interfere with the activities of the EEOC. That was the conclusion and that's what we did in that case.

KENNEDY: Well, Mr. Chairman, I'd ask that the memo be included in there.

SPECTER: Without objection, it will be included.

KENNEDY: You say that The assertion of the EEOC is unAmerican, the truth of the matter notwithstanding.

ROBERTS: You do need to read the prior clause.

. . .

KENNEDY: Mr. Chairman?

SPECTER: Senator Kennedy?

KENNEDY: As you know, this [the memo] has been redacted. And as I think in fairness to him, in fairness to the committee, if we can get out the other redactions, it will be a more accurate kind of complete record.

SPECTER: Well, if it's possible for Judge Roberts to deal with the redactions...

ROBERTS: I think the redactions simply identify the individual, who was making the compliant who had his case.

The only thing I would emphasize is that the language that was quoted was part of a sentence. And the question of what the truth of the matter is referring to goes to the first part of the sentence that was not read, which is the assertion, the assertion that the president promised to abolish the EEOC. That was the matter that I could not determine in the time available whether that was correct or not.

So I said the truth of that matter notwithstanding.

And I also emphasize that any reference to the phrase unAmerican is always in quotes to make it clear that that's what the writer of the letter said and certainly not what I said and it was certainly not my view then or now.

SPECTER: Senator Kennedy, do you want to follow up on that?

KENNEDY: Well, I think we've been over the -- after all is said and done about finding out what President Reagan wanted to abolish or not abolish, it really wasn't the issue or the question.

And the question isn't about whether the use of the unAmerican is obviously unacceptable. And they're dismissing that.

But Judge Roberts said, The assertion the EEOC is 'unAmerican,' quote, and he's quite right saying that they were dismissing that word. But then he adds, the truth of the matter notwithstanding.

I think it's not unreasonable to assume that he somehow was disparaging the EEOC. That's all.

I'm glad to let the record stand, Mr. Chairman.

SPECTER: Any counter-reply?

ROBERTS: Well, I'm glad to let the record stand just as long as the whole memorandum and the entire sentence that's being discussed is in the record.