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interpolate. This is not in the memo, but that's absolutely, literally true. I always had thought that. And I thought most sensitive among his other virtues. Now, I go on from the memo that was never sent to him. “I have to tell you that I am simply appalled at the lack of sensitivity, to put it mildly, that you have shown in handling what has obviously become an extremely delicate and difficult situation. I am also bitterly disappointed because it has made it almost impossible for me to carry out that smooth transition to which I had looked forward in the last few months of this year, although of course I will still cooperate in any way I can, for the good of the paper and of the editorial page.”

During those next five months or six months -- between that date in late May and the final editorial page that came out under my control on December 31st, 1976 -- I lost by forced transfer several members of my editorial board, Peter Grose being one of them, who was transferred to the U.N. bureau, as I recall it. And there were others.

I must say that it was a particular source of gratification to me that several members of my editorial board whom Frankel wanted to stay on and who were definitely not marked for transfer decided entirely on their own volition not to stay after I stepped down in January despite the fact that Frankel very much hoped they would stay -- including Bill Shannon, my star political writer who quietly got himself a job with another newspaper in Washington. Obviously, I was glad to see him do that because he just didn't want to be around on the editorial staff when Frankel took over. Roger Wilkins, our sole black civil rights expert, could have stayed on but chose instead to take a job in the news department when I stepped down. My recollection is that Leonard Silk, my economics expert, did the same.

So a couple left immediately. Peter Grose and Bill Shannon.