ALAN CRANSTON - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 11/21/1980 - HFSID 266016

ALAN CRANSTON. Typed Letter signed: "Alan" as Senate Majority Whip, 1p, 6x7¾. On personal Senate letterhead. Washington, D.C., 1980 November 21. To "Dear Pat" [Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan]. In full: "Many thanks for your willingness to support me for a position on the Foreign Relations Committee. I'm very grateful to you. My deepest interests have always been in the foreign policy area, and I'm particularly eager to focus more attention upon those interests now - especially arms control - in view of our new circumstances in the Senate and in the Executive Branch. For your information, I will relinquish my seat on the Labor and Human Resources Committeee if I go on Foreign Relations. This would, I believe, prevent Howard Metzenbaum from being bumped from the Committee, but would not create a vacancy there. With much appreciation, Ever." Cranston has handwritten a postscript: "Thanks Pat. Since calling you I realize you switched from Steering to Policy. But thanks anyway. Perhaps you'll still have a voice or a vote in this." An interesting letter showing the jockeying for Senate positions after an election. Cranston wrote this letter in the immediate aftermath of Ronald Reagan's victory over Jimmy Carter, in which Republicans gained control of the Senate for the first time in 22 years. Consequently, the Democrats lost seats on key committees. Cranston succeeded in gaining a spot on the prestigious Foreign Relations Committee. CRANSTON (1914-2000) served as Democratic Senator from California from 1969-1993. From 1977-1991, he was the Democratic Whip. From 1936-1938, he was a foreign correspondent for International News Service (now UPI). He attributed much of the American public's misperceptions of Nazism to a version of Hitler's Mein Kampf. Having read the original German version, Cranston drafted a word-for-word translation of the book, which was published. His version at a cover price of 10-cents, sold over 500,000 copies (it included Cranston's comments against Nazism). Hitler successfully sued him for copyright infringement and unauthorized revision. Cranston accepted $1 million in contributions from constituent, Charles H. Keating, Jr., the head of the Lincoln Federal Savings and Loan Association. He was one of the "Keating Five" and the only one to receive a formal reprimand by the Select Committee on Ethics in 1991 for "improper conduct". DIRECTLY FROM THE SALE OF THE ESTATE OF DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN (1927-2003). Moynihan served four terms in the U.S. Senate (1977-2001) as a Democrat representing New York. A prolific author, Moynihan held positions in the administrations of four Presidents: Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford. Estate inventory numbers inked in blank upper margin and stamped at left. Otherwise, fine condition.