Adam Yarmolinsky 1922-2000

In 1964 Yarmolinsky left the Pentagon to work with Sargent Shriver in drafting the legislation setting up programs of the War on Poverty. It was widely assumed that Yarmolinsky would be appointed deputy director of the program but southern conservatives, still seething over Yarmolinsky's proposal to close military bases in segregated areas, would not hear of it. They demanded and won President Johnson's dismissal of Yarmolinsky in return for their support on the president's War on Poverty legislation. Columnist Mary McGrory wrote at that time that Yarmolinsky was "an egghead, a New Yorker, and the son of liberal intellectual parents. Barely concealed anti-Semitism contributed to his downfall as well."