John O Koehler

White House Communications Director John O. Koehler, named to the post last month only days before embattled White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan resigned, is leaving after only a week on the job at the request of new Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr., an Administration official said Saturday. Koehler will be transferred to the U. S. Information Agency. His replacement has not been selected, said the official, who refused to be identified.

White House Communications Director John O. Koehler, named to the post last month only days before embattled White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan resigned, is leaving after only a week on the job at the request of new Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr., an Administration official said Saturday. Koehler will be transferred to the U. S. Information Agency. His replacement has not been selected, said the official, who refused to be identified.

John O. Koehler, President Reagan's new communications director, said Saturday that he has "absolutely no" thoughts of withdrawing from the job because of the discovery that he was a member, at age 10, of a Nazi-sponsored youth organization. "I am not going to withdraw," the German-born Koehler said at a news conference. "If the President wishes me to, I will."

John O. Koehler, President Reagan's new communications director, said Saturday that he has "absolutely no" thoughts of withdrawing from the job because of the discovery that he was a member, at age 10, of a Nazi-sponsored youth organization. "I am not going to withdraw," the German-born Koehler said at a news conference. "If the President wishes me to, I will."

More than three decades after arriving in the United States, and one day after being appointed to a senior White House post by President Reagan, John O. Koehler found his childhood membership in a Nazi-sponsored youth group the subject of attention Friday.

President Reagan today filled two vacancies at the White House, naming former Associated Press executive John O. Koehler as communications director and Washington attorney Frank J. Donatelli as political director. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Koehler was recommended by Charles Z. Wick, the director of the U.S. Information Agency, to succeed Patrick J. Buchanan in the communications post. Koehler, 56, is a special adviser and consultant to Wick.

President Reagan brought his senior staff back to strength Thursday with the appointment of two new aides. The White House announced that Reagan had picked Frank J. Donatelli to become his political director and John O. Koehler to assume the job of communications director. Donatelli, 37, a Washington lawyer well known in conservative circles, served in the first-term Reagan White House as a deputy director of the Office of Public Liaison. He succeeds Mitchell E. Daniels Jr.

President Reagan on Wednesday named Thomas C. Griscom, a longtime associate of Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr., as White House assistant for planning and communications. Griscom, 37, was press secretary for Baker when the Tennessee Republican served in the Senate. When Baker accepted Reagan's offer to become head of the White House staff on Feb. 27, replacing Donald T. Regan, he brought Griscom in to help with the transition.

After just one week on the job, White House communications chief John O. Koehler resigned today, bowing to a request from newly named White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr. Koehler announced his departure during a visit to the White House briefing room. "A new general manager of an important enterprise must be totally comfortable with his staff," Koehler said. "In this Administration, the new general manager is Sen. Howard Baker."

Guerrillas in Afghanistan are about to get money from the United States government for a public relations campaign intended to bring their struggle against Soviet troops to the world's attention. The money will be used to train Afghan rebel journalists to use television, radio and newspapers to advance their cause. Reporters will be given minicameras to photograph the war inside Afghanistan.

More than three decades after arriving in the United States, and one day after being appointed to a senior White House post by President Reagan, John O. Koehler found his childhood membership in a Nazi-sponsored youth group the subject of attention Friday.

President Reagan was infuriated when he learned from the Tower Commission's report about some of the activities conducted by his staff in the Iran- contra affair, his daughter Maureen said Monday. She portrayed the period leading up to the release of the panel's report Feb. 26 as frustrating for the First Family because they were "beat up pretty bad" and unable to respond.