Clinton Admits Knowing of Uncle’s Help : Draft: Democratic candidate blames contradiction on ‘misunderstanding.’ He and Gore receive Sierra Club endorsement.

ROLAND, Ark. —  Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton confirmed Friday that a retired Navy reserve commander told him in March that he had tried to get Clinton a Navy reserve slot in 1968 at the behest of the Arkansas governor’s uncle.

The confirmation appeared to contradict Clinton’s repeated assertions this week that the slot, or billet--which was requested as part of an effort to keep Clinton out of the Vietnam War draft--was “all news to me” until it was detailed in a Los Angeles Times story published Wednesday.

Clinton, however, blamed the seeming contradiction on a “misunderstanding” by reporters about what he has said during the last several days.

A senior campaign aide later said Clinton did not tell reporters about learning in March of the effort to get him a Navy reserve slot because he was not sure if it was true and he thought reporters knew about it in any case.

The Friday twists in the controversy over the reported effort to keep Clinton out of the military draft were prompted by an article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The article quoted retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Trice Ellis Jr. as saying he talked with Clinton earlier this year about the billet during a spring fund-raiser in Hot Springs, Ark.

Ellis said Clinton appeared surprised at the remark, a reaction that to Ellis bolstered Clinton’s contention that he knew nothing about his uncle’s lobbying effort at the time it was going on.

The Democrat-Gazette article, and the story in The Times earlier this week, did not suggest any illegal behavior by Clinton, nor even any unusual behavior at a time when many young men were seeking legal ways to avoid serving in the military.

Both, however, focused new attention on the amount of candor Clinton has brought to his public statements about his draft status.

The report overshadowed the campaign’s preferred focus for the day: the Sierra Club’s formal endorsement of the Arkansas governor and his running mate, Tennessee Sen. Al Gore.

The endorsement, delivered to Clinton and Gore in a picturesque meadow of Pinnacle Mountain State Park, a short distance from Little Rock, Ark., marked the second time the 600,000-member group has endorsed a presidential candidate. The first recipient was Walter F. Mondale, who did not succeed in his 1984 run for the presidency.

With the Democratic candidates standing beside him before the looming, tree-covered mountain for which the park was named, Sierra Club President Anthony Ruckel chastised President Bush for abandoning his 1988 pledge to be the “environmental President.”

“George Bush has failed the American people,” Ruckel said. “He’s not the environmental President, he’s an environmental disaster.”

Gore, who is popular among environmentalists, used the ceremony to toss a pointed barb at Bush’s “environmental President” pledge.

“How in the world can George Bush keep a straight face when he uses the phrase ‘environmental President’?” Gore asked.

Clinton, referring to past criticisms of his own environmental record, defended himself with a comparison to Bush.

“The truth is, this state has a better record on the environment and on the economy than this Administration,” he said.

The renewed look into Clinton’s draft record was prompted by The Times story, which said despite Clinton’s contention that he had not received favorable treatment to avoid being drafted, the presidential candidate apparently benefited from a concerted lobbying campaign orchestrated by his uncle, the late Raymond Clinton of Hot Springs, to delay his induction into the military in 1968-69. Clinton was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University at the time.

The enlistment slot was arranged by Navy reserve official Ellis at the specific request of Raymond Clinton, according to Ellis and Raymond Clinton’s attorney at the time, Henry M. Britt.

Bill Clinton ultimately did not accept the Navy reserve offer. The following year he joined and then quit a Reserve Officer Training Corps program, then received a draft number high enough to keep him out of the military.

When news of The Times story broke Tuesday night, Clinton was asked about the billet and about his uncle’s lobbying program. The questions continued Wednesday, when reporters also asked about the billet.

Clinton did not mention that he had known about the enlistment slot since March, instead saying that “it’s all news to me.”

Questioned Friday at the environmental event about Ellis’ recollection of the March conversation about the billet, Clinton indicated that his statements that he knew nothing about the matter were directed at the overall breadth of his uncle’s lobbying. “I think it’s just a misunderstanding,” he said.

He declined to answer further questions, referring reporters to a written statement released by his campaign.

“I did not know about any efforts to secure a naval reserve assignment before Mr. Ellis mentioned it to me in Hot Springs,” the release said. “There was no way to document or confirm what he told me.”

Campaign officials said Clinton did mention the March conversation to Betsey Wright, a longtime Clinton aide who headed the campaign’s own investigation into the candidate’s draft status. Wright said in an interview she found that because Clinton ultimately did not join the Navy reserve, there was no paperwork to confirm or contradict The Times account.

She added that she has scoured “years of letters” that Clinton sent to friends during the Vietnam War era and has not found a single reference to the Navy reserve billet or to Raymond Clinton.

Clinton’s campaign press secretary, Dee Dee Myers, said Clinton was under no obligation to talk about a reserve billet whose existence he could not prove--despite his pledge to fully air all of the issues relating to his draft actions.

“It was not at all misleading,” she said.

Asked why Clinton did not discuss his conversation with Ellis when he was asked directly about his knowledge of the billet, Myers said that “his point was he never knew about it at the time”--in 1968.

“He was operating under the assumption that people knew that he had talked to Ellis in the spring,” she added.