Reagan adviser quits under fire

Richard V. Allen, Ronald Reagan's chief foreign policy adviser, has quit the Reagan campaign, but he is not necessarily excluded from getting a top job in a Reagan administration, according to the campaign's headquarters, Monitor correspondent Daniel Southerland reports.

"He is neither automatically excluded nor automatically included," said a spokesman at the campaign headquarters.

Mr. Allen quit the campaign following allegations reported in the Wall Street Journal that he had used his position on the National Security Council staff in the Nixon administration to gain consulting contracts with foreign firms. The foreign policy adviser has been considered a possible choice for the job of national-security adviser in a Reagan administration.

The Allen resignation came despite a declaration from the campaign chief of staff, Edwin Meese III, that he had completed an investigation of the allegations and found that "any allegation or implication of improper conduct is untrue."

Governor Reagan himself had earlier declared that the allegations would be found to be "much ado about nothing."