Oral history transcript, Frederick O'Reilly Hayes, interview 1 (I), 10/7/1981, by Michael L. Gillette

How Hayes became involved with the War on Poverty task force; early ideas on how to combat poverty; tension between task force director Sargent Shriver and people who worked on poverty issues before the task force was formed; staffing the Community Action Programs (CAP); Hayes' impression of the President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency; goals in drafting community action program legislation; Sargent Shriver's opinion of community action; the decision to make public agencies as well as private nonprofit organizations eligible for CAP grants; Hayes' and Dick Boone's failed proposal to fund a research and demonstration program before the operating program; the attitudes of older cabinet departments toward the establishment of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO); Robert Kennedy's and the Justice Department's involvement in drafting bills for community action programs; the Bureau of the Budget's response to CAP; White House support for community action; the assumption that CAP would work within local governments; Pat Moynihan's criticism of CAP; "maximum feasible participation" in CAP: the influence of the civil rights movement on CAP; Hayes' interaction with dissident groups in Cleveland, Ohio, and Chester, Pennsylvania; Jack Conway's involvement with CAP; community action weaknesses; the likelihood that CAP would be well-managed and succeed; Hayes' and Dick Boone's leadership roles within the War on Poverty task force and its predecessor group; controversy surrounding Adam Yarmolinsky as deputy director of OEO; Congressional issues that slowed the passage of Title II War on Poverty legislation, such as family planning and programs in rural areas