Reports of friction rife on US security team

November 5, 1981

Backbiting and rumormongering among the Reagan national security team has been raised to the level of possibly having a serious effect on US foreign policy.

Reports of tension and turf battles between Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. and the National Security Council staff - possibly security adviser Richard V. Allen - ran rampant Wednesday.

Mr. Haig's aides confirmed that he was convinced of a ''guerrilla campaign'' by an unnamed White House aide to oust him.

President Reagan is said by aides to be highly irritated by accounts of friction among key figures in the administration's foreign policy establishment.

The President suggested Tuesday that some of the reports may have been fabricated. But Haig talked of the ''guerrilla campaign'' against him in on-the-record remarks published in a Jack Anderson column.