LBJ IS SWORN IN AS
PRESIDENT
|
|
Lady
Byrd, LBJ and Jackie Kennedy aboard Air Force One
|
|
Type of Activity
|
Political Rally and Motorcade
|
Location
|
|
Location
|
Dallas, Texas
|
Date of Activity
|
22 N0v. 1963
|
Coordinates
|
|
 |
| President and Mrs. Kennedy deplane in Dallas |
 |
| Vice President and Mrs. Johnson at Love Field |
 |
| The Presidential Motorcade Departs Love Field |
 |
LBJ receives the oath of office aboard AF-1 |
LBJ would serve out JFK’s term as President; he ran for reelection in 1964 and won. It was later in 1965 that I was interviewed and accepted an assignment with the White House Communications Agency and spent nine years providing communications for the White House!
The WHCA AFTER ACTION REPORTS OF NOVEMBER 22, 1963THE WHITE HOUSEWASHINGTONApril 1, 1997Ronald G. HaronSenior AttorneyAssassinations Records Review Board600 E. Street 2nd FloorWashington D.C. 20530Dear Mr. Haron,White House Communications Agency (WHCA) has searched their files for assassination-related records and was able to locate several statements from WHCA personnel who were on duty at various locations at the time of the assassination of President Kennedy. These statements were found in a folder titled “PRES KENNEDY ASSASSINAITON”. Copies of the statements are attached. There is no other assassination related material in the folder, except the list of telephone calls recorded by the White House switchboard on 22 November 1963, previously forwarded to your office.The WHCA has completed its assassination-related records search.SincerelySIGNEDGregory G. RathsLt. Col. USMCAssistant Chief of StaffWhite House OfficeWhite House Communications Agency (WHCA) Communications Center SwitchboardRadio Operators after Action Reports[BK Notes: Many thanks to Doug Horne for providing these records]
The Dallas White House switchboard had been established in the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel WHCA Trip Officer for Presidential Visit to Dallas, TexasCWO Arthur W. Bales, Jr.The following is approximately the sequence of events, as recalled by the undersigned, in Dallas, Texas, 22 November 1963
THE WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS BRANCH
SUBJECT: Sequence of Events – 22 November 1963
TO: Commanding Officer, WHCA
1. Prior Communications Arrangements: The Dallas White House had been established in the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel, and Communications facilities included a one-position switchboard with 3 dial trunks, 2 LD’s 3 tie lines to the Fort Worth White House Board, 1 tie line to the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel Bd., 3 extensions to Love Field, 4 extensions to the Dallas Trade Mart (site of the President’s scheduled speech), secure teletype equipment, and radio and phone patch facilities to cover the motorcade.
2. Planned schedule of Events: The undersigned was to cover the President’s arrival at Love Field and, with the Special WHCA Courier, travel in the motorcade and cover all stops to include the President’s departure from Dallas. SSGT Robert D. Brazell, with six men, were manning the Dallas White House; and seven men, making the Texas circuit aboard the Press Plane, were to remain at Love Field, as they would not be needed in Dallas. A recoding technician, Specialist John Muhlers, was set up and stationed at the Dallas Trade Mart to record the President’s speech and to furnish audio feeds to the various news media.
3. The arrival and Motorcade: Air Force One landed and the President spent some time shaking hands and greeting the large crowd at Love Field. The motorcade then departed for the trip through downtown Dallas and to the Trade Mart. In the WHCA Communications Car were: A telco driver; the undersigned WHCA Advance Officer; the WHCA Courier, Mr. Gearheart; and the Telco special representative (or “Shadow”), Mr. Herb Smith. We were approximately six cars and two (Press and Staff) buses behind the President. The motorcade had just passed the last buildings on the route before entering the freeway to the Trade Mart. The WHCA Communications Car was around two corners from and not in sight of the President’s car. Three explosions were heard, and I thought that they were backfires from vehicles up ahead. Herb Smith remarked that firecrackers were inappropriate for the occasion. Then the USSS Agent riding with the President announced on the FM “Charlie” radio, Lawson, he’s hit”. The motorcade came to an abrupt halt with one bus and the WHCA car still around two corners from the President. Realizing that emergency communications facilities may be required on the spot, I instructed the driver to get Mr. Gearhart immediately to the vicinity of the President and to keep him there regardless of my own location. I, with the Telco representative, Mr. Smith, then started running toward the scene of the shooting. As we rounded the first corner the motorcade suddenly raced away. I commandeered a police car and instructed the driver to take us immediately to the Parkland Hospital. We arrived short minutes after the President.4. The Parkland Hospital: The very limited telephone facilities at the hospital were tired up by the members of the Press Pool. I immediately seized all but one line (leaving Merriman Smith on the one most remote from the Emergency Rooms) and established direct circuits to the Signal Board in Washington; the Dallas White House Switchboard; and to the Signal board via the Dallas and Fort Worth White House Boards. I assigned police officers to guard these phones and instructed the individual Signal Operators in Washington who were on these circuits to handle no other calls, but to guard these lines exclusively. I then ordered six lines in to the hospital from the Dallas White House Board and informed appropriate White House Aides of my actions. I then checked back with the Dallas White House and learned that SSGT Brazell had, on is own initiative, ordered in an additional switchboard position, 3 additional dial trunks, 4 trunks to Washington, and had alerted Telco to the possibility of further TTY facilities being required. I instructed SSGT Brazell to direct four of the seven men (Press Plane Riders) at Love Field to report to me at the hospital, and the other three reports to him at the hotel. The six lines to the hospital, the four trunks to Washington, and the additional TTY facilities were cancelled before completion. As the WHCA personnel arrived from Love Field, they replaced the police officers who had been guarding the seized telephone lines. At the appropriate time I instructed Mr. Gearhart to remain with the President Johnson, and they left shortly for Love Field. I remained at the hospital and later went to the field with (the body of) President Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy, instructing the WHCA personnel to remain at the hospital until released by the White House Staff personnel who were remaining there a while longer. Meanwhile, I had advised Captain Stoughton, WHCA Photographer, and SP5 Muler (Recording – stationed at the Trade Mart) of President Johnson’s return to Air Force One: enabling Captain Stoughton to be the only photographer aboard when the President took his oath of office. Muler recorded the proceedings, and the tape was returned to Washington via Colonel McNally aboard the Press Plane.ARTHUR W. BALES, JR.
CWO USA
Trip Officer
Chief Switchboard Operator White House Switchboard in Dallas, Texas
SSG Robert Brazell
The following is approximately the sequence of events, as recalled by the undersigned, in Dallas, Texas, 22 November 1963PHYSICAL SITUATION1. 1 Position 555 PBX trunking to Washington through Ft. Worth with no direct connection to Washington.
2. 3 City Dials
3. 3 LD Toll Terminals
4. Radio on top of PBX
CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE OF EVENTS1. Complete relaxation waiting for parade to arrive at luncheon site.2. (1230) A Sudden blearing of radio “Lead us straight to the hospital he’s been shot – repetition “He’s been shot.”3. Realization of inadequate facilities to handle any emergency of this type.4. Placed order for additional 555 positions, additional dial trunks and more extensions in the Room even before the party arrived at the hospital.5. Party reached hospital and all dial trunks lit up immediately.6. Direct connection set up immediately between Agent directly outside of emergency room and Mr. Behn in his office in Washington which became the Washington Command Post and he cleared the house. Ordered to monitor the circuit which was done to the best of our ability, on top of moving regular traffic7. Calls from members of the President’s family bridged into the Behn-Emergency room focus. (E.g. Attorney General asked whether a priest had been called.)8. Constant advisement on the location of the Vice President.9. Made arrangements with police to have WHCA Press Plane party rushed to hotel for use as needed.10. Dispatch of part of this contingent to assist at the hospital on CWO Bales’ orders.11. Mr. Kilduff ordered the return of the delegation enroute to Japan immediately upon perceiving the seriousness of the situation. Placing of this in the hands of the WHCA Duty Officer in Washington.12. Answering calls with extension on top of PBX; then routing them to proper spot. Utilized radio man Lukens on “hold and wait” calls.13. President Johnson returns to aircraft.14. Second peak of calls for day doing such things as finding Judge Sarah T. Hughes to swear in the President and find someone in the Department of Justice to dictate the oath of office. Vice President Johnson personally spoke to the clerk In Judge Hughes’ Office.15. By this time the telephone company had performed a near miracle and installed the second 555 position with three additional dial trunks on it.16. An effort was being made to bring up four full periods back to Washington but desisted when It became obvious that the need for them was almost over.17. as a general comment: enough traffic passed through that one position 555 as should normally have gone through a 3-position PBX at full throttle.SSgt BrazellPS: The Switchboard operator recalls placing a call from Attorney General to Air Force One prior to the swearing in ceremonies; he does not know to whom he spoke but feels it was to the Vice President.
WHCA Signal Board and Communications Center handled traffic from Dallas and other sources.
 |
| Air Force One 26000 Radio Console |
| |||
Type Of Activity | Presidential Speeches | ||
Location | |||
Location | Washington DC and various Locations | ||
Date of Activity | 1963 to Present | ||
Coordinates | |||
The Presidency of any country is aptly described as the most demanding job in the world. Zero in on the United States presidency, and you can easily multiply the difficulty a thousand times. Besides the many issues, state visits, rubbing elbows with influential people, and whatnot, state presidents also deliver speeches every now and then. They may do so in front of the media, in a live audience on a worldwide broadcast, or a combination of both.
It’s a part of a President’s job to present dozens of speeches, but to be honest, it’s the least of his worries. Why? It’s because he has access to the best equipment, such as a teleprompter, specifically a presidential teleprompter operated by the professionals of the White House Communications Agency.
WHCA has long been for responsible all audio and video at Trip sites including the presidential podium and teleprompter.
Brief History of Teleprompter Use by U.S. Presidents
Four years after the invention of the teleprompter in 1948, General Dwight Eisenhower was the first to use it in a campaign speech in September 1952, The 1952 Republican National Convention was the first political convention broadcast live by television. In addition to being the first live telecast, the GOP convention was the debut event for the new device still used by politicians today, the “TelePrompTer”. As the keynote speaker for the convention, former president Hebert Hoover used the TelePrompTer, however, without much success.
The teleprompter quickly became a fixture of political campaigning and speechmaking, being utilized for the first time in 1954 by President Dwight Eisenhower for a State of the Union address.
President Johnson was the first President to require a teleprompter at all of his speeches, at this point in time WHCA was building and setting up LBJ’s bulletproof Podium at all speech sites, recording all of his speeches, providing the PA system and an audio feed to all of the networks.
General Jack Albright, WHCA CO, recalls his early days with LBJ “As time went on, he wanted more things. He wanted to be able to read his speech while looking at the audience, and so we turned to the philosophy of the teleprompter. We signed a contract with a New York company, and they provided us with a great number of teleprompters. Now, these were heavy, very heavy things to haul around.
 |
| The cabinets in front of LBJ was in 3 pieces.. extremely heavy especially when we installed the bullet proof shield. |
At this time, the presidential teleprompter was massive and very obvious to individuals in the audience. The early teleprompters used a VERY LARGE typewriter that would put the text on a half inch gummed tape that was then pasted onto a roll of teletype yellow paper. It was very hard to cut and paste to make edits, and LBJ didn’t like handwritten comments in margins.
"The print was about a half inch high, so, the President had little trouble reading it. He could read it either directly ahead of him or to either side of something like a forty-five-degree angle from that. That's the first innovation WHCA put in.” according to BG Albright.
 |
| A WHCA operator typing a speech |
 |
| LBJ using an early model teleprompter with a old style WHCA podium The WHCA carpenter shop built all of LBJ,s bulletproof podiums. They were huge and they were heavier than hell. The teleprompter operator would actually sit inside the podium and manually operate the scroll. On more than one occasion the teleprompter and the President would get out of sync During one LBJ rehearsal it got out of sync. LBJ stepped back, looked down and said, 'Son, are you trying to GD Fu$* me up?' Now this was all controlled, speed-wise and everything else, by the teleprompter operator judging the President's rate of speech, and always keeping where the President could see a couple of lines, three lines at the most.  Speech Prompter the old-fashioned wayWhen you go live from the Oval Office on a National broadcast you are sweating blood, at least I did. That piece of equipment was about our only single point of failure we had. A million things could go wrong, and you had absolutely no backup. The WHCA operator put a copy of the script on the desk or podium but there is no way the boss would ever find his place in event of failure. I certainly had/have the upmost respect for the AV Tech’s that ran it…! “I think we sometimes scared the president when he went off script because sometimes when I was running the prompter, I would stop scrolling and wait and see if he returned to that point, sometimes he did but other times he didn't. In the times that he didn't, I would fast forward the speech to find out where he was. The blur of the words on the beam splitters that he was looking at while trying to give his speech had to be really distracting. That was one aspect of AV that was always a subject of much attention. When he didn’t return to the same spot I always wondered if we didn’t get the last edit as he was pretty good at returning to the same spot most times. All we could do was sit and wait. Thinking back the feeder was probably the most scared at that point. I remember searching through the copy to see if he had just skipped ahead”. Many times the Team lead and/or a Trip Officer would call the TV shop complaining about some glitch or malfunction with the teleprompter, camera or one or both monitors. I guess 85 or more percent of the time, the problem could not be replicated in the shop after the trip. Seriously, what could go wrong. It was literally build by hand in a Quonset hut garage, made of cheap pot metal pop riveted together, operated by calm and cool (sweating bullets!) operator knowing what was at stake, who twisted a speed control knob back and forth on a rheostat speed controller operating an electric motor that drove pulleys and belts with a black and white security camera taking a picture of lines on individual pieces of paper placed on a 4 ft belt by hand and a picture that was reflected by a black and white monitor on a reflective piece of glass....none of it had any real RF shielding other than the cables. It was susceptible to noisy power, hum, heat and limitless environmental and physical aspects of individual trip site after having been flown and bounced around the country and the world in military aircraft and trucks .. So again....what could go wrong? The teleprompter did not use video monitors. The two devices, adjacent to the lectern, were two synchronized tractor drives that were slaved to the master controller that the WHCA AV personnel operated. The text was printed on paper scrolls that had to be “absolutely synchronized” with the master scroll at the operator position. I believe President Nixon was the last to use the “motorized/slave” prompter. President Ford was introduced to the new video system along with the “new blue lectern”. The previous lectern was black steel, bolted to a wooden frame. That issue was somehow lessened in the mid-60s by coming up with the side-by-side teleprompter setup that we know today– reflecting printed text onto angled pieces of thin glass on either side of the podium. It was a game-changer since the President could glance from side to side and still see the script. He may do so while maintaining eye contact with the audience. President Richard Nixon would not use a teleprompter when speaking in public. He rehearsed his remarks and annotated a hard copy of the speech. He refused to use a teleprompter, no matter how long the speech was. Although he would generally rehearse his speeches using the teleprompter During one of these rehearsals in the oval office, President Nixon all of a sudden said 'the prompters off. The WHCA operator replied, 'No sir, its right.' Nixon turned and glared straight at him, 'Son, the GD prompter is off." Dead silence. The operator jumped up, looked at the scroll and said, 'Yes sir, ill fix it.'. WHCA never heard another word about it. Everyone involved was concerned that they would all be shipped to Vietnam that night for questioning the President. Nixon normally used typewritten text with handwritten notes and usually left them on the podium. In April of 1971 the First Marine Division returned from Vietnam and was to be greeted by President Nixon. The event was scheduled to take place at Camp Pendleton, which was only 10 min from the Western White House. The CCT was told to break out the recording equipment to rehearse the welcome home ceremonies. So here we were all radio and switchboard guys setting up on the Parade Field (which nobody was allowed to set foot on when they were not in a parade). Anyway, Gen Redmond, Major Freed, and I do not remember all of the WHCA officers were out there, but we set up the PA and microphones where we thought they needed to be as the Troop Commander shouted commands. The problem was that when he was in front of the division no one could hear him, and we could not put a mike stand there! Gen Redmond came over to me and asked if we could run a mike cable out on the parade field and lay the microphone on the ground. It took two min. and that solved the problem. After rehearsal we all took shovels and buried the cable thus inventing the “turf” microphone, the Marines could not believe that we were digging up their parade field and not going to the brig for doing it. I returned to Camp Pendleton the day before the event was to take place to meet with the WHCA recording guys to help them set up the site with a podium without the teleprompter. I then pointed out where the Troop Commander would be positioned and connected the turf mic.. All went well at the speech the next day at the official Welcome Back ceremonies. |
 |
| President welcomes home the 1st Marine Div. returning from Vietnam The most important speech that President Ford gave was a rare Sunday afternoon speech to announce his pardon of President Nixon. ... No teleprompter, just note cards. It was perfect for the time. President Ford usually wore contact lenses when he used a teleprompter to avoid the use of his glasses while making speeches. |
 |
| President Ford pardons Richard Nixon |
 |
| 1980 Democrat Convention in Madison Square Garden |
Ronald Reagan regularly used a teleprompter during all of his speeches. President Reagan, often spoken of as "the great communicator," was noticeably at a loss for words when his teleprompter broke down during a major speech before the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France . Reagan's teleprompter cut out three times causing the president to lose his place... Nonetheless, after a short period of time he recovered and continued. The President took everything in stride.
 |
| President Reagan uses the dual glass teleprompter setup |
 |
| Small podium requested by President Reagan |
 |
| President Bush using the presidential teleprompter at a CSPAN convention |
 |
| Teleprompters are always available even if the President doesn’t use it |
Today, you rarely see a President, or any country leader speak to a live audience without a teleprompter. From the printed scrolls to LCD monitors, automatic scrolling on an Atari PC to voice recognition, the teleprompter truly changed the landscape of political speeches, often for the better.
As a result, this teleprompter is more commonly used for giving speeches, as it lets the speaker see the audience through the glass. Another advantage of this teleprompter is that multiple monitors may be positioned throughout the arena, allowing the speaker to stare at the entire crowd during their speech, making it appear even more natural.
Just because a teleprompter makes the Presidents life easier, it doesn’t mean he would be good at it without practice or some tricks he could use. In fact, not every United States president presents a speech using a prompter. Some, like George W. Bush, disliked teleprompters and preferred large index cards while President Trump prefers the presidential teleprompter for all of his speeches.
 |
| President Trump uses the Teleprompter for every speech |
 |
| Today’s Presidential teleprompter setup for all speeches |
The flawless delivery of a speech begins long before the President steps onto the stage. It starts with meticulous preparation and the setup of the presidential teleprompter and podium. Here's a glimpse of some of what the WHCA A/V teleprompter operator does behind the scenes before a crucial event:
1. Review: WHCA A/V operator typically starts with a thorough review of the President’s speech. The speech is loaded onto the teleprompter's software, where the operator can format it for optimal readability, adjusting font size and scroll speed according to the speaker's preference.
2. Equipment Check: Ensuring that all equipment is in perfect working order is paramount. This includes not only the presidential teleprompter and its screen but also the control devices and any backup systems in case of technical glitches.
3. Operator Briefing: The teleprompter operator, a crucial part of the team, receives instructions and must become familiar with the Presidents delivery style and pace. They must be in sync with the President to ensure seamless scrolling of the script.
4. Rehearsals: Depending on the importance of the event, the President might run through the speech using the teleprompter several times to ensure comfort and familiarity with the setup. This rehearsal helps eliminate last-minute surprises or hiccups.
5. Backup Plans: While the teleprompters are always backed up the White House Staff often has printed copies of the speech, just in case of technical difficulties.
B. Positioning and Testing the Teleprompter
The physical placement and calibration of the teleprompter is critical for a successful presentation. Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how it's done:
1. Stage Placement: The teleprompter is positioned directly in front of the podium, at eye level, to ensure that the text is easily readable without the need for the President to look down or significantly off axis. This positioning allows for the appearance of uninterrupted eye contact with the audience.
2. Glass Angling: The glass or reflective surface of the teleprompter is angled to reflect the text from a screen placed below the stage. This positioning, sometimes using a one-way mirror, ensures that the text is not visible to the audience while remaining clear to the speaker.
3. Adjusting Font Size: The teleprompter operator adjusts the font size and scroll speed to match the Presidents preference. The text should scroll at a pace that feels natural to the speaker, allowing them to maintain a smooth and coherent delivery.
4. Testing Visibility: Before the event begins, a final test ensures that the text is perfectly visible to the President without any glare or distortion. This may involve adjusting the angle or lighting around the teleprompter to optimize readability.
5. Technical Checks: The teleprompter operator performs one last technical check to ensure that the software, controls, and connections are functioning flawlessly. The President can also have a final run-through to make any last-minute adjustments or clarifications.
The behind-the-scenes world of the presidential teleprompter operator is a fascinating and essential part of modern-day public speaking. The teleprompter has evolved from its mechanical origins to become a sophisticated digital aid for all presidential speeches. It helps maintain eye contact, enhance public speaking skills, and reduce the likelihood of mistakes, playing a crucial role in delivering speeches with confidence and precision. The setup involves meticulous preparation, equipment checks, and operator briefings, resulting in a seamless and invisible presence on the stage, offering the audience a flawless presentation. The presidential teleprompter remains vital for effective communication for world leaders and political speakers.
The White House Communications Agency (WHCA) Audio Visual (AV) team provides all necessary equipment and personnel, primarily sourced from WHCA’s Anacostia facility, for presidential and vice-presidential speeches. While approved subcontractors may sometimes be utilized, WHCA AV retains full responsibility for all services. These typically include teleprompter operations, broadcast audio and public address systems, video recording, and livestreaming. Additionally, WHCA AV supplies unique White House equipment such as presidential podiums, seals, and flags. For indoor events, lighting and sound support are essential. The venue, staging, and backdrops are also prepared by White House staff, ensuring the President is ready to deliver the speech.
Air Force One SAM 96970, 26000 and 27000 (1962-2001) | |
Type Of Activity | Presidential Transport |
Location | |
Location | Worldwide |
Date of Activity | Oct 1962 to June 2001 |
Coordinates | 33°40′34″N 117°43′52″W |
President Dwight Eisenhower became the first US president to travel by jet when he flew on a new Air Force One plane in 1959. Eisenhower's Boeing 707 Stratoliner, nicknamed "Queenie," featured a section for telecommunications, room for 40 passengers, a conference area, and a stateroom, The jet, known as SAM (Special Air Missions) 96970, was customized to meet the needs of the president and White House staff.
In 1959, the Boeing 707-153 known as SAM 96970 became the new presidential aircraft, replacing the propeller-powered C-121C Super Constellation used by President Dwight Eisenhower. SAM 96970 was part of the VC-137 series of planes.
In 1962, a newer VC-137C plane replaced it as the primary presidential aircraft, but it still transported vice presidents and other VIPs. The SAM 96970 remained part of the presidential fleet until 1996.
The new primary presidential aircraft number SAM 26000, was a specially configured Boeing 707-353B with the Air Force designation C-137C.
The SAM 96970, SAM 26000 along with SAM 27000 are the most Iconic presidential aircraft to date. All the C-137C's were part of a fleet of aircraft maintained by the Military Airlift Command's 89th Military Airlift Wing, Andrews Air Force Base, Md.
When the president is aboard either aircraft, or any other Air Force aircraft, the radio call sign "Air Force One" is used for all communications and air traffic control identification purposes.
Principal differences between the C-137C and the standard Boeing 707 aircraft are the electronic and communications equipment carried by the presidential aircraft, and its interior configuration and furnishings. Passenger cabins are partitioned into several sections: a communications center, the presidential quarters, and a staff/office compartment. There is limited seating for passengers, including members of the news media.
 |
Originally painted red the Kennedys had the aircraft redesigned into the iconic blue it is today |
 |
| President Kennedy and the First Lady arrive at a rally in Houston |
 |
| LBJ becomes President aboard SAM 26000 |
 |
| LBJ visits Vietnam in 1965 unannounced while attending the Manila Summit Conference |
 |
| Air Force One at El Toro MCAS while visiting San Clemente |
His most widely heralded trips included the around-the-world trip in July 1969, to the Peoples Republic of China in February 1972, and to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in May· of that same year.
 |
| President Nixon dubbed SAM 2600 the Spirt of 76 a short time before leaving for Beijing |
 |
| President Ford arrives in Chicago Note: The state of the art Ramp Phone |
 |
| President Ford on one of his overseas trips on SAM 27000 in 1975 |
 |
| President Jimmy Carter made his first trip aboard aircraft SAM 27000 on March 16, 1977 |
 |
| President Reagan stops by the Communications Center aboard SAM 27000 |
 |
| President Reagan aboard SAM 27000 |
 |
| SAM 27000 at the Reagan Library |
 |
| SAM 27000 Cockpit |
 | |||||||||||||||||
| USAF VC-137C Communications Systems Operator using Kleinschmidt terminal (1970s or early 1980s) From the plane, the president could reach the White House Situation Room and the National Military Command Center and send secret communications. Across from the communication station, the briefcase containing codes to initiate a nuclear strike was kept locked in a safe. Known as the " nuclear football ," every president since Eisenhower has been accompanied by the briefcase at all times. The safe also held military communication center codes. In the forward galley, crew members prepared food and drinks for the president and other crew members or White House Staff. The two galleys on Air Force One included ovens, refrigerators, and open-burner stovetops. Drink dispensers also served coffee, water, and other beverages.
The aft galley served food and drinks to senior staff and the press. Like the forward galley, the aft galley was furnished with kitchen appliances and drink dispensers.
The staff seating area looked the most like regular economy cabin seats while members of the press sat further back on the plane. The staff seating area looked the most similar to regular economy cabin seats. White House staffers and cabinet members who joined the president on trips sat in the staff seating area.
Retired in 1996, SAM 96970 now on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. SAM 970 was a VC-137 series used by Eisenhower as well as Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon as their primary aircraft. The Presidential Aircraft SAM 26000 with the Air Force designation C-137C. was officially retired in 1998 and is on display at Wright-Patterson AFB, near Dayton OH. Served Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton. SAM 27000 a modified C-137C served Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. SAM 27000 has been on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Semi Valley CA since 2005. |
Power plant/manufacturer: Four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B turbofan engines
The Presidential Service Badge | |||
| |||
| Type of Activity | Communications support for the White House | ||
Location | |||
| Location | Washington DC | ||
| Date of Activity | Mar 1942 to Present | ||
| Coordinates | 38°53′52″N 77°02′11″W | ||
Establishing Authority
Background
LBJ’s Texas Ranch | |||
| |||
Type of Activity | Communications Support | ||
Location | |||
Location | Johnson City Texas | ||
Date of Activity | November 1963 thru January 1969 | ||
Coordinates | 30° 14′ 29″ N,98° 37′ 32″ W | ||
The ranch is located on the north side of United States Route 290, about fourteen miles west of Johnson City, which lies between the highway and the south bank of the Pedernales River.
It is now a National Park that protects the birthplace, home, ranch, and final resting place of Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States. During Johnson's administration, the LBJ Ranch was known as the "Texas White House" because the President spent approximately 20% of his time in office there.
On July 12, 1952, they moved into their ranch home. To commemorate the event, LBJ took a small limb and scratched in the concrete ...walkway near the south gate, the date and "Welcome to the LBJ Ranch."
 |
The President enjoys the Ranch with his family |
 |
| LBJ’s Office at the Ranch |
 |
| LBJ’s Office at the Ranch |
 |
| LBJ holds a meeting in the ranch’s living room |
 |
| LBJ holds a meeting in the ranch’s living room |
 |
| The Living room at the Ranch |
THE PRESIDENT'S BEDROOM
 |
| The President's Bedroom |
 |
| The President's Bedroom |
 |
A JetStar or similar aircraft usually landed at the ranch |
 |
| James Cross LBJ’s pilot seen here with the JetStar |
 |
| Interior of the JetStar |
 |
| Hanger Area also WHCA Comm. Trailers and USSS Command Post |
 |
The hanger area and Airstrip at the LBJ Texas Ranch Compound |
Secret Service Guard Shack |
Secret Service Guard Shack |
 |
| Secret Service Command Post |
 |
| Aerial View of the entire Compound of the LBJ Texas Ranch WHCA and USSS CP left of the hanger |
 |
| The Texas White House Compound, |
White House Voice Recording Systems | |
 | |
Type of Activity | Tape Recording Conversations |
Location | |
Location | Washington DC and Others |
Date of Activity | 1940 through 1974 and maybe more |
Coordinates | 38°53'51.2"N 77°02'20.9"W |
 |
| By 1955 the White House switched to the Dictaphone Time Master’s red vinyl Dictabelt |
 |
A Model 5 reel-to-reel magnetic tape recorder made by Tandberg Radiofabrikk was installed in 1962 during John F. Kennedy’s presidency. |
 |
| President Johnson looks at the news feed and watches his Three Eyed Monster in the oval Office |
 |
| The President’s desk in the Oval Office |
 |
| Call Director on the President’s desk |
 |
| The coffee table with Phone |
 |
| LBJ held many meetings in the Master Bedroom |
 |
| LBJ in the cabinet meeting room |
 |
| President Richard M. Nixon used voice-activated Sony TC-800B reel-to-reel tape recorders. |
The taping system began operating in the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room on February 16, 1971. On April 6, the president's office in the Old Executive Office Building and his telephones in both this office and the Oval Office, and the telephone in the Lincoln Sitting Room in the Residence, were added to the system. Over a year later, on May 18, 1972, the president's office and two telephones in Aspen Lodge at Camp David were also added to the system, The Camp David installation completed the system.
 |
| Microphone locations in the Oval Office Enlarge |
 |
| The Cabinet Meeting Room |
 |
| Rose Mary Woods, President Richard Nixon's secretary transcribing recorded tapes |
 |
Oval office meeting note the Dictaphone machine next to the President’s desk |
LBJ Communicating with the World (1966) | |||
| |||
Type of Activity | Communications | ||
Location | |||
Location | Worldwide | ||
Date of Activity | August 1967 | ||
Coordinates | 38°53'51.2"N 77°02'20.9"W | ||
Note: Excerpts from an Article found in the Bell Telephone Magazine, Spring 1966, Titled, Communicating Presidents by Merriman Smith was used in this Post.
 |
| The Presidential Communications Rail car in PA. |
 |
| WHCA HF Radio Console |
 |
| President’s Office on Air Force One |
 |
| Air Force One's HF Radio Console |
 |
| White House Teletype terminal 1966 |
 |
| Working aboard Air Force One |
 |
| Call Director on the President's desk |
 |
| LBJ's Office at his Texas ranch |
 |
| The White House Admin Switchboard 1967 |
"Is Mrs. Johnson around?"
"One moment, sir," comes the crisp voice of a secretary.
"Fine, dear, everything is ready."
 |
| FM radio in the Presidential Limo. |
 |
| FM Radio telephone in the rear seat of the limo. |
 A temporary trip switchboard installed to handle all telephone and radio traffic during the event. |
| When needed, these hand-sized, miniaturized transceivers are connectible with telephone land-lines. If the trip involves several cities, it is quite common, for example, to hear one of the President's assistants using a handi-talkie to the travelling White House switchboard, operated in conjunction with the radio base station, to check plans with a White House advance man several hundred miles away. |
 |
| The radio base used for any phone patch requirements at the event. |
 |
| LBJ Oval Office |
 |
| The WHCA Signal Switchboard 1970 |
Air Force One SAM 26000 Radio Console Type of Activity
Air Transport
Location
Location
Worldwide
Date of Activity
Oct 1962 to June 2001
Coordinates
33°40′34″N 117°43′52″W
The UHF system WHCA operated (on 415.7/407.85) is code named "Echo Foxtrot", or "Nationwide" (the later name distinguishes it from the "Washington Area" system used for communications with White House limos and staff cars). It provides full duplex clear voice coverage over most of the continental US to VIP aircraft in flight (SAM aircraft - Special Air Missions - which fly out of Andrews AFB). It links them to a console Crown Radio at the White House Switchboard ("Crown") in the Old Executive Office building basement from which phone patch connections can be made to telephones at the White House, on the commercial POTS/DDD network, various other federal telephone systems, and occasionally the DSN (Defense Switched Network - formally Autovon).
White House Signal Switchboard ("Crown")
Crown Radio had two consoles one was the Washington DC FM network. The other one was for the Nationwide System (E/F), and secure voice. All of WHCA and USSS FM locations in the Washington DC area terminated there, as well as the Echo/Fox Nationwide air-to-ground Communications for AF1. The old E/F console built by Mario Lilla was operated from WHCA's M St location until Crown Radio was moved to the OEOB shortly after the new WECO 608 was cut into service there. Crown Radio (CR) went operational for the first time in the mid-sixties. At the time CR was that it only controlled the E/F network CR was manned and operational only in support of a POTUS mission. The only radio phone patches from CR was to WH Signal board who handled connections to telephone subscribers, and CR only operated the air-to-ground E/F network.
 |
| Crown Radio the E/F radio Console |
The system is operated by the White House Communications Agency (WHCA), and AT&T. Ground sites (there are about 30 of them) for the E/F system are located on AT&T microwave towers throughout the US and are connected by leased lines to a tech control console ("Crown Radio") that is part of the White House Switchboard ("Crown" or "Signal"). Each individual site can be separately keyed from the console and patched into a call, thus the system is capable of handling several calls at once although the aircraft involved have to be far enough apart not to interfere with one another.
The E/F system is completely manual at both ends, call setup and ground site selection is done by operators. On the ground the operators are WHCA/White House switchboard operators, on the aircraft they are CSO (Communication System Officers) who are military NCO's (tech sergeants mostly).
The E/F system is in-the-clear UHF full duplex voice. The aircraft often push-to-talk keys its transmitter, so it only transmits when the party on board is talking. The ground site usually transmits continuously for the duration of the call.
The system has been recently used with STU-III's for security, but apparently not too successfully. There have been occasional attempts in the past to use other kinds of secure voice, but most calls are still in the clear. Recent White House staff people who use the system have been made aware that listening to it is quite popular among scanner hobbyists and have been fairly careful about what they say, but when the system was first installed in the late 60's and early 70's there were some interesting conversations on it.
E/F antennas on AT&T towers are small and not very conspicuous but they can be recognized if one knows what they look like. They are always mounted at the top of the tower near the Hogg horns. There are usually three antennas, two small ground planes and a short vertical pole mounted above them and three or four feet apart.
Air Force One mostly uses the E/F system for actual phone connections when it is out of range of other systems or there is extremely heavy traffic on them (but it always maintains contact via E/F when in range of a ground site as backup anyway) and has in the past sometimes used E/F as a communications order wire to set up calls on the other systems.
 |
| Echo-Fox antenna cluster atop an AT&T tower |
Note: Echo-Fox is no longer in service; it is reported to have been shut down in 1996.
Coverage Map
This green-shaded area on this map shows the estimated coverage of the Echo-Fox stations listed in the table above (indicated by black dots), assuming a 200-mile range for each transmitter:
 | |
|
Echo-Fox Radio Sites as of March 1973
AT&T Corporate Security has requested that the names and exact locations of certain active facilities not be published; therefore, such installations are identified only by their Common Language Location identifier (CLLI) codes, printed in all capitals.
|
|
|
|
| Long Lines |
| |
|
| Mountain Bell |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Pacific Tel. & Tel. |
|
|
| Pacific Tel. & Tel. |
|
| Pacific Tel. & Tel. |
| |
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. |
|
|
| Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
| Long Lines |
| |
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Southwestern Bell |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| South Central Bell |
|
|
| New England Tel. & Tel. |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
| Long Lines |
| |
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Mountain Bell |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Bell Telephone of Nevada |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Pacific Northwest Bell |
|
|
| Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. |
|
|
| Northwestern Bell |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Southwestern bell |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
|
| Long Lines |
|
| Long Lines |
| |
|
| Pacific Northwest Bell |
|
|
| Pacific Northwest Bell |
|
|
| Mountain Bell |
|
Adapted from Bell System Practice 406-116-100, Issue 2, March 1973, pp. 6-7, table A
Interview of Maj. Gen. Jack A Albright The White House Communications Agency (WHCA) | |||
| |||
Type Of Activity | Communications support for the White House | ||
Location | |||
Location | Washington DC, worldwide | ||
Date of Activity | 1965 to 1989 | ||
Coordinates | |||
DATE: December 11 , 1980
G: Well, how did you get your people out?
A: It started ringing and rang till you picked it up. Not continuous, it was a buzz really, b-z-z-z, like that, and it continued to buzz two seconds, three seconds. Then it would stop and again in another two or three seconds and so on.
Well, Bobby had a briefcase in his lap and never opened the briefcase. What we found after they left is, he had a high frequency buzzer in there that buzzed all the time he was in there, ultrasound, where it was just getting enough of the sound on to that microphone, you couldn't hear anything except the noise. R-r-r-r-r-r-r-.
A: Negative, nothing. No, he was very, very careful. I know that office very well, there's nothing in there. But the tape recorder was there if he chose to use it only for telephone calls. There was no microphone in there. He couldn't record anything.
So, he gives me the invoice. Now the sets are not even here. All he did was give me the fifty invoice, and the price of it and so on. They called and put them on a Northwest Orient airline out of the Sony factory, delivered them to New York. I had a man waiting in New York, took them off the airplane, got another plane, brought them down, and I delivered them to the President somewhere around nine or ten the next morning.
G: You bet. You bet.
A; Oh, yes, we ran that, too, the two in his office. That was AP and UPI, those were the news releases, the Associated Press and United Press International. They were on two machines side by side. We had to put a shelter over them to keep the noise down. He'd go along and look at these things and read the paper coming out of the top. Sometimes they didn't work right. He'd call and give us hell, say, "Get over here and straighten this goddamn thing out," and this kind of stuff. So, we did.
G: Do you recall any other occasions where you woke the President in the middle of the night on something important?
G: What would you do if he wanted to drive the amphicar, for example?
So, we had a multiple tape preparation machine that would make up to six tapes. Play it off a master and you make six other tapes identical to it. And that's the way we made it. Once in a while he'd want to release maybe six tapes, ten tapes, fifteen, and so we made them through that.
|
Interview of Maj. Gen.
Jack A Albright |
|||
|
|||
|
Type of Activity |
Communications support for the White House |
||
|
Location |
|||
|
Location |
Washington DC, worldwide |
||
|
Date of Activity |
1965 to 1989 |
||
|
Coordinates |
|||
This is the second part of an interview with Gen. Jack
A. Albright the second WHCA commander who served from Apr. 1965 to June 1969
under Presidents Johnson and Nixon
DATE: December 11 , 1980
INTERVIEWEE: JACK ALBRIGHT
INTERVIEWER: MICHAEL L. GILLETTE
PLACE: Cosmos
Club, Washington, D. C. Tape 1 of
1
INTERVIEW II
G: You were going to talk about that trip to the Truman Library.
A: Yes. That was an interesting trip, because we went out the day before to visit and to plan for this. When we arrived at the Library, President Truman was there and [he was] a most gracious host. He came to us, and he said, "Well, you know, I always admired Lyndon. He was a great, great man, a great majority leader. And he is making a great president. You know, I wouldn't offer this for just anybody, but I would really let him and be glad to have him use my podium." I said, "Mr. President, may I see the podium? He is rather tall and maybe it is too short, maybe we can raise it. We would take a look at it. We'd like to look at it." So, he said, "Fine."
He took us to a back room. Now, he had led us through the Library; he had already walked us through the various rooms and [was] proud of the Library. He showed us the various rooms within there, and then finally found a room where this podium was stored. I do not think I am exaggerating, it could not have been more than four foot, four inches, four foot five. It was extremely short, hit you about your navel. Not something I could have used at all, and about that wide. It might have suited him very well, it might have made him loom large to the crowd in front of it, or behind it to speak. But I did not think the President would be happy with it at all, and so I said, "Mr. President, I do appreciate it, but I don't believe that it would just fit the circumstance, I don't think." He said, "Well, couldn't you put it up on some telephone books or something of this nature and sort of raise it where Lyndon could use it? He's taller than I am." I said, "Yes, sir, but we've found that they've gone through trying times on security and they really feel they need the protection now. What we have done, Mr. President, we have placed certain security within that podium, and so we would prefer to use the regular podium, which is wide, which is about his height. So, if you do not mind, we'll use that one." "Well, that's fine," he said, "whatever you want to do. But I wanted to make the offer and let you know how I felt about Lyndon. He's a great guy." So, we put his podium in and the President spoke from his regular podium, not that of President Truman.
But it is just interesting the attitude, the solicitude he had toward this. But he took all of my other people, the people that came in with me, the public address systems, and he was most solicitous, most anxious to assist, to do anything he can to make sure this was a success. We were, that morning, about, oh, three hours away from presidential arrival, and he was saying, "We've got to have it right, we've got to have it right." We knew that, of course.
G: Did you have an opportunity to see the two men together, to observe their interaction?
A: Oh, yes, many times. Each year I would say, and you will see it down through the schedule, President Johnson, sort of around the birthday period, he would visit President Truman.
I think
probably the last time I recall was in it was 1968, could be 1967, but in that
time frame, and he visited him. We went to the house, and they stood together
on the porch and took pictures and so on. Afterwards President Truman
said, "Well, I’d like to go back to
the airport with you," and Bess Truman just said, "No. Harry, it is time for your nap.
I'm sorry, you're not going to the airport." He turned to Lyndon and said, "You see, as you get older you have someone boss you around and tell you what to do. You have to look forward to this." That sort of laughed it off and ended the subject, but he did not go.
An interesting story with that though. In an earlier visit to their home, I think it was probably in 1966, we went in. Normally before the President's visit we used to install telephones in the facility, in the location where the President would come, both for Secret Service and for the President. But Mrs. Truman told my advance man, she said, "I am sorry, we don't have a phone. Don't have a phone in the home." I thought that was rather odd. Nevertheless, she said, "It's true. We do not believe in phones. We don't have a phone in the house, and if we need to use a phone, we go down to the phone booth on the corner." I thought that was rather [odd]. But she said, "Now, Lyndon's coming. He is always a great favorite of mine.
We'll let you put a telephone on the back porch with a long cord, and if he gets a call, he can bring it in the kitchen and talk on it." And that is all we could do. He put a telephone installation on the back porch with a long cord, and he did get a call and took it into the house and talked in there.
Well, at the end of that visit, as they were coming from one of the functions and going back into the house, a lot of the photographers were following and the White House photographer, [Yoichi] Okamoto, was attempting to follow. She stopped him and said, "Hold it just a minute. I don't allow photographers in my house." He said, "Why?" She said, "Well, I've got furniture that dates from World War I, old furniture. It suits me, it suits Harry. But I do not want anybody taking pictures of it, I do not want anybody making fun of it. We are not going to have it. You, you are little old Japanese boy, you get off my porch." She told Okamoto this. Okamoto said, "Look, I'm the White House photographer. I'm working for President Johnson." She said, "I don't care who you work for, you get off my porch. I don't want you on my porch." So, he came out in the yard.
Bob Taylor and
I were standing there during the argument. We were always the kidding kind, and
we joked with him a little bit and said, "Oh, you Japanese kid, get away
from us. You're terrible." Of course, we had been friends of Okamoto for years.
But we said, "You get away from us." He was really burning about
this. But she would not allow them in the house. No photographers, and specifically
Okamoto, no way. They did take pictures on the porch, and that is all they
could do.
G: Was LBJ apprised of this situation later?
A: No, no. No,
no. We never told him about that. It
really was not a thing we would
tell him about. It was just laughable to the Secret Service that heard
it. Well, the press around it heard it. The press
was really told, "You can't come in."
They never wrote much about it,
because they had great respect for Mrs. Truman and President Truman. Never said
much about it.
G: LBJ presented Harry Truman with the number one Medicare card, didn't he?
A: Yes, but I do
not remember much about that. I was not
privy to that or present at the time he did. I do recall that he did, I read
about it. But I do not know much about that.
G: Do you ever recall him talking about President Truman after these visits?
A: Oh, he would always have some comment about it.
He would inject it in some speeches.
One speech, he made it and went on to make a speech somewhere else--I think San Francisco.
He made the comment he had seen him at the Muehlebach Hotel. This was sometime
in early 1965. He made the comment, "I've just been with one of the
greatest Democratic presidents since
Roosevelt died. Old Harry Truman, I visited with him at the Muehlebach. He's one of the greatest,
and he's doing great." [He'd] just
tell the people, he said, "He's a wonderful guy," that kind of compliment,
always that kind. Nothing but compliments about him. He had a genuine respect for him. Part of
it was palaver and politics, we knew
that. But nevertheless, there was a genuine respect for him. He did not have to make those trips. He gained
maybe politically from it, but he did
not have to make them. He could have gotten public respect otherwise.
G: Did he ever
get any advice from Truman during these visits?
A: You could not tell.
G: Really?
A: We never
were privy to any of this where they talked together. You really had doubts,
because their talks were never long enough or private enough to feel that he
could. And what we saw of President
Truman, ex-President Truman, in later years did not lead us to believe that he
would. He really did not keep up with current events that close, I do not really
think so. He might have gotten political advice; I do not know that. But I do
not think in world events, no. I do not think so. President Truman was all
interested in what he was doing, in terms of the Library, in terms of what he
was doing day-to-day. But he never
attempted to talk to me or to my people, and I have spent hours with him over a
period of time, in and out of his office there in the Library, there and the other
times. He never got onto current events or onto politics. He never branched in
that area. Always sticking to current, trivial subjects. So, I have my doubts
about it, but I never heard anything.
On this particular trip we were informed of this only the day before the trip actually occurred.
G: This is the trip to Honolulu?
A: The trip to Honolulu, which is right. They chose the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, and we were given [the third floor], and all the guests were cleared off. My memory may be faulty, but it was the third floor. We cleared it all out. That was given to the presidential party. Now, the hotel itself is an old hotel, it is probably one of the older ones in Hawaii. It really had not many of the modern conveniences; it did not have air conditioning; it did not have modern communications.
We had to literally start from scratch and wire the hotel. The main frame for it was on the roof, so we had to wire from the roof of the hotel--hang the wires over the side of the hotel and string them in the windows of the various suites on the third floor and apartments and rooms.
During the night that first night, which was a Friday night of it is the second February 1961, Jack Valenti was sleeping, and we were laying wires across his bed, stringing wires across his bed. He woke up and wondered what in the world is going on, and they explained what it was, and he went back to sleep.
But it was an interesting trip in that it showed that you could in fact [handle it].
That was the
first--not really an overseas trip, but it was the first trip he had taken outside
of the continental United States with us. It had been so long since we had made
an overseas trip that the whole organization was out of practice for it, Secret
Service as well as us. So, we had to get back in swing.
G: What lessons
did you draw from this experience? How did you streamline your operation?
A: The main thing is, we found we had to develop a
bit more flexibility, more mobility with our
equipment. As he did out there on this, he changed his mind during the trip. He wanted
to speak at the East-West Center, and we had nothing at the East-West Center.
This was all in a matter of hours we had to arrange things. But we had to learn
to get equipment that was flexible to the point--and the East-West Center was
at the University of Hawaii. We had to get equipment that would match equipment
as we would find it. Sometimes they develop a low level or low resistance
speaker system, and you could go in and connect up without any problem. Others
it was a high ohmic system and you could
not do that. You had to have equipment that was especially designed and matched to it. So, we had to start carrying both,
equipment that would match both systems, and that is what resulted from that
trip. We built our travel packages considerably different as a result of that
one trip.
The other
main thing we learned was that we are almost totally dependent on in any trip
the commercial communications systems that exist, whether it be an AT&T or
GT&E or an independent, we are totally dependent on them. Because we had to
take over whatever systems exist, and they had to do the wiring; you had to depend
on that group to do the wiring locally and change all the telephones out, change
them back to our switchboard. Now, we did it within the twenty-four-hour time
frame we had, but it was not a simple thing. But without them it would have been
impossible. No way. We could not have done it ourselves. As many people as I
had, I could not have made the adjustment.
Witness that
a year later when I will talk later about the second trip to Hawaii, when we
went out in preparation for the visit out there in 1967 [1968], just before Martin
Luther King was killed. We had to abort and go back a week later. Now that is a
massive trip we prepared for that time and yet we were better prepared because
of this first trip, because we knew what we had to do, what we had the plan for,
and what we could do. So, it was a good traveling experience. But he really had
not traveled anywhere in what we called an overseas environment up to that
point, not anywhere. That was the first one.
G: Why do you think he did not travel more outside the [states]?
A: Oh, his
politics were mostly domestically oriented. He felt when he took over as president
after Kennedy was killed that he had a mission to try to pass the legislation that had been unable to pass,
that Kennedy espoused but could not pass. So,
in the first hundred to hundred and eighty days he had an objective to
pressing for that legislation. He had a control, a way with the Congress, that
no president before him has ever had.
G: Now at that East-West Trade Center he, as I recall, gave very enthusiastic support to the idea of educational television.
A: That is correct, he did. That is the first time he had ever spoken of that in public, and he spoke of it very strongly and it gave a boost to all of the ETV programs throughout the United States. But that is where it opened, that is where it began.
G: Can you recall the genesis of this? Did he ever discuss this with you?
A: No. No. That was not anything I even knew about; I
did not see it. He did not prepare for those
kinds of speeches when he was going on the road. He would have some speech
writer, Doug Cater or somebody, write him a speech. Then he would give it--he would
not rehearse it. The only speeches I
ever got involved in in preparation for
was like State of the Union or one where he is going on nationwide
TV or where he was going
to make a press conference.
Sometimes he would rehearse those kinds of things, and I got in on it, but not this kind.
He considered
those more extemporaneous types of talks. (Interruption) We were traveling from
Stewart Air Force Base in New York over to Ellenville, New York. The motorcade was traveling around through the
countryside. A crowd would gather. They had heard something about it on the
radio, and they would gather along the roadside
as we traveled through. He would stop the motorcade and get out and talk to
them. Sometimes it would be five, seven, sometimes ten or twelve people. He
would talk to all of them, wherever he
could. But as we were traveling and close to Ellenville suddenly
the motorcade stopped. And we did not know why. I did not know why. I
was in about the seventh or eighth
car back in the motorcade. When it stopped to a dead standstill, I went forward to see what it was, and here is a horse lying in the road. It
looked like a fairly scrawny-looking horse, maybe of a
trotting horse vintage, that kind, because that
is trotting horse country up there. And the farmer is standing there
talking to the Secret Service and the first lead car, which is a police car from
the state of New York, and he is irate.
He said, "You killed my best racing horse and I want to get paid for it." Well, he was not going to move the horse, nor let them move the horse until he got paid for his horse.
So, we had argued for oh, anywhere from five to seven minutes and suddenly the President gets out. He is about the third or fourth car back. He gets out and comes up and says, "What's the problem?" So, they told him.
He said, "Well, no, now he doesn't. He is dead. But he was worth that." He said, "What would you take for him?" He said, "Well, I'll take a thousand dollars." The President said, "I'll give you five hundred." He said, "Well, I'll split the difference, how about seven-fifty?" He was a trader, too, you know. The President said, "Okay, seven-fifty." He turned to the Secret Service [man] and said, "Pay him." The Secret Service [man] said, "Pay him? We don't have any money." He said, "Who's got money?" And he said, "Albright. He's the only man who carries money with him." I always carried an impress fund in cash. The President turned around and said, "What's the problem? Pay the man and let us get on! We're going to Ellenville!" So, I drug out seven hundred and fifty dollars paid the guy and got a receipt for the thing, one dead horse, got in the car and we went out.
We get back to Washington, and I do not know, we went on to these other locations here. It was to Vermont and Lewiston, Maine and New Hampshire and New Brunswick and finally to Campobello Island and back home.
So, the following week, it was the twenty-first, twenty-third [August 1966], somewhere in there, I submitted my voucher to clear my account. I put on there "One dead horse, seven hundred and fifty dollars." It got to the finance officer, and he called me, "You've got to be kidding! You can't put a dead horse on your finance voucher." I said, "Oh, yes I can. That is what happened. You see the receipt for it?" He said, "Yes, but that's not a deductible item." I said, "Oh, my God, I got a novice here."
G: He met with
Lester Pearson in Canada; I think?
A: In Campobello,
that is right he did.
A: No, other than the fact that they had a meeting, and they made no real speeches, they made no communiques from it. But they had this speech up there and they met up in FDR's old house up in Campobello Island, what they call FDR's hideaway or something--Shangri La I guess is what they called the place up there.
G: Did he ever talk about FDR when he was there?
A: Not a great deal.
Oh, he made a few comments about it, "one of the great presidents" and so
on. He really
was not one to dwell on history that much. In private
he never had much to say about it. (Interruption)
This
particular trip was the first place we had done the research work on the
nuclear development, and it is the first peaceful development at Pocatello
[Idaho]. He dedicated a space science building there and accepted an honorary
degree from the University of Denver thereafter, he went on down to Denver to
accept it. But the first site--we had been
out and prepared a site for them. We anticipated about ten thousand people to
come and hear him. So, we contracted with a local firm to put in a public address
system for him. We had some huge speakers,
amplifiers, but he was also contracted to be on nationwide TV, and so we had
connected for that. Just as all the preliminaries--the Governor of the state of
Idaho and so on all were there to make their preliminary political talks and
introduce the various dignitaries.
About the time the President got up, the public address system quit. It literally quit, nothing. So, my people were scurrying out in front, pulling plugs, and shoving this and shoving that, trying to figure what was wrong.
The President was up there and looking around at me and looking at Marvin Watson out of the corner of his eye, and Marvin [was] saying, "What's wrong?" And I would say, "Keep talking, keep talking." Well, I wanted him to keep talking because it was on nationwide TV. Well, he did keep talking. He kept making snide remarks about it, you know, "the public address system don't work, they wonder what I'm saying out there. But I hope you people out in TV can hear me" and so on. He did talk for four-and-a-half minutes and finally it came back on. He finished his speech and got back on his helicopter. I got on another helicopter.
We flew back over to the air base and flew down to Denver, which wasn't a long flight, he called me in and said, "What happened?" I said, "Mr. President, I really don't know. I'm waiting for a report." I had a fellow on the ground--a Major Taylor, Joe Taylor, and I said, "I'm waiting on him to tell me." Now some of that is in this other thing [Interview I]; you will see some duplication. But that is where it was. I said, "Well, I don't know, but I'm waiting on a call from Joe Taylor."
Well, I finally subsequently got hold of Joe Taylor, and he told me, said, "Well, we had what is known as a hot short, a hot solder. As it got hot, the solder"--that's S-O- L-D-E-R, see, I've spelled it all wrong in the early interpretation of this thing. But it came apart. As it got hot it broke loose, and that is an unusual type of a defect in electrical equipment. But it did. The President said, "My God, I'm glad you found it." I made the mistake of saying, "No, we didn't find it." He said, "You mean it could have quit again?" I said, "Yes," and he augured right through the roof.
You are
standing there with ten thousand people looking at you and they are
watching your chops moving and somebody is saying, 'What in the hell is he talking
about?' Really, that is a critical thing; you do not want to do that. Stop me next
time!" But, well, I did not ever stop him. I never stopped him again.
A: Oh, yes. My
God! It happened a number of times. (Laughter)
That's just one of many, but it was not
as obvious to him as that one. I had failures a number of times after that.
Going back a bit, we had a pre-trip group that made the trip. We left on the first day of October,1966, and we got back on the sixteenth. We turned around and left with him on the morning of the seventeenth and went back with him again for the same trip. We were dead, dead on our feet.
But at any rate, his trip, we arrived in Hawaii on the seventeenth. He got there and spent the night. Raining like hell, we got off the plane, just pouring rain. I mean just buckets. Every cable was up off the ground and the system was muffled in part at the airport because of the water on the cables. It was not a good arrival at all.
But anyway, he went downtown, spent the night. As a matter of fact, he did not spend the night, he just stopped there and made a speech and went on to Pago Pago.
Now in Pago
Pago we stopped again for the ceremonies, and we had ceremonies there while
they were refueling the plane. He made a couple of speeches there. The most interesting
thing is they had the native dances and the native ceremony. He had to drink
some of this kava, and some of this is pretty horrible brew that they come up
with out there, highly alcoholic but tastes like a very bad bitter coffee, but it
has got some native fruits and stuff in it. He would make a face and so on. But
anyway, he drank that stuff.
Then we went on to Pago Pago--that's American Samoa--and then finally wound [up] in Wellington, New Zealand. Now this was an interesting trip. He spent I believe a full night there. Yes, that is right, one full day. We went up to visit the Maori village up in the hills and then came back and visited and he spoke at the New Zealand congress.
He made some
trips around town to a couple of historical sites there. An interesting trip
went on very well. But we had enough notice, we had people in place. It is one
of the few times for President Johnson I was able to prepare
for him. Most of the time he really sort of gave you one day or two, and then
he'd give me hell and smile at me as [if] to [say] "See, I told you could do it. No problem at all."
A: He flew then, right, to Canberra. Canberra became our center of operations, and from Canberra, we stayed there I guess two days, flew one day over to Sydney, flew back to there.
I do not know
what came out of it, but one that came, we had a picnic out at the Ambassador's ranch. He had a ranch, out
in the country. He put on a nice feed. I am embarrassed
to say [I cannot think of] the Ambassador's name. I can see the guy. A fellow who was from Texas, the Ambassador--
G: Well, he was there.
G: December of 1941.
G: So, you went on to Manila from there?
A: Manila, right. And they had the conference there in Manila. We were there --they show here as two days.
G: This was the
conference with the other heads of state.
A: Southeast Asian Conference, that is right. Now he spoke to almost all of them during that time frame. Some of them he was trying to reach some sort of a consensus with them. I do not know whether he did or not. He made a number of talks while he was there.
G: Was he pleased with the way it was going there? Did his mood seem positive?
A: Yes, I think so. He felt that he was being supported in general by that crowd there that he met there, particularly the Thai and the Malaysian group, because he agreed at that point, and we then consented to modify it to continue on. We had already done some preliminary work, but he would not if he had not met them there and made some sort of an agreement to continue with them. We went on from there to Thailand and then into Malaysia.
One of the interesting things that came out of this, and I got one of the chewing’s I had. They had a rice institute down south of Manila and he went down to make a speech at this rice institute. This was arranged by Tyler Abell. Tyler Abell was [assistant] postmaster general at that time, but he was also an advance man on this particular trip.
We went down there, and we planned for this presentation, and Tyler Abell came in at the last minute and started changing things around. But he was just about to screw things up good, when I heard about it and I overruled him and said, "No, we're not going to do it that way." He had taken the President's podium out. The President would get mad. He would come in and if he did not find the circumstance, he liked in a presentation view really, he would get very unhappy. So, he told me later, "You're not going to let somebody like Tyler Abell tell you what to do, are you?" I said, "No, I'm not," and he did not. But we put it back in place. We moved Tyler Abell out and shoved him all up to Korea. He went ahead of us on a jump to the Korean site.
But he made the speech at the rice institute. This was generally where we agreed to provide some assistance to that rice institute to try to proliferate the fast-growing rice that they had come up with, very prolific rice for Southeast Asia, for Malaysia, for Thailand and for Vietnam. They agreed to move some of that out there under the auspices of that rice institute.
G: He did go to Vietnam then, didn't he?
A: He went to
Vietnam the following morning. I was rudely awakened at two o'clock. I knew something
was wrong. I knew that something was going to happen, because I was told
to be at the naval base at Subic Bay at something like five-thirty, six in the morning.
Well, I was. I was the only member of my group that could be there.
Nobody else from the White House Communications [Agency] was there. We got on a plane, the President's plane, the single 707, the presidential aircraft, and flew to Vietnam.
Then we got there. So, he told me, he said, "I'm going to visit the troops in the hospital. When I come back, I want to have it set up for a speech." I said, "Well, I'll be able to record it. There's not going to be any podium." He said, "Where is the podium?" I said, "Podium? You would not let me bring anybody. You just told me, and I am here all alone. I have got microphones prepared for your speech and we will record you, but you are not going to talk into any podium or anything, presidential podium. There is not going to be any presidential seal. You're just going to get up and talk to the troops, Mr. President." Well, he said okay. He sort of accepted it, but some of the other aides there thought I should have brought the whole--and I said, "Well, that's really wonderful to think. That is a four-hundred-pound podium, and you have got me here alone. So." He did talk to the troops. We fixed it up, and we recorded it. It was a very, very hush-hush trip, a lot of security involved in the thing. He really had told [General William] Westmoreland that he was coming, and that is about the only one that knew there that he was coming into there.
G: How did he feel about that trip? Did the experience influence him in one way or another?
A: Well, yes, it did, it sort of touched him. Because on the way back he would talk to us about it; he talked to me about it and a couple of others, Marvin Watson, Jake Jacobsen, a couple of others were on there. He felt he had really had a meaningful trip to him. He felt he had done something that was important to the troops in Vietnam. He always felt strongly about Vietnam. He felt that it was right, he felt we were doing the right thing. Even though, as he says, his detractors did not feel that way, he felt that he was.
G: Did he also feel that it was important for him to be there to show a measure of support for the troops?
A: Yes, that is why he went. He would not have
gone otherwise. He really felt that it was important. He did not feel as many
people did that, he was putting his life in danger; he never felt that way. He
never worried about his life really, per se. He never felt there was anybody
that was really anxious to kill him.
G: He never had a fear of assassination?
A: Not at that time, he did not. He developed some of
it later, but not at that time. And certainly, out there he had
no fear. These were among his people. These people in Vietnam were his--you
ask the British, the Australians, whatever was there for him were all friends of his. They were people that were supporting the same things that he supported, support for
the Vietnamese. And certainly, the Vietnamese that he dealt with, they were there, they were still in power because U.S. forces were there. And
so, no, he had no concern about that kind of visit; he felt good about the visit.
But an
interesting thing happened. Interesting thing looking back on it, it was not too
funny at the time. As we left there, he asked me, "Did you get a copy of
the tape?" I said, "Yes, we brought one and I have one." He
said, "Well, I tell you what, I want to go on nationwide TV when I arrive back
in Manila." International TV. And I said, "Mr. President, fine, all
right. We can probably arrange this. It probably will be tape recorded, and we would
have to go out to one of the TV studios and record. I can arrange that."
He said, "But I want to use the teleprompter." I said, "Now wait
a minute, Mr. President. I asked you specifically, you personally, did you want
us to bring the teleprompters before we came and you said, 'No. it's too much weight.' So, we did not bring
it. That is some we cut out, six hundred pounds. We just cut down in the weight
of the things we were hauling around. And you said, 'All right, don't bring
it. It is too much!'" I said, "You don't have them." He said,
"Well, don't they have those out here?" I said, "No! They do not
have them all over the world! They might have some elementary ones in
Japan." He said, "Well, I
don't care where you get them. Get me
one by tomorrow morning!" I said, "Well, I'll try, but I'm not betting that I'll have it." He said, "Well, I don't tell you all my
problems. Just find one."
Well, I called back to my people in Manila from the air after we took off from Cam Ranh Bay and I told them what I wanted. Then I had an incredibly good man in Manila, Jack Rubley, who is now the head of communications for the ICA, Interagency [International] Communications Agency. I said, "Jack, the President wants to make a TV recording and go on worldwide TV. So, you are going to have to record it in the morning; when he comes back, he wants to record. It is going to be late at night. But he wants to go on the TV." He said, "Well, would he be willing to wait until in the morning? I can get him on nationwide TV easier in the morning. Time-wise it's just not right tonight." "But," I said, "he wants the teleprompter." He said, "You know we don't have a teleprompter out here." I said, "I know that, and you know that. But just find one, Jack." "My God," he said, "you give me some of the damnedest jobs." I said, "Don't tell me your problems, Jack. That's what he told me." So, we left it laughing like that.
Well, when he [Johnson] got back it so happened he
changed his mind before he got home. He
did not want to make a recording
that night. He said, "I tell you what,
I'll do it first thing in
the morning. But you have it ready
at say nine in the morning."
So, okay. That would give us an overnight. But
Jack had it ready. We could have gone to
a studio and recorded it for TV that night.
But we put it off until the following morning, sent him out there and
did record it.
They had a form of teleprompter, some things that he could look at and the tape could be put on there. We
did do that, and he recorded it the following morning. Generally,
it was a short message about his feelings about his trip into Vietnam and why he went there.
G: Why did he change his mind, do you think, so
many times on things like this?
A: Do you mean on the way home?
G: No, just in general on last minute changes, last minute decisions, changing his mind on whether or not he wants to use this or wants to speak from this podium or that podium, and things like that.
A: I never did figure him out really. I
never really understood him that complete. I could have understood more if the circumstances had changed or
if there had been an incident or something to upset him or if somebody had
called and told him about some press release or something. But I did not often
see those things that caused them. But I concluded in general he got tired. Maybe
the circumstance appeared to change for him, and so he would say, "Well, okay, I'm tired tonight. We are not going
to do it tonight. Let us change it
and do it in the morning." I have to adjust
it maybe to tiredness, maybe to his age, maybe to the fact that the trip itself
was bearing on him. I never was critical of him
for doing this. I just reacted to, that was all I could do. And there were
times [when] I was there, yes. I moaned and groaned about him doing it.
But in retrospect, no, I think
that some of that was just a fact of the pressures of the office.
(Interruption)
Before we left, we were preparing to leave the Philippines and about that night, it was somewhere around two o'clock in the morning, I get a call from Korea. My advance man in Korea tells me, said, "We got a problem up here." "Now," he said, "the problem is, we wanted to use a podium, the President's podium, up here in Korea but we got a fellow by the name of Tyler Abell who sent some advance word up here. Hackler is here, Loud Hackler"--he was acting as the advance man on that particular trip--"but the y say no, we've got to use one that's built in, that's short, that fits the Korean president and matches the decor and all this stuff, and they've gone ahead and had it built." And it is high. Oh, it was a massive speech environment. He was trying to speak to about two million people from a conjunction of a whole series of where roads radiated into a square, I do not know, it was seven, eight, ten roads came to one point in the center of Seoul. A massive and a very impressive sight. But we had built this thing up off the ground, some seventy-five or a hundred feet, and looking down these roads you could see this thing from all directions. So, they were going to make sort of a dais, a real impressive affair. And they did not think this President's podium would fit in that environment or would show.
I said, "Look"--this is my man, it's Jim Adams, and I said, "Jim, look, please. The President told me again tonight, he said he wants to speak at that podium up there. So, do not argue with him and we are not going to take any argument. Tell them to put that podium up." So, he said, "All right. I'll tell them."
Well,
another hour later I am now asleep. I am in the hotel in Manila asleep. I get a
telephone call and he said, "Sorry. They say nope, they will not do it. They're
not going to do it." And I said, "Who do they want to call them?"
He said, "Well, they want Marvin Watson to
call them if there's a change. I said, "Marvin isn’t going to like it, I'm going to wake him up." So, I called him and woke him up.
"Yes, Colonel, what's the problem?" I said, "Lloyd won't change
it.
Lloyd Hackler
says we're going to use that built-in podium, he will not use a presidential
podium." "Didn't you tell him
what we told you?" I said, "Yes."
"And he still insists?" I said, "That's right. He wants to talk
to you." "He'll be sorry he did. Would you get him on the phone and
then give me the call?" I said, "Yes." I said, "Okay, Jim, get him on the phone and then give it
to me, and I've got Brother Watson standing
by. He is mad. He woke him
up, and he is not happy. So,
Lloyd may get a few words. But
if you want to put a bug
in his ear, you can save him a
lot of grief. Marvin is going to just
chew his ass out, and he just says it is going to change, it is going to be the presidential podium. Now, if he wants to hear
it from you, fine. If he wants to hear it from Marvin,
fine."
So, a few minutes back, he said, "No, he's got to hear
it." So, I said, "Okay.
Is, he on?" "Yes.
I said, "Just a minute."
I told the operator to give Marvin the call. Marvin
came on and I said, "I want a conference, listen." Marvin said, "Lloyd"--he could be quiet sometimes, but very subtle, but
very understanding. "Lloyd, what did Colonel Albright's advance man tell
you?" Lloyd said, "Well, I'm doing what
Tyler Abell told me. He told me he wanted this built-up podium up here
and all this.
It is what he said. He said, 'Don't deviate.'" And he [Marvin] said, "And since that time they have told you that the President has told me and I have told Colonel Albright, I want that podium up there. Did you understand that?" He said, "Yes, Marvin. They've told me that." He said, "Then, goddamn it, listen to them! Listen to them! Take that son-of-a-bitch out!"--and Marvin didn't normally curse, Marvin is a deeply religious man. He said, "Just take that son-of-a-bitch out and put the President's podium in the middle of it. You clear?" "Yes, Marvin. Thank you." Wham! Marvin did not lose his temper very often, but he did that night, and when we were out in Korea that is what it was.
G: Tell me about the crowd in Korea.
A: Oh, my God,
a tremendous crowd. I do not have any way to judge it. We saw really only the piece of it as we drove in from the airport. There must have been a million lining the street. They turned out
every school in Seoul. They trucked them in from all over
the countryside. Every little
kid from that high up to as high as I could reach--really a tremendous crowd. Most
of it school kids and people from out of their houses. They were all out to greet,
you know, flowers and everything. A real tremendous greeting.
You have to
read it as planned; you cannot read it as spontaneous. But they were there. But when you got this speech environment as far as you
could see, I have never seen that many people in my life and I have seen speech
environments with a half million, three- quarter million. I have to guess well over a
million or more in the streets, as
far as you could see up seven ways
and at every road, solid. And they had speakers built over those roads where they could all hear.
But they were there, a tremendous crowd. I have never seen such a crowd in
my life, before or since.
Never.
G: I gather Johnson was impressed with the size of the crowd.
A: He was. He made the comment, said, "That's the biggest crowd I've ever seen. I've seen a lot of Mexicans in my time, but never ever seen this." No, he was really pleased with it.
We went on
then to Thailand. The President took a day, or a night I guess, he went out in
the Patio [?], which is a resort area down on the Gulf of Siam and stayed overnight and we went on into Bangkok. He
came into Bangkok for the formal meetings with the government of Thailand
the following day. They did the usual things.
They visited
the universities there, Chulalongkorn [University]. They put the wreaths at the
tombs of the heroes. They appeared in the parades downtown. All the usual things
there, nothing that I recall other than
that, nothing significant as a statement came out.
Now you recall the Thais of course were with us in Vietnam; they were fighting
with us, had two divisions over there and were fighting with us. But they were supporting us all the way. So, he knew nothing but support in
that country, too.
We left the following day and flew to Kuala Lumpur. And Kuala Lumpur gave him quite an impressive greeting and lined the streets. Now it is about nine or ten miles from the airport into the city, it is quite a ways. And the roads were lined all the way.
G: That's in Malaysia, is that right?
A: Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is the capital. And quite a crowd. Oh, it is a country of--I do not know, I do not remember the population, but it is on the order of twelve, fourteen million. The capital city itself is roughly a half, three-quarter million. But the crowd was out, it was there. Well, done. Stayed one day and then we went on to Korea from there, with two days in Korea. Met at the airport, usual festivities at the airport, made this tremendous motorcade in, the speech before that huge crowd, appeared before the governing body of Korea, visited a few more historical sites. Visited the troops. We had quite a number of troops in Korea. He visited some of the divisions over there.
And then finally we came home to Alaska, stopping in Alaska for a visit. We were going to go downtown and spend the night. They first said we were going to stay overnight and changed it and did not. But we came downtown for a rally; they had a bonfire and we drove down through a motorcade and got into the town.
An interesting one came from that, as we returned.
We got on the plane in Alaska to leave. I was on the number-two
plane then; he was obviously on the presidential
[plane]. He called over and said, "We're going to go into not
Andrews but Dulles." Now our
original plan was to go back into Andrews, no crowd, quietly slip in. But after
this trip he wanted a successful arrival and
he wanted nationwide TV and a speech. Now, he had planned neither of
those. So, he said to me, "Fix it up at Dulles." So, I called back to
Washington from the air, and they said, "Man, it's a bad night here. It is pouring rain.
The winds
are thirty-five, forty miles an hour. I don't know how you're ever going to do it." I said, "Well, okay. Move your material out to Dulles and go ahead. Maybe the weather
will clear. We are now six hours away from there so maybe it will clear."
Well, three hours out I called back, and they said, "Well, it's still windy. It's still gusty." I said, "Well, the President said put it up outside. He wants to do it outside." Now some of that is in that other [interview], you have heard it. But that same story is there. So, I do not need to repeat this story.
G: That's the content of it?
A: That's the
story, right. That is the context of this. The
President said, "I want to do it outside." Then when the wind was so bad, the Secret
Service said, "No, you can't do it out here. You can't put that thing
up." I went to the President and to Watson and Watson said, "You're not going to let the Secret Service
tell you what to do." and I said, "When it's safety, yes, I am."
So, they finally accepted some modification of the plan, and he said, "Put
it inside," so we did.
Then it cleared
up, and he said, "Put it outside." I put it outside and as he got off
the plane the top turned loose, and it rained all over him and everybody. We
really had a mess. I just grinned at him, and I said, "You wanted it
outside, we got it outside."
G: When he was traveling overseas, particularly in an area like Vietnam, was there
a division of security between
Secret Service and military? Where did one's responsibility end and the other
begin I wonder?
A: The Secret Service was always in charge of the security of the President. What they did is they assigned certain functions and certain tasks to the military, and they carried them out. There was complete cooperation, but there was never a question of who was in charge. Secret Service always laid out the plans and the others said, "Now, we can do this, we can do this, we'd like to do this, we're prepared to do this and this and this," and the Secret Service is saying, "Nope. You will do this, you will do this, you will do this." Always in charge. Never was a question of that. Even the FBI, where they cooperated, there was never a question. The Secret Service were always in charge. (Interruption)
G: --start with that. The Punta del Este [conference].
A: In April of
1967 there was a plan to hold a conference of the American chiefs of state in
Punta del Este, Uruguay. Now, this was interesting in that if you had tried to
pick a place that was one of the more difficult places
to hold a conference, land to pick a
time of year when it would be most difficult to accommodate seven hundred,
eight hundred people., you could not have picked one. This one is a resort area.
It is one of the leading resort areas
in all of the east coast of South America for that time of year. This is a sunbathers' paradise. This is the summertime
down there. These people are there by
the thousands, the bathers, the families, they rent places year after year
after year, every beach, every condominium, every house, every motel, every
hotel, all taken up., And somebody
picked that time of year at that location to have it.
The second is, there are no telephones in the area, there are no communication to the United States from that area. And they picked that as an area. You could have picked any other major city and we might have done better.
But they
picked the world's worst, and that is
why. But they did not look at that. They never think of that. They think of a
place that--it makes a fine-sounding name undoubtedly. It might
have a nice historic value in future years, nobody has had a conference
there in a hundred years. They pick
out these strange things. I do not know why they do or what
prompted that place. I never figured it
yet, but I know they did. And from the
time we first knew about it, we had our
problems. Interesting story with that, I think I have told it on the
other tape, about the trip with Bill Moyers
when he and I went down there. Isn't
that on the tape?
G: I am not sure.
A: Well, interesting story then. In February 1967
Bill Moyers and I were given a
task to go to Uruguay incognito, unannounced, and we were to fly in not the same identifiable positions we held--he was
press secretary and I was chief of White House Communications [Agency].We flew
Varig Airlines through Rio [de Janeiro] to Buenos
Aires. When we were in Rio we did not go into the airport, could not. We
stayed in the airport [airplane], and walked around the plane, walked around
the outside, we did not go inside at all. Someone came up to Bill Moyers and
tried to talk to him and he kept saying [he] did not speak English, did not
speak Spanish, and so they left him alone. They finally came to me and said, "Isn't
that Bill Moyers?" and I say, "No, no, no, you're mistaken. That is
my secretary. He's a male secretary, travels with me all the time." That
is what we agreed would be the cover story. So, they dropped it and left him
alone and nobody did. And so, we went that way.
We arrived
in Buenos Aires and the Embassy personnel met us, the Deputy Chief of Mission.
En route from the airport into town, the driver and I were in the front, Bill Moyers
and the Deputy Chief of Mission were in the back seat and Bill was sitting
behind me. We pulled up behind a car that was ahead of us at the cross walk,
but the car behind us did not stop, and
hit us. I mean, full tilt. Bang! Bill's briefcase came forward, caught me in the back of the head, threw me
into the dashboard under the seat,
threw Bill off the seat. I mean he hit hard; it was not any light one. Well, here we are three cars in a row--and we hit the car ahead
of us now, mind you. Now we have got a three-car
accident. Well, Bill said, "We
got to get out of here. We can't be identified
in the accident." So, we bailed out--they did. The two of them,
the DCM and Bill bailed out of there, ran off and
left us, took taxis, and went off
to town. Well, here now I am
injured. I have got a cut on the knee, a cut underneath the knee, from
there, I have got a knot on the back of my head. I am not hurt anywhere, I am not in any danger, but I am limping all over the place, you know, and I am trying to
answer questions. Of course, the driver speaks not enough English to even talk about, and I speak not
enough Spanish to even talk about, and I am trying to convince these guys that I
am headed for the American Embassy, it is an American Embassy car, so they
would release us. Now the car is capable of running, there is not a problem of
that, it is the question we are tied between two cars, and they will not let us
go. The police are there on the scene.
Well, [to make] a long story short, about thirty, forty minutes later we did get free, we went to the Embassy, and of course Bill was there, and the DCM was there in the Embassy.
They brought in a woman doctor, and she examined my leg and wrapped it up, bandaged it up, put it in a knee stocking from here to here, bandaged my head and gave me some aspirin and this kind of stuff. Well, I could not go home because Bill and I had to go on to Uruguay.
So, then they arranged for the military attaché to fly us to Uruguay, mind you.
Now he has
got an old, antiquated DC-3, so Bill and I clandestinely go out to the airport and
crawl on this DC-3 and grab our baggage and haul it on there and then they
would drag us--we fly across to Uruguay and again the same old story. Everywhere
we go we are sneaking around behind the bars to talk to people
So, we
talked to people in Uruguay about the conditions there. We go out to Punta del
Este and look at it, we talk about the various things. I tried to find out about
communications without tipping anybody off of what is coming off, that the
President in fact is coming down.
Now, people inside the Embassy knew it, there is not any doubt about that. We had to tell somebody. You could not do that. But the people in the government itself of Uruguay and of Argentina never were told. We did not tell them. Until later they announced this meeting. We did not tell another body. But we arranged for all that in advance.
Then we went back and told him, yes, there was sufficient--yes, the Embassy said yes, we can take over a floor of the hotel. Yes, they can throw people out of the hotel.
But they never visualized the response they would have to that. They thought we might have as many as a hundred, hundred and fifty. We had about seven hundred people wanting to go to that damn thing, and they had a real problem later. The Embassy had the problem, with about four hundred press, about a hundred and fifty of support, and then of course the political groups in the White House, et cetera. About seven hundred and fifty total. It was a real madhouse. I felt sorry for them.
Anyway, we went in there. The conference was held. The conference was reasonably successful. We had high frequency. We brought the USS Wright I guess down, the aircraft carrier, which was a communications ship. It stood offshore. We gave communications back through it back to Washington. And at three o'clock the morning of the last day they were scheduled to leave about eight in the morning, had a blackout, all communications failed. Everything. All north-south communications on HF ended. Now, why did it save my ass? There is a cable that runs down the east coast of South America and it was installed--I do not recall the year, but many, many years ago, a real low-speed, single channel cable. Now why you would spend that much money for one cable, I do not know. But it did. It was a teletype cable installed for the news services.
Western
Union International controlled it. It was forty-five baud circuit, which is--oh,
forty-five baud is around fifty-five, fifty-seven words a minute. But it did
pass traffic, and that one was the
only thing that operated, we could pass traffic. If we had had to have a
message--we did not have to--but if we had had to have a message passed either
way for emergency purposes, that is all
we had. We had no voice, no other messages, no high frequency between that part of South
America and North America for that period of time, between four and six a.m.
Well, I caught hell from the President. I mean, he asked me, "What would you have done if I had wanted to make a call?" I said, "You wouldn't have made a call.
You would just
have had to give me all the hell you want. There isn't anything you could
do." He said, "Well, why didn't you arrange something better than that?"
I said, "What could I"--we did not have any satellites up then you
see at that point that we could use. "What could I have done that's
better, Mr. President? We could not do anything with that. We were dependent on
high frequency." Now today you have got an easy thing; there is no problem
today.
G: Just use satellites.
A: Use a satellite.
And when they travel, they do carry satellite terminals. But I tell you, that
was a risky business.
G: You would
have thought the National Security Council or some group within the White House
would have said you cannot have the conference here because we do not have
[communication facilities].
A: They would like to have. But they assured him, "Well, we have got six HF circuits with the Wright and four of them commercially from Montevideo, and three of them from Buenos Aires. We've got connections microwaved to Buenos Aires." We showed commercially we could have all these interconnections; it all looked good on paper. But when that blackout spot came, when the sunspot hit, it took it, it took it all. And it happens once every eleven to fourteen years. There is an eleven-year sunspot cycle, and you are not certain whether it is going to be that eleven-year or the thirteen, fourteen, fifteen-year. But it could be an eleven-year cycle, and it happens.
G: Did you have a chance to observe LBJ's interaction with the Latin American heads of state, people like Eduardo Frei?
A: No, extremely limited really. No, I did not. All it is, I heard him talk about it later.
G: What did he say about it?
A: He was never really comfortable with those people. He feels more comfortable with a European than he did with the Latins.
G: Really?
A: Yes, he did.
G: Well now, this is odd, since he came from Texas.
A: It does not
matter. You never heard his comments he used to make about the Mexicans. He used to think,
"Goddamned Mexicans." He used
to speak fairly lowly of them I would say. He watched the others with suspicions. He did not trust
people such as the Frenchman and so
on. He
would have suspicions about them, he would laugh about them sometimes.
But in general, he trusted the British
probably more than anybody. He was more comfortable with the British. It is an
understanding a language maybe that made the
difference. Where he had to depend on a translator, he never felt
comfortable at it. That is the main
reason.
G: Did he understand much Spanish himself; do you think?
A: No. Just enough to talk to the Mexicans on his ranch, "vaminos" and this kind of [thing] is about the extent of it.
He could not get much beyond that. He used to
talk to them now and then.
"Como esta?" and "Bien,
no mas" and that is where it ended sort of. I used to laugh
at his Spanish. I would hear him riding around in his car and saying, "Buenos
Dias, Juan." I said, "You speak the language?" He said,
"That was it." Not really. He claimed he did earlier years, but he said, "As
you get older, you forget." Which is probably right. (Interruption)
G: Let us start here. Okay.
A: Glassboro, New Jersey is a small town, I might say
a real rural, a real country town. I am sure the people of
Glassboro probably would not appreciate that description, but that is the way I
would describe it. A town of at the most four thousand people. But it has a consolidated school and
during the daytime the town is larger because of the number of students, coming
into town. But they chose this particular town because it had a historic house
in there that they wanted to use for this purpose. Hollybush was the name of the place. So, we got about three days’
notice on this.
The other major problem was that it is not on a major route of communications, and
yet they wanted to make this a major television-radio
nationwide appearance. So, the telephone companies
had to break their back,
they had to literally build
facilities from the Philadelphia
area over there to that area, all overnight. It cost them hundreds of thousands
of dollars to provide television coverage in that area, live television coverage.
They had no
capability to originate television there. None. So, it was interesting in that
regard in that it took tremendous amounts of efforts on many people's parts.
Now, nobody
could stay there to speak of. There was not a motel in town. There was not a hotel,
motel, no nothing. The nearest was about, oh, twenty-five, thirty miles away,
or Atlantic City, which was about forty-five to sixty, I do not remember the
exact distance, but about that. Or the
other way, you could come to Penn-Jersey about the same distance.
But it was just an interesting trip. Yet they met for
some three to four hours,
maximum, had lunch together and
talked. But it was interesting in that we got a chance to bring then the Premier of Russia, Kosygin,
to talk to us. That is probably the first time we met him except under the
auspices of something like either at the United
Nation environment or in a Washington environment. We had not met him in
the other environments. Now, during the war they had of course, but I mean
since that time.
G: Did he have his
own communications requirements?
A: They do not worry about it. When they are in this country
they really do not have--see their
chain of command is not quite the same. In our country a president is always a
president, no matter where he is or what he is doing. He cannot abrogate it.
The exception to it is recent legislation where when he is incapacitated that the
vice president assumes the responsibilities
of the president until he becomes capable of carrying out the duties again.
That is an
exception to it. But it is a rarity in which you will ever see that occur. I do
not know whether you will ever see it. But in the case of the Soviet Union, they
have got a hierarchy that would occur even if something happened to him. It would
not matter. They have got a set S.O.P. or standard of procedure that
occurs, and so I do not think they need that kind of a rigid communication
system.
G: Well was
President Johnson disappointed with the lack of substantive accomplishments there at Glassboro?
A: If he was,
he did not show it at all. He was grateful for the work he got and the chance to
meet and he expressed it that day. But
later he expressed it to us as grateful
for the support he got in
this quick reaction, which is what he called it. This was really done on a spur
of the moment, only about three days’
notice.
G: Anything on his interaction with Kosygin?
A: No, we would
not have heard that at all. It would only have been a political advisor that would
have gotten any feel for that kind of thing.
Normally in our work at the White House the President--and by precedent it had been habit not to wear uniforms for the military personnel, just to keep a low profile, partially because the White House never desired to appear there were large numbers of military people in support of them. So, I never wore a uniform. The President called me on that particular day, the tenth day of November. I had gotten off a plane at Dulles Airport, a Braniff Airline plane, somewhere around noon and I was en route from the airport home when I got a call from Watson, who asked where I was. I informed him I was en route home. He said the President wanted to talk to me. So, I stopped, called on the phone and talked to the President. And the President said, "Where are you?" and I told him. He said, "Let's go visit the troops." I said, "Which troops?" He said, "The US troops, army, navy and air force. You got your uniform on?" I said, "Mr. President, I haven't worn a uniform but a couple of times since I've been in the job with you. Yes, I have got one. Do you want me to wear it?" He said, "Go home and get it on and meet me at Andrews in two hours."
Well, this
is now twelve, wants to meet at two. I said, "Where are we going?" He
said, "First of all, we're going to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, we're
going to El Toro, California. We are going to Camp Pendleton, California. We are
going to the USS Enterprise. On the way back, we are going to stop at McConnell
Air Force Base in Wichita. Then we're coming back to Langley Air Force Base and
spend the weekend in Williamsburg." So, I said, "Well, that sounds
like an ambitious trip. Can I send some people
out to start?" He said, "Nope.
They're all going with
me." I said, "Oh, my God! Can I make some calls?" He said, "Yes, go ahead
and call them." So, I started telephoning.
I called my man in the White House, my operations man, and I said, "Here's where we're going to go. Start your calling, get your people alerted. Tell them to start preparing some actions on it. We're going to spend the night on the USS Enterprise." Well, that is a real disaster. I do not know whether anybody is ever told you, but the navy has beautiful communications on board to talk to itself but does not have anything to talk to shore. They do not believe in talking to shore. They just do not do it. They can communicate from one ship to another, but they do not plan to talk from ship to shore: there is no system whatsoever, except in port. And this was to be at sea. Well, we knew we had our hands full immediately.
So, I went home. Needless to say, my uniform was not in the best of condition because I have not worn it in two years. But I did get into it. I had gained some weight, too, so I did get into it. I joined them at Andrews. We flew to Fort Bragg, and they had been alerted for two hours and they knew it and they were ready. They had a public address system and he talked to the troops. He welcomed a bunch of people that were leaving there to go to Vietnam. He gave some military decorations to people that were brought in from Vietnam. He talked to some new trainees down there. Then we got on an airplane, then flew all the way across. I guess the next stop was--I guess we flew south first, Fort Benning [Georgia], stopped at Fort Benning. Then we flew across to El Toro. Now it is almost night. Then we flew down to Pendleton and then from Pendleton took helicopters and flew out to the Enterprise and spent the night on the Enterprise.
Now that was
the most difficult part of the whole job because the minute, he got on board he
wanted to talk to the world, and this was where I had my problems. Because as I
say, they are not organized to talk to the world.
G: By this you
mean talk to the television audience or call people on the telephone?
A: No, no, he wanted to pick up the phone in his quarters and talk to whoever he pleases.
And that is
not possible on a navy ship. The navy captain himself cannot do that. He cannot
pick it up and talk to anybody except on that ship.
It is well organized
internally; he can reach anybody on that ship he wants to. But he cannot reach
anybody on shore. The only way he can get a call through to shore is go up to
the bridge. From the bridge or from his control room, he could get a call from there
ship-to-shore and talk to people. Not telephone, but just to the naval station
that terminates that telephone call. [There are] no provisions for patching it
anywhere else. Well, I had to decide in a hurry for them to be able to patch it through and get us anywhere we wanted to
go in this world from that point. This took a lot of doing, and it was clumsy, a very clumsy system.
Nevertheless,
we survived the night for that. Next morning, we got up and flew back to
El Toro in helicopters. Now this is the whole crowd, carried all by helicopters and brought off by
helicopters. And that is a lot of press. I do not remember how many they were,
but there must have been two press loads, oh,
probably forty press, and then staff and everything.
I do not know,
fifteen, twenty, twenty-five helicopters, hauled them all out there, in batches,
hauled them in, unload, carry it back. The big Marine Corps forty-passenger helicopters.
Then we went to McConnell, spoke to the troops up there. He presented some medals to the air force personnel there. Then we flew to Langley. Now it is nighttime. We have got to have lights up. He went on nationwide TV there. He spoke to that crowd. And he went to Williamsburg, spent the night there in Williamsburg. He was going to play golf the next morning. I guess he did get up and play golf, but he made the mistake of going to church. You remember the story. He sat in the front row of the church and this preacher--they had approved his script the day before, and he threw it away as he walked into the pulpit and just blasted the President about Vietnam.
The President sat there and gritted his teeth and took it. Well, they could have choked that preacher. But nevertheless, he was not there after that day, he was not a preacher there. They removed him. But it was really unfair to catch a man that way and be that unkind in his comments about Vietnam. But I guess he had it on his chest and he got them off.
G: Do you recall the President's reaction to that?
A: At the moment he just sort of gritted his
teeth. His reaction in private was
a little different.
G: What did he say?
A: He was just saying, "well, I think it was a little unfair" is mostly
what he said. He said some other words to other people. I did
not hear them personally. Jim Jones is the one
who told me later what
he said. But in
general, he thought it was unfair to catch
him in that circumstance.
Generally, just hoping for a reaction from the President is what it looked
like, hoping that the President would get up and walk out. And the press were
sitting in the back hoping this same thing.
Well, he did not. He sat through it, he gritted his teeth, listened to the whole thing, this diatribe, which is what it was, about a twenty- minute diatribe about the people who had sent the boys to die in Vietnam. Then he got up and left.
Well, he stayed on until that night. He played
golf in the afternoon instead of
that morning. Then he went back to the White
House.
Next morning, I met him in the hallway, and he said
to me, "You know it's your fault,
that thing yesterday." I said, "Why?" He said,
"Well, first of all, if
you hadn't a been so blessed
efficient, we would have never made that schedule, we would have been stymied
somewhere along the line, and I never would have made it to church yesterday
morning. So, it's your fault." I said, "Well, that's kind of specious
thinking, Mr. President. I do appreciate your confidence, but I don't think
I caused that." He laughed and said, "No. He was pretty mean, wasn't he?"
I said, "He picked on you." He said, "Well, I guess he feels better
about it." Then the day's paper said, well, of course, he was no longer
there.
[End of Tape 1 of 1 and Interview II]
Greetings I am so glad I found your site, I really found
ReplyDeleteyou by mistake, while I was looking on Aol for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say
thanks for a fantastic post and a all round enjoyable blog (I also love the theme/design), I don't have
time to browse it all at the moment but I
have bookmarked it and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up the awesome job.
I read that Post and got it fine and enlightening.www dshe gov bd Assignment Answer
ReplyDeleteI definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post. Bad Sanierung Hamburg
ReplyDeleteI am glad you take pride in what you write. This makes you stand way out from many other writers that push poorly written content. gift for him
ReplyDeleteI havent any word to appreciate this post.....Really i am impressed from this post....the person who create this post it was a great human..thanks for shared this with us. Broste
ReplyDeleteWow! Such an amazing and helpful post this is. I really really love it. It's so good and so awesome. I am just amazed. I hope that you continue to do your work like this in the future also flossmore real estate agents
ReplyDeleteAmazing post!!!! If you're looking for Plumber in Chicago, Contact Mike's Plumbing Chicago and get your home leakage fixed by our professionals.
ReplyDeleteExtremely pleasant article, I appreciated perusing your post, exceptionally decent share, I need to twit this to my adherents. Much appreciated!. steel structure warehouse
ReplyDeleteIt's superior, however , check out material at the street address. Munchkin Kitten For Sale
ReplyDeleteI am impressed. I don't think Ive met anyone who knows as much about this subject as you do. You are truly well informed and very intelligent. You wrote something that people could understand and made the subject intriguing for everyone. Really, great blog you have got here. best design for home interior
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent post I seen thanks to share it. It is really what I wanted to see hope in future you will continue for sharing such a excellent post decorative candle
ReplyDeleteJust saying thanks will not just be sufficient, for the fantasti c lucidity in your writing. I will instantly grab your rss feed to stay informed of any updates. decorative candle
ReplyDeleteA debt of gratitude is in order for sharing the information, keep doing awesome... I truly delighted in investigating your site. great asset... Sport car
ReplyDeleteKeep writing csat-survey
ReplyDeleteRecently, I have commenced a blog the info you give on this site has encouraged and benefited me hugely. Thanks for all of your time & work. Wohnungsauflösung Berlin
ReplyDeleteI have been impressed after read this because of some quality work and informative thoughts. I just want to say thanks for the writer and wish you all the best for coming! Your exuberance is refreshing. Wohnungsauflösung Berlin
ReplyDeleteI definitely enjoying every little bit of it. It is a great website and nice share. I want to thank you. Good job! You guys do a great blog, and have some great contents. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteWohnungsauflösung 300 Euro Berlin
This is a great blog! Thanks for sharing such valuable content and information. I'm really interested in learning more about this topic. I hope you continue to share more insights, especially about party bus rental services .
ReplyDelete