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Backstairs
Visitors Shuttled
Around Press Corps
«*y MERRIMAN SMMITH
UPI White House Reporter
WASHINGTON (UPI) —Back
stairs at the Whjte House:
Changes in operational meth
ods at the White House often
are so gradual and subtle that
procedures of substance can go
into effect without attracting
much attention.
An example of subtle but
important change may be found
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in the way the White House
carefully blacks out public
knowledge of many important
persons who confer daily with
President Johnson.
This has been a gradual
development. During the Tru
man administration, most per
sons, official and otherwise, who
conferred with the Chief Execu
tive passed through the West
Esecutlve Lobby leading to the
President’s office.
News Seldom Big
While these visitors seldom
produced big news, they were
interviewed by reporters as
they left the White House and
the public was given a
relatively detailed idea of how
the President spent his day and
the issues under discussion.
When Dwight D. Eisenhower
became president, his chief
assistant, Sherman Adams, had
an idea. He wanted to move the
press out of the White House
entirely across West Executive
Avenue to the old Executive
Office Building to which they
would be confined except on
ceremonial occasions.
Adams saw no reason why
presidential callers should be
Identified or questioned by the
press unless the White House
wanted it. Before the plan could
be put into effect, details
“leaked” and the journalistic
outcry was such that the Adams
muzzle was abandoned before it
could be tested.
JFK Protective
The late President John F.
Kennedy was more protective of
his conferees than either
Truman or Eisenhower. The
dally visitors passing through
the office lobby became fewer
and fewer, although Kennedy,
himself, emerged before the
country in progressively larger
proportions because of his
televised news conference.
Today, virtually no officials
calling on Johnson are seen or
questioned by the press except
under controlled circumstances.
The White House is frequently
cooperative by presenting offi
cials to discuss administration
programs, but much of the
President’s daily schedule never
is announced. Reporters, for
example, almost never know
about or have access to
members of the House and
Senate or key political figures
who see Johnson daily.
The White House does not
regard this as interfering with
freedom of Information, point
ing out that Johnson, himself,
probably appears before repor
ters more than any Piresident
in history. This does apply to
his making statements largely
for the benefit of television
cameras and radio recorders.
Also, it applies to the frequency
with which Johnson talks
personally with smaller groups
of reporters or individuals from
the world of journalism. Such
meetings, however, usually are
not reportable.
Johnson press conferences are
not conducted on anything
resembling a regular schedule.
He much prefers talking with
smaller groups, even when his
remarks are for direct quota
tion, than the larger, prean
nounced televised and broadcast
sessions.
Comes From Hill
When the President, as he
does frequently, calls ranking
House and Senate members to
the White House, seldom is
there any White House an
nouncement or acknowledge
ment. The news usually comes
Wed., March 20, 1968 Griffin Daily News
from Capitol Hill.
Johnson also confers frequent
ly with business and labor
leaders with no word of it to the
public. When such conferences
do appear on the President’s
daily calendar of appointments,
the participants arrive and
depart via the White House
south grounds—which means
reporters have no opportunity to
see or question them.
Legally, of course, a Pres
ident is entirely within his
rights when he follows a
growing pattern of reducing the
area of public knowledge of his
operations. Reporters and pho
tographers are present at the
White House, even under
limited conditions, only by
RAY CROMLEY
s
Arms for India, Pakistan
Cools Both Toward U.S.
By RAY CROMLEY
NEA Washington Correspondent
ON THE KASHMIR BORDER, PAKISTAN (NFAI
Standing on this disputed land, cause of the 1965 India-
UnHed a^2f ar ’f°k e wonders if u had not been better for the
in^^^ntnrn f t S to sp . ent more effort and ingenuity in solv-
ing international disputes and less money supplying arms
that one friend might use against another. ppiying arms
Remembering the 1965 war with India,, the Pakistani fear
U.S. arms supplied to India for defense against Red China
may be used by New Delhi in a future war with Pakistan The
Pakistani find it difficult to forgive us for this.
U.S. arms sent to the Pakistani for defense against Red
Sen a ds W in r N e U w Del°hf ight the IndianS “ 1965 ‘ This won us n °
The Kashmir question has been festering for almost two
decades. Most of the inhabitants are Pakistani; most of the
area is ruled by India. The United Nations has been ineffec
tive in finding a solution.
The Pakistani and Indians are also at loggerheads about
water from rivers that run from India into East Pakistan.
Pakistani officials say Indian water diversion projects on
t J -?, up P er re 2 ions of some of these rivers may make farming
difficult in one-sixth of East Pakistan.
So long as these great sores—Kashmir and the East
Pakistan river problems—remain unhealed, U.S. aid to India
is regarded with great suspicion by the Pakistani.
For Pakistan these days is more worried about India’s
troops than those of any other country. Her top military men
believe Red China is at present unable to invade Pakistan.
These India-Pakistan problems are an open invitation for
Red Chinese meddling;
When the Pakistan armies were fighting the Indians, the
Pakistani gave the Red Chinese credit for holding a crucial
number of Indian units tied to the India-Red China border.
‘‘These units might have enabled the Indians to overcome
us,” says one Pakistan general. “Naturally, we are grateful.
“We were allied to you. We were close. We were even
stronger than you in our hatred of communism. Yet you gave
arms to our enemies.” ’
If the United States could persuade the Cambodian and
South Vietnamese governments to demarcate and mutually
guarantee their common borders, it is likely there would be
more Cambodian co-operation in this war.
If the United States over the past decade had put more
work into solving the problems of the Arab refugees, in se
curing international agreement on free passage through
major straits and canals and in getting Egyptian-Israeli
agreement on permanent borders, the recent Israeli-Egyptian
war might have been prevented.
The borders between India and Red China have not been
accurately defined or agreed on. This gives Peiping a chance
to threaten India.
The United States recently has moved in the right direc
tion by cutting back on the supply of arms to friends who
might use these weapons against each other. But we haven’t
taken the necessary second step—more effort in settling
bitter disagreements.
Key Battle Looks
Like Same Old Giap
By PHIL NEWSOM
UPI Foreign News Analyst
Communist trenches have
reached the outer wire entangle
ments protecting the besieged
U.S. Marine fortress at Khe
Sanh, and Dien Bien Phu comes
back as a common word in the
language after a 14-year ab
sence.
The Marines say Khe Sanh
never will be another Dien Bien
Phu, the 111-fated French
Commentary
fortress whose fall on May 7,
1954, broke the will of the
French in Indo-China.
North Vietnamese propagan
dists say it will become a “real
graveyard” for American
troops.
Both sides agree that the
battle for Khe Sanh could be the
turning point of the war.
Makes Comparisons
Whatever may be the inten
tions of Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap,
the winner over he French at
Dlen Bien Phu and chief North
Vietnamese strategist in this
war, there are comparisons that
are noteworthy.
These are not confined to
geographic similarities but
achieve special importance
when studied in connection with
overall North Vietnamese intent
and overall strategy of the war
as the North Vietnamese are
fighting it.
It may be assumed that one
intent is to inflict a humiliating
defeat on the Americans with
Its resultant effect on home
front morale and to render at
least two and possibly five of
South Vietnam’s northernmost
provinces indefensible.
This would depend upon one
Communist victory at Khe Sanh
and another in the Central
Highlands in the vicinity of Dak
To to open the way to the South
China sea coast, possibly as far
south as Qui Nhon.
This was believed to be the
Communist strategy in late 1964
and early 1965 when they began
attacking in regimental strength
before the United States entered
the war in force.
Had the strategy been suc
cessful, they then could have
approached the conference table
from a position of strength.
In 1954, as Giap closed his
sufferance of the President.
Any time a Chief Executive
wants to kick out the entire lot
and never have any contact
with the world of public
information, all he has to is say
so—and he’ll be within the
Constitution.
What happens to him in public
opinion would, of course, be
another matter.
Legal rights aside, the fact
remains that over a number of
years, the reporting of presiden
tial activities has expanded and
contracted at the same time.
Much more is seen and heard of
the President, himself, than
ever before, but much less of
those with whom he does
business.
trap on the French at Dien Bien
Phu, he simultaneously was
expanding his hold on the
kingdom of Laos.
It could be that Giap is
looking for a long, long war, or
that he is planning to throw in
the works in a massive two
pronged drive from both north
and west.
In any case, it looks like the
same old Giap.
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By PHIL PASTORET
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