Cakes and Ale

52 years ago Oct. 9, a former Secretary of State dictated a letter to a 15 year-old kid who yearned to enter the noble life of politics. Acheson was a leading architect of Harry Truman’s Cold War foreign policy, and he is remembered for keeping the peace. In October 1962, he advised President Kennedy to respond to Soviet missiles in Cuba by sending in the Air Force. As we now know, local Soviet commanders had authority to respond to attacks with nukes, so Acheson’s advice could have resulted in a nuclear conflagration. Fortunately, JFK — unlike Truman — ignored Acheson’s advice.

Thomas E. Dewey was unexpectedly defeated by President Truman 65 years ago this week, and 51 years ago this Thursday he was still grousing about Democratic presidents. In my bipartisan pursuit of politicians’ autographs, I wrote to him and received this response. My mother couldn’t stand this guy, and his response helped me understand why. (Posted on Facebook November 3, 2012)

LBJ also responded generously with personally autographed pictures. I’ve lost track of where they might be filed, and suspect they were misplaced in one of several moves. LBJ was my commander-in-chief during the four years I was in the Air Force, and his stern countenance staring down from orderly room walls was intimidating. He wasn’t popular enough among the troops to make me think I’d benefit from showing an autographed picture around that said, “To Phil, from his friend, Lyndon Johnson.”

In Robert Caro’s multi-volume biography of LBJ, the rising senator, vice president, and president is frequently described as taking time to deal with his correspondence. I have no idea how many staff persons were assigned to helping him respond to letters, but I don’t recall that he ever failed to write back. I began to suspect the duties of JFK’s vice president were not burdensome, but it didn’t stop me from writing.

Lyndon Johnson died 41 years ago this January 22. He was certainly one of the most extraordinary politicians of our era, and we might remember him as the greatest leader of the second half of the 20th century if he’d heeded Ike’s advice (“Don’t get involved in a land war in Asia.”) He was also a politician who, without benefit of computers or (for the most part) IBM Selectric typewriters, maintained a vigorous correspondence with constituents whether they could vote or not. I wrote to him in the first heady days of the New Frontier. It was his prompt response that ignited by interest in corresponding with political figures.

Winston Churchill’s death 49 years ago January 24 corresponded with my Air Force assignment to a three-year tour at RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge in Suffolk. The cabbie took me past Buckingham Palace, where the Union Jack was lowered in Churchill’s honor but the royal standard was at full staff. The driver, noting my American accent, was apologetic. “The Queen ain’t no better than you nor me, but she can’t lower her flag for Winnie, he warnt a peer.”

I soon realized that the royal standard is never lowered, even when the monarch dies, to make it clear the monarchy continues. But in 1965 when I was 18, I revered cabbies for their innate wisdom.

Harry Truman – another politician who corresponded with admirers long after he needed to win votes – was inaugurated 65 years ago January 20.

In January 1962 (or thereabouts) I wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt to interview her for “Smoke Signals,” the mimeographed student newspaper of Morrisville-Eaton Central School. I sent her seven questions and she responded in due time with seven typewritten answers. Historians say she typed her own correspondence on a typewriter now on display in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park. Note that she made a handwritten and typewritten correction to this document. Fifty-two years on, I am thunderstruck by the time she took to do this for a tiny school district (approximately 500 students K-12 in 1962), and awed by her carefully thought-out answers.
I didn’t keep a copy of the questions I sent her, but they would have resembled these:
1. As a lifelong Democrat, would you ever vote for a Republican you believed was a better candidate?
2. What are the chances the United States will have a war with the Soviet Union?
3. Do you think the United States is evolving into a social welfare state?
4. Is there any chance the people of the Soviet Union or Red China will rise up and demand their governments become democracies?
5. Do you find today’s youth to be self-absorbed and irresponsible?
6. Do you favor lowering the voting age to 18?
7. If the Soviet Union does not pay its dues to the United Nations, do you think they should be thrown out?

52-year-old New Years greetings from Eleanor Roosevelt, probably typed herself, 11 months before she died. It was a gracious endorsement of one of my more quixotic efforts. To get into the Congressional Page school, one needed passing grades in math and science, which I never did. Ever.

Fifteen years ago Martha M. Cruz and I were sitting in the hall when Nelson Mandela entered to address the 8th assembly of the World Council of Churches in Harare. The delegates gave him a standing ovation. He was a little shaky when he was helped up the steps to the stage, but when he heard the rhythms of a Soweto choir he smiled with delight and danced vigorously. It was an unforgettable moment.