The Word from Washington
The Word from Washington The ritual is called the goat-feeding. Twice a day, the White House correspondents—the goats—assemble to be fed such tidbits of information as the President's press...
...The President said in his May 8 press conference—and I am quite precise on this because I have looked at it frequently —the fact that on June 30 the Cambodian sanctuary operation will be completed, and he said that he expected that the ARVN forces will be coming out shortly thereafter as the logistical and air support would be coming out at that time...
...Ziegler: Dan, I think I have answered these questions quite directly without fuzzing them up...
...It is obvious that you are deliberately obfuscating...
...Obviously the ARVN forces have operated with U.S...
...Q: Ron, let's get this clear now, because many of us have interpreted, from what the Secretary of Defense has said and from what you have said and from what others have said in the recent past, that American air and logistic support will be continued for the South Vietnamese operation...
...The end is not yet...
...Ziegler: Quite obviously they have U.S...
...The reason, he explained to reporters, was that Amherst had selected as commencement speaker I.F...
...f Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird, in a memo stamped "Secret . . . Sensitive," has warned his Pentagon aides that "there must be no speculation which would indicate, or even imply, that a MIRV or ABM deployment moratorium is desirable...
...Are you purposely fuzzing this up or not...
...That does not suggest the air support of ARVN forces in South Vietnam...
...We have said that any action that we take in relation to air support will be in direct relation to the security of U.S...
...is that correct, Ron...
...Ziegler: I have made the point clear on that...
...H Sixty-five civil rights lawyers in the Department of Justice have gone on record in opposition to the Administration's backing-and-filling on racial discrimination...
...Now, if I understand you correctly, you are saying that is not true...
...Ziegler: We are talking about U.S...
...There are some 314,000 Federal employes in Washington, and at this writing a large and growing number of them find themselves in more or less open revolt against their employer...
...Q: Ron, why are you fuzzing this up...
...Q: The Americans...
...His hearing was restored by surgery, but the habit of poring relentlessly over documents remains...
...Q: In two backgrounders that we have had with an eminent personality in the White House, he has left open the question of air support after June 30...
...air support following June 30...
...Ziegler: Of course they have U.S...
...I think I have made that quite clear in Washington...
...Q: They get logistical support from the United States...
...Ziegler: We are reserving on U.S...
...You are not being precise...
...That is pretty clear...
...The Word from Washington The ritual is called the goat-feeding...
...forces would begin to come out of the Cambodian sanctuary area throughout June, mid-June, but that the operation will be complete by June 30, the U.S...
...We have said that any actions that the U.S...
...Q: We are asking about American forces...
...It's a tough business, being a goat at the White House...
...air support following June 30 would relate to the security of U.S...
...Since April 30, the White House goats have displayed an enormous appetite for news about the Administration's intentions in Cambodia—a craving that has hardly been sated by the few rancid scraps thrown the correspondents' way...
...supplies...
...He might have learned something...
...We don't know, frankly, how we'd get along without it...
...I think that is kind of a loaded question," Ziegler replied, but he answered it: "They expressed an interest in seeing the President after the rally and they were invited down...
...It was, Ziegler said, a "symbol of their support" for the President's action in Indochina...
...That is what you are saying...
...The fare is usually thin: a glimpse at the President's schedule for the day, a proclamation of National Chilblains Week, the naming of some deserving Republican greengrocer as Ambassador Plenipotentiary to Transylvania...
...Stone's Bi-Weekly and respectfully suggest to David Eisenhower that he should have attended his commencement...
...forces in South Vietnam...
...Since the President is inordinately inaccessible, the twice-a-day feeding provides about the only opportunity to obtain a square meal...
...All we are trying to do is get what you are trying to state straight...
...The "hard hats" had a slightly different version...
...I.F...
...Nixon's lapel, how they presented him with a white hard hat inscribed (in blue) with the title...
...But the point we have made and will continue to make, no matter how belligerent the questions get in order to draw out an answer in relation to actions after June 30, I have made it clear that I have no intention at this time to discuss that...
...forces in South Vietnam...
...The construction workers' massive Wall Street rally in support of the war was discussed, but their rampage against peace demonstrators somehow didn't come up, Ziegler reported...
...From time to time the hungry goats become restive and even mutinous...
...forces in Cambodia...
...The President's press secretary was more communicative—was almost gossipy, in fact—about the recent visit to the White House by a delegation of New York construction workers...
...I had to do my own work," he explains, "and as a result I was able to get a better insight into things...
...Ziegler: I am referring to logistical support...
...personnel in the territory of Cambodia providing the supply flow to ARVN forces...
...How was it, a reporter inquired, that the construction workers had such ready access to the White House when others—including a member of the Cabinet and all the black members of the House of Representatives—had complained in recent weeks about Mr...
...11 The Office of Economic Opportunity has placed its VISTA volunteers under virtual house arrest in an attempt to contain a widening revolt...
...Commander-in-Chief...
...Consider these recent occurrences: U Robert H. Finch, confronted with open staff resistance against the Administration's policies in Indochina, in school desegregation and civil rights, in health and welfare, has found it necessary to abandon his Cabinet post for the more congenial climate of the White House...
...But the faceless bureaucrats are tasting the pleasures of showing their faces...
...Until a few years ago, he labored under the handicap of almost total deafness—and he says it helped...
...Potomacus...
...Ziegler: The U.S...
...You have given both sides of the answer...
...Twice a day, the White House correspondents—the goats—assemble to be fed such tidbits of information as the President's press secretary—the feeder •—may choose to pass along...
...However—and I will repeat this finally, because this is almost a direct pickup of a briefing we had in Washington a couple of days ago or a few days ago ¦—the President in his May 8 press conference said the operation in Cambodia will be complete by June 30 and that logistical and air support would be completed by that time...
...forces are confined to...
...However, I have gone on to say that any U.S...
...That is how we have always addressed the question...
...Whereupon the goats, frustrated, weary—and still hungry—called it a day...
...Ziegler: We have answered the question regarding U.S...
...Ziegler: Then we are getting into a definition of logistical support...
...They are operating deeper into Cambodia and they are operating now, as I understand it, with American support and American logistics...
...Well, there's no doubt in our mind about Izzy Stone's leftist views, and no doubt that he is the finest journalist we know in this press-ridden Capital...
...Q: What we are trying to get at is are you reserving the right and the intention of the United States to give logistical and air support to the South Vietnamese after June 30...
...personnel being in the territory of Cambodia...
...Q: Ron, I am sorry...
...I think this should be quite obvious to you why I am not being more precise in that area...
...Q: Ron, you are just insulting our intelligence...
...Ziegler: Bob, the way I would clarify it would be to refer you to what the President has said...
...That is a fairly simple question...
...Ziegler: Not beyond twenty-one miles...
...air and logistical support will be given to the South Vietnamese...
...Ziegler: Give it to me, and then we will conclude the Q&A...
...air action which would be taken in the area, which I am not going to discuss one way or another, would be in relation to the security of U.S...
...Q: Ron, the ARVN forces right now are not confined to the twenty-one-mile limit that U.S...
...He went on to say that he anticipated or that he expected that the South Vietnamese would be completing the mop-up operations and perhaps for a longer period of time beyond June 30...
...that I am not going to discuss the operation of ARVN forces...
...air support in relation to U.S...
...will take in relation to air support following June 30...
...rifles...
...After almost three decades here, and eighteen years of publishing his splendid Bi-Weekly, he remains a tower of strength to his younger colleagues, and his energy, enthusiasm, and enterprise put them all to shame...
...Q: When you say that there will be no logistical support and all their ammunition and food and everything else is furnished by Americans— Mr...
...Q: You are then leaving it open...
...operation...
...I don't know how more precise we can be than to say that on June 30 U.S...
...H The Peace Corps, whose Washington headquarters were briefly "liberated" a few weeks ago by a group of returned volunteers, is actively recruiting "more mature" personnel who will be more obedient than the young people who constitute the major force— and purpose—of the program...
...On June 1, when both the President and the correspondents happened to be at the Western White House in San Clemente, California, the goat feeding conducted by Press Secretary Ron Ziegler took a particularly lively turn...
...operation in the Cambodian sanctuaries is proceeding well...
...Ziegler: It is, and my response to you is exactly the way it has always been...
...It suggests U.S...
...Ziegler: I shouldn't respond to you, but I will...
...We also said that in response to a question in a press conference that logistical and air support also would be completed by June 30...
...That stands as the President has stated it...
...Stone is an amazing one-man band—researcher, reporter, editor, publisher, gadfly, raconteur, philosopher, and lay psychiatrist...
...supplies...
...When we refer to logistical support, it is logistical support involving U.S...
...Ziegler: Who can come back later...
...Q: What do you mean, "reserving...
...Q: You have not, Ron...
...It is quite obvious that ARVN forces have U.S...
...Are you deliberately obfuscating this thing, or is it a matter of imprecise language...
...I'd be late for a conference, but still have the transcripts as accurate, sober proof of the Government's activities and mistakes...
...It is a development without precedent in the annals of American Government...
...That is a moot question...
...So we salute the editor of I.F...
...Ziegler: On June 30—the President has said this—logistical personnel will be withdrawn from Cambodia and air support will not be used...
...f Under Secretary of State U. Alexis Johnson has delivered a stern lecture to fifty Foreign Service officers who were among 250 State Department employes signing an open protest against the Cambodian invasion...
...Ziegler: We have answered that question also...
...Nixon's inaccessibility...
...ground support into Cambodia...
...Right...
...that they will be completed by June 30 and there is no intention to reintroduce U.S...
...forces will be out of Cambodia according to schedule...
...I don't know how more clear I can be and how more obvious I can be and how more obvious it should be to you and your colleagues that I am not going to discuss operations of ARVN forces beyond the completion of the sanctuary operation nor in precise terms at this time what action the United States may take in terms of air support beyond the June 30 deadline...
...You keep citing the President's saying we are not going to give that support and then you go on and imply that we are...
...Q: You mean they can come back in later...
...Stone, who— as some newspapers delicately noted— is "a journalist alleged to have leftist views...
...And it's none too easy on the rest of us...
...Ziegler: That is exactly right...
...If you would answer one simple question— Mr...
...forces in South Vietnam...
...personnel and not U.S...
...that if they stay in there they will not get U.S...
...Q: We are not asking about ARVN forces...
...the invitation came first, they said, and was swiftly followed by the interest...
...personnel forming the process of logistical support...
...Ziegler: The ARVN forces receive, without question, U.S...
...We present the following extracts from the official transcript as a contribution to public appreciation of one of our quainter art forms: Mr...
...materiel...
...The President has said that U.S...
...supplies...
...f Five senior members of the President's National Security Council staff have resigned since the Cambodian invasion—at least three of them as a direct consequence of their opposition to that move...
...It is quite obvious that what we mean by logistical support, which is U.S...
...According to a newsletter distributed' by VISTA dissidents, "The ucath of VISTA and effective antipoverty programs is near...
...The President has made an example of Education Commissioner James E. Allen, Jr., who had the temerity to speak out publicly against the Cambodian invasion and to dissent from the Administration's policies on school segregation...
...ammunition to go in there, M-16s which they use and have been using for years...
...Could you clarify that...
...forces in South Vietnam...
...That is, I think, quite precise...
...I don't know how more precise I can be than to refer you to a statement by the President of the United States in which he said that logistical and air support would be concluded on June 30...
...But I don't yet find that you have answered the basic question here, despite the fact that you have repeated what you have said in the past...
...The result is that Stone's Bi-Weekly manages to dig up vital facts that everyone else missed— or failed to understand...
...Ziegler: Reserving from the standpoint of discussing what action the U.S...
...He told how they pinned an American flag to Mr...
...Q: You are talking about U.S...
...air and logistic support...
...equipment, U.S...
...Q: Who gives them the rifles they are using, Ron...
...forces in South Vietnam...
...Q: You are not talking about U.S...
...Q: Is this not logistical support...
...The Administration, deeply troubled by these signs of insurrection, has passed the word that dissenting employes risk penalties, including the possible loss of their livelihood...
...equipment...
...Moving beyond that into a future date is what I am not discussing...
...In relation to what ARVN actions are in Cambodia after the sanctuary operations are complete, we have said before that this would be dependent on the actions of the other side and that I am not in a position, nor are we in a position, to discuss the deployment of ARVN forces...
...I must say in all candor that I am totally confused about what the policy is...
...The basic question is still whether you are leaving open the possibility that U.S...
...takes in relation to Cambodia would relate to the security of the U.S...
Vol. 34 • July 1970 • No. 7
