Tidbits and Outrages
Tidbits and Outrages Anchors Aweigh The new edition of Jane’s Fighting Ships reports that the Soviet Submarine fleet now consists of 297 vessels compared to our 117. But take heart, we have...
...Much nicer quarters and location...
...It meant that I’d been able to write for him honestly...
...But all locals were brought under the Civil Service retirement system last year, and Lmg now age 51 with about 23 years service, can retire if his position is abolished...
...Will try to swipe a copy for you after it’s finished...
...Wonder what American officials in Vietnam were thinking right before the fall of DaNang...
...on December 4 Ken Barone (ADCCA now) left for TDY to AID/W to present the four CAPs, and on December 5 Van Horn, acting-ADCCA, asked me to be acting assistant director for CDI until Barone’s return...
...When I returned I found the office in the midst of preparing IRRs on about nine capital projects for FY 75 presentation (total about $240 million) (Congress authorized four for $38 million...
...Indeed, it may be that if would-be riders have no other source of information than BART’S new leaflet, “How to Use Muni Discount Tickets,” there may be no passengers at all aboard as the trains plunge off the end of the line...
...Leadership Training Last month in this space we wrote about Harold L. Hering, an Air Force major facing discharge for questioning procedures in ord e r i n g t h e launching of nucleartipped misdes...
...And in the second stage of their program, to establish international hotels at 16/1 Hoang Dieu (up the alley from 259 complex) and 36 Ter Cach Mang (up the alley from Cach Mang where Duk‘s bar is located...
...By the way, Lang will be retiring this summer...
...The highway boys tried, but it ended up as only “why we need another $100 million exercise...
...To no avail as Van had cleared it with the front office...
...Neil could retire and was expecting it...
...Ben Wyle is going to Abijan...
...But by using the T.A...
...The agency is going through a major RIF which is being mishandled in every way possible...
...but not quite...
...Since we haven’t yet obtained a replacement for Brad, I’m still on the job as acting AD-CDI as well as any other jobs that are thrown my way...
...The Russians must tremble as they contemplate the next Battle of Midway...
...Jim Fisher is expecting and hoping to go to ROCAP (in Guatemala) for a tour that will set him up for retirement...
...It was a mess...
...By the time that was completed, into preparing the documents for FY 76 program (now in place of IRR, two separate papers are needed to get the item into the Congressional Presentation), begun...
...everybody had different numbers, etc...
...Also George Milner out of AID/W by going to Korea...
...It took me a couple of months to get that tied down...
...I wish now we had listened to them...
...With his permission I did just that...
...Be finished by about FY 77 if DOD doesn’t give us more money...
...They just didn’t report it...
...I remember how much time and worry you had spent on that and so was looking for an easier way...
...Delays of a couple of months in the schedule, but made it by mid-August...
...He had sought assurance that then ve procedures to prevent “an irrationa act, however remote,” by a president...
...In a few minutes Siege1 was in Van’s office screaming...
...Neil Anders and Eddie Jackson are the only two in CDI...
...Fortunately the material I had prepared for the congressmen came in handy...
...Joe Falcone survived termination of his appointment by postponing actions for many months while filing about five grievances (several were valid for the personnel people mishandled every aspect of his case), and is being transferred to Haiti as C.D...
...We had been working on one for agriculture for about three months...
...Am slowly bringing some order out of the shop, but it’s difficult...
...And right in the middle of both the PBS exercise, preparation of the 14 documents for 76 capital projects, etc...
...On December 3 Brad Howe left for well-deserved retirement...
...Suddenly here I am, an R-4 special assistant to ADCCA and not even a part of CDI being temporary boss of seven US...
...Haven’t worked so hard since 1 joined AID...
...We had to reduce our local staff by one and someone else had been picked out to be RIFed...
...Just no way I can make R-3...
...After that was completed we prepared four CAPs at the same time (rural credit $60 million, industrial credit $40 million, Saigon Export Processing Zone $5 million and low lift pump irrigation $6 million...
...next to ADCCA with windows looking over the yard and entrance and shaded by the trees...
...Here is the bulk of a (genuine, only the names have been changed) letter from an employee of the United States Agency for International Development stationed in Saigon, dated March 11 : Shortly after ‘my return, we finally moved to USAID II...
...now he wanted ones on industry, infrastructure, commodities and resettlement within six days...
...They have always known it...
...Several engineers that you don’t know are being RIFed...
...Didn’t realize how crummy (the best word to use here) was USAID 111 until after the move...
...By the way the freeze on promotions is still on...
...USAID didn’t exist for them...
...After White House speech-writer Raymond Price found...
...The latter two are former USAID-rented apartment buildings, of course...
...The problem this presents is that what appears at first glance to be adequate staff for the Agriculture Committee turns out to be two guys doing the substantive work of the committee, and 20 pursuing the special interests of their individual patrons...
...Eddie can’t retire and his was unexpected by everybody...
...documentation system, we really complicated the hell out of the program...
...Having a Wonderful Time, Wish You Were Here...
...I do think that if NEDF doesn’t turn this one down, USAID will for the first time reject one...
...The ones in CIP are “L” whose time limited appointments just weren’t renewed...
...Last fall the ADCCA wanted a strategy paper prepared on this program (now have $52 million DOD money...
...Nothing happened over the visit*of the Congressmen (women...
...so with luck all of it will be typed in final tomorrow...
...along with bits and pieces I had worked up for other purposes...
...with five of them outranking me...
...This made him very unhappy and he tried to get located on the first floor close to ADCCA instead of the ground floor with the industry boys...
...One of the first things was to cut back on a lot Jf marginal activities and concentrate on a few things we might be able to do well (killed a tourism study, efforts to help handicraft center, etc...
...Now only 7% years to go for me...
...and industry as it was named after you left...
...This is the same strategic brilliance that had eight battleships based t oge the r in Hawaii in early December, 1941...
...I...
...I didn’t even try to count the amendments to the PIOs...
...I’d Rather Walk Bay Area Rapid Transit, having gained a reputation for its computerized trains that continue in motion after the tracks have ended, now appears to be trying to protect potential passengers from this hazard...
...officer there...
...Without knowing what Congress would do to us in FY 75, we requested 14 projects totaling about $260 million...
...Of the $52 million, about $20 million is under contract now and about $8 million disbursed...
...What Price Glory In his new book, Breach of Faith-The Fall of Richard Nixon, to be published this month, Theodore H. White tells a classic tale of the bureaucrat’s intense desire to remain ignorant of anything that might compel him to resign for reasons of conscience from his $36,000-a-year government job...
...I shouldn’t complain...
...Brother Art Mason came out with an office the same size as mine (about 120 sq...
...Obligation alone was by five ProAgs with about 15 PIO/Ts, over 20 amendmnts to the ProAgs alone...
...What’s News...
...then Eddie Jackson, and then Mason...
...analysis would give you a great laugh if it wasn’t tragic that the damm bank approved the loan...
...Brad left at a good time...
...That exercise was completed by January 30 (Sam Saunders was out here for seven weeks, but put him off in the corner for a while), and with a few days breather to cut up on some other things-and now the Damm Congressmen...
...Passing the buck nicely...
...But take heart, we have a clear lead in aircraft carriers with 14 in active service, five in reserve, and three nuclear carriers under construction...
...While common sense would seem to suggest that our best deterrent would be many small, hard-to-detect submarines widely dispe rsed through the world, we’re moving in exactly the opposite directionconcentrating a small number of the huge Trident subs in one place...
...I ended up with a nice little office, carpeted, etc...
...The 38-yearold Hering faces dismissal for raising questions about nuclear safeguards during his training as a launching officer...
...The problem for the public is that journalists all too often assume that what other journalists know is not news...
...The calculations, the marketing projections (tourism will increase from 96,000 in 1974 to 125,000 in 1975 to 400,000 in 1976...
...Louis Po st-Dispatch has since reported that Senator Stuart Symington has asked the Air Force about the case...
...This is on time of the USAID’s continuing reduction in staff (down to about 200 at the end of this FY...
...feet), but-located in the middle of CDI (cap...
...out from the fatal CIA-FBI tape that Nixon had lied in assuring him that no approach had been made to the CIA, he said, “The President had done me a favor by deceiving me...
...A bit of work p-~r eparing a briefing book for nothlng...
...The funniest one I’ve ever read-the owners of USAID 111 want to borrow VN$500 million to convert the building into an international hotel...
...Sheila Rule of the St...
...was looking at a SOFIDIV loan that came over this week for our approval...
...It’s a full time job for one engineer and a couple of locals to just try to keep on top of the obligating documents...
...Nobody knew exactly what we had...
...Now this is not at all shocking to members of the Washington press...
...The numbers shifted every day...
...It may be that a replay of Pearl Harbor is more likely, since we’re planning to base all ten of our 16,000-ton Trident submarines in Puget Sound near Bangor, Washington...
...Never saw them...
...Lot of fun actually since I knew the program fairly well and all the people quite well...
...But with unemployment so high in the U.S...
...The names finally came out Monday...
...Some aspects of it were comical...
...For last Thursday the Director indicated that for the coming meeting of the IBRD team this week, he wanted some sector analysis papers prepared...
...Giant subs do, however, offer the advantage of a lot more prestigious command slots for admirals and captains and one Puget Sound base will make Navy social Me just as convenient as it was at Pearl...
...Remember how a couple of years ago, AID/W tried to apply capital development to the highway program...
...While I handled the overall coordination, when it came to space allocation, I just tried to see that each division received about the same amount of square footage on a per capita basis, and let each Assistant Director decide how he would use it...
...Stephen lsaacs of The Washington Post wrote an excellent series of articles in March that revealed to the general public-for the first time insofar as we are aware-the Capitol Hill custom of using committee staff positions as disguises for additional staff *for individual senators and congressmen...
...Jeff Brinks finally got out of Washington by going over to Cambodia...
...Great fun...
Vol. 7 • May 1975 • No. 3
