Among those whose frequent close contact with President Jimmy Carter provided many observations on his personality and character was Lieutenant Commander/Commander (later Admiral) Reason. Both Carter and Reason had received nuclear power training from Admiral Hyman Rickover (see “The Carter-Rickover Relationship,” February, pp. 28–35). Following is an edited excerpt from interviews by the Naval Institute’s Paul Stillwell in June and July 2000.
In 1976, after Carter’s election, the Bureau of Naval Personnel sent a list of seven candidates for naval aide. My name was put on the list as the diversity candidate. Probably within a week of the election all seven of us were called to the East Wing of the White House for lengthy interviews. The chief interviewer was Jack Watson, who later became the special assistant for intergovernmental affairs.
A lot of it was sort of a standard personnel interview, but there was no political spin to it. Zero. There was no question of, “How did you vote?” There was a bit about family, and I think he was just looking for experience level, maturity level, that sort of thing. We did not talk with President-elect Carter himself.
I was selected. The aide’s job was to be the point of liaison, the single point of contact—the bridge, if you will—between the President as Commander-in-Chief of all the armed forces of the United States and the National Military Command Center.
On one of my very first outings, less than a week after inauguration, a picture was taken that ran on the front page of every newspaper in the United States. We were coming out of the Oval Office. There’s a flagstone walk that goes down to the driveway where the presidential limousine pulls up. On one of those flagstones was black ice that looked like water.
The press pool in the motorcade was usually two station wagons full, and they were poised with their cameras focused on the flagstone walk. Why? They were always looking for Carter’s predecessor, President Gerald Ford, to stumble or slip and fall. So whenever the President transited by himself, the photographers were ready.
When President Carter stepped on the ice, he slipped and threw his arms up in the air, and there was a point where both his feet were off the ground. That was when the photographer snapped that picture. It showed Jimmy Carter, hands in the air, me behind him with one foot on the ground. He did not fall. He’s a very coordinated, very athletic guy. I guess it was the next day a reporter said to me, “It looked like you were saying something. What were you saying?”
I was saying, “Ice!!”
As I came to know him, I considered President Carter probably the most honest man I’ve ever known. Now, that said, there are people who say that probably did not make him an excellent politician, but I wouldn’t know. I certainly would never be in a position to judge that. I never ever heard him say a word that had a spin on it other than to factually relate the answer to a question or to factually relate his opinion of something. He was a man given to clearly stating his thoughts. And he wrote most of his own letters. He wrote most of his own speeches. He was just a very direct-communicating person.
I’ve always appreciated that, and I’ve not met many others who were as good. I’ve tried to emulate him in that regard, and I’m sure I fall far short of the mark, always have. But he was so good at that.
The job was a demanding one in terms of time. My wife, Dianne, will tell you unequivocally I was at home more during years when I was in a ship’s crew, even with deployments. Quite often I would go to the White House at 6 in the morning, and she would see me live on the 11 o’clock news and figure it would be another hour or two before I’d get home, and it usually was. We traveled a lot, and there really was no place in my job for family involvement, although the President would always invite our spouses to the Christmas reception, and there was one other thing. For the Easter Monday egg roll we would usually take the kids.
Other than that, there was almost no family involvement. Maybe once or twice he asked me if I cared to bring my wife in to watch a movie in the White House theater, and I did that, so she met the Carters a few times. But it was really like going to sea, never at home. But for a sailor, though, to be ashore, even if you’re not at home, is a better situation than being away at sea because I could call. My wife could beep me at any time. She could send me a message over my beeper, an audible message. Say, “Paul, would you call me?” So it was not that bad, but it was a lot of time away from home.
W
Naturally, because of their prior relationship, the President often communicated with Admiral Rickover. The admiral was a very interesting man, and the President in the privacy of his own home often sought his counsel and his wisdom.
Rickover was along when President and Mrs. Carter visited the attack submarine Los Angeles (SSN-688) in May 1977. I was the aide on that trip. I also did the advance trip down to Port Canaveral along with one of Admiral Rickover’s deputies, Stan Severance, who was at the time a rear admiral.
At some point during our advance trip the discussion came up about whom the President should meet among the crew members, our sharpest sailors and so forth. I said, “The President will be all over this submarine, and so he’s going to meet your whole crew. So when they see him, ‘Good morning’ or ‘Good afternoon, Mr. President,’ and tell him briefly who they are, where they’re from, and what they do.” The game plan was essentially respect but not awe.
We departed with the understanding that the details were firm. We knew the schedule, and we knew exactly the routine: Change nothing. Well, the commodore decided he was not going to have the President encounter some of the sailors that he considered to be less than picture perfect. So he put three or four overweight members of the crew temporarily ashore and said they would not be allowed to get underway while the President was there.
Well, when the President went anywhere, a whole lot of press people aggregate. Of course, these sailors were in a bit of a funk, and I don’t remember whether it was in a bar or how, but somehow they wound up in the same place with some reporters. Their story unfolded before the President ever got aboard. The story ran in the papers that these sailors had been kicked off their ship so that they wouldn’t embarrass the Navy. But if the commodore had done nothing, nobody would have said anything at all.
Still, it was a good trip, and for me it was probably the most exciting submarine ride I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a few. That one was high-speed turns and angles and dangles, as they called them. The Los Angeles was the lead ship of the 688 class and at that time was the hottest submarine in the world.
W
After a while, President Carter hired a second aide, a fellow named Bob Peterson, who was an Air Force captain. Quite often the President would use us as sources for protocol: “How do we do that again? Do I stand on his right or on his left, and why is that?”
One role I assumed very early on and maintained was checking the pronunciation of names in foreign languages. We sort of started that, and sometimes names of countries. We had a state visit in Washington from the President of Tanzania, and I cued him just before he stepped onto the platform at the arrival ceremony on the south lawn of the White House, but sure enough he said, “Tanzania” [which Carter pronounced Tan-zane-ee-uh]. He looked at me, smiled, and continued on. But after that he properly referred to the Tanzanians [pronounced Tan-zuh-nee-uns] Bob Peterson and I would regularly review for hard names, and when we were walking him to an event site, we’d review those names for him.
W
There was one point well into my tour when I tried to get reassigned. It was a helicopter flight in Marine One from Camp David to Elkins, West Virginia. Three of us were the only people in the passenger compartment of Marine One, as it’s designated.
I took that opportunity to accost the President and say, “Mr. President, with your permission, I’d like to call the Bureau of Naval Personnel and be reassigned. Many of my contemporaries are out in their executive officer tours in nuclear cruisers. I’ve been ashore for two years now, and I’d sort of like to get back to sea so I can remain competitive and go forward and get command with my classmates.”
He looked at me with what was known on the White House staff as the steely grays, and he fixed a level gaze on me and said, “Paul, there’s nothing more important you could be doing for your country than what you’re doing right now.”
I said, “Thank you, Mr. President, for this opportunity to chat,” and I got up and went back to my seat. There was nothing more to be said.
It was a year after that when I accosted him again, just one on one, and I said, “Mr. President, as you know, I’m a nuclear-trained officer, and I get a bonus.” The bonus I think at that time was $4,000 a year as long as I was not away from a nuclear billet for more than three years. When at the mark of three years out of a billet that required my nuclear training, my money would stop.
I explained that to him, and he said, “Now you’re talking about something that I understand. I understand taking $4,000 out of your family’s budget. You may call the bureau and tell them that you are available for reassignment.” I thanked him very much.
