Memoirs
we know all about that, and it just doesn't seem like a good move this close to the election,
but as soon as the election's over we'll release the money
On the way out of the office I asked Jim about that airplane. He asked, "What airplane?" So
I knew he had not heard about the famous Corps of Engineers request for a new airplane.
Then I explained that his people at the new executive office building were not releasing the
money Congress had appropriated so the Corps could replace the old airplane that was about
to fall apart. So he again indicated he didn't know anything about the airplane. That was the
end of that conversation.
The 17th of September was the day after all that trouble in the desert of Iran when U.S.
Forces were trying to release the hostages. My appointment was canceled; however, on the
day I retired, Mr. McIntyre called and said, "Go buy your airplane, Jack." So that whole
scenario about going to see the president created some pluses, even though the visit was
canceled.
Well, I've gone all the way from the first day until the last day and haven't even talked about
what we started to talk about. I tried to stay on track with my relationship with the White
House, a single subject.
Yes, that's good.
A
I saw quite a bit of President Carter. The Chief of Engineers isn't all that important in the
scheme of things around Washington, but we did have some issues that were important to
President Carter, and I found that the best thing was to get one's act together and try to
arrange to talk about them. It worked out in my case.
I have tried to keep the White House events together as a single subject. The real importance
of the visits and discussions with the president and his principal staff was to keep the Corps
of Engineers in business. There was no plan or single decision to do that, but the overall
impact was positive. When the reorganization of the executive office was finally released,
the Corps of Engineers was not mentioned one way or the other. So whether we dodged the
bullet or not, I don't know. I'm not even sure one was fired, but we thought the president was
taking aim, anyhow.
Q ..
What about your relationship with Congress?
A ..
Now, it might be a good idea to talk a little bit about the relationships with the Congress. The
Chief of Engineers was fairly free to deal, within the proper limits, with the Congress. I had
a comfortable and knowledgeable association with the committees of Congress and
particularly the staffs of those committees. That turned out to be important and valuable,
particularly when we got into things like the Tennessee-Tombigbee, the privatization of
dredging program, Lock and Dam 26, environment and many, many other subjects with
political implications. The Secretary of the Army naturally was concerned because he did not
want the Chief or anybody in the Corps lobbying. The fact is we didn't lobby, but there was
a perception. In my case particularly, since I had been so closely involved with the members
and committee as district engineer in Tulsa, division engineer of MRD, and director of Civil
Works.
My objective was to keep Congress informed, and that paid off because later on there were
special hearings on whether or not the Corps had been up front with the Congress on various
things, particularly Tennessee-Tombigbee. So having and keeping a good relationship with
the Congress was almost as valuable as the relationships we had established with the White
House. I say "almost" simply because the president as the chief executive could, by executive
order, make changes internally which the Congress, of course, could not do summarily.
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