“I would like you to do us a favor though.”
Presidents ask for favors.
And it’s fine if the favor is intended to benefit the nation.
For Trump, ‘the ask’ was for a personal political favor, and his request led to his first impeachment.
In July 1961, ‘the presidential ask’ was for the retention of CIA access to an airbase in Pakistan.
America’s national security was at stake.
Pakistan was then a new nation, having been carved out of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.
And the US had been among the first to formally recognize Pakistan as an independent country.
To Pakistan’s north lay the Soviet Union.
And during its fourteen-year existence, Pakistan had entered into industrial development agreements with the Soviet Union.
Given Pakistan’s strategic location, the Soviets were eager to gain more influence there.
This complex three-way relationship between the US, Pakistan and the Soviet Union went public in May 1960, when the U-2 flight of Francis Gary Powers was shot down.
The U-2 flights were a CIA operation.
And Powers’s flight had originated from a Pakistani air base which had been recently upgraded with US funds.
The U-2 shoot-down revealed the military cooperation between the US and Pakistan and prompted Pakistan to consider shutting down the airbase.
President Kennedy was intent on preserving the US strategic relationship with Pakistan and thwarting the Soviet effort to achieve regional dominance in South Asia.
So, the courting of Pakistan’s military dictator, President Mohammad Ayub Khan, began.
The courtship began in July 1961, when Ayub Khan and his daughter made a state visit to the US.
The high point of this trip was a State Dinner on the East Lawn of Mount Vernon in which he was the honored guest.
It was a first.
There had been no gathering of political leaders at Mount Vernon since George Washington’s time.
The idea of Mount Vernon as the State Dinner venue was Mrs. Kennedy’s.
She had been regaled at formal dinners at Versailles and Schoenbrun Palace in Vienna on a recent European trip with her husband.
For the Mount Vernon dinner, one hundred forty people would be invited.
They included Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Rep. Gerald Ford and Maurice Templesman, who would become Mrs. Kennedy’s companion late in life.
Dinner guests boarded yachts at the Washington Navy Yard for the eighteen-mile cruise down the Potomac River.
Onboard music and aperitifs provided.
Upon their arrival at the Mount Vernon wharf, they were chauffeured up the hill to the Mansion in limousines.
Their dinner, an elaborate French menu, was prepared in advance in the White House kitchen.
It was then transported to Mount Vernon by special refrigerated and heated Army trucks and reheated in an Army field kitchen.
But not without incident!
From Mrs. Kennedy’s social secretary, Letitia Baldrige:
"[T]he White House chef, Rene Verdon, threatened to go back to France after the army started spraying the area with insect repellent -- he was convinced that his food would be poisoned, and I had to assure him that the food was safe by having Secret Service agents eat some.”
The dinner was served at outdoor tables under a yellow tent.
Lighting and decorations were designed by Tiffany’s and Bonwit Teller designers.
The National Symphony Orchestra provided the evening’s entertainment.
They played on a stage built into the slope leading down to the river.
But, at the last minute, they discovered that their sound disappeared into the great outdoors.
So, the National Park Service quickly built an acoustical band shell behind the stage to direct the sound toward the dinner guests.
The evening highlight was a formal salute to the heads of state by the US Army Old Guard.
They were dressed in Revolutionary War uniforms and carried muskets loaded with smoke-filled blanks.
And there was another incident!
From Mrs. Baldrige:
"During the rehearsal there was no problem, but during the actual event [the troops] fired directly into the group of reporters and photographers who were covering the dinner.
“One reporter pulled out his white handkerchief and waved in surrender and the dinner guests roared with laughter.
“And President Ayub Khan turned to President Kennedy and said, 'I see you feel about the press exactly the way we do.'“
Time was made in the evening for President Kennedy to take Ayub Khan on a private walk in the Mount Vernon Garden.
And during that garden stroll Ayub Khan withdrew his threat to shut down the CIA airbase.
The favor President Kennedy had sought was granted.
And all Americans benefited.
Do you see the difference?
Of course you do.
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I’ll see you tomorrow.
— Brenda
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