19 January 2010
Long Live the King
It is one of those mornings, you know the kind.
We had planned an evening-in, talking about the events of 1974 last night, the Doctor and Mac and I, and from that would have come a lucid discussion of the painful transition from the Nixon to Ford Administrations, and how Rex and the rest of the Executive Branch coped with two major imperatives: a declining budget and distracted leadership.
Unfortunately, the Doc has one of the bugs going around and declined the opportunity to infect us both. It seems like a good time to introduce a testament from someone who was actually there for some of the events of the time.
I certainly wasn’t. I was talking to a Navy Lieutenant named Dan in Grand Rapids Michigan, and negotiating the terms of my servitude to the government at the time.
Faced with what seemed almost certain impeachment, Nixon announced on August 8, 1974, that he would resign the next day to begin "that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America."
The next year summer, North Vietnamese Regulars swept into Saigon and the long sad struggle was over. My pal Jake had to brief that to the CNO at the time, and that is a story worth telling sometime, though I don’t have the bandwidth this morning.
Captain Bill Manthorpe was one of the bright young officers who was there. The government might have been melting down, but Rex was recognized as a man who had a steady hand on the tiller. He was selected for nomination to the grade of Vice Admiral, and in September 1974, he reported for duty on the third floor of the Pentagon, Second Corridor, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Resources and Management).
As Bill remembers it, those were two trying years.
He said Rex “took great pains to insure that he did not interfere in any way, socially or officially, with the new DNI. He had to attend the congressional hearings on the Intelligence Community that were being held by Congressman Pike and Senator Church, listen to criticism of the community including, to some degree ONI during his tenure as DNI, and draft policy recommendations to meet those criticisms.
All of that clearly depressed him but he never let it affect his relationships with me or others. During that tour, he willingly released me for several weeks to take an interesting, rewarding and career enhancing temporary assignment.
Most importantly, when he got a call from the Vice Chief of Naval Operations telling him to send me to the VCNOs office to talk about a draft of an article that I was circulating, he asked for a copy and sent me off with good advice that I should say “Yes Sir” and not agree to anything. After standing in front of the VCNO and having had my good sense and intelligence expertise questioned and being told not to publish what I had written because it downplayed the Soviet naval threat and undercut the Navy’s efforts to rebuild a blue water Navy after Vietnam, I returned to my desk somewhat shaken.
I found, however, that the admiral had already reviewed my draft and, as an experienced Soviet hand himself, agreed with it. He made a few judicious, politically correct suggestions and urged me to publish it and to keep writing on the Soviet Navy, saying that he would stand behind me if there were problems.
Out of that tour with Rex came not only the type of fitness reports that every Commander waiting to make Captain dreams of, but a whole new career path as a writer and, thus, presumed expert, on the Soviet Navy.
In that way Rex shaped the next 20 years of my military and civilian career as an intelligence professional.”
Rex had that same affect on a lot of people, me included. I will have to tell you about that tomorrow.
Copyright 2010 Bill Manthorpe and Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
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