|
|
Robert Strauss
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Robert Strauss: It was in their sitting room, right off their bedroom, in the small living quarters the President has up there. Not so small, but not very spacious, either. We got into this discussion, and the President started off by -- it took him about 20 minutes to tell his side of that and how there was nothing to these stories and how wrong they were. And he turned to this other fellow and said, "I trust you agree?" and he said, "Mr. President, I sure do. I think the press is blowing this all up. Eisenhower had his U2 problems, and they blew over, and Truman had his scandal problems, and they blew over, and this will blow over. All you need to do is hold your fire and hang in there." And the President turned to me and said, "I trust you agree, Bob?" I said, "As a matter of fact, I couldn't disagree more." After gulping a couple times, I said -- I told that story about the Lyndon Johnson experience -- and I said, "Before I came up here tonight, I asked Deaver if he wanted to hear the truth. The truth of the matter was Deaver's answer to me was " -- I hadn't told it before -- "He said, 'She wants him to hear it. I don't know whether he wants to hear it or not, but she wants him to hear the truth.'" View Interview with Robert Strauss View Biography of Robert Strauss View Profile of Robert Strauss View Photo Gallery of Robert Strauss
|