POTUS and the VIPs, by Bill Wanlund
Our newsletter PDCA Update’s last compilation of members’ memories of former USIA Director Charles Wick’s tenure during the 1980s brought in fascinating recollections that revealed the challenges and the rewards of working for that complex and quirky leader. I’ve chosen to call the series “POTUS and the Vips.” If that sounds too much like a 1950s one-hit-wonder Doo-Wop group from Mars, go ahead and call it something else when you send in your reminiscence to Editor@publicdiplomacy.org. Yes, we invite all readers of the blog to contribute.
Leading off our round of reminiscences of VIP visits is President Ronald Reagan’s visit to the Voice of America on Feb. 24, 1982, marking 40 years of VOA broadcasting. VOA – which went on the air 56 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 -- promised to tell listeners “The news about America and the War, which may be good or bad -- we shall tell you the truth.” By and large it was a promise that VOA editors, correspondents, and managers kept, even when higher-ups saw a different truth.
PDCA member Joe Bruns joined VOA in 1986, after the Reagan visit. However, Joe, who became Deputy Director of VOA during the George H. W. Bush administration and served as acting Director of VOA for the first 14 months of the Clinton Administration, was very helpful in tracking down much of the material for this reminiscence. Joe also worked in USIA’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Former VOA Africa Service correspondent Neal Lavon provided this memory of President Reagan’s visit to the Voice.
“I had only been with the Agency for a year and a half before he came. I was working in the Africa Division.“We had heard that Reagan might be coming, and given his long radio career, it seemed like a natural fit for a visit. The president was close to USIA Agency Director Charles Wick (the Wicks and the Reagans used to have either Christmas or New Year’s Eve dinner together in California--pot roast, I recall). The president gave Wick lots of money and a free hand at USIA and VOA. Naturally, like today, most of the staff had voted for the incumbent – Jimmy Carter -- and were still smarting from the election loss but getting over it. Anyway, Wick started spending money at VOA for computers as we had been still working with typewriters and paper with carbons.
“The upgrade was welcome even if the Administration completely wasn't.
“Nevertheless, it was still a big deal for a president to visit VOA. Word spread throughout the building that Reagan would be visiting, but nobody knew exactly when and where. Coming after the assassination attempt the year before, that was understandable.
“But I recall the time and place began leaking out because the people who first knew President Reagan's schedule were not the reporters, not the editors, not even the top execs. The ones who knew were the facilities people--the janitors, maintenance staff, and cleaners. Somehow, they knew, and began informing everyone that the president would enter the building via the C Street Tunnel that ran underground to the Department of Health and Human Services building across the street. He would then be brought up to the second floor on the elevator and taken to Master Control for his remarks. There, he would pose for a photo in front of the Main Control board, just as President Eisenhower had done on a visit 25 years earlier.”
Here’s the text of Reagan’s remarks during his VOA visit.
About the author:
In October 2008, after 28 years as a reporter. writer, and show host for the Voice of America, Neal Lavon became a Regional Marketing Director for the International Broadcasting Bureau [IBB], which is responsible for strategic planning and oversight for U.S. Government international media. From December 2011 until his retirement in 2014, Neal cemented his USG broadcasting “lifer” status as Global Marketing Director of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which bears responsibility for all U.S. government and government-sponsored non-military international broadcasting.
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That earlier visit by President Eisenhower was recalled by Ted Lipien, former VOA Polish Service director and later CEO and President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Lipien blogged on Oct. 15, 2023, about President Eisenhower’s visit to The Voice; excerpt follows:“On February 25, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower visited VOA headquarters in Washington, DC, and made a special shortwave broadcast to commemorate VOA’s 15th anniversary. His speech was partly focused on the situation in the Middle East. United Press reported [that Eisenhower] “warned the people of the Middle East to stand clear of ‘the menace of international Communism’ lest it ‘smash all their hard-won accomplishments overnight.”
Official text of Ike’s remarks is here.
Ted Lipien’s Cold War Radio Museum blog can be found here.
Bill Wanlund is a PDCA Board Member, retired Foreign Service Officer, and freelance writer in the Washington, DC area. His occasional column, Worth Noting, appears in the PDCA Weekly Update and addresses topics hopefully of interest to PDCA members.