Clark Clifford

"You deserve it, Jim," quote-unquote, says Truman as he pins the medal on the lapel of Forrestal's jacket.

He tries to express his gratitude, but all he can say is, "It's beyond my..." Clark Clifford, a young advisor of Forrestal's and a future attorney general, is in the audience and remembers, quote, "Unable to respond to the president's generous words of praise, Forrestal is led speechless from the room.

It was suddenly apparent to everyone that there was some-- that something was terribly wrong." End quote.

Following the change of command ceremonies, Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington, who had regularly challenged Forrestal's authority, is overheard telling the now former defense secretary, quote, "There is something I would like to talk to you about." While there is no record of what Symington says, the effect on Forrestal is deeply unsettling to those observing, if not traumatic.

On May twentieth, as we've learned, Henry Forrestal had informed the hospital of his intention to take his brother out of Bethesda on Sunday, May twenty-second, to recuperate privately.

Following James' death that morning, Henry became convinced that his brother had been murdered, a view he maintained for the rest of his life, and he wasn't alone in that belief.

Arnold Rogo's book, James Forrestal: A Study of Personality, Politics, and Fo-- and Policy, is a scholarly and insightful work based in great part on the author's numerous interviews with many who were closest to Forrestal, including Dean Acheson, Clark Clifford, Lewis Johnson, Robert Lovett, Arthur Krock, Henry Forrestal, Dr. William Menninger, Dr. George Raynes, and Harry S. Truman.

Rogo, a professor of history at the University of California, was anything but a conspiracist.

Didn't have a great career.

Uh, Clark Clifford-

But he was a war, he was a war hero, though.

Uh...

I mean, LBJ had people who leveled with him.

I mean, Clark Clifford, for example, is... who replaced Robert McNamara in early 1968 as Secretary of Defense, laid it right on the line.

So he was under no illusion.

But who was Trump orchestrating his reports from reality? Natalie Harp, who feeds him only favorable news.

And then four years later, when he ran for president again, I came on back board with him and he won that time and I was off to the White House with him.

Now, what was your relationship with him? And I want to preface that question while you're thinking about that by saying, I remember I spent some time with Judge Clark and Ed Meese and all these people.

I remember I asked Ed Meese, like, maybe you're the closest person to a brother to him.

And Ed said, no, no, no, I wasn't.

You know, they said he was an amicable dunce, I think they called him.

Amiable dunce.

Clark Clifford said that.

Yeah, just.

Undersecretary of State George Ball warned against escalation.

Clark Clifford, a longtime advisor to presidents, warned that he saw catastrophe ahead.

Johnson was getting advice from the other direction, too.

Some of his more important military and foreign policy advisors believed that without American combat troops, South Vietnam would fall.

Uh, it goes with what we're talking about.

Uh, so Clark Clifford famously described Reagan or infamously described Reagan as an amiable dunce.

And Norman said, "Well, I think people now recognize that he was no dun- dunce, but also he wasn't all that amiable." A, a, a very interesting remark.

Reagan was a cool customer in many respects.