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Red Cross.” At that point Nixon said to Kendall, “Tell Stanton he's chairman of the Red Cross.”

Wow.

And that's how it was restored. Poor Harriman didn't know what had happened, because I called him and said: “If you still want me, I think I've got it fixed at the White House.” [Both laugh]

That's a great story.

So that's how I became chairman, and the day after I left CBS--I left on a Friday; was in on a Saturday to pack up, with Winnie [Williams], my private papers and things, and on Sunday I think I came in and got some more--but on Monday I went to Washington and met the organization as the chairman, with presidential appointment. And served a three- year term and then was reappointed for a second three years, and had said, going in, I wouldn't serve more than six years, because the board members could only be elected to serve two consecutive three-year terms [and] could not succeed themselves without a year's hiatus.

I thought it was wrong for the chairman to be in there as long as one chairman had been. Harriman, I think, had been in for twenty-three years--had served four Presidents or something--and I just thought that there ought to be some turnover in the job. So I took the three-year appointment and then by the time my reappointment came up, Nixon had been thrown out and Ford was there. I knew Ford, and it was automatic with Ford. He just said: “I want you to take the job.”