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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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Session:         Page of 755

Stanton:

Truman wanted me to be Secretary of Commerce. Eisenhower wanted me to be his assistant on psychological warfare. This was at a period when that was a key post in the White House staff. And it turned out that as the job evolved, it became the National Security post and it would have been an interesting position.

That offer from Eisenhower came at a time when I was not very happy with the indifference that Paley was showing toward some of the advanced planning problems that I thought we had and I didn't know whether I would have much of a hand in solving some of the problems, with his ambivalence and indifference. That cleared up and I wasn't unhappy that I hadn't taken the job with Eisenhower. [John F.] Kennedy offered me essentially, I believe, as I recall, the job of heading USIA. But in the conversation with him -- it was early on in his -- in fact it was before he was inaugurated -- if I had expressed interest in something else, I think he was in a very flexible mood at that time and would have probably tried to work something out that would have brought me into an area that I expressed interest in.

But I'd seen government from a worm's eye view and I had pretty much concluded that the only time I would go into government was into an elective position. Which meant either the House or the Senate. And I had an interesting opportunity in that connection. In 1956 I had a visit from a man in Utah -- maybe he was living then in Idaho -- saying that a group of people out in that area wanted me to consider buying a ranch in Idaho and becoming head of the University of Idaho for, I believe, a period of two years. At that time, I was promised that I would be nominated for the Senate, and assured that if this particular group was behind me that I would be elected. That would have been an interesting opportunity, to get into the Senate. I turned it down without even blinking an eye because I didn't want to be elected to a position of that kind and be beholden to the group that was offering me the opportunity.





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