Hiding in the Oval Office Drapes

 

In October 1963,  my boss, Rep. Clem Zablocki, received an invitation to be part of a sizable delegation of congressmen and senators meeting President Kennedy at the White House to protest foreign imports of shoes and gloves.  Milwaukee was a major producer.  Zablocki was overseas on that date and I was asked to substitute by the White House. 

At the appointed hour I joined a delegation of senators and congressmen, led by Sen. Ten Kennedy, at the White House.  Kennedy shook our hands and was polite but noncommittal on protecting the domestic shoe industry.  An official photo was taken in the Oval Office and, as the only staffer present, I am in the very back visible only by my horn rim glasses. 

As it turned out, being stage rear had an advantage.  Eventually Kennedy invited the delegation to go out onto the White House lawn because Marshal Tito, “President for Life” of Yugoslavia would be arriving momentarily.  He would be reviewing troops on the lawn and both leaders would speak to the assemblage. 

The thought of seeing the fabled resistance leader of World War II up close overrode my good judgment. The delegation was instructed to walk outside for the ceremony and everyone filed out open glass doors behind the President’s desk. Leaving had absolutely no appeal to me. I concealed myself behind a drape in the Oval Office in order to get a better look at an historic moment.  

Dressed in a mouse-gray military uniform with gold trim and dripping with medals,  Joseph Broz Tito strode into the room with a vigor that belied his 71 years and the several attempts by Hitler and Stalin to kill him. I looked on for at least five minutes, apparently unobserved by the Secret Service. Using translators Tito and Kennedy chatted briefly and then were ushered to the West Lawn. I followed, cautiously peeling out an adjacent exit lest I attract notice.  

In the security atmosphere of recent times my gambit might have gotten me at least a reprimand or even arrest.   But it left me with a good story.  On several occasions I have regaled listeners in Montenegro and Serbia, once part of Yugoslavia, with the story of hiding out and seeing Tito “up close and personal” at the White House.