Zumwalt

by Larry Berman

  6. Rowen report forwarded by Cockell to Zumwalt, NHHC.

  7. Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, and Annette Lawrence Drew, Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage (New York : Public Affairs, 1998), 190.

  8. Nitze, From Hiroshima to Glasnost, 334.

  9. Sontag, Blind Man’s Bluff, 191.

  10. Robert Kaufman, Henry M. Jackson: A Life in Politics (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000), 242.

  11. Zumwalt, On Watch, 422.

  12. Nitze, From Hiroshima to Glasnost, 335.

  13. Michael Krepon, “The Jackson Amendment,” Arms Control Wonk, http://krepon.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/2414/the-jackson-amendment.

  14. See Paul Nitze, “Nuclear Strategy in an Era of Detente,” Sept. 5, 1975, Working file, Nitze Papers, Library of Congress.

  15. Schlesinger, “Director of DOD Salt Task Force,” Sept. 15, 1973, NHHC.

  16. Nitze, From Hiroshima to Glasnost, 335.

  17. Kaufman, Henry M. Jackson, 273, based on Kaufman interview with Schlesinger in 1994.

  18. Abba Solomon Eban, Abba Eban: An Autobiography (New York: Random House, 1977), 515.

  19. Tad Szulc, The Illusion of Peace: Foreign Policy in the Nixon Years (New York: Viking, 1978), 734. I draw extensively from Szulc’s account.

  20. Matloff interview, Office of the Secretary of Defense Historical Office, ZPP.

  21. Kaufman, Henry M. Jackson, 275.

  22. Cited in ibid., 276.

  23. Kissinger tape, Nixon Library, Oct. 11, 1973.

  24. Kaufman, Henry M. Jackson, 276; and Thompson, The Hawk and the Dove, 234.

  25. Nitze, From Hiroshima to Glasnost, 338.

  26. Ibid., 338.

  27. Ibid., 340.

  28. Conversation between Fred Wikner and Haig, June 2, 1974, ZPP.

  29. Jan. 6, 1988, ZPP.

  30. Tape 21, side A, “The Problem of Succession,” ZTT.

  31. Zumwalt, On Watch, 476.

  32. Ibid., 474.

  33. Tape 21, side A, “The Problem of Succession,” ZTT.

  34. Ibid., “Ike Kidd.” ZTT.

  35. W. A. Cockell, memorandum for the record, Dec. 17, 1973, conversation with PHN. “In view of the subject, I have typed this memo myself, and made no copies.” ZPP.

  36. DC debriefing, May 20, 1974, ZPP.

  37. Cited in Zumwalt, On Watch, 399. “Kissingerology had a ‘Haigological’ branch,” wrote Zumwalt (p. 397).

  38. Tape 21, side A, “The Problem of Succession,” ZTT.

  39. Michael Getler, “Holloway Nominated to Succeed Zumwalt,” Washington Post, Mar. 29, 1974, A3.

  40. Chicago Tribune, June 29, 1974, D12.

  41. Mar. 28, 1974, ZPP.

  42. Memorandum of conversation, June 6, 1974, ZPP.

  43. May 28, 1974, Executive Correspondence, NHHC.

  44. Zumwalt, On Watch.

  45. May 30, 1974, ZPP.

  46. Clements also told Zumwalt that he viewed Peet as “a question mark with me for some time and I think you know that,” ZPP.

  47. Richard Reston, “Nixon Warns Against Attempts to Sway Soviet Domestic Affairs,” Los Angeles Times, June 6, 1974, A1.

  48. ZTT, “Change of Command.”

  49. Telephone conversation, CNO and CJCS, June 6, 1974, speaking about that day’s New York Times article; Zumwalt wonders who the source might be. ZPP.

  50. Ibid.

  51. ZTT unnumbered, side B, 87.

  52. ZTT 15, side B, part 9.

  53. June 20, 1974, ZPP.

  54. Telephone conversation, CNO and Captain Cockell, June 21, 1974, ZPP.

  55. In a subsequent memorandum for the record, Zumwalt recorded Moorer’s debriefing from the June 21 NSC meeting.

  56. Zumwalt was told by Cockell that the president said he and not Zumwalt was in charge. Bud “was proud that he got honorable mention 3 times at meeting.” ZPP. Cockell also reported that the president was upset that “Moorer is spying on him.”

  57. Welander, assistant deputy chief of naval operations (plans and policy), memorandum for the record, debriefing June 21, 1974, of NSC meeting of June 20, 1974.

  58. Memorandum for the record, June 24, 1974, based on a “sensitive—eyes only conversation with Holloway and Bagley.” ZPP.

  59. Zumwalt, On Watch, 486. I also benefited from Howard Kerr’s account in his letter of remembrance following Bud’s passing. Provided to author by Kerr.

  60. June 25, 1974, ZFC.

  61. June 25, 1974, NHHC.

  62. SSBN-640 Gold, June 4, 1974, NHHC.

  63. July 5, 1974, NHHC.

  64. June 24, 1974, NHHC.

  65. June 25, 1974, NHHC.

  66. June 26, 1974, NHHC.

  67. Harold E. Shear oral history interview, USNI, 313–14.

  68. David Woodbury, “Musings of an Ancient Mariner, on Being a Naval Aide,” unpublished manuscript.

  69. Jerry Wilson, “Petticoat Politics,” Sunday, July 1974, Palestine (Texas) Herald Press, 3, Executive Correspondence, Wilson Files, NHHC.

  70. June 27, 1974, ZFC.

  71. Author interview with Howard Kerr.

  72. “Zumwalt Navy Era Ends with Warning,” Washington Star News, June 30, 1974.

  73. July 3, 1974, NHHC.

  74. Aug. 15, 1974, Executive Correspondence, NHHC.

  75. “ ‘Well Done,’ Bud Zumwalt,” Salt Lake Tribune headline on June 29, 1974, 16.

  76. “Zumwalt Navy Era Ends with Warning,” Washington Star News, June 30, 1974.

  77. “Zumwalt Says He Turned Down VA Post, Cites ‘Domestic Politics,’ ” Washington Post, July 1, 1974, A8.

  78. Unnumbered tape transcript, side B, 85.

  79. Tape 14, side A, ZTT.

  80. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, China, July 15, 1974.

  81. Elmo Russell Zumwalt, Jr, “After On Watch,” unpublished manuscript, Sept. 9, 1999.

  82. Tape 21, side A, ZTT.

  CHAPTER 14: THE WATCH NEVER ENDS

  1. Letter, June 2, 1995, ZFC.

  2. Personal letter, July 8, 1974.

  3. Elmo Russell Zumwalt, Jr, “After On Watch,” unpublished manuscript, Sept. 9, 1999. Bud was planning another update for 2010, when he would have been ninety.

  4. July, 12, 1974, ZFC.

  5. Zumwalt, “After On Watch.”

  6. Ibid.

  7. This was the period Bud set aside for writing his memoirs, allowing him to reenter the arena.

  8. Correspondence shows that Bud was also under consideration for the presidency of the University of California system.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Zumwalt, “After On Watch,” 3.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “Adm. Zumwalt Lays His Political Groundwork,” Washington Post, Dec. 22, 1974, B7.

  13. Jay Mathews, “Zumwalt Seeks Support for Race Against Byrd,” Washington Post, May 20, 1975, C1; also see Bill McAllister, “Admiral Zumwalt Seeks Byrd’s Seat,” Washington Post, Feb. 24, 1976, B1.

  14. Zumwalt, “After On Watch.”

  15. Berman, No Peace, No Honor.

  16. Sheehan interview with Negroponte, Sheehan papers, Negroponte folder, Library of Congress.

  17. Berman, No Peace, No Honor; and Gregory Tien Hung Nguyen and Jerrold L. Schecter, The Palace File: The Remarkable Story of the Secret Letters from Nixon and Ford to the President of South Vietnam and the American Promises That Were Never Kept (New York: Harper & Row, 1986).

  18. President Gerald Ford issued an official statement: “The Government of the Republic of Vietnam has surrendered. Prior to its surrender, we have withdrawn our Mission from Vietnam. Vietnam has been a wrenching experience for this nation. . . . History must be the final judge of that which we have done or left undone, in Vietnam and elsewhere. Let us calmly await its verdict.”

  19. Interview with author; see Tran Van Chon, “Back Home from Hell,” unpublished paper, ZPP.

  20. Khue letter to Admiral Zumwalt, May 6, 1975, ZPP.

 
21. The two brothers were separated for seven years.

  22. See Murrey Marder, “Jackson: Hill, Saigon Mislead,” Washington Post, May 2, 1975; see also: “The Watergate Connection,” Time, May 5, 1975, and “War-Watergate Tie Is Seen by Zumwalt,” New York Times, May 6, 1975.

  23. Paul G. Edwards, “Zumwalt Goes on TV, Attacks Sens. Byrd, Scott,” Washington Post, Sept. 8, 1976.

  24. Paul G. Edwards, “Zumwalt’s Campaign Languishes,” Washington Post, Oct. 10, 1976.

  25. Zumwalt, “After On Watch.”

  26. May 10, 1976, Nitze Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

  27. Zumwalt, “After On Watch.”

  28. After practicing law in Virginia Beach for three years, Finchem served in the White House as deputy advisor to the president in the Office of Economic Affairs in 1978 and 1979. In the early 1980s, Finchem cofounded the National Strategies and Marketing Group in Washington, D.C. He then served as commissioner of the PGA Tour.

  29. Megan Rosenfeld, “Zumwalt in Uphill Race,” Washington Post, Oct. 12, 1976.

  30. Paul G. Edwards, “Zumwalt Readies Attack on Byrd,” Washington Post, May 10, 1976.

  31. Dec. 12, 1975, ZPP.

  32. Memorandum for the record, Apr. 2, 1976, Nitze Papers, Library of Congress.

  33. Ibid. He reported it to Captain Davy and Ann Zumwalt.

  34. Nicholas Thompson, “Did Henry Kissinger Really Plan ‘An Accident’ for Bud Zumwalt?” Sept. 14, 2009, Danger Room, Wired, www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/09/did-henry-kissinger-really-plan-an-accident-for-bud-zumwalt.

  35. Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 12, 1976.

  36. Bill McAllister, “Zumwalt Urges Defense Cuts,” Washington Post, July 14, 1976, A15.

  37. The speech was covered by all three networks, but it was so late that the venue was half empty by the time he spoke.

  38. “We cannot lose sight of the fact that our nation’s essential task is the promotion of better lives, not bigger guns.”

  39. Paul G. Edwards, “Zumwalt’s Campaign Languishes,” Washington Post, Oct. 10, 1976.

  40. Megan Rosenfeld, “Zumwalt: A ‘Passed Over’ Politician,” Washington Post, Nov. 4, 1976.

  41. Douglas Feith, War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism (New York: Harper, 2008). “Zumwalt went out of his way to promote my career, inviting me to dinners with his friends and recommending me for speeches and membership in groups such as the Council on Foreign Relations,” 27.

  42. Feb. 1, 1977, ZFC.

  43. June 29, 1977, Nitze Papers, Library of Congress.

  44. Aug. 10, 1977, handwritten note, “Dear Boss,” Nitze Papers, Library of Congress.

  45. May 7, 1970. Bud thanked Dr. James Caldwell at the University of North Carolina for all the help he has given Elmo and the family.

  46. With his father dead, Bud took over the job of writing an annual letter to the entire clan, March 18, 1974, ZFC.

  47. James Zumwalt, Award of the Order of the Silver Rose, Nov. 11, 1997, ZPP.

  48. My thanks to the Zumwalt family for providing me with a set of Elmo’s medical records. Some of these records are also in ZPP.

  49. US News and World Report, Jan. 17, 2000.

  50. Parade, Oct. 7, 1984, 16, interview with Walter Anderson, editor.

  51. May 13, 1983, ZPP.

  52. June 9, 1983, ZPP.

  53. Dec. 12, 1983, ZPP.

  54. Apr. 17, 1984, was the day he put feet on American soil. ZPP.

  55. May 5, 1984, ZPP.

  56. June 18, 1984, ZPP.

  57. Oct. 2, 1984, ZPP.

  58. July 30, 1984, handwritten note, ZFC.

  59. From Aunt Saralee, Jan. 13, 1986, ZFC.

  60. Until Mouzetta was safely out of danger because of the difficulty during the procedure. “Her bones were stronger than most and the needle punctures needed to get 1000 ccs of marrow had to be doubled. She had a rough time.” Mar. 6, 1986, progress report, ZFC.

  61. Cited in Walter Anderson, Courage Is a Three-Letter Word (New York: Random House, 1986), 168, 171.

  62. Mar. 26, 1986, update, ZFC and ZPP.

  63. The May 27, 1986, update is the last one.

  64. Sept. 14, 1987, ZFC.

  65. Sept. 13, 1987, ZFC.

  66. Dec. 30, 1987, ZFC.

  67. After seven years as chairman, Bud gave it up in 1994, but continued to serve in emeritus capacity.

  68. Aug. 19, 1987, ZPP.

  69. Ibid.

  70. Oct. 2, 1987, ZPP.

  71. Nov. 30, 1987, Truc wrote with photos, ZPP.

  72. Dictated to Dad on Aug. 12, 1987, and signed book July 26, 1988.

  73. James G. Zumwalt, vignette, “The Valiant Warrior,” ZFC.

  74. See Zumwalt and Zumwalt, My Father, My Son, as well as Dateline interview with Elmo.

  75. Tim Larimer, interview with Admiral Zumwalt, Washington Post, ZPP, date obscured.

  76. Letter, Aug. 16, 1990, to Earl Collins, Austin, Texas, ZPP.

  77. Richard Ehrlich, “Zumwalt Haunted After Spraying Vietnam with Agent Orange,” Oct. 1994, ZPP.

  78. ZFC.

  79. ZFC.

  80. Author interview with Dr. William Narva.

  81. Elmo died on August 13, 1988. “The tears and the mourning will never cease. But over time the remembering of our years together brings joy and laughter amidst those tears,” said Bud.

  82. James G. Zumwalt, Bare Feet, Iron Will: Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam’s Battlefields (Jacksonville, FL: Fortis, 2010), 8.

  83. George Esper, “Man with a Mission,” Cape Cod Times, Jan. 22, 1995.

  84. On July 17, 1974, Zumwalt wrote, “Dear Ed, I sincerely appreciate your kind remarks and insertion into the Congressional Record of Bill Anderson’s farewell column marking the end of my tour. In my view any enduring success we attained is due in large part to the efforts of our great Navy team and of Congressional leaders such as you who courageously supported the changes that would improve Navy life and navy strength in the years ahead. I am most grateful for that support.” ZPP.

  85. Oct. 11, 1989, ZPP.

  86. On Jan. 19, 1990, Bud wrote the FOI officer that he’d been designated by Derwinski, and “I need information from your files on the following”: He was looking for all available data on where Agent Orange had been used in Vietnam and the troops deployed in those areas.

  87. Bud testified before the House Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, “Links Between Agent Orange, Herbicides, and Rare Diseases,” June 26, 1990. See also his “Report to the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs on the Association Between Adverse Health Effects and Exposure to Agent Orange,” May 5, 1990. See also Statement by Admiral E. R. Zumwalt, Jr., USN (Ret), Chairman of the Agent Orange Coordinating Council before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Dec. 13, 1995.

  88. Ibid., 4. Statement by Admiral E. R. Zumwalt, Jr., USN (Ret.), Chairman of the Agent Orange Coordinating Council before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Dec. 13, 1995.

  89. Zumwalt, “After On Watch.”

  90. Sept. 13, 1989, ZPP.

  91. Oct. 8, 1989, ZPP.

  92. Interview with author.

  93. See Draft Report on Manipulations and 1988 letter to Sen. Tom Daschle.

  94. The best book on this subject is David Zierler, The Invention of Ecocide: Agent Orange, Vietnam, and the Scientists Who Changed the Way We Think about the Environment (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011).

  95. See Bill McAllister, “Ex-Admiral Zumwalt Claims Manipulation on Agent Orange,” Washington Post, June 27, 1990.

  96. Jan. 17, 1984, ZPP.

  97. Had Carter been reelected “and had his defense instincts continued, the entire Middle East would have ended up in Soviet hands. By the year 1990 they would have had control of the oil flow and minerals of Africa.” Time, Mar. 1, 1982.

  98. Ibid.

  99. Ronald Reagan to Elmo, on his fortieth bir
thday, ZFC.

  100. Aug. 15, 1988, ZFC.

  101. At about same time the Agent Orange Scientific Task Force commissioned by the American Legion identified a number of diseases that passed the “as likely as not” test.

  102. Aug. 9, 1990. Weiss Committee Report and Statement by Admiral E. R. Zumwalt, Jr., USN (Ret.), Chairman of the Agent Orange Coordinating Council before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Dec. 13, 1995.

  103. Associated Press, “Agent Orange Study Obstruction Charged,” Houston Chronicle, Aug. 10, 1990.

  104. Letter to Kirkwood, ZFC.

  105. Letter to Jerry Wages, Oct. 12, 1993, ZPP.

  106. Wednesday, Dec. [date obscured] 1992, 8:30 p.m., handwritten notes. “If I live, we’ll get some more.” ZPP.

  107. ZFC.

  108. Zumwalt, Bare Feet, Iron Will.

  109. Ibid.

  110. On his way home, in Bangkok, Newsweek magazine caught up with Bud. He was asked by Ron Moreau (Newsweek, Sept. 26, 1994) if it was a mistake to use Agent Orange. “In my judgment we’d have to do it again in identical circumstances.”

  111. Sept. 29, 1994, ZPP.

  112. Oct. 27, 1994 flyer. Following Robb’s victory, Bud handwrote a note of congratulations, attaching a letter he had sent to President Reagan, saying, “I believe that it led to Nancy Reagan’s decision to blast Ollies follies!” ZPP.

  113. Nov. 14, 1994, ZPP.

  114. Warner handwritten note, Dec. 12, 1994, ZPP.

  115. July 31, 1996, ZFC.

  116. Celeste Bohlen, “Zumwalt’s Arms Nomination Is Now in Trouble,” Washington Post, Dec. 10, 1982, B4.

  117. Bud Zumwalt, “If These Were My Last Words,” Jan. 2, 1999, author interview with Philip Lader, ZFC.

  118. Nov. 15, 1994, ZPP.

  119. Nov. 1, 1996, ZPP.

  120. Ibid.

  121. Author interview with Mike Spiro.

  122. Oct. 3, 1988, ZPP.

  123. Oct. 12, 1990, ZPP.

  124. Jan. 1, 1991, ZPP.

  125. Paper written by Chon at Evergreen Valley College, 1993, Political Science 1 class. ZPP.

  126. Capitol Conversations, a tape in ZFC.

  127. Jan. 26, 1998, ZFP.

  128. Oct. 5, 1995, ZFP.

  129. Final report, Special Oversight Board, Dec. 2000, ZFC.