Whether you voted for the first time in 2008 or 2010, or have voted in every election in the last fifty years, you’ve probably noticed that there can be a huge disparity between what the candidates say when they’re campaigning and what they actually do if they’re unfortunate enough to get elected. I finally decided that they’re all just liars, and (as Aristotle or one of the Greek philosophers asserted) will say whatever it is they believe you want to hear to get you to vote for them.
Something else I’ve wondered about is exactly how much candidates really understand about the job… like what really goes on in the inner sanctums of government, who really runs things, how are decisions really made and who, ultimately, makes them. Is this democracy business really what we believe it to be, or is it just the ‘public face’ of our government? What are the secrets, if there are any, that newly elected presidents don’t find out about until after they are sworn in?
On March 15, a program on History International addressed some of those questions, but didn’t necessarily answer them. They are, after all, government secrets. The title of the show? The President’s Book of Secrets.
It never actually verified that there is a physical book of secrets, but did reveal that there are many things the candidates we love to love… or to hate… only find out about after they take the oath of office. There were, however, examples or hints throughout the program. For example, I learned that when George W. Bush, our 43rd president, left office and Barack Obama entered the Oval Office for the first time as the president, the only thing on the desk was a sealed envelope addressed only to “44”. The contents of the letter from “43” to “44” were not revealed, nor was whether it was “Eyes Only” for “44”. Unless you happen to be one of the very few who will ever be elected to the office of President of the United States, you’ll never find out. For the other 300 million+ of us, it will likely remain a secret forever.
The narrator pondered as to whether or not the letter included information regarding the location of The President’s Book of Secrets or if there actually is such a book.
Here’s one that is relevant right now, with the battle to slash the budget to almost nothing or finance anything that will help the nation’s recovery. There evidently is (or at least, might be) something called the Black Budget, which is the part of the President’s budget that congress never gets to see. It’s used for secret projects, research facilities, secret experiments. There are lots of code names. Some of them even the President doesn’t know about until the last moment or only when it becomes absolutely necessary. According to the program, it’s approximately $30-$40 billion annually!
I took as many notes as I could, but as you may have noticed in school, when you’re writing notes, you’re quite likely to miss the bit that will definitely be on the next exam. So here’s a question I did write down, although I didn’t manage to get the answer, assuming there was one: Is there a hidden/secret group of people who function independent of the President and others in the government? That’s something else I’ve wondered about over the years: Who is really pulling the strings? Who’s really in charge, if push comes to shove? Alas, no answer was forthcoming.
Evidently, the president (and perhaps others) can never say that there is a secret book. It should always be “If there is a book of secrets…” The president, we were told, must never trust anyone. If he wants to trust someone, he should get a dog. That explains why so many of our presidents appeared to be animal lovers!
Another question raised was whether or not there are hidden requirements for the office of president… like college friendships, especially those at Yale. Memberships in organizations like the Masons, or Yale’s Skull & Bones… all of which can provide access to power, money, people all because of the associations. There is probably not a conspiracy, according to the program, but a lot of Skull & Bones members are picked by presidents for important government positions.
There was a lot of stuff about the Secret Service. Evidently the only time the president and his family are ever alone is when they go to the bathroom or when they’re in their private quarters. Even then, they are guarded from outside the White House. We heard a lot about the preparations for even a casual visit in a close friend’s home. Past presidents and “44” have said they felt like they were locked in a ‘golden cage’ in the White House.
I worked at the airport for quite a while and watched many presidential arrivals. Preparations started a couple of days before the president arrived. If anyone had missed the news about our chief executive’s visit, one only had to drive past the airport and see the huge, gray transport plane sitting on the tarmac. The Secret Service and FBI spent their time checking everything and everyone within the airport perimeters. On the day Air Force One arrived, traffic was completely stopped in every direction, on every road of the president’s main route and a few surrounding routes, just in case there was an emergency that required a quick change in plans.
If you happened to be heading for work and were unable to arrive on time because all the roads were blocked… well, be thankful for your cell phone! Fortunately, the managers knew where you were and why you weren’t at work. Once, I just barely made it on time. When I arrived, the gates to our facility were locked down and an armed guard was reluctant to let me in until I showed him my ID and he confirmed my identity and legitimacy.
Fortunately, a lot of the people I worked with were ex-military who had knowledge of these things. When the president’s plane landed… well, it was awesome! We could only look through the glass wall that faced the runway and the official “parking space” of this display of American power.
When I watched the whole thing the first time, I was standing next to an ex-Marine friend, who explained to me all the vehicles that were disgorged from the belly of the huge transport. There were several buses for the press corps, and a long line of what appeared to be ordinary black SUVs. Of course, the whole thing was guarded by probably every policeman or state trooper who wasn’t home sick (and no, I don’t remember all the details).
What I learned was that among those heavily-armored black SUVs were “war wagons” ready to take on just about any attack one could imagine, just like Air Force One. What I learned from the program was that there is what amounts to a mini-hospital too, equipped to deal with almost any presidential emergency. Another friend who had worked for the Secret Service told me about how they go about the business of protecting the president when he travels.
Presidential travel is a very big deal, made even bigger when something like the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers happens. We learned how many secure bunkers there are all over the country but, of course, nothing about where they are. They did use a graphic to show the location of the bunker in D.C. where the vice president hangs out when there’s a threat.
There was a mini-tour of the briefing room, which started out many years ago as a small but secured office and has now grown to a very large and high-tech facility, where it is staffed 24/7/365 by people monitoring… stuff.
The physical and mental health of the president is top secret, totally hidden from the public, and especially from enemies that might take advantage of the situation. The president has a private armored suite in Bethesda.
Another question raised but not answered: Are there records about UFOs sightings and/or landings? Aliens that are already amongst us? Sorry folks, that’s top secret too, I guess!
The “nuclear football” always goes everywhere the president goes. During the transition from one president to another, there are two of them—one for the departing president and one for the incoming one… just in case we have to nuke somebody during the inaugural parade or festivities.
Is there really a book of secrets? The program points out that only five living people know for sure—our current president and the four living past presidents.
I wish I’d had a DVR, but the DVD is available in the History Channel Store for $19.95 which I plan to order on payday. I did get my questions answered (and more) despite my scanty notes.
The narrator pointed out that during their campaigns, presidential candidates may actually be expressing what they really feel is the right thing to do for the country. Sometimes, they might be lying because they know that if they told you their actual agendas, no one would ever vote for them. Either way, it isn’t until after the inauguration that he learns the secrets about the government and how it works, everything he did not know until he stepped into the Oval Office shortly after becoming president.
Try as he might to make good on his promises, the secret hidden government evidently quickly lets him know that they could not, would not, simply will not allow it—for reasons they will never share with us.
My advice? Cut ‘em a little slack in the future. Understand that while the president might be “the most powerful leader in the world,” even his strings are very possibly being pulled by parties unknown, and are likely to remain that way.
No wonder the gray hair starts to show up so soon after they are sworn in. Presumably, they had an idea of what they were getting into when they made the decision to run for office. But they didn’t learn about the secrets until it was too late!
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