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re: US: on Meeting Truman (Miles Seeley, US) (John Eipper, USA, 02/21/09 2:47 pm)

On 20 February, JE asked: I'd like to know the circumstances that led to a young officer on his way to Korea (Miles Seeley) being invited to the [Truman] White House. Miles--had you just graduated from Stanford at the time? Miles Seeley responds: My time with the Trumans happened because when I was a senior at Stanford I met a Princeton senior when we played a polo Tournament in the Squadron A Armory in NYC. We did not keep in touch, but after we both had been recruited by the Agency, I went to San Antonio for a year of Basic and OCS, and he got a Navy commission. We met again when we were in Washington for our next assignments. His mother was high up in Democratic Party ranks and knew the Trumans well. My friend was a friend of Margaret Truman. One night he invited me to go out on the town with Margaret and friends, and to meet at the White House. I had no civvies, so I went in uniform. The Trumans (Harry, Margaret and Bess) invited us up into the family quarters and we spent a few hours just talking before leaving for our night out. We went once again out partying with Margaret. Then, to my great surprise, I got an invitation to be at President Truman's farewell address from the Oval Office. I went and was blending into the background when the President spotted me and waved me over. He told me to sit at his right hand, just out of camera range. As I wound my way through the crowd I heard mutterings from Generals and Admirals wanting to know who this shavetail USAF guy was. Anyway, I sat right next to the President as he made his speech, and we returned to the family quarters afterwards. They gave me a copy of the speech and they all signed it. Regrettably, that got lost at some point when I was overseas. A few days later, we went to the train station to see the Trumans off to their Independence, MO home. I got a chance to meet Dean Acheson and others. Days later I was in Korea, and the whole thing seemed like a dream. JE comments: These "WAISers in history" moments are my favorite types of posts. Thank you very much for this wonderful memory, Miles. -- For information about the World Association of International Studies (WAIS), and its online publication, the World Affairs Report, read its homepage by simply double-clicking on: http://wais.stanford.edu/ John Eipper, Editor-in-Chief, Adrian College, MI 49221 USA

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