"That's Why I Asked You" "That's Why I Told You"

Reporter: Mr. President, sir, have you heard anything from the Vice President since his talks with the Soviet Prime Minister?

President: Yes, we have had detailed reports . . .

Reporter: Mr. President, could you evaluate for us your recent peace drive?

President: I reviewed pretty well what we have done last night. . .

Reporter: Mr. President, there have been reports of a task force headed by Dr. Wood which recommended-President (interrupting): What reports? I want to know who reports what....

That was the tone of the first few minutes of President Lyndon Johnson's first full-dress press conference since August. There was no question about who was in command. Crisp, clipped, perfectly assured, L.B.J. took the offensive. There might not have been a conference at all if Press Secretary Bill Moyers had not gone on television a few days before to denounce such affairs as "circuses" and "extravaganzas." They are "a poor substitute," Moyers said, for the more informal get-togethers that the President prefers. And anyway, he added, the President has no statutory obligation to hold any press conference.

The Best Authority. No obligation perhaps, but the President was not about to let reporters pick up the implication that he simply did not like trying to handle them en masse. So he promptly called a conference--with TV, the whole Cabinet, and even the new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development on hand.

The quarrel about who said what about Dr. Wood's task force went on in reasonably good-natured style, and the President deftly turned the whole exchange into a little lecture to the press. "I have made no decision," he said. "I have not been called upon to make any decision. The best authority for a presidential decision is the President or the press secretary, and you can always get guidance on that if you have the time or the disposition to obtain it."

"That's why I asked you," said the reporter.

"That's why I told you," shot back the President.

A Little Bit Sensitive. The questioning continued. Could the President predict when Congress would adjourn? "I never have done that," said Johnson. "I came here 35 years ago, and the first thing I learned was never to predict when they would adjourn." Then, without any excuse, he resumed his little lecture to the press. He does "get a little bit sensitive," he said, when he sees presidential decisions reported that he never heard of. There was a U.P.I. item he had seen that very morning telling "how I eliminated the Redwood Forest bill from the State of the Union Message at the last minute. The fact that it had never been submitted to the State of the Union could have been ascertained." When he does make decisions, and they differ from the premature press version, he said, "some of you reporters think I changed them because it was something that you may have said."

"Mr. President," said a reporter, "I understand that the women in the military services--WACS, WAVES, women Marines, etc.--are distressed because they are not being called upon to serve in Viet Nam. Is there any chance this may take place?"

Johnson's answer was brisk and to the point: "There is always a chance of anything taking place when our women are sufficiently distressed."

Just as there is always a chance of a press conference taking place when the President is sufficiently exercised.

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