A Scare and a Bulletproof Vest

Only six days after the threat to his life by Squeaky Fromme, President Ford last week was back doing what comes naturally: plunging into the crowds and pressing flesh with the people. It was the familiar rite--but this time there were some unsettling differences.

Toward the end of the week, Ford went to St. Louis to attend a $1,000-a-couple G.O.P. fund raiser and address some 8,000 members of the National Baptist Convention of America, a black, religiously conservative church with 6.5 million members. While Ford was being interviewed at television station KMOX, a minor drama was unfolding ten blocks away. Inside cavernous Kiel Auditorium, where the President was scheduled to address the Baptists about one hour later, Patrolman Thomas L. Calcaterra spotted a man standing on a catwalk about 40 ft. above the stage --holding what appeared to be a .45-cal. pistol.

Sealed Buildings. Dressed in a short-sleeved shirt, dark pants and a dark tie, and wearing what appeared to be a black wig, the man raced down the catwalk when Calcaterra shouted at him and disappeared into the maze of rooms, corridors and stairways in the upper part of the auditorium. Calcaterra quickly signaled fellow officers on his walkie-talkie, and the Secret Service joined 70 local security officers in sealing off the buildings. In the all-black Baptist gathering, the white man would have stood out, but the influx of dozens of plainclothes white security men preceding the President probably helped him to escape. Ford later addressed the convention without incident. Two bomb threats also were reported in the area but they turned out to be false.

Shirt Discomfort. Earlier in the week, uneasiness also filled the air as the President made a campaign swing through New Hampshire to support Republican Louis C. Wyman in his rerun Senate race against Democrat John A. Durkin. Ford spoke, shook hands, and waved at the large, friendly crowds at 22 political stops on a 118-mile motorcade--all the while wearing a protective vest under his shirt. It probably was a 4 1/2-lb., 3/8-in.-thick model made of Kevlar, a synthetic material that resembles fiber-glass cloth. The White House refused to confirm or deny press reports of the vest, but it was plainly visible across Ford's back just above his shoulder blades. His shirt was stretched tautly across his chest and bunched beneath his tie; at times the President fingered his shirt collar with apparent discomfort, and despite the chilly morning temperatures in the low 60s, he perspired profusely.

The extraordinary caution was taken at the urging of White House officials. Shortly after Fromme had pointed her loaded pistol at Ford, the Secret Service got a call from a manufacturer of "protective clothing." He offered to show some safety products for the President. Though there has never been much enthusiasm for heavy, uncomfortable bulletproof garments among those responsible for presidential security, the Secret Service nonetheless passed them on to the White House before the President left on his New Hampshire campaign trip.

It was understandable that the President should want to get out and test the political waters in a state where he will be a candidate in the Republican primary next year. Ford's all-but-declared challenger, Ronald Reagan, was also in New Hampshire last week stumping for Wyman. Though Reagan is fading in many places, recent polls have shown him edging close to Ford's popularity rating in New Hampshire, and he is expected to announce in November that he will run in its primary next March.

Under Surveillance. Yet some Americans were warily questioning the wisdom of Ford's making such a trip at all; at moments he and Candidate Wyman rode standing up in an open limousine. Beside him was the usual complement of four Secret Service agents, including Agent Larry Buendorf, who had wrested the gun away from Fromme. Other agents were on the perimeter of the presidential entourage. A former prominent Manson family member, Linda Kasabian, was at her home a few miles from Milford, N.H., when Ford stopped there; but the Secret Service and a state police officer kept her under close surveillance throughout the President's stay.

Most of the rest of Ford's week was spent indoors. Friday night he was in Kansas City, Kans., for another fund raiser; on Saturday he flew to Dallas, and amid inevitable reminders of John Kennedy, Ford addressed some 2,000 members of the National Federation of Republican Women and spoke at Southern Methodist University. Then he journeyed to Midland, Texas, where he dedicated the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum and was thanked with a shower of rose petals--a fitting gesture in a week when Congress sustained his veto of an oil decontrol bill.

Ford had decided to take these calculated risks. Though he was not wearing a bulletproof vest in St. Louis, reporters there pressed him on the issue of his security. He declined to comment directly on any specific precautionary measures but went on to say quite forcefully that "it is important for the American people to have an opportunity to see firsthand--close up --their President. I feel you have to balance or weigh the risks as to my own personal security against what is a very important aspect of our political life in America."

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