Trapped in the Imperial Presidency

By GEORGE J. CHURCH

Even a man who would not be king has to travel like one

A First Family leads the sort of life that no multimillionaire could afford and no monarch can surpass. Who but an American President has a personal fleet of plush turbojet helicopters at his disposal and available on a few minutes' notice? Where reigns the king or dictator with a pool of jet aircraft of various sizes and speeds to accommodate his official needs or personal whims?

--The Flying White House, by J.F. terHorst and Colonel Ralph Albertazzie, 1979

Indeed, the imperial splendor of presidential travel sometimes stuns even Presidents--including Ronald Reagan. Before his summer vacation last year, Reagan demanded that his aides explain why nearly 200 Government employees had to be flown to California to stand by while he rode horses and chopped wood at his ranch. No way to pare the list, the aides replied: wherever he goes, the President must be in instant communication with any part of the world, guarded round the clock and accompanied by an ever growing press corps.

And that was on a trip inside the U.S. On a foreign journey, the presidential panoply goes beyond the merely awesome. Preparations take months. Scarcely had Reagan returned to Washington last week from a five-day "working vacation" in Jamaica and Barbados before a party of presidential aides headed by Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver took off for Europe to lay the groundwork for a Reagan trip in June. En route, Deaver denounced as "ridiculous" estimates that the Caribbean trip had cost the taxpayers $5 million, but gave no figure of his own. The White House does estimate that more than 300 people accompanied Reagan to Jamaica and Barbados, not counting 200 members of the press, who paid their own way. A partial rundown of the staffs duties:

COMMUNICATIONS. Some 100 workers from the White House Communications Agency laid cable throughout Barbados and set up switchboards to handle approximately 50 phones for the President's party; a phone is installed virtually everywhere Reagan pauses even for a few minutes. In the process, says one White House aide, "they basically redid the Barbados phone system" and left it far more sophisticated than before. The aide explains that "it was too expensive to haul a lot of the equipment out," so the gear was simply turned over to the islanders.

TRANSPORTATION. Before the President arrived, three cargo planes hauled to Barbados three armored limousines for his motorcades, four armored cars for the Secret Service, and four Marine helicopters--one for Reagan, one for the press, and two in case the others broke down. There were spare parts, of course, and even two fire engines flown from the U.S. to stand by at the airport as Reagan landed. Air Force One was followed, as always, by a back-up jet and a press plane. On a trip like the one to Barbados, 150 Air Force and other personnel go along to fly, drive, fix and guard Reagan's vehicles.

PROTECTION. Roughly 50 Secret Service agents travel with the First Family, guarding the President and Nancy Reagan in three shifts. Varying numbers of uniformed agents from the Executive

Protection Service, with metal detectors, check people in a gathering who come near the President. When Reagan flew to Cancun in Mexico for the North-South summit conference last October, a ship full of Marines stood by beyond the horizon in case he might need rescue. On the Barbados trip, as ever, the President was accompanied by two doctors and four other medical personnel, while a fully equipped hospital ship floated offshore.

MISCELLANEOUS. The press contingent on a Reagan trip keeps White House aides busy for weeks arranging hotel rooms, motorcade cars, and a phone system separate from the President's. Two White House photographers go on every trip, three when Nancy Reagan is along; on the trip to Barbados, they were accompanied by five technicians carrying portable labs to develop color pictures for the convenience of the press. The President flies with two stewards, who prepare his meals. On foreign trips all the President's food, except that consumed at state functions -- and even his water -- is hauled from Washington. Somewhat surprisingly, Reagan's own staff -- Government officials, White House aides, stenographers -- is one of the smallest contingents in the presidential entourage, numbering around 30.

Reagan's style is not much grander than that of most recent Chief Executives, and some of the elephantiasis is not his doing. The press corps traveling with the President has about doubled in size in the past 20 years. Security has been beefed up under Reagan: the men with metal detectors are new, and the Reagan White House ordered armored cars, which the Carter Administration declined to buy. Some White House aides believe security has become excessive, but after the attempt on Reagan's life, no one is about to propose a cutback. Aides see little room for economy. In the President's personal party, grumbles one, "there are too many strap hangers. They all want to go because of the prestige and perks." But leaving a few in Washington would save only paltry sums.

Nonetheless, the Barbados party was about three times the size of the 110-person entourage that the leader of the other superpower, Leonid Brezhnev, took to Bonn last November. Leaders of other important countries make do with even less pomp. The standard for official modesty might belong to President Sandro Pertini of Italy, who, to be sure, fills a largely ceremonial office. When he came to Washington on a state visit last month, he took a chartered Alitalia jet and brought along a retinue of only 15. -- By George J. Church.

Reported by Douglas Brew/Washington

With reporting by Douglas Brew/Washington

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