My Service with Ten Presidents, from FDR to Bush - A Lecture by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg

John F. Kennedy

While I was serving as the Chancellor here at the University of California at Berkeley, a position that I had accepted with the understanding that I could retain my connection with the Laboratory, continue as the associate director of the Laboratory, and so forth, on one of my visits to the Laboratory, actually on January 9, 1961, after the election of John Kennedy as President, I got a phone call. One of the people came to me wide-eyed and said, "President-elect John F. Kennedy wants to speak to you." I came on the phone with him, and he said that he would like to have me come to Washington to serve as the Chairman of his Atomic Energy Commission. I said, "Oh gee whiz. How long do I have to make up my mind?" He said, "Well, take your time. You don't have to let me know 'til tomorrow morning." Well, that night I went home, and I put the proposition to my wife Helen, and by that time we had six kids, and they rebelled. They said, "We don't want to go to Washington. Why should we? We're already here in California. Why should we move?" It would be necessary to move to Washington in that job. They demanded a vote. I said, "All right. We'll have a vote." They voted seven to one against going, the six kids and my wife Helen. I exercised the prerogative of the head of a democratic household, and I vetoed the vote.

JFK and Seaborg, 1961

I arrived in Washington before the end of the month, the last day of January, 1961. A couple of weeks later, on February 16, 1961, President Kennedy visited us at our headquarters in the suburb of Washington called Germantown. Here he is getting out of the automobile and characteristically taking off his coat, ready to go to work.

Seaborg and JFK at AEC Headquarters, 1961 Dr. Seaborg briefing President Kennedy

We met in my office so that I could brief him on the work of the Atomic Energy Commission. I like to show this picture because I had in front of me here these Lorna Doone cookies which I liked, and we put in front of President Kennedy these chocolate cookies that I didn't care much about. I briefed President Kennedy on the fundamentals of atomic structure and nuclear structure. Here I am briefing him. I must say he was a pretty apt pupil. He seemed to understand pretty well what I was trying to tell him. In fact, he was a much better pupil than some of the other Presidents that I worked for in trying to understand these things.

Cartoon by Herb Stansbury

One time I was in direct contact with President Kennedy (sometimes we met nearly every day); one time he called me, and one of my young sons answered the phone and he got distracted and didn't get around to telling me until some time afterwards. Finally I went to the phone, and there was President Kennedy at the other end of the line patiently waiting for me, and he went on to whatever he had to say.