Lyndon B. Johnson
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LBJ presents Robert J. Oppenheimer with the Enrico Fermi Award |
Here, after the assassination of President Kennedy and when Lyndon Johnson took over, he agreed to give the Fermi Award to Robert Oppenheimer. Here we have a picture of him giving that $50,000 Fermi Award to Robert Oppenheimer. Here's his wife, Kitty, and Lady Bird Johnson, and here's my wife Helen.
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LBJ and Dr. Seaborg, "chewing the fat" |
I had a very good relationship with Lyndon Johnson. This photo is one occasion when he called me and my secretary said, "The President would like to see you." I went to his office and I just spent the whole afternoon there with him, just chewing the fat. The President of the United States gets lonesome sometimes. He just sort of liked me and wanted to spend some time with a friend.
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Cartoon by Herb Stansbury |
On my visits to the Pedernales Ranch in Texas, where I would go in order to dispute items in the budget for the AEC when I had a disagreement with the director of the Bureau of the Budget, we would fly down to Texas and I would argue with the director of the Bureau saying, "You know, I need the money." and he said, "No, we can't afford it," and so forth. Well, I won every one of those arguments, so you can see I thought he was a pretty good President. On one of those occasions we were driving around, and some of the quail had gotten out of one of their fenced-in areas, and the President got out and chased them back in. I told him I thought that was some of the most high-priced quail chasing that I'd known of. He was quite tickled by my remark.
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Cartoon by Herb Stansbury |
One time I was swimming in the swimming pool of the University Club when an excited attendant came up and said, "The President wants you on the phone." So I went right to the phone. I didn't have time to even grab a towel because I knew whatever he wanted, I'd have to react right away. He came up with some kind of proposal that I knew wouldn't be feasible, but if I didn't talk him out of it right then I'd be in trouble. I'd have to carry it out. So I managed to talk him out of it and got out of that dilemma; then of course I could go on back and continue my swim.
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On August 1, 1966, there was an occasion at the White House where I brought all of our six children and introduced them to the President; and here he is with my wife, Helen, and my daughter Dianne. He was just very charming. He just leaned over and said, "Hello, honeybun," and so forth. And my son Eric, who by the way is 6 ft 5 inches tall now, and my son Steve, my son Dave, who may be here today. He didn't get out of the way, so my daughter Lynne didn't get such a good picture. And my son Peter.
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Dr. Seaborg and Vice President Humphrey, 1967 |
I also knew Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, and here I am, March 1967, when I was introducing him at a banquet on the occasion of the Science Talent Search. I served for 30 years as Chairman of Science Service, the organization that put on the Science Talent Search each year.
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Dr. Seaborg and Lady Bird Johnson, 1988 |
I've met Lady Bird Johnson on a number of occasions. Here's an occasion when she spoke in San Francisco at the Commonwealth Club in 1988.