Pierre Salinger | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Salinger in 1961 | |
| United States Senator fromCalifornia | |
| In office August 4, 1964 – December 31, 1964 | |
| Appointed by | Pat Brown |
| Preceded by | Clair Engle |
| Succeeded by | George Murphy |
| 9thWhite House Press Secretary | |
| In office January 20, 1961 – March 19, 1964 | |
| President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | James Hagerty |
| Succeeded by | George Reedy |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Pierre Emil George Salinger (1925-06-14)June 14, 1925 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Died | October 16, 2004(2004-10-16) (aged 79) Cavaillon, France |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses | |
| Education | San Francisco State University University of San Francisco (BS) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Navy |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Pierre Emil George Salinger (June 14, 1925 – October 16, 2004) was an American journalist, author and politician. He served as the ninthpress secretary for United States presidentsJohn F. Kennedy andLyndon B. Johnson. Salinger served as aUnited States Senator in 1964 and ascampaign manager for the 1968Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign.
After leaving politics, Salinger became known for his work as anABC News correspondent, particularly for his coverage of the 1979-81Iran Hostage Crisis; the 1988 bombing ofPan Am Flight 103 overLockerbie,Scotland; and his claims of a missile being the cause of the explosion ofTWA Flight 800 in 1996.
Salinger was born in San Francisco, California. His father, Herbert Salinger, was a New York City-bornmining engineer, and his mother, Jehanne (née Biétry), was a French-born journalist.[1][2][3] Salinger's mother wasCatholic and his father was Jewish.[1]
His maternal grandfather wasPierre Biétry, a member of theFrench National Assembly, who became known for his "vigorous" defense of Capt.Alfred Dreyfus, who waswrongly convicted of treason in 1894.[1] Biétry died in Indochina at the age of 39.[1]
Salinger was considered a child prodigy in music who played on agrand piano even before he learned to read.[3] After his family moved to Canada, his parents discovered his innate talent at the piano and he was enrolled into theToronto Conservatory of Music, where he was groomed to become a concert pianist.[3] He recalled, "Each weekday, a tutor came to the house for three hours of academic instruction, and when she left, I was 'free' to practice the piano for four or five hours."[1]
He gave his first public concert when he was six and was considered a concert pianist.[4] He continued studying piano after they returned to San Francisco and was able play scores by Bach, Debussy, Beethoven andGeorge Gershwin, whom he once met.[1]
When he was 12, Salinger's mother told him his full-time piano studies were isolating him from society. She suggested he spend a year away from piano to engage in other social activities, including sports. He did, but never returned to his original goal of becoming a pianist and instead wanted to become a writer or journalist.[4]
His talent and love of music carried over into his career as press secretary when, at the behest of First LadyJacqueline Kennedy,[5][a] he would invite musicians such asPablo Casals andIgor Stravinsky to the White House.[3] PresidentLyndon B. Johnson once had Salinger perform on the piano for 600 of his guests.[1]: 161 "IfJackie Kennedy was the one who thought maybe America was ready for a higher culture, her ally in it or her agent was Pierre", saidRichard Reeves, author ofPresident Kennedy: Profile of Power (1993).[3]
Salinger attended public magnetLowell High School in San Francisco.[7] He attendedSan Francisco State University (then College) from 1941 to 1943, during which time he became managing editor and columnist for the student newspaper.[1]
Salinger left SF State to enlist in the United States Navy in July 1943 and became skipper of a submarine chaser off Okinawa duringWorld War II.[3] He distinguished himself duringTyphoon Louise by making a daring rescue of some men stranded on a reef. For this act, he received the Navy and Marine Corps medal.[3]
After serving with theUnited States Navy to the rank ofLieutenant, junior grade duringWorld War II, he finished his studies at theUniversity of San Francisco, earning a BS in 1947.[8]
He began his journalism career as "Lucky Pierre", a horse racing columnist and later reporter for theSan Francisco Chronicle and as a contributing editor toCollier's in the 1940s and 1950s.[3] He was a guest lecturer in journalism atMills College from 1950 to 1955.[9]
After Salinger researched and wrote a number of articles in 1956 about labor union leaderJimmy Hoffa,Robert F. Kennedy hired him to be legal counsel for the Senate Select Committee investigating organized crime. Later, Kennedy wanted him to be press secretary to his brother,John F. Kennedy, who was then a member of the Senate.[3]
Salinger worked on John Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1960 and became one of its leading figures. He was at times described as being part of Kennedy'sKitchen Cabinet of unofficial advisers.[10] After Kennedy was elected in 1961, he hired Salinger as hispress secretary. When Kennedy became the first president to allow live television broadcasts of his news conferences, Salinger was said to have managed the press corps with "wit, enthusiasm and considerable disdain for detail",[3] which made him a "celebrity in his own right".[3]
He accompanied Kennedy to conferences with other world leaders, including the 1961 meeting with Soviet PremierNikita Khrushchev in Vienna.[3] When an aide to Khrushchev invited Salinger toMoscow, Kennedy assented to his going.[3] Kennedy, however, had to explain to the press corps why he was sending a young and inexperienced Salinger to theSoviet Union.[11]
In May 1962, Salinger went to Moscow alone to meet with the press. Upon his arrival, he was unexpectedly invited to spend time with Khrushchev at hisdacha outside the city.[4] They shared meals and took long hikes along country roads as they discussed politics and world events, such as the Berlin crisis. Salinger spent 16 hours over two days with Khrushchev. After their first day together, Khrushchev said, "I have had such a good time today, I think I will do it again tomorrow."[1]: 149 [4]
In October 1962, Salinger briefed the press about what had been learned about Soviet missiles being stationed in Cuba.[12] He later said that Kennedy's actions during that crisis were among the most incredible things a president had ever done in the 20th century and noted how close the countries had come to nuclear war.[13]
At the time ofPresident Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, Salinger was on a plane toTokyo with six Cabinet members, including Secretary of StateDean Rusk.[14] Salinger was to attend an economic conference and start working on a February 1964 visit by Kennedy as the first United States president to visit Japan since the end ofWorld War II.
Salinger was retained by PresidentLyndon B. Johnson as press secretary. Johnson said, "I don't have to tell you that Mr. Salinger was John F. Kennedy's press secretary ... and I don't know what I would have done without him, night and day, over this past month."[1]: 161 At one point in his career, Salinger briefly considered running for president, as he described in an interview about hisMemoir in 1995.[4]
Salinger published a biography of the president,With Kennedy, in 1966.[15]
Following his service in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Salinger returned to California and ran for the Senate. He defeatedCalifornia State ControllerAlan Cranston in a contentious Democratic primary.California GovernorPat Brown, who had supported Cranston, appointed Salinger aDemocratic senator to fill the vacancy resulting from the July 30, 1964, death of retiring SenatorClair Engle; he took office on August 4, 1964. In his bid for a full six-year term in the 1964 election, Salinger was defeated by former actor and vaudeville song and dance manGeorge Murphy following a campaign in which Salinger's recent return to his native state became an issue and his legal residency was being challenged in court. He was also hurt by his adamant support, despite advice from his political managers, of legislation banning racialhousing discrimination.[16] Salinger's loss made California the sole Democratic-held seat to go Republican in what was otherwise aDemocratic landslide.
Salinger resigned from the Senate on December 31, 1964, three days before his term was to expire. Murphy, who was to take office on January 3, 1965, was appointed to fill the remaining two days of Salinger's term, giving Murphy a slight advantage in seniority in the Senate over other members elected in 1964 when seniority was more vital in Senate affairs than now.[citation needed]
Salinger went on to work in theprivate sector, which included a stint as a vice president ofContinental Airlines.[15]
Salinger appeared in the January 4, 1968, episode of theABC Television seriesBatman portraying "Lucky Pierre," a lawyer who defendsCatwoman and theJoker in a trial.[17] As a joke on the real Salinger's political career, "Lucky Pierre" is introduced with a photograph ofRichard Nixon on his desk.
Salinger was one of the managers of United States SenatorRobert F. Kennedy's1968 presidential campaign and was standing 10 to 12 feet away when Kennedywas fatally shot in the kitchen of theAmbassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California on June 5 (he died the next day). Salinger claimed that Jim McManus, who was also working on the campaign, said to him, "I've got to get the message to Los Angeles, under no circumstances should Bobby go through that kitchen ... there's usually grease on the floor. He's going to fall or something."
Salinger, devastated by the assassination, moved to France and was a correspondent for the weekly news magazineL'Express.[7]
Later in 1968, he became director of Great America Management and Research Company (GRAMCO), a mutual investment fund in US real estate aimed at foreigners.[15]
In 1978, Salinger took overRadio Caraïbes International with his friend, the French advertising pioneerJacques Dauphin.[18]
In 1976,ABC Sports employed Salinger as a features commentator for the network's coverage of theOlympic Winter Games inInnsbruck,Austria, and theSummer Games in Montreal,Quebec.[3] In 1978, he was hired byABC News as its Paris bureau chief. He became the network's chief European correspondent based in London in 1983 whenPeter Jennings moved to New York to become sole anchor ofABC World News Tonight after the death ofFrank Reynolds.[3]
In 1981, Salinger was bestowed with aGeorge Polk award for his scoop that the US government was secretly negotiating to free Americans held hostage byIran.[3][19]
Salinger provided commentary on the1989 Tour de France for ABC Sports.
In the 1980s, he was well known as a member of Amiic (World Real Estate Investment Organization, Geneva), withFrançois Spoerry,Paul-Loup Sulitzer andJean-Pierre Thiollet. The organization was dissolved in 1997.[20]
In a November 1989 report for ABC'sPrime Time Live, Salinger claimed that Iran had paidSyria andAhmed Jibril, the head of thePopular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), to carry out thePan Am 103 bombing.[21]
After the August 1990Iraq invasion of Kuwait, ABC started work on a special program about the invasion. The network sent Salinger to the Middle East, where he obtained a transcript inArabic of a conversation betweenSaddam Hussein and the US Ambassador toIraq,April Glaspie. The ambassador told Saddam, "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts", which was interpreted by some as giving Saddam the green light to invadeKuwait, which he did only days later.[22]
Three months after the explosion ofTWA Flight 800, Salinger claimed to have received a document verifyingconspiracy theories about the flight that it had been shot down byfriendly fire, and that this had been covered up by the United States government. He claimed that an intelligence agent had sent him the document. What Salinger was touting was, in fact, a hoax document that had been circulating the internet for weeks prior, and which had been emailed to him by a former airline pilot. By lending his distinction and credibility to these conspiracy theories, Salinger helped to bolster them.[23][24]
The termPierre Salinger syndrome was coined in the years after this. This is apejorative term describing someone possessing the belief that everything on the internet is factual.[23][25][24]
After leaving ABC in 1993, Salinger moved back to Washington and became an executive withBurson-Marsteller, a public relations firm.
In November 2000, he became exasperated when he was denied permission to give exonerating evidence as part of his testimony before theScottish Court in the Netherlands trying two Libyans for the December 21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am 103 overLockerbie, Scotland. Salinger stated that he knew who the real bombers were, but was told by trial judgeRanald Sutherland, Lord Sutherland, "If you wish to make a point you may do so elsewhere, but I'm afraid you may not do so in this court."[26]
During the2000 United States presidential election, Salinger said that he would permanently move to France ifGeorge W. Bush won, and fulfilled this promise after Bush's victory.[27] He died from heart failure at the age of 79 on October 16, 2004, at a hospital inCavaillon, near his home, La Bastide Rose, inLe Thor.[28] He is interred inArlington National Cemetery.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | White House Press Secretary 1961–1964 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | United States Senator (Class 1) from California 1964 Served alongside:Thomas Kuchel | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator from California (Class 1) 1964 | Succeeded by |
| Class 1 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 3 | ||
