Pierre Salinger: JFK, Bio, Gary Powers, Cigars, Oral History, Interview, Quotes (1995)

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Pierre Emil George Salinger (June 14, 1925 – October 16, 2004) was a White House Press Secretary to U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Salinger served as a United States Senator in 1964 and was campaign manager for the Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign. He later became known for his work as an ABC News correspondent, and in particular for his coverage of the American hostage crisis in Iran, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland, and his claims as to the cause of the explosion of TWA flight 800. Salinger was born in San Francisco, California. His father, Herbert Salinger, was a New York City-born mining engineer, and his mother, Jehanne (née Biétry), was a French-born journalist.[2][3][4] His maternal grandfather, Pierre Biétry, was a member of the French National Assembly and devised Yellow socialism.[2] Salinger was raised in his mother's Catholic religion (his father was Jewish).[5] Salinger attended public magnet Lowell High School.[1] He attended San Francisco State University (then College) from 1941 to 1943 where he was managing editor and columnist for the student newspaper, the Golden Gater. He left SF State and entered the United States Navy in July 1943. Salinger was commanding officer of SC 1368 in the Pacific. He distinguished himself during Typhoon "Louise" in Okinawa by making a daring rescue of some men stranded on a reef. For this act he received the Navy and Marine Corps medal.[4] After serving with the United States Navy to Lieutenant, junior grade during World War II, Salinger finished his studies at the University of San Francisco, earning a BS in 1947.[6] Salinger then began his journalism career as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and as a contributing Editor to Collier's in the 1940s and 1950s. Salinger was one of the leading figures in Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign, at times described as being part of Kennedy's Kitchen Cabinet.[7] In 1961, when John F. Kennedy became President of the United States, he hired Salinger as his press secretary. When JFK was assassinated, Salinger was on a plane flying to Tokyo with six Cabinet members, including Secretary of State Dean Rusk.[8] Salinger's visit was to have been for an economic conference, and to start working on a visit JFK was going to take in February 1964 as the first American president to visit Japan since World War II. Salinger was retained by President Lyndon Johnson as Press Secretary after JFK's death. As Kennedy's White House Press Secretary, Salinger was accused of "news management."[9] Following his service in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Salinger returned to California and ran for the Senate. He defeated then California State Controller Alan Cranston in a contentious Democratic Primary. Governor of California Pat Brown, who had supported Cranston in the Primary, appointed Salinger a Democratic United States Senator to fill the vacancy resulting from the July 30, 1964 death of retiring Senator Clair Engle; he took office on August 4, 1964. In his bid for a full six-year term in the 1964 election, he was defeated by former actor (and vaudeville song and dance man) George Murphy following a campaign in which Salinger's only recent return to his native state became an issue, his legal residency even being challenged in court. Salinger was also hurt at the polls by his adamant support (despite advice from his political managers) of legislation banning racial housing discrimination.[10] Salinger's loss made California the sole Democrat-held seat to go Republican in what was otherwise a Democratic landslide. Salinger resigned from the Senate on December 31, 1964, only three days before his term was to expire. Senator-elect 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 of the "class of 1964" at a time when seniority was even more vital in Senate affairs than now. Salinger appeared in a third season episode 111 of Batman, "The Joke's on Catwoman," broadcast on ABC on January 4, 1968. In the episode, Salinger portrays "Lucky Pierre," an unscrupulous lawyer who defends Catwoman and The Joker in a trial. In Salinger's first scene, he is sitting at his desk with a photo of a young Richard Nixon prominently displayed, and in an amusing epilogue, Batman (Adam West) laments Lucky Pierre's fate by saying, "If he hadn't gone so wrong, he might have had a fine career in politics, won a gubernatorial race, and the White House even."[11] He wrote a book, With Kennedy and became vice-president of Continental Airlines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Salinger