Hart's last speech in 1976

“…In the brief time we’ve been here, Jim (former Michigan Representative James G. O’Hara) and I, we’ve seen some little growth, some improvement but it’s still an awfully white audience out there and it’s a pretty affluent audience. It’s lucky that there are included in those two broad categories people who seek more clearly to understand the needs of the many who are not represented here tonight.

“But 50 years from now I hope the complexion and Dun and Bradstreet ratings and the ages of a group like this would be dramatically changed to reflect more in keeping with what we are as a country…”

“This is the last time for me and I close as I began by thanking all of you for trusting me.”

Senator Philip A. Hart (D-MI)
Last public appearance
September 29, 1976
Washington, DC

Presidential Intelligence

I remember one time when my father visited me at Georgetown. He arranged for us to go to dinner with Janey and the Senator at a restaurant on Calvert Street, which I believed was called the Talleyrand. I not sure of the date but I would guess sometime in early 1966 or late 1965.

At dinner, we got into a fierce debate about President Johnson and Vietnam. The Senator and I both defended the President and said that we believed he should be supported because he had access to better intelligence than was being currently shared with the public. Janey and my dad thought that argument was baloney and said so, they were both adamantly opposed to the war and said that we were being led down a presidential primrose path.

We all know how that turned out even as it echoes to today.

Gerald McGowan
Ambassador to Portugal in the Clinton Administration
Arlington, VA