Memories for the Pentagon historians - Part 1

Since I began this blog in May 2015, I’ve focused on paying tribute to my dad through writings discovered in his files. In so doing I’ve delighted in connecting or reconnecting with family and friends who knew him, as well as many who didn’t. Another reason for this blog: to “file” Harry’s writings in a permanent, searchable space – even writings that may interest few. So, perhaps somewhere out there, someone is wondering how the Early Bird – one of the Pentagon’s bygone signature publications – got its start. Harry may have sent these reflections to a colleague for a 1998 book. (See photos at end of this page.) Here is the first of four pages from his files. Stay tuned in coming weeks for the next three.


Here’s a story I’ve only told to a couple people, and I’m not even sure who any more. How the Early Bird got its name. In 1950 we started the Current News, just two copies – one for the Secretary and one for the Chief of Staff. The Secretary was Finletter, and the Chief was Hoyt Vandenberg. They were both fully occupied with what the press called the B-36 Hearings – really, the Hearings by the Armed Services Committees of the House and the Senate. Basically, it was about the roles and missions of the Armed Services. The Air Force wanted the nuclear bombing mission with the B-36 to carry it out – long range strategic bombing. The Navy wanted it, too, but with aircraft carriers and submarines. Missiles were still on the drawing boards. 

Harry (far left) in his Pentagon office, 1950s

Anyway, the office I had just been hired to work in was being expanded a little – it was called the Special Projects Office which worked directly for the Secretary of the Air Force, and a couple of high-profile Colonels ran it together. Mainly, they wrote speeches for both the Secretary and the Chief of Staff, and they did all kinds of other odd jobs when called on. They also had some high-profile Reservists who came in from time to time to help out. Anyway, I was assigned to brief the Secretary each morning on what the newspapers were saying about the Hearings. Now, the Korean War was just getting started and the whole Pentagon was scrambling to figure out what the U.S. military was gonna do about Korea and we were just starting to send people and equipment to the Pacific to bolster what was already in Japan and on Okinawa. 

Harry got awards in the 1950s and regularly during his career

There was no such thing as a Xerox machine. What I did each day was cut out articles from The Washington Post and the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal and a couple afternoon papers from the day before – the Washington Times Herald and the Washington Daily News. I got several copies of each paper so I could cut out two copies of each article and paste them up in what subsequently became our standard format. If the Colonel wanted a copy, I had to cut out a third copy of each article. Well, what with the Hearings and the war heating up in Korea, the DOD and the Air Force was starting to get more and more coverage in the press and pretty soon it was more than I could handle and still get it to the Secretary and the Chief of Staff early in the morning. 

He often was crowned the “Pentagon Poet Laureate”

So, a couple enlisted people were assigned to help me; one of them was the oldest enlisted woman in the Air Force who had been one of the first women to enlist when WWII started. She was 60 then, which I thought was ancient (I was 29), and the Secretary had to sign a waiver to extend her because 60 was the mandatory retirement age. She was a Master Sgt and her name was Amabel Earley. She stayed for two years and she was great. When she retired she went to live in the distaff retirement home. One of the newspapers, I think the Post but I’m not sure, ran a big story on her when she retired, a glowing story really complimentary, and I remember how mad she was because they called her the oldest enlisted woman in the Air Force. Well, she was the one who put the Current News together for a couple years mostly, and while it was still called the Current News, we began referring to it as Earley’s Sheet, which soon became Earley’s Bird, which eventually became the Early Bird. 

Right from the beginning, I was trying to figure out how to reproduce it. I found the office in the Pentagon that maintained all the drawings and architectural sketches of the building and those things were reproduced on a Photostat machine, which they let me use. The trouble with that was that everything came out of that machine as white on black and some as black on gray, which made them hard to read. But we were able to make four or five copies that way, which was still better than cut and paste.    

It wasn’t until several years later that we put the title Early Bird on it, and I’ll tell you that story another time. 

Copyright 2017, Elaine Blackman 

These snapshots show the 1998 book cover and some of the pages that recount Harry’s work in the Pentagon. When I contacted author Steve Aubin, he commented: “I’d be honored to have parts of my book chapter used to help tell Harry’s Pentagon story. He gave me a file folder of original documents that helped me write that chapter. I thought it was a story and a part of history that needed to be preserved. Participating in a small part of that history when I worked for Harry made a huge impression on me personally and professionally.” (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Radio interview conveys Harry’s diplomatic nature

Harry poses in the Pentagon parking lot for a media story in the 1980s

If you stumbled across this page online, you may wonder what the big deal is about a 1986 National Public Radio interview with a government media chief. If you knew Harry, however, I think you’ll appreciate this discovery for what it’s worth – another piece of the life and legacy of Harry, the insightful communicator. Here’s the transcription from the audio cassette tape of the interview.

Radio Show: “The Other Side of the Story”

  
Lester: This is the Les Kinsolving show, uninhibited radio all around our nation’s capital, WNTR radio, where you can join in by calling …

Today with our special guest, and I’ll introduce him, he’s the Pentagon press monitor for 36 years, who tells it like it is to reporters for 36 years. Ladies and gentlemen, Harry Zubkoff has been the Pentagon’s press monitor; he supervises the clippings of dozens of newspapers and zeroxing all the stories he finds every day that pertain to national defense. Pentagon spokesman Bob Sims agreed with me at noontime today that Harry Zubkoff is a very intelligent, very observant person. He is not ignorant; he is a very decent man. Well Harry told the Washington Times yesterday, Harry told them:

“Reporters aren’t reporters anymore, generally speaking, they’re all commentators; everybody wants to
be a commentator. The passion to get the facts right has been replaced by the urge to be sensational, to be speculative. Objectivity has gone down the drain. If those people out there in the great American republic depend upon their newspapers, their local newspapers, let’s say, without reference to a few national news magazines and a few other news sources, then they’re badly informed. A story about a $600 toilet seat has more impact than any amount of good solid reporting about what’s going on. It really colors our thinking.”

As I mentioned, Pentagon spokesman Bob Sims said that Harry Zubkoff is very intelligent, very decent, and very observant. But, when I asked the spokesman for the Secretary and the Department of Defense if he agrees with Harry about a whole roomful of Pentagon reporters who were sitting there watching and listening today, spokesman Sims, who is a retired Navy captain, took what is known in the U.S. Navy as immediate evasive action – I think that’s the term for it, I was in the Army – he said, “I don’t know what Harry said.” Well, I said, it’s right here in the Times. You can read it, Bob. And I held it right in front of his eyes. So spokesman Sims said, “When I go to the Washington Times for my session with their editors, you’ll know what my views are. Harry is entitled to his own views; he’s qualified to give his own opinion.” So I asked, Bob, Secretary Weinberger wouldn’t think of disciplining Harry for this very interesting candor, would he? Pentagon spokesman Sims replied, and this, too, is a quote: “We believe in candor and free flow of ideas.” And that is all I can say is that that is next best to spokesman Bob Sims agreeing in full view of those seething Pentagon reporters. Ladies and gentlemen, I am honored to have on this air this afternoon, the free flowing candor of Harry Zubkoff himself, the Pentagon press monitor for 36 years.

Harry, welcome to WNTR.

Harry: Thank you, Lester, glad to be with you.

Lester: Harry, give us an encapsulation; tell all of us on the air here about the Early Bird.

Harry: Well, the Early Bird is simply a compilation of clippings taken from the morning papers every day and put together in a small package and distributed to the top people in the Pentagon.

Lester: How many is that?

Harry: Well, throughout the Pentagon, approximately 4,000 copies.

Lester: Isn’t there a supplemental that goes all over the service, all over the country?

Harry: No, no, the supplemental clips, which includes a great deal of material that we don’t have room to put into the Early Bird, is a much more limited distribution, just a few hundred copies. 

Lester: My heavens. You did me the great honor of printing things that I have written from time to time. One of them has to do with that rather fascinating and outrageous case – do you remember the midshipwoman at the Naval Academy who wouldn’t jump?

Harry: Yes, I do.

Lester: Right and I wrote a piece on that. The outrageous, she was a midshipman, they call them midshipmen down there, they haven’t yielded to the neuter movement yet. She was a senior, first classman, every midshipman has to jump, and she wouldn’t jump, or she couldn’t, and they had the whole psychiatric department down there trying to persuade her to jump. And so they separated her as they had done to a number of other midshipmen who couldn’t jump. You have to be able to jump a distance because you might have to jump off a ship. What she did is she went right downtown in Annapolis to the NAACP, and she suggested to them she was being discharged, that is, separated from the Naval Academy because of her race, which was an absolute falsehood. So under that pressure they let her back in. And I wrote about it, and let me say this, Harry, you may put out a limited number but when I went down to Fort Bragg to do a story on the 82nd Airborne, when I went into the PR office, they said, “Are you the same guy who wrote about the midshipwoman that wouldn’t jump?” Now how did it get down to Fort Bragg?

Harry: I have no idea, Lester.

Lester: You mean there’s a fast grapevine in the Armed Services?

Harry: I’m sure there is.

Lester: Harry, let me ask you this. Did you start this system of printing a big selection of news clippings every morning?

Harry: Well, let’s say I was there at the creation.

Lester: You were there at the creation. Now, have you ever put anything in there that has caused a furor?

Harry: Frequently.

Lester: Hahaha. Well what kind of furors? Can you give us an example?

Harry: There are all kinds of examples, Lester. There are stories that embarrass any administration. There are stories that are very critical and that some people would not like to be printed in our Early Bird edition or in any of our editions.

Lester: Even though it’s in a hugely distributed newspaper.

Harry: Of course. And it’s our mission to get our readers’ attention.

Lester: And sometimes there are those who react by wanting to kill the messenger.

Harry: Yes.

Lester: Let me ask this. How is it that you’re still alive, Harry?

Harry: Nine lives.

Lester: Hahaha. Tell me, can you go back and remember what the most ferocious action was when you printed something? Can you give us two or three examples of this?

Harry: No, that’s impossible, Lester.

Lester: Well, you understand why as a newsman I will try to get it out of you.

Harry: You cannot squeeze blood out of a turnip.

Lester: Well, the thing is, I like Bob Sims very much. He’s always been courteous, he doesn’t get nasty. Matter of fact, I think the Pentagon generally speaking has had some very delightful spokesmen that realize that they’re frequently gonna be unable to ask the questions we ask because of security reasons or one reason or another that’s legitimate but understand why we have to pursue, and all we ask is that they come up with something that is amusing, or if they have to evade, at least do it with style and with good humor.

Harry: All of them are very stylish.

Lester: Hahaha. Tell me this. Can you tell us some of the periodicals you draw from, other than the larger ones, like the Washington Post, and the New York Times, the Baltimore Sun, and so forth and so on. How many to you excerpt from?

Harry: We are screening 65 newspapers every day, and some 300 periodicals, including weeklies, biweeklies, monthlies, bimonthlies, quarterlies; a great many, including some daily newsletters.

Lester: Before I knew a great deal about his, I remember writing a piece about this, when I was publisher of Washington Weekly, and we ran a very funny piece about the fact that West Point had put in AstroTurf in Michie Stadium. I cover West Point and Annapolis and Ivy League Football and the rebel rousers, kind of cheerleaders, came to me outraged because this general there who was in charge of the athletic program out there gave orders that the Army mule could no longer run across the field and leave the Army team on the field. I said, well why on earth they would give an order like that? And he said, well because they Army mule might misbehave on the turf. And we checked with the post veterinarian and a mule cannot misbehave while running. [Harry laughs.] And they transferred the veterinarian to Leavenworth, not the prison, but the fort. And they said we’ve also consulted with the University of Texas and the University of Colorado. They have a buffalo and a longhorn steer that are, to put it delicately, they are more dangerous to astro turf and misbehaving than a mere mule. And they still allow them on the astro turf. So I went and asked the general, and he got very angry and very gruff, and brushed me off and so forth. And he didn’t know that we distributed Washington Weekly at the Pentagon. So we got a picture of the Army mule braying, and here’s the general, a very silly looking picture of him, and we headlined it in 60-point heads, General Bans Army Mule From West Point Astro Turf. I’m told that almost every Annapolis officer, graduate at the Pentagon had that posted above his desk. The next week they got apparently four or five-hundred phone calls, and the next week the Army mule was allowed to take one run down the astro turf and they gave me a small decoration. You do publish from all of these different periodicals, and Harry, let me ask one or two other things. You’ve been in 36 years.

Harry: Yes I have.

Lester: Where did you work before you came in to the Pentagon?

Harry: I worked for one year at the Veterans Administration.

Lester: You’re a veteran?

Harry: Yes, I am.

Lester: You mentioned the $600 toilet seat. And that is a point at grave issue because I remember asking President Reagan why he had rewarded the same newspaper with an exclusive interview whose cartoonist Herb Block continues to draw Casper Weinberger with a toilet seat around his neck, which I think is really toilet seat journalism, and it’s really misleading, because it wasn’t a toilet seat for $600, it was a whole system, a whole lavatory system. And the Washington Post knows that, and they also know that it was discovered not by the press, and not by Congress, but it was discovered by the Pentagon’s investigators as I understand it. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Harry: You’re absolutely right.

Lester: And they’ve discovered 90 percent of this stuff.

Harry: Indeed they have.

Lester: And Casper Weinberger has a choice. He can try to cover it up or for the sake of the economy or the sake of the country he could expose it, and whenever he exposes it, it leaks into the hands of those correspondents or others, and then they use it to smear the Pentagon. Is that an accurate assessment of the case?

Harry: Well, let’s say they do not accurately reflect the facts. 

Lester: Hahaha. Harry, you’re a diplomat. I wonder why you didn’t end up the Secretary of State. Harry, are you going to retire anytime soon?

Harry: As a matter of fact, I have retired, Lester.

Lester: You have retired! Hahaha. Well let me ask you this. Reflections on the past. Is that anything on your mind? You’ve made strong statements and I couldn’t agree with them more. Because I’ve noticed that it’s hard to find any news story in the Washington Post that you don’t see editorial content coming out; it’s very hard to see anything even approximating objectivity, and to a certain extent the New York Times, even though the New York Times is more dignified about it. Would you disagree with that?

Harry: Those papers are not alone. There are a great many papers around the country all affected by the same syndrome; that is, they want to do more than report the news.

Lester: Well, here’s the point. I of course speak as a commentator and columnist. We’re full of opinions. But I have been a reporter and I do know the difference between straight news and the editorial page. But as you know, there was a reported discussion between John Oaks, a reporter in the New York Times, and Ed Rosenthal about who had the most influence, and Rosenthal said, “I’ll give you six editorial pages, just give me the news columns.”

Harry: That’s why he’s the editor.

Lester: Harry, what are you gonna do in retirement?

Harry: I’m planning to do some writing, and I expect I will be writing about the media.

Lester: That’s wonderful. What was your impression about the Sidle Commission?

Harry: They did an excellent job. They tried to set up the procedures for including the press, and I think they succeeded. They had a mission to perform, they performed it.

Lester: Harry, if you had a son of military age and he was in the service, the special forces, and he was going on a very high risk combat mission, would you want his mission covered by a pool of reporters, including Sy Hersh of the New York Times, and Janet Cook of the Washington Post, and Lyle Denniston of the Baltimore Sun, who has stated as I mentioned in an earlier commentary today, stated that he will steal any secret he can from the Secretary’s desk?

Harry: Without reference to any individuals, if there is a mission going on like that and my son were on it, no I would not want the press involved, but the press has its job to do, the military has its job to do.

Lester: Did you fault the military from excluding the press from Granada?

Harry: No, I did not. In the immediate launching of that invasion, no, the press was allowed in after a few days.

Lester: Yes, and they screamed bloody murder because they weren’t allowed to go in.

Harry: Well, they have their own mission to perform, and they should be enthusiastic about doing it.

Lester: What’s your reaction to General Maxwell Taylor’s statement that we should never again go into battle accompanied by television cameras?

Harry: I’m not sure how to react to that. The problem is that television cameras are here to stay. How we can exclude them in the future, I think is hopeless.

Lester: Oh, but Harry, where in the Constitution are they guaranteed the right to cover all battle operations? If it were in the Constitution, why do you think that the big media had the good sense not to try to sue the government over Granada?

Harry: That would be a losing battle for them.

Lester: Right, in other words, they do not have the right to cover every combat activity; they do not have the right to fly over our fleet, and when it’s going into a battle situation and take pictures of it. They do not have the right to go in with landings, and when they see a wounded American, to do a close-up of the belly wound and show it in every home in America during dinnertime, do they Harry?

Harry: I can’t comment on what they have a right to do, Lester.

Lester: I just want your opinion. You’ve been a Pentagon press monitor for a long time.

Harry: They have a right to pursue their profession as best they can.

Lester: And isn’t it up to the Secretary of Defense and the Department of Defense to give the ultimate protection to our men who are going into combat, isn’t that a prior need?

Harry: Yes.

Lester: Harry, I could go on with you for hours and hours. I think I was the only reporter who testified to the Sidle Commission who had this kind of opinion, for which I was bitterly denounced by the Los Angeles Times, by the Cable News Network, and three or four others, including one of the panel members, but it was a lot of fun, I had a marvelous time and I appreciate it. Harry, any last thing that you want to get on the air?

Harry: I’m responding to your questions. I recall President Kennedy’s quote, which has always delighted me, when he said that “I’m reading more and enjoying it less.”

Lester: Haha! Harry Zubkoff, good luck to you and please let me know when that book comes out and we’ll certainly deal with it on this air. Harry, will you do me this favor, listen in occasionally and call and give me the benefit of your opinions.

Harry: I’ll do that, Lester.

Lester: That, ladies and gentlemen, was Harry Zubkoff, the Pentagon press monitor for 36 years. Harry Zubkoff, an absolutely delightful man.

Copyright 2017, Elaine Blackman

Harry weighs in on scandals, in letter to old friend

We continue to learn more about Harry’s professional life and relationships through the following letter he wrote in 1997 to a long-time co-worker and journalist. He comments on scandals in the military and a scandal of sorts related to his government publication. And he gives a few updates on his personal life.


10 February 1997
Dear Ben:

By now you must realize that I am the world’s worst correspondent. For some reason I just can’t bring myself to sit down and write letters. I mean to write. I want to write. I keep composing letters in my mind to various friends scattered around the world. I just can’t seem to actually write them. In your case, I’ve been writing mental communiques to you for the past year or so, but today it came to me quite forcibly that time is slipping away and I better stop procrastinating and start writing. So – here goes with a number of things I’ve wanted to tell you.

1.  Of course, I read your article on the sexual harassment problem in the Army when it appeared in the Outlook section of The Washington Post just before Christmas. I wanted to tell you then, and I’m telling you now, that you hit the nail on the head. Since then, I’ve heard that the scuttlebutt around the Pentagon is that they’ve uncovered the tip of the iceberg, and that a lot more is going to be breaking in the next few months – not only in the Army, but in all the services, especially the Navy again. 

My own opinion is that as long as men and women are thrown together in stressful situations, there will be problems; and as long as they are thrown together in non-stressful situations, there will also be problems. There simply is no getting away from it – men and women will get together somehow, no matter what the circumstances are, and more often willingly than not. I don’t see how it can be avoided without complete separation of the sexes in the military, and of course, that’s no longer possible. So, from now on and forevermore, incidents are going to occur and recur, from time to time, just like cheating scandals at the military academies. These things are, in a manner of speaking, inevitable. 

So, the question is, how do you handle them when they arise? Like you said, the last thing we need is another committee to start an investigation. What they need is a top ranking General, three or four stars, to go out and look at the situation and then take some decisive action. Unfortunately, nobody asked me what to do.

2.  Remember Fred Hiatt about whom I wrote a critical piece that you were good enough to publish in the magazine? After he left the Pentagon beat, the Post sent him to Russia; they even gave him some language training and other schooling to prepare him to be a foreign correspondent. (Too bad they don’t give young Pentagon reporters some schooling, too.) Anyway, he’s now back in Washington and occasionally writes a piece for the Op-ed page. Obviously, he has matured into a respectable commentator and has written some very fine and thoughtful articles in recent months. So I wrote him a letter to tell him so, and got a nice response from him. I thought you’d be interested.

3.  Regarding the Current News files that were decimated by Maitre at Boston U., the final resolution of that problem was that the remaining files were shipped down to the Air University archives at Maxwell AFB in Alabama. Dr. Silber paid the freight, which I believe cost somewhere around ten grand. I think I mentioned to you that Dick Kohn, former Air Force historian and now a professor at North Carolina got into the act and helped make those arrangements. 

Meanwhile, Maitre turned out to be...well, as W.C. Fields said when he met Mae West, “There is less here than meets the eye.” You might say that all’s well that ends well, but every time I think of Maitre I get furious all over again.

[Note: Harry was referring to the Current News, a daily publication he managed during his Pentagon career. Other letters in his files show that the Defense Department turned over the Current News archives to a communications director at Boston U., after much research and requests from other organizations to keep the files for scholarly research. It turned out that the Boston U. director later disposed of them, infuriating Harry and others. Certain individuals eventually retrieved the archive.]

4.  I read your review of Colin Powell’s book with considerable interest. I know him, not well, but reasonably well, and there are some things about his book that “give me pause.” You did a masterful job with that review, and some of what you said echoed my own reservations. It should have been printed in the mainstream press, where it could get much wider circulation, but even so, enough Washington insiders saw it so that it made an impression. Have you had any comments?

5.  I celebrated my 75th birthday last June and my 53rd anniversary last August – in fair health. Did I tell you that for the past seven or eight years I have been taking courses at the University of Maryland – one or two each semester? (I’ve also been teaching English there.) Last semester I took a course in the political process for journalists, taught by two people; one is a former Maryland State Senator, a Republican lady, and the other is the former Democratic Governor of Maryland, William Donald Schaeffer. Both were a joy to listen to – fascinating, really. This semester I’m taking a course taught by Hodding Carter: Professional Seminar in Public Affairs Reporting. It should be interesting; certainly, as in all the other courses I’ve taken, I’m bound to learn something. I must say, Ben, the older I get, the more I realize how little I know, or, to put it another way, how little I’ve learned along the way.

Copyright 2016, Elaine Blackman

The media blitz of '86

On Halloween in 1950, Harry walked into the Pentagon to start a career that spanned 36 years. So it's fitting that this Halloween we can see (and hear) his quotes that honored the day he walked out. I remember the excitement when a TV station featured his retirement -- after The Washington Post scooped the story. Now I've discovered that more newspapers ran with the lead. So here's a glance at Harry’s retirement hoopla, which is news to most of his family and friends who follow this blog.

TV news story

On June 3, 1986, “Eyewitness News” interviewed Harry for a segment on WDVM TV in Washington, DC. The clowns in the first scene were his long-time friends who managed a timely surprise! Click here for the video on YouTube. Or you can watch it here (though it may not appear on your mobile device):

Here's the video transcript:

"Early Bird Editor Steps Down"

MAUREEN BUNYAN:  The publisher of one of Washington’s best read dailies and most influential newspapers is stepping down. Harry Zubkoff, editor of the Defense Department’s most popular publication, is calling it quits after nearly four decades. Andrea Roane reports.

ANDREA ROANE:  The atmosphere at the Pentagon is usually much more subdued than this, but an exception was made today for Harry Zubkoff. After 36 years as chief of the Pentagon’s news clipping and analysis service, Zubkoff is retiring. In that position, this man who thinks of himself as just another government clerk served as publisher of the Current News, Early Bird, and other source information for high-level Pentagon officials. In 1950, when Zubkoff started with the Early Bird it was just one or two pages long filled with pertinent news clippings for a half dozen officials. But it has grown substantially over the years.

HARRY ZUBKOFF:  We now clip probably 65 newspapers every day, well over 300 periodicals a month, and we provide literally hundreds of pages of things, clippings, stories, for the people to look at who are in a – are decision makers.

ROANE:  Almost 20,000 people here and abroad read Zubkoff’s Early Bird edition. Defense Secretary Weinberger starts off his day with it. So do the folks in the White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

ZUBKOFF:  What the media are saying about defense policy, strategies, doctrines, programs, weapons acquisitions, everything that they have to take into consideration in the formulation of our national defense policies.

ROANE:  Modestly, Zubkoff believes his stepping down won’t change anything in his department, but his colleagues disagree.

MAN:  Harry is so good. For me he’s a genius, honestly. He’s a tremendous man and very impressive, really very impressive.

ROANE:  Can he be replaced?

WOMAN:  I don’t think so. No. Not in my mind.

ROANE:  In retirement, Zubkoff says he plans to write a book or two. They won’t be the kiss and tell variety about the Defense Department but rather about something he knows very well after 36 years, the media. Andrea Roane, Eyewitness News.


Print news stories

Now for Harry's quotes in three newspapers, with snapshots of seven.

Washington Post, June 1, 1986:  
"Our mission has become incredibly important as the press devotes more and more time and energy to covering national security issues ... ." 

"There are so many things I'm now in the habit of reading that I really cannot relish the prospect of giving them up ... I'll probably wind up spending $1,000 a year on subscriptions." (That explains why he did just that for the rest of his life!) 

"I'm sometimes torn. I often have the feeling that not only I, but almost anybody, could have done a better job than some of the reports I read. I have had the desire to be a commentator -- a columnist or a pundit. I do feel I could add something. But I'm not actively seeking a job and I doubt anyone will invite me. I might write a book, or two, or three. I really have not decided on anything ... I'll be 65 in June. I could stay here forever, probably, but I want to do other things."

Pentagram, June 5, 1986:
"You can always predict what's going to happen ... if you read carefully." 

"The Current News does provide sort of an Inspector General-type 'eye' for the secretary [of defense]. In stories that we pick up, we will call his attention to something that is happening out in the field someplace that may eventually really create a problem. This will often be the first indication that this problem exists. Then, he can call in his staff and say, get me the lowdown on this."  

"There is never a story in any newspaper that is free of errors." 

Army Times, June 16, 1986: 
"I have no doubt, and I've read them all, that the people who cover the Pentagon beat [for the major newspapers] are doing a better job than their counterparts at the White House or the State Department. We have the best reporters in the business."

But the "good information coming out the typewriters" of Pentagon reporters doesn't always show up in the newspapers ... "They don't want to be innovative, to startle their readers, to concentrate a lot of information on subjects that demand it, like military policy and strategy. That might bore their readers, they think. They would rather devote a whole section to style and fashions and gossip and society."

Doubting there will ever be the same kind of consensus toward military operations that existed during World War II, Harry said: "When I was a kid, there were 120 million Americans. Now there are 240 million. It's impossible to obtain more than a modest majority of opinion in favor of anything."

More retirement accolades

Pentagon admirers published a Special Issue of his Current News ...

And created a caricature that featured his reputation as a pilot, poet, and cowboy hat wearer.