I called the President, explained the situation,...
- Posted at 9:43 AM on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by jiangxuedong999
I called the President, explained the situation, and demanded that someone be given authority to keep the Cubans on the baseI was afraid people in the area were going to start shooting themThere had been a run on handguns and rifles in every gun store within fifty miles of Chaffee
The next day I again spoke to the President, who said that he was sending more troops and that they would maintain order and keep the Cubans inside the baseGene Eidenberg told me that the Justice Department was sending the Pentagon a letter saying the military had the legal authority to do soBy the end of the day, I was able to relax a little and to ponder the primary election, in which my only opponent, the old turkey farmer Monroe Schwarzlose, got 31 percent of the vote, thirty times the vote he had received in the 1978 primaryThe rural folks were sending me a message about the car tagsI hoped they had gotten it out of their system, but they hadnt
On the night of June 1, all hell broke miu miu bags looseOne thousand Cubans ran out of the fort, right past federal troops, and onto Highway 22, where they began walking toward BarlingOnce again, the troops didnt lift a finger to stop themThe only barrier between the Cubans and several hundred angry and armed Arkansans was composed of state troopers under the command of Captain Deloin Causey, a dedicated and coolheaded leader; the National Guardsmen; and Sheriff Bill Cauthrons deputiesI had given Causey and the National Guard strict instructions not to let the Cubans passI knew what would happen if they did: a bloodbath that would make the Little Rock Central High crisis look like a Sunday afternoon picnicThe Cubans kept coming at our people and began throwing rocksFinally, Causey told the state police to fire shots over their headsOnly then did they turn around and go back to the fortWhen the smoke cleared, sixty-two people had been injured, five of them from the shotgun blasts, and three of Fort Chaffees buildings multicolor louis vuitton bags had been destroyedBut no one was killed or hurt too badly
I flew up to Chaffee as soon as I could to meet with General DrummondWe had a real shouting matchI was outraged that his troops hadnt stopped the Cubans after the White House had assured me the Pentagon had received Justice Department approval to do soThe general didnt flinchHe told me he took his orders from a two-star general in San Antonio, Texas, and no matter what the White House had said to me, his orders hadnt changedDrummond was a real straight shooter; he was obviously telling the truthI called Gene Eidenberg, told him what Drummond had said, and demanded an explanationInstead I got a lectureEidenberg said hed been told I was overreacting and grandstanding after my disappointing primary showingIt was obvious that Gene, whom I considered a friend, didnt understand the situation, or me, as well as I had thought he did
I was fit to be tiedI told him that since he obviously didnt have confidence in my cartier ladies santos series replica watches judgment, he could make the next decision: You can either come down here and fix this right now, tonight, or Im going to shut the fort downIll put National Guardsmen at every entrance and no one will go in or out without my approval
He was incredulousYou cant do that, he saidIts a federal facility
That may be, I shot back, but its on a state road and I control it
Eidenberg flew to Fort Smith on an air force plane that nightI picked him up, and before we went to the fort I took him on a tour of BarlingIt was well after midnight, but down every street we drove, at every house, armed residents were on alert, sitting on their lawns, on their porches, and, in one case, on the roofIll never forget one lady, who looked to be in her seventies, sitting stoically in her lawn chair with her shotgun across her lapEidenberg was shocked by what he sawAfter we finished the tour he looked at me and said, I had no idea
After the tour, we met with General Drummond and other chanel knockoff federal, state, and local officials for an hour or soThen we talked to the horde of press people who had gatheredEidenberg promised that the security problem would be fixedLater that day, June 2, the White House said the Pentagon had received clear instructions to maintain order and keep the Cubans on the basePresident Carter also acknowledged that the people of Arkansas had suffered needless anxiety and promised that no more Cubans would be sent to Fort Chaffee
Delays with the screening process seemed to be the root cause of the turmoil, and the people doing the screening made an effort to speed it upWhen I went to visit the fort not long afterward, the situation was calmer and everyone seemed to be in a better frame of mind
While things seemed to be settling down, I was still troubled by what had happened, or hadnt, between May 28, when Eidenberg told me the army had been ordered to keep the Cubans from leaving Chaf-fee, and June 1, when they let one thousand of them mens cartier watches roadster es
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