Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
7339380
label
Pool Report, Airport to Palace
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
7339380
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Pool Report, Airport to Palace
citationUrl
collections
White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
largeImageUrl
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
7339380
levelOfDescription
item
productionDates
day
28
logicalDate
1975-05-28
month
5
year
1975
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
a7f5fe40c04107d2
ocrText
Digitized from Box 11 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
MAY 28, 1975
Pool Report
Airport to Palace
At 8:25, President Ford, in a gray Mercedes Benz,
pulled out of the airport to great trumpets and band music.
There were small knots of people along the roadside on
his way to the King's palace, particularly at the inter-
sections. They didn't seem like very excited crowds.
At one point, we passed two protest signs,
the first one in French, which read, our driver said,
something about "Belgium out of NATO." It was a white
sheet with red printed letters on it.
About a block later, there was a sign in
English that said, "Ford go home." There were some
initials in the corner that said RAL and I didn't
catch the other initials.
It was a very short drive. At 8:45, he arrived
at what they regard as the palace in town, the working
palace, where he has his office. There was a Navy band
outside playing The Star Spangled Banner. They were
taken inside. We didn't see the President when he
actually went upstairs, but we waited outside at the
salon that is lised on the schedule, waiting to take
pictures.
Apparently, at the King's request, one of
the two picture opportunities was canceled. We
did not get pictures of Mrs. Ford and Queen Fabiola
with the leaders. We were kept outside. David Kennerly
was also kept outside until 9:06 when we were taken
into the salon in kind of a roped-off area. President
Ford stood with the King to his right and the Prime
Minister to his left, and Henry Kissinger was also
there.
They seemed relaxed. They chatted back
and forth. There was a bit of laughter. The Prime
Minister was in the same gray suit he was in earlier.
Nobody changed clothes or anything.
We were ushered out of there at 9:16. We
were in there for about five minutes, could not
understand any of the conversation. We waited down-
stairs in the driveway until 10:06 when President
Ford came out after meeting with what looked like a goodly
number of Belgian officials, all of them in business
suits. It took him two minutes to drive just kind of
around the corner to the residence behind the U.S.
Embassy, which is adjacent to the King's park
and the President disappeared inside.
MORE
- 2 -
The security along the route, lots of police
officers at a couple of underpasses. They had rifles
but mostly they seemed to be with sidearms, but there
was not any trouble. They were very relaxed.
The only thing I would add is that some of
you may know that the Prime Minister of Belgium was
once a student of Henry Kissinger at summer classes at
Harvard in 1962. While the King was meeting with the
President, Kissinger and the Prime Minister of Belgium
were reminiscing about their experiences when Kissinger
was his teacher.
Nessen provided the information that the
Fords and the Royal family had met for about 15 minutes,
drinks were served, champagne, orange juice or tomato
juice.
The Ambassador is not staying at the residence.
He is moving to a hotel.
The Fords are staying at the residence and
so are Mr. and Mrs. Rumsfeld, and Nessen can probably
give you any more information on that.
As far as I know, that is the end of the
President's schedule tonight.
Ann Compton, ABC
Dean Fischer, Time
Jim Wieghart, New York News
# # # #