It reminded newsmen of the Roosevelt era, when the President's whereabouts were cloaked for days in a wartime security blackout. White House Secretary Charlie Ross had assured them that Harry Truman was hard at work in his study.
But soon a contingent of Secret Service men slipped out of the White House.
Then the operator reported that Secretary Ross's phone did not answer.
A little later the news ticker chattered out a story from nearby Frederick, Md.
A young marine had just passed through.
He had been picked up along the road by an affable man in a big open car, had chatted with...