A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan

was heading toward the Roosevelt Room to see if the family was ready, because one of his duties was to supervise such ceremonies. He had known Vann slightly and liked him. They warned Scowcroft what was happening and then one of them brought out John Allen to relate what Jesse intended.
    “That’s impossible,” Scowcroft said.
    “We really don’t know how to stop him,” John Allen said. “He’s determined to do it.”
    Scowcroft walked into the Oval Office, gave the president the briefest possible explanation of what was occurring, and said there would be a slight delay while he handled the problem. A career staff officer, Scowcroft was known for his businesslike approach to crises large and small.
    He went into the Roosevelt Room and drew Jesse aside from the group that was haranguing him. Scowcroft spoke to Jesse in a calm voice.
    “Listen,” he said, “whatever you think about the war and whatever you want to do about it, this ceremony is to honor your father. There is no way you can do this and not ruin the ceremony. Unless you promise us you won’t give your draft card to the president, unless you promise us you won’t do this, we’ll have to cancel the ceremony.”
    Jesse had already begun to weaken under his mother’s continued pleading and because his Uncle Frank, in contrast to the others, had quieted down and tried to reason with him in similar fashion. The calm tone of this man made a further impression on him. He decided that he might be exploiting for his own ends a situation in which he was present only because of his father. He might not have a moral right to do that. Since he couldn’t act with a clean conscience, he wouldn’t act at all. Anyway, he wasn’t being given much choice. “Okay, okay,” he said to Scowcroft, “I promise not to do it.”
    Scowcroft squeezed Jesse’s forearm and gave him one of those “Good boy!” looks. He turned to John Allen. “Will he or won’t he?” Scowcroft asked.
    “If he says he won’t do it, he won’t do it,” John Allen answered.Scowcroft returned to the Oval Office and told the president that the ceremony could go forward.
    John Allen escorted his mother into the Oval Office, followed by his brothers and his aunt and two uncles. As the family entered, the president was sitting at his desk, which had been cleared of work except for a single looseleaf folder he had been reading. He closed the folder, rose, walked around the desk, and met them halfway into the room. The cleared desk, the last bit of work put aside to give full attention, the rising and the meeting halfway were Richard Nixon’s ritual for greeting visitors to the president’s office. He expressed his sympathy to Mary Jane and John Allen and then shook hands with each in turn. Tommy overheard Nixon say “Thanks” to Jesse when the president shook his hand. Jesse was so disturbed by the sensation of actually touching the hand of Richard Nixon that he did not hear this word of presidential gratitude. He noticed only that Nixon had a large hand.
    Rogers and Laird followed them into the president’s office. Mary Jane was surprised to see Alsop with them and wondered, because she did not understand Alsop’s position in the Washington constellation, why a newspaper columnist was being treated like family. Knowing of Alsop’s affection for Vann, Nixon had invited him to join the ceremony ahead of the ordinary press and to hear Nixon’s private remarks to the family.
    The White House photographer lined up everyone except Alsop for the official photograph. He arranged them in a semicircle in front of the drapes of the bay windows behind the desk where the Stars and Stripes and the presidential flag rested on poles topped by gilded eagles. The president stood between John Allen and Mary Jane. At the moment the photographer pressed the shutter button, he smiled slightly, but he looked a bit queasy in the subsequent photograph.
    After the official photograph had been taken, the