The Pentagon: A History

by Steve Vogel

  Pentagonians—as employees C. B. Overman, “I Run the World’s Biggest Building,” American Magazine, June 1951; Harry Gabbett, “Gen. Somervell’s ‘Folly’ Proves Itself Despite Jeers of Critics,” WP, 18 Aug. 1954; WP, 8 June 1994; DoD press release, 9 Sept. 1997.

  We weren’t ready to fight

  Louis Johnson Borklund, Men of the Pentagon, 65–88; McCullough, Truman, 741.

  In Omar Bradley’s view Omar N. Bradley and Clay Blair, A General’s Life: An Autobiography by General of the Army Omar N. Bradley, 503.

  Taking the opposite approach Time, 6 June 1949; Millett and Maslowski, For the Common Defense, 504–505; Rearden, The Formative Years, 47–65.

  Poorly trained Brad Smith, author interview, June 2000; Steve Vogel, “Unprepared to Fight,” WP, 19 June 2000.

  The pathetic state Trask and Goldberg, The Department of Defense, 63; McCullough, Truman, 742.

  George C. Marshall had been vacationing Forrest C. Pogue, George C. Marshall: Statesman, 420; Borklund, Men of the Pentagon, 89.

  On September 21 Ibid. 101; Mark A. Stoler, George C. Marshall: Soldier-Statesman of the American Century, 183.

  Marshall went to work Borklund, Men of the Pentagon, 6, 89, 112; WP, 1 Oct. 1950; Trask and Goldberg, The Department of Defense, 63.

  Inside the Pentagon Goldberg, The Pentagon, 165; NYT, 17 Sept. 1950; NYT, 14 Feb. 1954.

  He served America magnificently

  Truman, through an intermediary Truman letter to Somervell, 23 Apr. 1951; Somervell letter to Marshall, undated copy, circa 1951, Somervell letter to Truman, 25 Apr. 1951, all in Somervell papers, MHI; Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 250.

  After his retirement Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 252, 257–9.

  Somervell, belying Somervell letter to Maj. Gen. W. A. Wood, Jr., 2 June 1952, Somervell papers, MHI.

  Somervell did take Matter, author interview; Gabbett, “Gen. Somervell’s ‘Folly’ Proves Itself” Star, 9 Sept. 1951; Maj. Robert B. McBane, “The Pentagon Makes Sense,” Army Information Digest, Jan. 1947, copy in McShain papers, HML; Somervell letter to Marshall McNeil, 16 Jan. 1947, Somervell papers, MHI.

  To an artist Somervell letter to Orland Campbell, 27 Aug. 1954, Somervell papers, MHI.

  Several weeks later Matter, author interview; Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 260; Styer, Somervell obituary, Assembly, October 1955; Delano letter to the editor, New York Herald-Tribune, 16 Feb. 1955; NYT, WP, and Star, 14 Feb. 1955.

  Newspapers were filled WP, 15 Feb. 1955; Memphis Commercial Appeal, Feb. 1955; Sun, 15 Feb. 1955.

  front rank of Allied Shrader, “World War II Logistics.”

  “I would start out” Marshall, oral history with Pogue, 14 Feb. 1957.

  On February 17, 1955 WP, 18 Feb. 1955; WP, 14 Feb. 1955.

  Water flowed like money

  Somervell’s folly had WP, 13 Jan. 1957; The Pentagon: A Description of the World’s Largest Office Building, 1–9.

  “Anyone, from a four-star” Pawel Monat, with John Dille, Spy in the U.S., 91–92.

  It was not just spies Overman, “I Run the World’s Biggest Building” Gabbett, “Gen. Somervell’s ‘Folly’ Proves Itself.”

  Building supervisors Overman, “I Run the World’s Biggest Building” WP, 29 June 1958; WP, 14 Apr. 1959.

  Three months later WP, 3 July, 1959; Star, 3 July, 1959; WP, 4 Aug. 1959. Among the reporters who covered the fire for the Post was Tom Wolfe, then beginning his career as a writer.

  I don’t give a damn what John Paul Jones would have done

  By October 24, 1962 Henry L. Trewhitt, McNamara, 107; Dino A. Brugioni, Eyeball to Eyeball: The Inside Story of the Cuban Missile Crisis, 415, 398; Raymond, Power at the Pentagon, 10–12.

  A private elevator Ibid.; Goldberg, The Pentagon, 144; National Military Command Center System history draft, NMCC, 18 Aug. 1986, OSD HO.

  The reality was strange enough George C. Wilson, “From Strangelovian to Prosaic,” WP, 10 July 1976; Raymond, Power at the Pentagon, 10–12.

  Yet the National Military Brugioni, Eyeball to Eyeball, 399–400.

  “It was a means” Transcript, forum on Fortieth Anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, 18 Oct. 2002, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, www.iop.harvard.edu/pdfs/transcripts/cuban_missile_crisis_10.18.02.pdf, (hereafter fortieth anniversary transcript, Harvard).

  At 9:45 that evening Elie Abel, The Missile Crisis, 154; Brugioni, Eyeball to Eyeball, 384, 416.

  Anderson—at fifty-five Brugioni, Eyeball to Eyeball, 271.

  “Mr. Secretary, the Navy” Roswell L. Gilpatric, oral history interview, 27 May 1970, 60–61, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library; Abel, The Missile Crisis, 154–6; fortieth anniversary transcript, Harvard; Lawrence S. Kaplan, Ronald O. Landa, Edward J. Drea, The McNamara Ascendancy, 1961–1965, 212–13. Anderson later described the incident as less of a confrontation.

  McNamara angrily returned Brugioni, 416.

  Navy destroyers continued Ibid.; Virginian-Pilot, 10 Nov. 2002.

  “Maybe the war” NYT, 14 Oct. 2002.

  CHAPTER 18: THE BATTLE OF THE PENTAGON

  You had to be scared

  Under the cover of darkness “The Anti-Vietnam War Demonstration at Washington, D.C. 21–22 October 1967, After Action Report,” draft, 7 Nov. 1967, 52, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations, box 3, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH (hereafter Army AAR draft); Phil Entrekin, author interview, Apr. 2006; NYT, 22 Nov. 1967; “After Action Report, Operation Cabinet Maker,” 13 Nov. 1967, 14, Headquarters Military District of Washington, box 4, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH (hereafter MDW AAR); Nick Adde, “Solving the Puzzle Palace,” Army Times, 13 Oct. 1986; Allen Woode, “How the Pentagon Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Peace Marchers,” Ramparts, Feb. 1968.

  Inside the green-carpeted Army AAR draft, 37, 79, 62–4; Woode, “How the Pentagon Stopped Worrying.” Woode noted that maps of Vietnam remained up elsewhere in the operations center.

  All day, minute-by-minute Army Operations Center log, 20–21 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH (hereafter Army ops log); Paul J. Scheips, The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders, 1945–1992, 248,255.

  As the first demonstrators Army AAR draft, 52; Office of the Under Secretary of the Army Journal, 21 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH, 5 (hereafter OUSA journal).

  Colonel Ernie Graves felt uneasy Graves, author interviews, 12 Feb. 2004 and 7 Dec. 2005; Scheips, The Role of Federal Military Forces, 249.

  McNamara and Under Secretary Robert McNamara, author interview, 11 Jan. 2006.

  A line of MPs Army AAR draft, 34, 50; MDW AAR, 14.

  A northeast wind George C. Wilson, “Chronology of Pentagon’s Biggest, Strangest Siege,” WP, 23 Oct. 1967.

  McNamara went to McNamara, author’s interview; Reis Kash, e-mail to author, 6 Apr. 2006; Reis Kash, author interview 14 Apr. 2006.

  “Christ, yes,” Paul Hendrickson, “McNamara: Specters of Vietnam,” WP, 10 May 1984; Robert S. McNamara with Brian VanDeMark, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, 305.

  The true and high church

  By October, more than 13,000 Paul Hendrickson, The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War, 334–5; George C. Herring, LBJ and Vietnam: A Different Kind of War, 141; Selected Manpower Statistics, FY 1986, DoD.

  “were going to face” Norman Mailer, The Armies of the Night, 113–4.

  There had been previous Paul Hendrickson, “Daughter of the Flames,” WP, 2 Dec. 1985; Hendrickson, The Living and the Dead, 187–91; McNamara, In Retrospect, 216–217.

  By 1967, protests WP, 16 Feb. 1997; Tom Wells, The War Within: America’s Battle over Vietnam, 122–3.

  The march on the Pentagon Scheips, The Role of Federal Military Forces.

  A healthy dose AP article in Fayetteville Observer, 15 Oct. 1967; Abbie Hoffman, Soon to be a Major Motion Picture, 131–2.

&nb
sp; Not everyone Scheips, The Role of Federal Military Forces, 235; Army AAR draft, 1–2; NYT, 28 July 1967. The speech was delivered at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church.

  “This confrontation” Ibid., foreword.

  This “extraordinary” Herring, LBJ and Vietnam, 142; Scheips, The Role of Federal Military Forces, 248; Seymour M. Hersh, “Files Disclose More Army Snooping Under Johnson,” NYT, 1 Sept. 1972.

  In the days before Army AAR draft, 45–47; Hollis memo, 18 Oct. 1967, box 2, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH; Scheips, The Role of Federal Military Forces, 251, 255, 258; MDW AAR, 14; WP, 20 Oct. 1967; NYT, 22 Nov. 1967; Army ops log, 20–21 Oct. 1967.

  For all the extraordinary McGiffert memo to McNamara, 21 Oct. 1967, box 3, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH.

  The zeal to show MDW AAR, 29; McNamara, In Retrospect, 303; Army AAR draft, 36–38; Col. George M. Bush memo to McGiffert, “Lessons Learned October 20–22 Demonstration,” 26 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH; McGiffert after action evaluation, 26 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH.

  The day before the march “Orientation of Military Commanders by the Chief of Staff Army,” 20 Oct. 1967, box 3, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH; WP, Johnson obituary, 28 Sept. 1983.

  The situation became extremely fluid

  A vast cross-section Scheips, The Role of Federal Military Forces, 255–8; WP, 29 Oct. 1967; Bruce Jackson, “The Battle of the Pentagon” MDW AAR, annex B-1.

  Marching at the front Scheips, The Role of Federal Military Forces, 257; Jackson, “The Battle of the Pentagon” Louis Cassels, “Analysis 10/22,” UPI, 22 Oct. 1967.

  High on spirit Mailer, The Armies of the Night, 106–110, 117.

  The route marked by police Permit issued to demonstrators, MDW AAR, annex E-1; Wells, The War Within, 189; Woode, “How the Pentagon Stopped Worrying” McGiffert, after-action evaluation, 26 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH.

  “No enemy was visible” Mailer, The Armies of the Night, 119.

  Walter Teague Teague, author interview, 19 Jan. 2006; Jim Hoagland, “Protest Leaders Faded at Pentagon,” WP, 23 Oct. 1967; Wells, The War Within, 196; MDW AAR, 14–15.

  It was quickly apparent Ibid., 24; Teague, author interview.

  O’Malley, the operational Army AAR draft, 55.

  From his office OUSA journal, 21 Oct. 1967.

  The crowd at the Mall Army AAR draft, 55–57; OUSA journal, 21 Oct. 1967; letter of instruction to O’Malley, 19 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH.

  The violence was kept MDW AAR, 15; McGiffert, after-action evaluation, CMH.

  At the rope barriers James Reston, “Everyone is a Loser,” NYT, 23 Oct. 1967; Cassels, “Analysis 10/22” MDW AAR, 29, CMH.

  Captain Phil Entrekin Entrekin, author interview.

  Ernie Graves Graves, author interview.

  Out, demons, out!

  Elsewhere, the crowd Marty Jezer, Abbie Hoffman, American Rebel, 118; Hoffman, Soon to be a Major Motion Picture, 134.

  Nearby in the North “Exorcising the Pentagon,” on the Fugs’ official Web site, www.thefugs.com/history_fugs.html; Mailer, The Armies of the Night, 119.

  Hippies danced Jackson, “The Battle of the Pentagon.”

  Some women Frank Naughton, author interview, April 2006; Woode, “How the Pentagon Stopped Worrying” McNamara, In Retrospect, 304; Entrekin, author interview.

  The holy of holies

  The first round of trouble Army AAR draft, 57.

  Frank Naughton Naughton, author interview.

  A platoon of MPs MDW AAR, 15, 23; Army ops journal, 21 Oct. 1967, CMH; WP, 22 Oct. 1967; Jackson, “The Battle of the Pentagon.”

  The protesters who had reached Bill Ayers, author interview, 23 Jan. 2006; Bill Ayers, Fugitive Days, 11.

  Inside, McGiffert Army AAR draft, 57; Wilson, “Chronology of Pentagon’s Biggest, Strangest Siege” MDW AAR, 15, CMH.

  It was not enough Army AAR draft, 59, CMH; Wilson, “Chronology of Pentagon’s Biggest, Strangest Siege” Hoagland, “Protest Leaders Faded at Pentagon” Mailer, The Armies of the Night, 252.

  The “Seventh-Corridor Rush” Army AAR draft, 59; MDW AAR, 16, CMH; Wilson, “Chronology of Pentagon’s Biggest, Strangest Siege” NYT, 22 Oct. 1967; Kash, author interview.

  The Mall plaza remained Ayers, author interview; Wilson, “Chronology of Pentagon’s Biggest, Strangest Siege” OUSA Journal, 21 Oct. 1967, CMH.

  In the operations OUSA journal, 21 Oct. 1967, CMH; Army AAR draft, 59–61, CMH.

  Most protesters Carl Bernstein and Robert G. Kaiser, “2000 Protesters Spend Night at Pentagon—Cold, Hopeful,” WP, 23 Oct. 1967; Mailer, The Armies of the Night, 268; Army ops log, 21 Oct. 1967, CMH.

  Boredom and hunger Mailer, The Armies of the Night, 268.

  Ayers celebrated Ayers, Fugitive Days, 11; Ayers, author interview; MDW investigation, 30 Oct, 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH; NYT, 22 Oct. 1967.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” Graves, author interview.

  Swept away

  As the night wore on Army AAR draft, 61–62, CMH.

  Trouble flared Ibid., 64–5; Jackson, “The Battle of the Pentagon” Mailer, The Armies of the Night, 272–8; Kash, author interview; Wilson, “Chronology of Pentagon’s Biggest, Strangest Siege” NYT, McShane obituary, 24 Dec. 1968; OUSA journal, 21–22 Oct. 1967, CMH.

  By dawn Wilson, “Chronology of Pentagon’s Biggest, Strangest Siege” Army AAR draft, 69–70, CMH.

  Within minutes, crews Ibid., 71; WP, 24 Oct. 1967; Wells, The War Within, 203. The 82nd Airborne brigade, which never left Andrews, flew back to Fort Bragg Sunday afternoon. Ironically, given the Pentagon’s priority on image, some reports incorrectly stated—and many demonstrators believed—that 82nd Airborne paratroopers defended the building. Some accounts have the first marchers arriving at the Pentagon to find it ringed by the bayonet-wielding troops of the 82nd.

  O’Malley was seething OUSA journal, 22 Oct. 1967, CMH; Bush, memo to McGiffert, “Lessons Learned October 20–22 Demonstration,” 26 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH; McGiffert, after-action evaluation, 26 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH.

  The antiwar movement Wells, The War Within, 203.

  A full load

  Robert McNamara was waiting Will Sparks, “Memorandum for the Record Concerning Secretary McNamara’s Departure Ceremony,” 29 Feb. 1968, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, copy courtesy of Paul Hendrickson (hereafter Sparks elevator memo); Hendrickson, The Living and the Dead, 345–6; McNamara, In Retrospect, 380; David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest, 645; OSD memo about elevator malfunction, 1 Mar. 1968, copy courtesy Ed Drea.

  Out on the River terrace Star, 29 Feb. 1969; NYT, 1 Mar. 1968.

  Johnson and McNamara, accompanied Sparks elevator memo; Deborah Shapley, Promise and Power: The Life and Times of Robert McNamara, vii.

  McNamara, as always Sparks elevator memo.

  Waiting outside Star, 29 Feb. 1969; NYT, 29 Feb. 1968.

  Watching McNamara’s Trewhitt, McNamara, 271; Joseph A. Califano, Jr., The Triumph & Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: The White House Years, 249; McNamara, In Retrospect, 313; Shapley, Promise and Power, 415; Clifford, Counsel to the President, 487.

  Inside the Pentagon elevator Sparks elevator memo.

  “At least this didn’t happen” Clifford, Counsel to the President, 487.

  The ordeal was not Time, 8 Mar. 1968; Sparks elevator memo; NYT, 1 Mar. 1968; Hendrickson, “McNamara: Specters of Vietnam” McNamara, In Retrospect, 316.

  McNamara had served Clifford, Counsel to the President, 459–60; Trask and Goldberg, The Department of Defense, 78, 83; Hendrickson, “McNamara: Specters of Vietnam.”

  “God, it was symbolic” Ibid.

  The bastards were going to get it

  Much had happened Ayers, Fugitive
Days, 262–3; Dinitia Smith, “No Regrets for a Love of Explosives,” NYT, 11 Sept. 2001.

  The Weatherman WP, 20 May 1972; Smith, “No Regrets for a Love of Explosives.”

  “The Pentagon was ground zero” Ayers, Fugitive Days, 256.

  A team of three Weathermen Ibid., 259–60; Michael Getler, “The Pentagon: Huge Building Is No Fortress,” WP, 20 May 1972.

  Ayers awaited Ayers, Fugitive Days, 256.

  Rita Campbell and her cleaning ladies Rita Campbell, author interview, 8 Dec. 2005.

  At 12:42 A.M. WP, 19 May 1972; Star, 19 May 1972; Ayers, Fugitive Days, 260–1.

  In her office Campbell, author interview; Adde, “Solving the Puzzle Palace.”

  The explosion had blown WP, 20 May 1972; Star, 19 May 1972.

  Campbell was frantic Campbell, author interview.

  Later that day AP, 19 May 1972; WP, 20 May 1972; Campbell, author interview.

  At his safe house Ayers, Fugitive Days, 257, 262; Ayers, author interview.

  Terrorism had struck Ayers, Fugitive Days, 263; Campbell, author interview.

  Does anyone know what really exists down here?

  Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Alan Renshaw Alan Renshaw, author interview; WP, 20 May 1972; WP, 27 Mar. 1981.

  Clarence Renshaw had gone on Assembly, Mar. 1981; Alan Renshaw, author interview. Clarence Renshaw died in 1980 at the age of seventy-three.

  The Pentagon was aging OSD, “A Status Report to Congress on the Renovation of the Pentagon,” 1 Mar. 1994 OSD HO (hereafter 1994 Pentagon renovation report); Goldberg, The Pentagon, 137.

  The great office bays Gurney, The Pentagon, 117; Walt Freeman, interview with Charles W. Hall, 1992. Dick Groves, living in retirement in an apartment on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, considered it “very stupid to chop it all up, because it screwed up the heating and air-conditioning and all that,” according to his son, Richard Groves. Until his death on July 13, 1970, Groves retained an intense proprietary interest in the Pentagon.