- Pierre Salinger
Infobox Senator | name=Pierre Emil George Salinger
nationality=American
jr/sr=United States Senator
state=California
party=Democratic
term_start=August 4 ,1964
term_end=December 31 ,1964
preceded=Clair Engle
succeeded=George Murphy
date of birth=June 14 ,1925
place of birth=San Francisco, California
dead=dead
date of death=October 16 ,2004 (aged 79)
place of death=Cavaillon ,France
spouse=Rachel Wilson Young
alma mater=University of San Francisco
religion=Roman Catholic Pierre Emil George Salinger (
June 14 ,1925 –October 16 ,2004 ) was aWhite House Press Secretary to U.S. PresidentsJohn F. Kennedy andLyndon B. Johnson . He served in theUnited States Senate as a Democrat from California briefly in 1964. He later became known for his work as anABC News correspondent, and in particular for his stories on the American hostage crisis in Iran, the bombing ofPan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland, and his claims as to the cause of the explosion ofTWA flight 800 .Salinger served briefly as a Democratic United States Senator in 1964 and was
campaign manager for the Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign.Early life
Salinger was born in
San Francisco, California , his father a GermanJewish mining engineer and his mother a FrenchCatholic journalist. His maternal grandfather was a member of the French National Assembly. After serving with theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II , Salinger graduated from theUniversity of San Francisco . Salinger then began his journalism career as a reporter for the "San Francisco Chronicle " and as a contributing Editor to "Collier's " in the 1940s and 1950s.1960s: The Kennedy Years
In 1961, when
John F. Kennedy becamePresident of the United States , he hired Salinger as his press secretary. When JFK was assassinated, Salinger was on a plane flying with six Cabinet members, including Secretary of StateDean Rusk , going to Tokyo. Salinger's visit was to have been for an economic conference, and to start working on a visit JFK was going to take in February 1964 as the first American president to visitJapan sinceWorld War II . Salinger was retained by President Lyndon Johnson as Press Secretary after JFK's death.Following his service in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Salinger returned to California and ran for the Senate. He defeated then State Comptroller
Alan Cranston in the Democratic Primary and was appointed as a Democratic United States Senator to fill the vacancy resulting from theJuly 30 ,1964 death of retiring SenatorClair Engle , taking office onAugust 4 ,1964 . In his bid for a full six-year term in the 1964 election, he was defeated byGeorge Murphy following a campaign in which Salinger's only recent move to California became an issue. He resigned from the Senate onDecember 31 ,1964 , only three days before his term was to expire. Senator-elect Murphy, who was to take office onJanuary 3 ,1965 , was appointed to fill the remaining two days of Salinger's term, giving Murphy a slight advantage in seniority in the Senate over other members of the "class of 1964" at a time when seniority was even more vital in Senate affairs than it is currently.Salinger was later
Robert F. Kennedy 's 1968 presidential campaign manager. When RFK was assassinated during the campaign, Salinger was 10 to 12 feet away from him when he was shot. Salinger claims that Jim McManus, who was also working on the campaign, said to him, "I've got to get the message to Los Angeles, under no circumstances should Bobby go through that kitchen...there's usually grease on the floor. He's going to fall or something." Salinger was devastated by RFK'sassassination and moved toFrance as a correspondent for "L'Express". [ [http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1277 P.S., A Memoir] November 12, 1995 ]Career in broadcast journalism
ABC
In 1978, he was hired by
ABC News as itsParis bureau chief. He became the network's chief European correspondent based inLondon in 1983.In 1981, he was bestowed with a
George Polk award for his scoop that the US government was secretly negotiating to free the Americans held hostage byIran . [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3750380.stm JFK's press secretary dies at 79] 17 October, 2004]In 1991, two Libyans were indicted over the bombing of
Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, but Salinger believed Libya had been set up. In a 1989 ABC "Prime Time Live " Special, he and his producer,Lex Coleman named the so-called "Kenya n Three" as the masterminds of the bombing. The program won anEmmy Award . [ [http://www.cnn.com/US/9703/13/twa CNN on Salinger and TWA Salinger 'totally sure' TWA 800 missile theory is true] March 13, 1997]After the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait by
Iraq , ABC started work on a special program about the invasion and sent Salinger to theMiddle East , where he obtained a transcript in Arabic of a conversation betweenSaddam Hussein and U.S.Ambassador to IraqApril Glaspie , in which Glaspie famously told Saddam: "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts," interpreted by some as giving Saddam the green light to invade Kuwait, which he did days later. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1329907,00.html Pierre Salinger] October 18, 2004]Life after ABC
After leaving ABC, Salinger moved back to
Washington, D.C. , and became an executive with the Burson Marsteller public relations firm before returning toFrance in 2000. Until the late 80s, Salinger had been a popular TV pundit in France, and was a frequent guest on French news and public affairs shows when someone was needed to explain or interpret American events for French viewers. Salinger even hosted a program for the cable network A&E in the early 1990s called "Dining in France ".Salinger later became known for his claims in November 1996 that
friendly fire from theUnited States Navy was the cause of theTWA Flight 800 crash, based on what was later explained to him as being part of a widespread Internethoax . Salinger's fervent initial belief in this information has led to the coining of a new term, which refers to the belief in the veracity of all information found on the Internet: "Pierre Salinger Syndrome". [ [http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/12/twa.conspiracy/index.html 'Pierre Salinger Syndrome' and the TWA 800 conspiracies] July 17, 2006]In November 2000, he became exasperated when he was denied permission to give exonerating evidence as part of his testimony before the
Scottish Court in the Netherlands to try twoLibya ns for the downing onDecember 21 ,1988 , ofPan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Salinger stated that he knew who the real bombers were, but was told by trialjudge , Lord Sutherland: "If you wish to make a point you may do so elsewhere, but I'm afraid you may not do so in this court." [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/1033601.stm Lockerbie trial adjourns] 21 November, 2000]He later made a permanent move to France, making good on his promise that, "If Bush wins, I'm going to leave the country and spend the rest of my life in France."
Salinger died in October 2004 of
heart failure inCavaillon hospital near his home inLe Thor , France, at the age of 79. [ [http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-10-16-salinger-obit_x.htm Former Kennedy aide Pierre Salinger dies] October 18, 2004] He is buried in theArlington National Cemetery across thePotomac River fromWashington, DC .Bibliography
*"With Kennedy" (2000) ISBN 0385043325
*"America Held Hostage"
*"Secret Dossier: The Hidden Agenda Behind the Gulf War"
*"Je Suis un Americain" (I am an American)
*"La France et le Nouveau Monde"
*"P.S.: A Memoir", 1995References
External links
* [http://www.bastiderose.com/culture/culture.php?version=en#poppy_and_pierre_salinger_foundation Poppy And Pierre Salinger Foundation]
* [http://www.bastiderose.com/culture/culture.php?version=en#musee_pierre_salinger Pierre Salinger Museum]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.