argued in public for the sanctity of state secrets and the priority of covert operations
while he secretly deployed his own irregular armies. Carter had implicitly attacked Bush
during the early phases of the presidential campaign in an August 12 speech in which the
Georgian had denigrated the Ford Administration as a "dumping ground for unsuccessful
candidates, faithful political partisans, out-of-favor White House aides and
representatives of the special interests." That day, Bush had travelled to Plains, Geergia
to provide Carter with a five-hour intelligence briefing. Reporters asked Bush about
Carter's comments, which elicited a fit of apoplexy from our hero: "That's very
interesting," said Bush. We came down here to do a professional job. The President
directed me to brief him on intelligence matters. Everything went very well." Carter
backed off a day later, saying "I happen to think a lot of George Bush."
In the close 1976 election, Carter prevailed by vote fraud in New York, Ohio, and other
states, but Ford was convinced by Nelson and Happy Rockefeller, as well as by his own
distraught wife Betty, that he must concede in order to preserve the work of "healing"
that he had accomplished since Watergate. Carter would therefore enter the White House.
Bush prepared to make his bid for continuity at the CIA. Shortly after the election, he was
scheduled to journey to Plains to brief Carter once again with the help of his deputy
Henry Knoche. Early in the morning Bush and Knoche stopped off at the Old Executive
Office Building to talk to Budget Director Robert Lynn in order to secure a cash infusion
for the CIA, which was facing a budgetary crunch. Bush then dropped in on Vice
President Nelson Rockefeller, and also went into the Oval Office to talk to Ford.
The critical meeting with Carter went very badly indeed. Bush took Carter aside and
argued that in 1960 and 1968, CIA Directors were retained during presidential transitions,
and that it would make Carter look good if he did the same. Carter signalled that he
wasn't interested. Then Bush lamely stammered that if Carter wanted his own man in
Langley, Bush would be willing to resign. which is of course standard procedure for all
agency heads when a new president takes office. Carter said that that was indeed exactly
what he wanted, and that he would have his own new DCI ready by January 21, 1977.
Bush and Knoche then briefed Carter and his people for some six hours. Carter insiders
told the press that Bush's briefing had been a "disaster." "Jimmy just wasn't impressed
with Bush," said a key Carter staffer. [fn 59]
Bush and Knoche then flew back to Washington, and on the plane Bush wrote a memo
for Henry Kissinger describing his exchanges with Carter. At midnight, Bush drove to
Kissinger's home and briefed him for an hour.
Knoche said later that he was mightily impressed by Bush's long day of meeting the
budget director, the president, the vice president, the president-elect and the secretary of
state, all on the same day, even if the result had been that Bush was fired. At Bush's 9:30
AM staff meeting in Langley the next day, Knoche and a group of other officialsawarded
Bush the Intelligence Medal of Merit. "It was a very touching day," said Knoche.