VOA – CONNECT
EPISODE # 305
AIR DATE: 11 17 2023
FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT

SHOW OPEN
((Open Animation))


BLOCK A


((PKG)) DATELINE DALLAS: A Reporter Remembers
((TRT: 23:49))
((Topic Banner: Dateline Dallas: A Reporter Remembers))
((Produced by:
Steve Herman
Adam Greenbaum

Supervising Editor:
Scott Stearns

Location Videographer:
Adam Greenbaum (Bethesda, Maryland)
Jonathan Zizzo (Dallas, Texas)

Post-production Editor:
Randall Taylor Jr.

Additional Film, Photography and Audio Archival material Courtesy of:
Henry Hernandez
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

KDKA Radio

Library of Congress

Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum

Stewart Media Archives Center/Mahoning Valley Historical Society

University of Maryland Libraries Special Collections

U.S. National Archives))
((Locations: Dallas, Texas; Bethesda, Maryland))
((Main characters: 1 male; 0 female))
((Sub characters: 1 male; 0 female))
((Blurb: This November 22 marks 60 years since the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. VOA’s chief national correspondent, Steve Herman, speaks with Sid Davis, the White House correspondent for Westinghouse Radio on that day. Davis was in the motorcade when JFK was shot and then on Air Force One for LBJ’s swearing-in . Reporter remembers the day in Dallas when one president was assassinated, and another was hastily sworn in]]
((Text on screen))
DATELINE DALLAS: A Reporter Remembers
The following video includes graphic images that some may find disturbing, Viewer discretion is advised.
((NATS))
((Steve Herman
VOA News))
The “X” marks the spot here in Dallas, Texas, where on November 22nd, 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, riding in an open car, was fatally shot in the head. Among the journalists in the press bus in the motorcade was Sid Davis, a White House correspondent for Westinghouse Radio.
Ahead of the 60th anniversary of the assassination, I sat down with Davis at his home in Bethesda, Maryland, to discuss what he saw and heard on that fateful day, including being one of the people on Air Force One, to witness Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson, hastily sworn in as president of the United States.
((Steve Herman
VOA News))
First of all, Sid, tell us how did you end up as a White House correspondent?
((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
I began in broadcasting working in Youngstown, Ohio. I was a student at Ohio University, and I always wanted to be on the radio if I could.
((Photo Courtesy: Mahoning Valley Historical Society))
I applied for a job at WKBN, which is the leading station in town. It's a 5,000-watt clear channel. And I started there and covered City Hall. I covered everything Youngstown had to offer, which was the mayor, city council. You name it, we had it in Youngstown.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
How did you get from Youngstown, Ohio, to the White House? ((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
The fellow who gave me my job in Washington was Jim Schneider. He was a bureau chief for Westinghouse Broadcasting Company here. He hired me and invited me to Washington and said, "Your first assignment is going to be covering Nikita Khrushchev." I said, "He's the leader of the Soviet Union and I'm just coming to Washington. My first job, I'm going out with Nikita Khrushchev?" He said, "That's it. You're going to cover Nikita Khrushchev." which I did. He made a two or three-week tour across the United States. He threw a few tantrums. He threatened to go home. But it was an exciting part of my training.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))

Younger people may not have heard of…
((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
That’s’ correct.
((Steve Herman
VOA News))

…Westinghouse Broadcasting.
((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
Westinghouse Broadcasting Company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. In 1920, Westinghouse Electric put the first radio station in America on the air.

((Photo Courtesy: KDKA Radio))

And from then on, they just kept going and building radio properties and TV properties across the country. And they always had a substantive reputation for solid news.
That's what kept me there. We were very serious about the news business.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
So that was during the [President Dwight] Eisenhower administration.

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
Eisenhower was the first president I covered. I covered eight presidents overall.

The president gets a briefing book prior to every news conference. The staff puts together a briefing book on everything that's going on in the world. It's up to the president to study that and know what's going on because he's going to get questions about it. But Eisenhower was notorious for not reading his briefing book. And one day, this was, I guess it was… [then-Vice President Richard] Nixon was going to run for president to replace Eisenhower. And a question came up from one of the reporters in the room: "Mr. President, your vice president, Richard Nixon, wants to replace you in the White House. Can you tell us, sir, what he has done in eight years as vice president that qualifies him to replace you?"

((NATS))
((Video Courtesy: KDKA Radio))

Well, we knew Eisenhower was in trouble when he started shuffling the papers on the podium looking for an answer. He didn't have the answer, and he kept shuffling the papers and looking around, and it became sort of funny. And then at one point, he said:

((NATS/SOT: President Eisenhower))

“If you give me a week, I might think of one. I don’t remember because…”

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
It was the worst thing he could have said. It was devastating for Nixon at the time, but it was a classic Eisenhower remark.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
You were there for the transition between Eisenhower, this majestic figure as you referred to him, and in comes John Kennedy, a very young, charismatic fellow. How did things change for the reporters between the Eisenhower and Kennedy administration?

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
Well, the Eisenhower administration, with Jim Haggerty as the press secretary, was very rigid.

There's very little time for nonsense or feature stories and that sort of thing with Eisenhower. When Kennedy came in, he was an entirely different person. If he got a question at the news conference he didn't want to answer, he'd find a way to dodge it. And he got to know the names of all the reporters. And May Craig was a woman reporter at the time. She wore a

straw pillbox hat, a pink hat made of straw. And she was about five feet [1.52 meters] tall. And Kennedy loved her because she was a good foil for him. When he'd stand at the podium, he called on May Craig because she added
comic relief to a very serious news conference. Usually, it ended up with laughter. And that was Kennedy's charm. He was an everyday kind of person.

Once in a while, coming up the driveway from Pennsylvania Avenue, you might see Kennedy out in the backyard, and he might wave to you. You didn't have that great of access to him, but you could walk over and say something through the fences: "Good morning, Mr. President", something like that. He was very friendly and forthcoming in his discussions with us.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
There was a trip scheduled in the latter part of November of 1963.

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
Going to Dallas was a serious question to all of us. We had known that the city itself was a Republican city. Texas was a Republican state. Kennedy would not have been a first choice for the people in Dallas, just overall.

So, there was some concern, not only in the press corps, but there was concern among other people about whether there could be trouble in Dallas. But trouble didn't mean assassination. Trouble meant that the crowds might not be happy with him and might boo him, might disagree with him, might not turn out.
We were stunned when we got to the airport at Love Field from Fort Worth that morning. The crowd at the airport was enormous. Usually it [would] be about 1,000 people or 500 people at the airport. Most of the people would be on the motorcade route down into town. The president decides he wants to walk over to the fence to all the people who came to greet him at the airport.
((NATS))

And there were thousands of people. And [first lady] Jackie [Kennedy], for the first time that I can recall, was very pleased and very happy this is happening, and walked with him holding his hand, and then they went to the railing. The crowd was behind the fence and shaking hands, walking down a quarter mile. The airport was mobbed. That was the first time we said to ourselves, the press, "This isn't Dallas, is it?" They’re [the crowds] so enthusiastic. A lot of young people came. They got into the limousine and now we [were] headed into downtown Dallas, which was a couple of miles away.
((Steve Herman
VOA News))
How far back in the motorcade are you from the presidential limousine?

((NATS))
((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))

Well, it's a long motorcade because it was Dallas. And every big shot in Dallas wanted to be in the motorcade with the president. So, you had a lot of extra cars…and city councilmen, the police chief, the fire chief…all these extra cars.

((NATS))
((Video Courtesy: © The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza))

The shots were so sharp and the sound effects on the streets of Dallas, thousands of people, for some reason the sound
seemed to be unified in some way. At this point, I was on press bus. I got on press bus number one, and I heard the shots. Sitting next to me was Robert Pierpoint of CBS News. Bob Pierpoint was a war correspondent in Korea. He jumps out of his seat, and he shouts to the 40 of us on the bus: "That's gunfire. That's not backfires of a car. That is gunfire." And he's screaming his head off at Rory Eliot, the bus driver, to catch up with the presidential limousine. The presidential car now disappeared from the motorcade. The interesting thing was, up until the firing, the point of the gunfire, it was cheerful, it was happy.

With the Kennedy campaign, there was something called, ‘the jumpers’. These were people who couldn't stand still. [As] soon as they spotted Kennedy, they were jumping, and mostly younger people, but some of the older people did it. So, we identified these people as ‘jumpers’. We had had, we even counted the numbers of ‘jumpers’ and put that in our stories. And it was that kind of day. The sun was out and temperatures [were] in the ’70s.

It looked like nothing bad could happen that day. And the presidential limousine disappears. And the follow-up car with the Secret Service is trying to catch up with the president. Secret Service is taking the president to the hospital.

We were screaming to let us out. So, we got off the bus and looked for telephones.

((NATS/SOT: Sid Davis))
((Voice of Sid Davis))

We have only the word that the president has been shot. This is all the information we have at the present time. The president’s car, after this incident took place, just shot forward in a tremendous burst, and headed right for the hospital. It passed the Trade Mart completely by and this is the first indication we got that something serious, actually serious, had happened.

TEASE
Coming up…
((Topic Banner))
Dateline Dallas:
A Reporter Remembers

BREAK ONE
USAGM SHARE
((LogOn Voice Diagnosis Tech (TV/R)
HEADLINE: LogOn: Could Your Voice Help Diagnose Your Next Illness?
TEASER: Technology analyzing thousands of voices may play a role in the future of medicine
BYLINE: Julie Taboh
DATELINE: Washington
PRODUCER: Julie Taboh, Adam Greenbaum
SCRIPT EDITORS: Michelle Quinn, Amy R
TRT: 1:54 & 2:00
[[Voice experts have long known that a person's voice can provide important information about their emotional, physical and mental health. Now a U.S. government-funded project is collecting and analyzing thousands of voices and using artificial intelligence to diagnose illnesses. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.]]
((Courtesy: Allison Long/USF Health))
((NATS – patient’s voice being tested))
((NARRATOR))
Dr. Yael Bensoussan examines the vocal cords of a patient.
At the University of South Florida Health Voice Center, she treats patients with a range of voice disorders, such as upper airway, voice and swallowing disorders.
And lately, she’s been helping to lead a new project to build a database of 30,000 human voice recordings and train computers to detect diseases through changes in the human voice.
((Radio track: She spoke with VOA via Skype.))
((Dr. Yael Bensoussan, Voice Specialist)) ((SKYPE))
Not only to build that data, but also to develop the guidelines on how to share that data, how to collect that data, and also how to use that data for future AI [artificial intelligence] research. ((Courtesy: Weill Cornell Medicine))
((NARRATOR))
She works with a team of 45 investigators across 12 different universities in North America as well as a startup in Europe. ((NATS - Parkinson’s voice demo, Text on graphic: "Parkinson's disease"))
They study voice samples to help them detect illnesses like Parkinson’s disease…
((NATS - Glottic cancer voice demo, Text on graphic: "Glottic cancer"))
((NARRATOR))
cancer…
((NATS - Vocal fold paralysis demo, Text on graphic: "Vocal Fold Paralysis"))
((NARRATOR))
And voice disorders such as vocal fold paralysis…
The team also studies mood disorders such as depression and anxiety.
((Dr. Yael Bensoussan, Voice Specialist)) ((SKYPE))
So when somebody is depressed, sad, has anxiety, of course their speech changes.
((NARRATOR))
((Courtesy: NIH))
The study is one of four data-generation projects funded by the National Institutes of Health's Bridge to Artificial Intelligence program, designed to use AI to tackle complex biomedical challenges.
((Dr. Yael Bensoussan, Voice Specialist)) ((SKYPE))
They realized that there was such a big gap between the technology that we had available, and the clinical knowledge, and what we use in clinical care in our hospitals.
((NARRATOR))
And doing it while maintaining participants’ privacy.
[[Radio track: Grace Peng is one of the coordinators of the National Institutes of Health’s Bridge2AI program. She spoke with VOA via Zoom.]]
((Grace Peng, National Institutes of Health)) ((Zoom))
We want to think about the ethics associated with collecting people's voices. And how do we keep it private? ((NARRATOR))
((Courtesy: NIH))
The study will start enrolling participants in the coming year. ((Julie Taboh, VOA News, Washington))
BUMP IN ((ANIM))

BLOCK B

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
A Black gentleman in a white Cadillac stopped and he said: "Are you a reporter?" And I said, “Yes.” He said, "I can get you to the hospital. I know where he is." So, he took me to the hospital.

I went to Parkland Hospital. I just got there, and I went immediately to the emergency room. And I was immediately thrown out of the emergency room. But I saw Mrs. Kennedy there. And I went over where she was standing, and she was talking to one of the doctors. And she said…she took a piece of the president's skull out of her suit pocket, and showed it to the doctor, and she said, "Would this be of any help?" At this point, they had not announced Kennedy's death. And the doctor said, "No, Mrs. Kennedy. It would not be of any help."

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
You witnessed that?

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
I heard. I heard her conversation with the doctor. And there was a priest there, Father Oscar Huber, in this group with Mrs. Kennedy and these other people standing around with the doctors. And the priest, Father Oscar Huber, said, "He's dead all right. I just gave him the last rites."

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
Now, he wasn't expecting a reporter to hear that, and Mrs. Kennedy presumably was not hearing that.

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))

I think Mrs. Kennedy probably had talked to enough doctors. There were a lot of doctors in there she was talking to. There was no chance he could survive it. From what I saw being in the motorcade and chasing after it, the wound was so severe. I saw Mrs. Kennedy in her beautiful…she was wearing a two-piece wool, strawberry-colored suit. She was absolutely stunning. But I could see the blood on the suit, especially on her right stocking. The blood had congealed. The stocking was soaked with blood, because his head…the president rested his head on her right side…and he bled. He was bleeding profusely from the head. The president, there were three shots fired, one shot missed. The second shot went through the back of his neck and exited through the Adam’s apple. The doctors told me that if that's the only wound the president suffered, he might have survived that. But the third shot took a part of the skull, and that's where the blood was coming from. And Mrs. Kennedy was trying to hold him. He slipped down on her lap practically, and she was trying to embrace him and hold him back.
((Steve Herman
VOA News))
The announcement is made that Kennedy has died.

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))

It only took about seven or 10 minutes. And Malcolm Kilduff, the press secretary, took over the briefing and announced that “President John F. Kennedy died today at 1 o'clock p.m. He died of a bullet wound to the brain. I have no further information.” At that point, all hell broke loose. And I went on the air and announced President Kennedy was dead on the basis of what Kilduff said.

((NATS))
((Voice of Jim Schneider))
So we’re now going to switch you to Sid Davis at the hospital in Dallas.

((Voice of Sid Davis))
Jim, we have just had the official word from Malcolm Kilduff, the associate presidential press secretary, that President Kennedy is dead.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))

How did you end up getting from Parkland Hospital out back to Love Field?

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
From the hospital, a guy named [Edwin] Jiggs Fauver, a White House Press Office transportation person, said, "You're going to be a pooler. You've got to get out of here. The president wants to put this on the air. You've got to get out of here. And Merriman Smith and Chuck Roberts, there's three of you. We have a car waiting, is a police car waiting for you outside." And they put the three of us in a police car and told the officer to get to the airplane, get to Love Field. We travelled through the streets of Dallas. I don't know how that cop, the cop did that. We went through the streets of Dallas in and out of traffic. We went over front lawns, driveways, everything, racing for Love Field. They didn't want Air Force One to leave without us. And we got to Love Field. Air Force One was gearing up. Jim Swindal, the pilot, was preparing to leave. I boarded the airplane.
((Steve Herman
VOA News))
At that point, did you know what was going to happen next?

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
I followed Lyndon Johnson around the airplane as he met with staff. He held meetings right in the immediacy of Kennedy's death. He's holding meetings, talking about what we're going to do. He picks up the phone, he calls Bobby Kennedy, the president's brother, and says, “I think we ought to go back to Washington. We ought to go. We ought to go back to Washington.” Mrs. Kennedy agreed. She did not want the body to remain in Dallas because that would have meant an autopsy delay. She didn't want that to happen.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
Robert Caro, Johnson's biographer, describes an immediate transition with Lyndon Johnson. That Lyndon Johnson had been depressed, almost, as a vice president, had a hangdog expression. And the minute he got on Air Force One, after Kennedy was assassinated, that Johnson, even before the swearing-in, took charge.

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))

He did take charge. He, the people on the plane, the Kennedy people and the Johnson people, assembled around LBJ [Lyndon Baines Johnson]. It was amidships in the airplane, down, halfway down the 707. And LBJ held court with these people. At first, Robert Kennedy said, come back to Washington. Then it was a change of heart. And LBJ stepped in and said, "We're going to take the oath in Dallas." And then, Judge Sarah Hughes, a federal judge, had been brought out to the airplane to administer the oath.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
Why do you think Johnson wanted to immediately take the oath in Dallas and not do a ceremony back in the White House?

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
Johnson was a very bright guy. He saw the problems of going back to Washington, that that would take three or four hours. Then there were members of Congress who would get involved and say, we're going to have a ceremony. We're going to do this or do that. And Johnson didn't want that. Mrs. Kennedy didn't. They wanted to have the swearing in. The only way to do that was to do it in Dallas. And that was decided to do it that way. LBJ made that decision. I heard him say: "We're going to take the oath here." And he was talking to Mrs. Kennedy. He had Mrs. Johnson beside him when he was talking to her, and then he said: "Let's get airborne."

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
The swearing-in ceremony, very impromptu. Johnson insists that Mrs. Kennedy, in her bloodstained dress, stands next to him.

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
He arranged the photograph. Johnson became the arranger. Johnson just took over.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
Why did he want her in the photograph, with her bloodstained dress, right next to him when he was being sworn in?
((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))

I don't think the bloodstained dress bothered him. He wanted her in the picture. He called her. He put his arm around her shoulder, and he called her. At one point he called her, “Darling, you stand here. Mrs. Johnson stands here.” He arranged the photograph.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
Why? Why did he want her next to him?

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
That’s Lyndon Johnson. To not have had her in that photograph would have been terrible. And he knew that.
He knew she had to be in that picture. And she, what she was thinking was, I've lost my husband. But she was willing to do all of the things Johnson was telling her to do. My judgment is she wanted to be in the picture.

((NATS/Video: LBJ SwearingIn))

Judge: “I do solemnly swear”

LBJ: “I do solemnly swear”

Judge: “that I will faithfully execute”

LBJ: “that I will faithfully execute”

Judge: “the office of president of the United States,”

LBJ: “the office of president of the United States,”

Judge: “and will to the best of my ability”

LBJ: “and will to the best of my ability”

Judge: “preserve,”

LBJ: “preserve,”

Judge: “protect”

LBJ: “protect”

Judge: “and defend”

LBJ: “and defend”

Judge: “the Constitution of the United States.”

LBJ: “the Constitution of the United States.”

Judge: “So help me God.”

LBJ: “So help me God.”

TEASE
Coming up…
((Topic Banner))
Dateline Dallas:
A Reporter Remembers

BREAK TWO
USAGM
((LogOn Underwater Drones (TV, R)
HEADLINE: LogOn: Underwater Drones Take Off Like Those in the Air
TEASER: The discovery of the Endurance shipwreck in Antarctic waters this year has encouraged hobbyists to take up underwater drones
BYLINE: Genia Dulot
VIDEOGRAPHER: Genia Dulot
PRODUCER: Genia Dulot
SCRIPT EDITORS: Michelle Quinn
TRT: 2:01
[[As they overcome the challenges of operating in water, underwater drones are becoming more available for hobbyists, researchers and public agencies. Genia Dulot reports.)) ((NARRATION))
Jesuit Robotics, a high school robotics team from Sacramento, California, has been designing remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, for more than a decade.
[[For Radio: Charlie Diaz, a member of the Jesuit Robotics team]]
((Charlie Diaz, Jesuit Robotics))
We developed the grippers ourselves, the cameras, our modularly adjustable buoyancy systems.
((BROLL: Shots of Jesuit Robotics team))
((NARRATION))
Jesuit Robotics recently exhibited its underwater drone at a competition in Long Beach, California. Called the Manatee, this underwater drone can map shipwrecks or work on environmental projects.
((Charlie Diaz, Jesuit Robotics))
We have our custom AI detection software. … Our bottom gripper helps us to restore seagrass beds.
((NARRATION))
((Courtesy: FALKLANDS MARITIME HERITAGE TRUST, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC / AFP))
Entrancing many, the recent discovery by ROV of the Endurance, which sank in Antarctic waters in 1915. That effort cost an estimated $10 million.
ROVs have been slow to take off among hobbyists, however. Several startup companies are making design changes and adding technology to make drones work better underwater and reduce costs.
Blue Robotics, a Los Angeles firm, works on waterproofing underwater drone parts such as the thruster, which propels the ROV in the right direction, and has added various sensors measuring temperature, pressure and depth.
[[For Radio: Rustom Jehangir is founder and CEO of Blue Robotics]]
((Rustom Jehangir, CEO Blue Robotics))
Instead of trying to protect the motor from the water, why don’t we make a waterproof motor? That’s really the innovation here.
((Courtesy: Blue Robotics))
((NARRATION))
These new underwater drones cannot go to the deep sea, but they are being used in conditions unsafe for human divers, and by hobbyists, says Fritz Stahr, an ocean technology expert.
[[For Radio: Fritz Stahr, a judge at the competition, and chief technology officer at Open Ocean Robotics, a marine technology firm.]]
((Fritz Stahr, Ocean Tech Expert))
The ability for everybody or more people to be that explorer, to be that person who understands what’s going on in their local environment, is really important.
((NARRATION))
Unlike aerial drones, technology has yet to solve the problem of underwater communications. For now, these drones are controlled by a tether.
((Genia Dulot for VOA News, Los Angeles))
BUMP IN ((ANIM))

BLOCK C

((Steve Herman
VOA News))

You had to wait for Kennedy's body to arrive, to be loaded into the plane. But Johnson wants to fly back immediately.

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
That's right.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
You were asked to stay on the plane and fly back to Washington. But you did not. Why?

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
No, I volunteered to get off and give the pool report. There were 40-some White House correspondents that flew out there with me. And since I was the only pooler in that little group, and I had all the story, I volunteered to stay there and give the pool report to the rest of the White House correspondents.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
How did you do that?

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))

White House staff assembled these 30 or 40 reporters out at the bottom of the Air Force One at the bottom of the ramp. They assembled these 30 or 40 White House correspondents. They lifted me on the top of a trunk of a car, and I gave the pool report.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
What did you say?

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
I described everything I saw that had happened. Time of death. Everything that I could report, I did.
((Video: Sid Davis atop car with reporters))

And then I took questions. And who would be the one who would ask the most questions? Now I'm anxious to file this story. I haven't filed my story yet. The New York Times reporter, he wanted to know every detail. His name is Tom Wicker, one of the best ever. And Tom says, "I need to know more. I need to know more." So, I stayed there with Tom, and I gave him the full report. And I finished that report, then I filed my story. I did not file my story until I gave the pool report.
((Photo Montage of LBJ swearing-in))
((NATS))
((Voice of Sid Davis))

I was among three reporters selected because of the circumstances to witness the swearing-in of President Johnson. The swearing-in ceremony took place in the presidential suite of Air Force One, the large Boeing 707 fanjet ((delete extra text)) that brought the president [Kennedy] to Dallas today.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
When did it hit you about the enormity of what you had witnessed that day?

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
Steven, you know, the White House correspondents have a reputation for the bottle.

Pan American World Airways was our favorite airline. The one thing they knew all about us was what booze we drank. And going back to Washington that night, about 11 p.m., not a single one of the 50 reporters had a drink. The most unusual thing. The stewardesses turned out the lights and brought pillows so that we could sleep. We arrived in Washington about 4 or 4:30 a.m. And I went immediately to Andrews Air Force Base to see what was going on. I began preparations for the morning broadcast. And I saw Mrs. Kennedy coming to arrive at the airport, sitting with the casket in a limousine.
Sitting beside her as she had her hand on the casket, I can see the red, red dress and sadness of what had taken place that day. And I wrote my first story that way, went on the air, and I quoted the words of Robert Frost. I said: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep…

((NATS))
((Voice of Sid Davis))

I have promises to keep and many miles to go before I sleep.” And with that, this is Sid Davis, reporting from the White House.

((Sid Davis
Former While House Correspondent))
At that time, I just broke up on the air. I just couldn't hold it back. Now, there's an old rule in broadcasting, it says: “If you're not sure, don't do it, don't say it, don't play it.” And I violated every rule in the book.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
Sid Davis, thank you for remembering with us.

((Steve Herman
VOA News))
According to the official Warren Commission’s investigation of Kennedy’s assassination, there was no conspiracy. Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. Two days later, in the basement of the Dallas police station, a nightclub owner, Jack Ruby, gunned down Oswald. Since then, surveys have consistently found the majority of Americans doubt Oswald acted alone and believe there was a conspiracy. Steve Herman, VOA News, Dallas

((Credit roll:

Dateline Dallas: A Reporter Remembers
Produced by:
Steve Herman
Adam Greenbaum

Supervising Editor:
Scott Stearns

Location Videographer:
Adam Greenbaum (Bethesda, Maryland)
Jonathan Zizzo (Dallas, Texas)

Post-production Editor:
Randall Taylor Jr.

Additional Film, Photography and Audio Archival material Courtesy of:
Henry Hernandez
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

KDKA Radio

Library of Congress

Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum

Stewart Media Archives Center/Mahoning Valley Historical Society

University of Maryland Libraries Special Collections

U.S. National Archives

The archival materials in this program are subject to copyright

A Voice of America production 2023))

CLOSING BUMPER
((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect


BREAK THREE
((PKG)) NATURE KICKER: MOOSE
((TRT: 02:00))
((Topic Banner: Nature: Moose in Alaska))
((Text on screen:
Grazing moose in the wetlands of Homer, Alaska and moose cows taking care of their calves.))
((Camera/Editor: Gabrielle Weiss))

BUMP IN ((ANIM))

CLOSING BUMPER
((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect

SHOW ENDS