Mr. Lawson. Yes, sir.
Mr. Dulles. It was Tuesday morning, isn't it the 19th.
Mr. Lawson. Yes, sir; Tuesday morning.
Mr. Stern. Is this a normal amount of advance publicity for this kind of motorcade, regarding the actual route?
Mr. Lawson. Well, it depends on how much notice you have that the President is going there. It was announced this morning that he is taking a trip tomorrow on Appalachian poverty, so we sent agents out this morning. Naturally even if they wanted to publicize the motorcade route they wouldn't be able to do so in this instance. But on other occasions it had been announced sooner than that or about as soon in various areas; yes, sir.
Mr. Stern. Did you set up the areas at which the press would be located at Love Field and at the Trade Mart?
Mr. Lawson. Yes, sir; I did, with the approval of Mr. Hawkes from the White House staff, when he made a trip a little bit later. Time was of the essence. Sometimes we do it all when they do not send out someone to represent the press office from the White House, and sometimes they do it. In this case, because telephone lines, power lines, various engineering data would have to be disseminated and fixed up, we had to know where the press areas were going to be before Mr. Hawkes was able to come.
So I told them that I would set it up in the belief that I knew what they usually wanted from the White House press office, but that he would have the power to overrule me, and I requested assistance of a local TV technician as to the angles and what not that the cameramen would like.
Mr. Dulles. May I ask one question there. Do you know whether any consideration is now being given to withhold the announcement of the actual route to be followed by the Presidential party until say the morning that the trip is actually taken?
Mr. Lawson. Does this go into the realm of what we were talking about before as to what we are going to do in the future?