“One thing a press secretary has to learn quickly is that words have consequences,” says Marlin Fitzwater, who held the position under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
The Danes didn’t want U.S. Navy ships carrying nuclear weapons in any of their harbors. Somehow Fitzwater missed the story. When asked for the U.S. reaction by a reporter, he responded, “I really don’t know. I missed the story. To me, Danish means breakfast.”
“Fitzwater tells Danes to eat breakfast,” ran the gist of the headlines.
“I ended up apologizing to the Danish people, the Danish ambassador, the American secretary of state, to everybody within earshot,” he laughs ruefully.
Humor, insights into world personalities, international history and down-to-earth integrity are just some of the threads that run through Fitzwater’s newly released book, “Calm Before the Storm: Desert Storm Diaries & Other Stories,” published by Sea Hill Press in Leesburg. The book is available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
Fitzwater writes about growing up on a farm in Abilene, Kan., the hometown of President Dwight Eisenhower.
“Growing up on a farm gives you some basic values about kindness, helping others, doing the right thing, patriotism and those kind of basic values that I found very helpful when I was serving in Washington,” Fitzwater says.
There were times when, as press secretary, he had to push the limits.
“I’ve always had a deep respect for honesty,” Fitzwater says. “That’s a difficult thing because, obviously, there are times when you can’t talk about what the president is doing.”
Part II of Fitzwater’s book, “Inside the White House, Stories for Friends,” contains short vignettes on world figures he met and knew over the years.
“President Eisenhower wrote, ‘At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends,’” Fitzwater says. “He did a page, two pages, on people he had known who were public figures. That was my model. I wanted to tell the public about people they knew publicly but didn’t know privately.”
One of Fitzwater’s stories concerns stumbling into the private garden of Mrs. Mao in 1989 while she was under house arrest by the Chinese government.
Bush 41 and Fitzwater spent a good deal of time together.
“We went to some 140 countries and I became very close to him and respected his thinking,” Fitzwater says. “Once I went to him in the Oval Office for a problem and laid it out. He looked at me and said, ‘Marlin, just do the right thing.’ I walked out thinking, ‘What is the right thing?’ He assumed I would do the right thing. It was a great moment of confidence between us.”
Maintaining balance while rubbing shoulders with the most powerful people on the planet requires work.
Just being aware of the fact that you’re in an abnormal situation is Fitzwater’s first rule.
“You’re dealing with issues that are bigger than life and people who are experienced and very bright,” he says. “You have to be careful that you don’t let yourself think that this reflects some extraordinary quality in yourself. Because it doesn’t.”
Fitzwater has an acute sense of self-deprecating humor and spontaneity.
“As a boy growing up in Kansas in the 1950s, Sophia Loren was the most beautiful woman who had ever lived,” he says. “And there I am, 35 years later, in the White House and suddenly she appeared at my door. She’d been visiting with President Reagan, just walked in and said, ‘I’m Sophia Loren.’”
Fitzwater said his mouth fell open.
“I said, ‘I’m Marlin Fitzwater. Will you marry me?’” he says. “She started laughing and said, ‘I can’t. I’m already married.’ But you married Carlo Ponti, a short, fat, bald guy, and for that I’ll love you for the rest of my life.”
With a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from Kansas State and newspaper experience, Fitzwater has several other published works including a private release of
“Winters at The Villages,” where he and his wife, Melinda, now spend several months each year.
“Empires Fall,” a stage play, was completed in 2011 with assistance from Bob Lawson from the Franklin Pierce University drama department.
“I was looking for a way to write about how two presidents, Bush and Gorbachev, could become personal friends and have a common objective in their business and personal life,” he says.
Fitzwater believes the story of Reagan, Bush and Gorbachev during and after the fall of the Berlin Wall is one of the most important historical events in recent times.
“I wanted people to understand that relationships matter, and that people can work together for common objectives and change the world,” he says.
The play was read at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and then Fitzwater sent it to Randy West at the Great Plains Theater in his hometown.
“I took my entire family back home to Abilene (Kan.), showed them the farms where I grew up, the high school where I taught, and the cemetery where I expected to be buried,” Fitzwater says. “We ended up at the premiere of the play. I’ve seldom been prouder of any specific event that I did in my life.”
“Calm before the Storm” includes excerpts from the personal diaries Fitzwater kept before, during and after Operation Desert Storm/the Gulf War. From X-rated exchanges between press corps reporters to insider background on how Washington operates to personal details of his growing friendship with the larger Bush family, he covers the time from Aug. 1, 1990 to his final entry of Nov. 8, 1992 – five days after the General Election. The last entry reads simply, “WE LOST.”
Fitzwater retired from public service, having spent all four years of the Bush 41 presidency as press secretary, opened a short-lived PR shop in D.C., wrote his first book and worked as a consultant on several television series including “West Wing.” In 1999, he married Melinda Andrews, whom he met in the White House and had dated for 15 years, retired again, and bought a property overlooking the Chesapeake Bay.
“We started going to Florida for vacations, a couple of weeks to Key West, but I’m not a beach person and my father-in-law recommended The Villages,” he says. “In 2007, we went onto the internet and rented a house for January. And we’ve been coming back every year since.”
“Calm Before the Storm” is the result of a chance meeting two years ago with Sea Hill publisher Greg Sharp at the book and author expo sponsored by the Writers League of The Villages.
“By that time, I had already published four or five books, but writers are always looking for a publisher who understands what they’re trying to do in a different way,” Fitzwater says.
The 2020 BookExpo, which is open to the general public and features some 80 authors and publishers, will take place at the Eisenhower Recreation Center on Sunday, Jan. 26 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Fitzwater has faith in the system and the people in it during his years in the White House and wanted to include that in the book.
“President Reagan and President Bush guided my life before and since,” he says. “I want people to say that Marlin Fitzwater did a good job and had a good time. There are wonderful things that happen to you in the White House.”
John W Prince is a writer and Villager. For more information visit www.GoMyStory.com. If you know of someone with a good story, contact John at John@GoMyStory.com.
