My visits to the White House
Seeing pictures of President-Elect Barack Obama visiting the White House this week took me back to my own visits to this most iconic of political buildings. I believe that, since 9/11, the general public has not been ableto visit the White House but, before then, I had done so on three occasions.
The first time was on 19 September 1970 when I was aged 22 and a university student spending a three-month summer in the United States. After a very short wait, I was in the White House and noted in my diary: “Saw only a few of the 132 rooms – East Room, Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room, and State Dining Room”.
The second time was on 23 August 1980 when I was aged 32 and on a telecommunications study visit to the USA. There was a system of timed ticket entry. It was a 20-minute self conducted tour and I saw the same rooms as on my previous visit but noted in my diary that there had been some renovation.
The third time was on 19 April 1984 when I was aged 35 with my wife and (almost) eight year old son. We queued for 50 minutes and spent 20 minutes on the official tour. I noted in my diary: “This time there was more security (there are barriers round to prevent suicide attacks) and the North Side is being cleaned”.
I can’t imagine that I’ll ever be there inside the White House again.