Barry H. Landau: Where there's a President of the United States, there'll be an American flag

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is presidential historian Barry H. Landau, author of the best-selling book, “The President’s Table / Two Hundred Years of Dining and Diplomacy.”

Landau is recognized as one of the foremost collectors of presidential artifacts and memorabilia. His collection comprises more than 26,000 invitations and menus. He has served nine presidents and has worked with every White House since Lyndon Johnson planning historic events. He has served on every Inaugural Committee since 1965.

I look at video or still images of President Obama every day and it seems that there is an American flag within camera range. You’ve been with so many presidents. Do you know if they are aware of the flags that are always in the picture with them?

Yes, most definitely–some more than others, especially after the advent of the media age, where images were transferred so quickly around the nation and later, the world. John Kennedy relied upon his aides, not so with LBJ and Richard Nixon, who would speak up themselves for reassurance that the camera angles were correct to include not only the American flag but the Presidential Standard as well.

Ronald Reagan, a great patriot, was a natural flag-waving American, and First Lady Nancy Reagan, his most trusted aide, was always on hand to make certain that her husband was presented in the perfect picture with the flags properly positioned.

President Clinton, a great student of history, took a very personal interest in the positioning of the flags, while both President Bushes replied upon their media advisors for such details.

How important is it that president is almost always sitting nearby or standing in front of the Stars and Stripes?

Vitally important. The flag has evolved into the physical symbol of our nation, an expression of national identity, and unity–fused with universal feelings of patriotism, courage, and resilience. In times of celebration and crisis, pride and protest, people have raised the flag to express their ideas about what it means to be an American.

Much the same as when the seal of the President of the United States is mounted on his podium, it signals his presence and that he is about to speak. The flag, when presented for ceremonial purposes, signals to a world audience the American ideals and values it represents.

In the electronic media age of the 21^st century, that image of the American flag behind the President is no longer just an emblem of the nation; it’s a representation of our country’s values and the ideals for which we stand.

I imagine that every detail of a presidential event is negotiated multiple times. Have you been part of an event where the size or number of flags or the positioning of them became an issue?

Yes, I have, and one of the most memorable was in May of 1972 when I accompanied  Richard Nixon to Russia as the first sitting President to visit their country. “Showing the flag” was an important strategy of the Nixon administration both at home and abroad.

Months ahead of the President’s arrival, the White House advance teams met with their counterparts abroad, and negotiated the number of American flags distributed, making certain they equaled those of the host nation. This was never more evident than when Air Force One was less than an hour away from landing at Moscow’s Vnukova Airport– even the direction in which the flags would be presented was still being strategized.

Remembering that this was the height of the Cold War, representatives from the Kremlin wanted the flags to be facing the East, while our White House team less pugnaciously suggested the West. Within minutes of the President’s arrival, I grabbed both sets of the American and Russian flags, and distributed “a pair” to each of the carefully screened Soviet citizens who dutifully and silently waved the pair of the flags as a smiling President and Mrs. Nixon embarked Air Force One.

That same evening, as President and Mrs. Nixon walked the red carpet while entering the Kremlin’s Granovit Banquet Hall, they looked up proudly to see the Stars and Stripes flag of America, flying over the Grand Palace of the Kremlin for the first time in it’s 600-year history.

You have collected more than one million presidential objects. Any American flags? Are American flags present on a lot of the artifacts?

Yes to both questions. I am not a collector of the American flag per se, unless it is in conjunction with a Presidential event. The American flag, along with the eagle and Lady Liberty have long been used to express patriotism and serve as a symbol of national unity, and often used on invitations, menus, and even place cards.

In the early days of Presidential travel, pre-dating the airplane, the American Flag would dutifully be draped on the outside of the Presidential train, displayed behind the President’s Table in a banquet hall, and decorated the platforms from which he spoke. Early on, flags were draped on the President’s official carriage and later his automobile and these too, are highly collectible, and are some of my favorite items.

Among my favorite collectibles are the luncheon and dinner favors distributed to guests attending these receptions, often in some variation of a box with the American flag in either silk, silver, and even gold.

Also, before the era of high-tech identification tags, members of the Presidential welcoming committees wore beautiful silk ribbons, inevitably featuring the American flag along with the date of the events, with their names hand-printed on the ribbons.

The image at the left shows the American flag flown on the fenders of President Wilson’s automobile during his visit to Des Moines, Iowa on February 1, 1916, while traveling cross country to promote The League of Nations.

The menu shown was from a banquet dinner held in the President’s honor at the Chamberlain Hotel and displays the American flag–a scaled down version in fine silk, featuring 48 stars.  

Do you think people today have enough respect for the flag?

Definitely and most sadly I have to admit that people do not. Almost a century ago, the U.S. Flag Code was adopted on June 14, 1923 to establish a set of rules for the civilian and public use of the flag, based on the belief that the American flag “represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing.”

It proscribed any use of the flag that could be construed as disrespectful, as "against the law" still decades before anyone might imagine American citizens burning our "stars and stripes" in protest to anything.

I was so proud after 9/11 that the American flag was so publicly displayed; I would like to be appointed to some national position to assure that there will be a resurgence of the flag pole on every new building, and the American flag more prominently displayed on a day to day basis.

A very wise mentor of mine once said, "You can disagree without being disagreeable," to which I add that there is no excuse for the burning of the American flag by one of our own citizens. It was sad that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down flag-protection laws as violations of free speech in 1989, maintaining the Flag Code was one of etiquette, to be enforced not by law but by tradition.

This very-politicized decision struck me as anathema to the very principles of our country, and to the millions of people who gave up their lives and died so we in America can live in peace and freedom. With all the rights we are so lucky to have in our country, so come responsibilities.

The very fact that politicians have to lobby in their efforts to amend the Constitution to prohibit flag burning, into itself is a disgrace, while their opponents argue that it would curtail essential civil liberties should be dismissed alone on the absurdity of their position.

Politicians and the average American citizen alike need to contemplate the meaning of patriotism and recall the words of The Star-Spangled Banner: ”...Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there." And also, "O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

I am most proud to have successfully lobbied to curtail broadcasters from speaking during Presidential arrival ceremonies while the National Anthem is being played. The Star-Spangled Banner needs no spin, and speaks for itself as it has for the last two hundred years.

How prophetic it is that my birthday is actually our nation’s “Flag Day”. I guess my dear mother must have known you’d be asking me these questions one day.