Aerial Assassination?

The first reports came from Cuban exiles in Miami and New York. They were given weight by friendly diplomatic sources in Havana. They added up to a grim warning: Cuban pilots in MIG-21 jetfighters, capable of speeds up to Mach 2.2 and bristling with Soviet infrared homing rockets, were plotting to shoot down President Johnson as he flew to Miami for a Democratic fund-raising dinner on Feb. 27. If they failed in that, the Cubans would try to flash in and ram the President's plane kamikaze-style.

After the Florida trip was all over, reporters who had got wind of the story were told by Pierre Salinger, then White House Press Secretary: "Maybe a year from now, or two years, or five years from now, I can tell you what the situation was." But by last week most of the details could be pieced together.

Weighing the Danger. Fantastic though they seemed, the reports of the plot were rated so critical in Washington that the President called in his top security advisers. On hand at the White House on the night before Johnson's departure were Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Defense Secretary Robert Mc-Namara, Secret Service Chief Jim Rowley and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. The question before them: Should the President cancel his trip?

After studying intelligence estimates and listening to various suggestions, the President left the room. He told his advisers that they should weigh the dangers and make the decision.

At about 10 p.m., after several hours of discussion, the group agreed that Johnson should go to Miami, but only under heavy guard and with unique precautions. That night, maintenance men at Andrews Air Force Base painted out all presidential insignia and numbers on planes available to Johnson. Next day, when the President arrived, three identical, unmarked Boeing 707 jets waited. Johnson entered one, and all three took off.

Johnson's regular pilot, Colonel James Swindal, flew the President's plane. Next to him in the copilot's seat was General Walter C. Sweeney Jr., commander of the U.S. Tactical Air Command--aboard to direct the massive protective operation. In the air, each of the three 707s was picked up by a swarm of highflying jet F-105s armed with "Catling" guns able to fire 6,000 shots a minute, F-100s with rockets and cannons, F-4Cs with the deadly Sidewinder missile, F-104s and Navy F-4Bs with Sidewinders and cannon, and F-101s, F-102s and F-106s with Falcon air-to-air rockets.

Scanning the Seaboard. Radar surveillance planes, which had lumbered aloft earlier, stayed up during the presidential flight to scan the area for strange aircraft. Submarines and destroyers at sea were ordered to keep a close watch on their radar screens. Air Force and Navy all-weather planes patrolled every possible air corridor from Cuba to Florida and up the East Coast. Army antiaircraft installations were at the ready. Along the whole Eastern seaboard, dozens of fighter pilots sat on alert in their cockpits.

On the ground in Florida, Johnson got extra-heavy protection that included a helicopter hovering 75 ft. over his limousine, with two armed security men in the open door. For the return flight, the same three 707s awaited at Home stead Air Force Base near Miami. The President hurried onto one and all three taxied to the runway. With him, as they had been on the flight down, were his wife and daughters. As the planes went they weaved in and out among one another, making it almost impossible to tell which plane was Johnson's. Aloft, the 707s picked up the same mighty escort.

Twenty hours after he had left Washington, the President and his family arrived back safely. No unfriendly planes had been sighted.

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