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by Bill Brockett (Author)
Showcasing more than 80 high-resolution, mostly never-before-published, official White House photographs and documents, Bill Brockett's memoir, "Follow The Yellow Line: A soldier's journey from the Selective Service Induction Center to the White House Oval Office", tells a most unique story of a Vietnam-era Army draftee who became a trusted confidante of the President of the United States.
Assigned to the White House Communications Agency one month before President Richard Nixon's resignation, Bill is believed to be the only person, living or dead, to have physically attended all four major events at the White House on August 8-9, 1974...Mr. Nixon's resignation speech, his farewell address to the White House Staff the following morning, the Nixon's final South Lawn helicopter departure, and the swearing in of the new president, Gerald Ford.
By November of 1974, Bill had taken on the additional duty of training the president's new 8-month-old puppy, a Golden Retriever named "Liberty." In early 1975, the president called Bill at home, very excited about breeding Liberty and raising a litter of puppies in the White House. Although just a sergeant in the Army at the time, Bill emphatically told the president "No" when asked if he would help, explaining that liberty was far too young to be bred. Three days later, after a very brief meeting with Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, Bill met privately with Mr. Ford and was offered a third job, that of unofficial personal advisor to the president.
"Fascinating, fun to read. For presidential historians, dog lovers, and all the rest of us. "- Pavel Palazhchenko, Soviet interpreter for Mikhail Garbachev
