Inside Camp David: The Private World of the Presidential Retreat by Rear Admiral Michael Giorgione

Author:Rear Admiral Michael Giorgione, [MICHAEL GIORGIONE,, REAR ADMIRAL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History / United States / 20th Century, History / United States / 21st Century, Biography & Autobiography / Presidents & Heads Of State
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2017-10-24T00:00:00+00:00

THE TWO MIDEAST summits are irrevocably linked with Camp David, but in 2012 President Obama decided to perform his own version of mountaintop diplomacy—minus the rancor.

G8 “made my tour,” CO Wendy Halsey said of the 2012 gathering of world leaders President Obama organized at the camp. The Group of Eight, composed of eight industrialized nations—France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States, Canada, and Russia—meets once a year to discuss critical global issues. This was the thirty-eighth summit. Originally scheduled to take place in Chicago, the meeting was moved at the last minute, giving Halsey and her crew three months to prepare for it. “I thought it was a lot of time,” she said—until she was introduced to the phenomenal organizational effort involved in having eight world leaders, their staffs, and multiple other guests land on the site for two days. As an additional complication, four African leaders were scheduled to arrive on the second day for a conference on food security.

One reason Camp David was an ideal site was that there were enormous security concerns surrounding such a high-powered international gathering. In 2012, the Occupy movement was targeting the conference, and Occupy Chicago had been planning a massive protest for the summit. As it was, the towns down the mountain from Camp David were preparing for an onslaught of protesters. Thurmont hung WELCOME TO THURMONT

banners and prepared to host visitors from around the world, but the public officials and police were readying for protests. Fewer than two hundred arrived during the summit, many from Occupy Baltimore, and Thurmont police closed public parks at ten p.m. There were no real incidents, but every room in Thurmont and the surrounding towns was booked for the occasion. No one could get close to the mountaintop retreat. The Secret Service shut down all access to the Catoctin Mountain Park; it was a federal crime to trespass.

Press for the event was tightly restricted, with most journalists corralled at Camp Round Meadow, a dormitory a little over a mile away from Camp David. For special events, they were brought in by bus to Evergreen Chapel. Photos and tapes were strictly forbidden unless explicitly allowed. For many in the media, this was the first time they had been to Camp David, so the temptation to snap a photo or two was almost irresistible. But a French journalist who succumbed to the temptation was immediately ordered to delete the photos.

The G8 leaders began arriving over a seven-hour period on May 18, with President Obama arriving last. CO Halsey was on hand to meet every leader, and she recalled it as a heady experience. “Each time I got to say, ‘On behalf of President Obama, welcome to Camp David.’” She greeted French president François Hollande, German chancellor Angela Merkel, British prime minister David Cameron, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda, and Italian prime minister Mario Monti. Vladimir Putin was not present—which some people considered a snub to Obama. In a line that

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