And my wife said, "George, you better not go, because your people
at Texas Eastern will look at it--they may look at it in a very
peculiar manner, if you appear with Mikoyan"--and the Texas Eastern
people--they are very conservative Texas people--if I appear in public
with Mikoyan, I will not get any jobs from them.
Mr. JENNER. Particularly having in mind your Russian background?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; particularly my Russian background. So she
says, "I better go instead of you."
Mr. JENNER. Your wife?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; so the next morning she went with the
Mexican major, the pilot of the president--he still is a pilot for
the president today, and he is married to an American--he is not a
Communist, believe me. And he and Jeanne went together to the airport.
It was full of security officers--the Russian security officers and the
Mexican officers. And the Mexican pilot let her go through all that
mess.
Here was the Russian plane, and Mikoyan was making a speech. After
that, the pilot took Jeanne, for the hell of it, and said, "I will
introduce you to Mikoyan."
And Jeanne went to him and said in perfect Russian, "How are you,
Comrade Mikoyan? Nice to know you." And he almost collapsed, because
it was such a surprise for him that somebody went through all that
security officers without being detected--because she was right there
in that group. So she said--he asked her where she is from, and she
says, "I am from Texas."
"What do you mean from Texas?"
She said, "Yes, I am from Texas." She said, "Why don't you come and
visit us in Texas and I will give you a Russian dinner."
And Mikoyan said, "Thank you very much, some day I will come and see
you."
So here was the Mikoyan incident.
Mr. JENNER. That is all of the circumstances of the so-called Mikoyan
incident?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. It was pure happenstance and a bit of fun?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. And you, in fact, declined the same invitation?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; I declined to go--purely for business
reasons--because I didn't want my clients to think that I was buddy
buddy with Mikoyan.
Mr. JENNER. Now, this trip of yours down through Mexico, and the
Central American countries--wasn't that about the time of the Bay of
Pigs invasion?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. It was indeed; yes. And we didn't know anything
about it.
Mr. JENNER. You didn't?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. We didn't know anything about it.
Mr. JENNER. Your trip had nothing whatsoever to do with that?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Nothing to do with it--except I remember we
arrived in Guatemala City, and by God you know we walked on the street,
we were trying to get some visas to get to the next country--you have
to get visas and permits to carry guns. We had to carry a revolver with
us to protect us, because we were going constantly through a jungle. We
did not follow any roads. We were all the time following the trails.
Mr. JENNER. The old Conquistador trails?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; we carried two revolvers and a shotgun with
us, And to be able to cross the border you had to get permit each time.
That took us in Guatemala City quite some time. We were walking around
the town trying to get a permit to Nicaragua, and to San Salvador, and
to Honduras. And as we were walking on the street we saw a lot of white
boys, dressed in civilian, but they looked like military men to me.