Ambassador Ortiz: Lessons from a Life of Service

2: Out Into the World: Washington Politics and Wartime Horror

When I finished high school, I was the youngest boy in my class. All my pals had gone to war. This was in May of . I was just seventeen, too young to enlist, but I desperately wanted to go to war, too. I was a dedicated patriot and felt that I wasn’t doing my duty. So I went to the Naval recruiting office and fibbed that I was eighteen years old. I enlisted in the V- program and was all set to be sent to Chicago to train for the Navy when my father discovered my ploy and denounced me. The Navy turned me down and I was left miserable, with nothing to do. Fortunately, my father had contacts in Washington that saved the situation. He was high up in the Democratic party at that time. During his lifetime, he served as chairman of the state Democratic party, a state tax commissioner, and Santa Fe County Clerk. He was a national bituminous coal commissioner and was a close adviser to several New Mexico governors. These public offices allowed him to make important connections. When the Navy rejected me, my father called New Mexico’s Senator Carl Hatch in Washington and asked if he might find a place for me in the senator’s staff or elsewhere in the Senate. Senator Hatch offered me a position with the important-sounding title of Liaison Officer of the United States Senate.  2 Out Into the World: Washington Politics and Wartime Horror Before I left for Washington, my father took me to the First National Bank of Santa Fe and we signed a note for the money for the train fare and my initial stay in Washington until my Senate salary began. I was terrified to be borrowing so much money—as I remember , about $. To me, that was an awful sum to repay. Once in Washington, I was so nervous about the loan that I tried to pay it off immediately. Instead of stretching it out, I paid $ one month and $ the next month. As a result, I ran very low on money, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell my family that I was broke. Instead I chose to live on next to nothing. I ate only twice a day: in the morning, a raw egg in a little glass with tomato juice, and then a liverwurst sandwich and a bowl of bean soup about two in the afternoon. That kept me alive for about two weeks. When I finally told my dad I had paid off the loan in two months he said, “You’re crazy! Why did you do that?” He explained to me that a debt is something you pay off over as much time as you can. That was a revelation to me, but I learned the power of credit. I started my job as Liaison Officer soon after arriving in Washington. I sat on a bench in an ornate little lobby outside the Senate chambers. My job was to take messages in to the senators or call them out for visitors. I ranked just above the page boys, who brought the senators water and cigarettes and other minor things. The job was a remarkable learning experience. The Senate was a den of lions, where great senators like Vandenberg and Connolly practiced their oratory. I became well acquainted with Prescott Bush, who was a senator from Connecticut, and Senator Truman of Missouri. I found myself involved in high Washington politics at the mere age of seventeen. I was not particularly impressed. I wasn’t afraid of the great politicians, and I didn’t kowtow to them. I came to feel that it was perfectly normal to deal with legendary and powerful figures. The senators were generally kind to me, and I got along well with most. (Henry Wallace, the Vice President and President of the Senate, was a notable exception. He was a strange person. I knew him well and wasn’t comfortable around him.) One experience during my time in the Senate stands out for me. This was an interaction I had with Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, a  CHAPTER TWO very cerebral fellow who concentrated on budget figures and was renowned for his opposition to President Roosevelt. One day an impressive looking man approached me and said, “I’d like to speak with Senator Taft. Would...