POLITICS OF US PASSPORT OFFICE

You will have to read this memo. After Miss Knight decided to return to the Passport Office as Director, she made several recommendations regarding security on overseas flights. Air Marshal's were not even thought of at that time as hi-jacking airlines had not become such a large problem. The 1972 Munick Olympics, Germany attempted hi-jacking happened while I was employed at the Passport Office and that particular event effect everyone at the office. It weighed so heavily on my mind that I continued expressing my fears to my brother even after he retired from the State Department.

From her own papers stored at Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in Iowa comes the following:

"During these years, Knight channeled her increasing discontent with her superiors within the State Department—including Schwartz’s successor, Barbara Watson—into widely distributed “Christmas letters” that were sent to members of Congress and friends in the press. She also sought the removal of “Kennedy and Johnson holdovers” from the State Department during the Nixon and Ford Administrations, and was disappointed when this didn’t happen in the way that she had hoped. As she approached the mandatory retirement age of 70, she fought two widely publicized campaigns to remain in her post, and succeeded in doing so until 1977, when Secretary of State Cyrus Vance refused her a third extension.
In retirement, Knight sought to remain politically active, promoting causes such as immigration reform and offering her services to the transition teams of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. Bush. Knight died in Bethesda, Maryland at the age of 94 on September 11, 1999."

To give you an idea of what a stickler Frances Knight was she was once asked to allow Howard Hughes a passport without a picture and refused. That story can be found HERE

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