U.S. Passport Office Justification for Quality Increase

Several things were going on politically in the United States during 1972-1973. The Viet Nam War was beginning to become politically unfavorable to the American people. A sitting U.S. President was getting ready to be impeached and Joe Payne was being praised by "some of the people" at the U.S. Passport Office, Department of State. As I had said previously, Robert D. Johnson, was "Acting" Director and presented me with the High Performance award. The politics of the U.S. State Department's Passport Office,  were primarily the reason that he was "Acting" Director. I have gathered files from that time regarding what Ms Frances G. Knight's, a strong supporter of J. Edgar Hoover and the Republican party,  problems were with the "politics" of the day. First let me tell you that none of the signatures on this recommendation for my High Quality Step Increase were African American, but the U.S. Passport Office, General Services Division where I worked, were about 75% African American employees.  I got along with all of them very, very well.

I did return to the State Department in 1975 and my performance rating, signed by the then two ranking African American employees of the General Services Division, State Department had diminished drastically.   I returned a third time to the U.S. State Department, but instead to the Office of Communications, Diplomatic Mail and Pouch Center as a Mail Clerk in 1983 and I suspect that the rating by my African American supervisors caused me to be released from the job I was seeking.    I have no proof of that and would like to believe it was because of other reasons.

I am and always will be because of local of my small town American convictions, a strong Democrat,  as were several of the people who signed this rating, namely Robert D. Johnson.    I have that picture of he and I together somewhere.  John W.S. Channell, who was head of the Diplomatic Mail and Pouch Center could do nothing to help me in 1983 and neither could Senator Jim Sasser.  A side note is a 1970-1971 Employee Evaluation of my brother George E. Payne

Robert D. Johnson was listed in Who's Who in the CIA: "Born: October 7, 1926, Languages: German; 1944 to 1946 Captain in CIC of U.S. Army; from 1951 in Department of State; 1955 Chief of Intelligence Reporting Section, Department of State. Opa: Washington." The State Department Biographic Register indicated Robert D. Johnson became Chief of the Passport Legal Division in 1957. In 1962 he became the Chief Counsel of the Passport Division. Robert D. Johnson told Frances Knight:  "he was not satisfied with the implication in Mr. Rando's (I knew Mr. Rando fairly well - Joe Payne) memorandum that we did NOT have a catch card on OSWALD. No one knows for sure whether we did or did not, and the making of the flat statement has caused many more questions than it has answered."