SESSION V 247 said, ''We're having a meeting. Otera has blown his top. The whole thing is out in the newspapers." The cat was now out of the bag. EISENBUD: On what day was this? LANGHAM: This must have been the let of March, somewhere along inthere. It had occurred the l6th of January, something like six weeks later. : Part of my job with the Embassy was to read all the newspapers. I could not read Spanish, but I would get translations of every little article on which I was ta advise as to technical accuracy or as to whether it reflected in any way on the American image, When asked for my opinion of the Otera article I replied that it was excellent and that I wished 1 had written it myself. No one appreciated my humor, The article was a good one and [ do wish I had written it myseif. But it just seems that when the American image is involved, people have no sense of humor whatsoever, FRZMONT-SMITH: LANGHAM: Did they send you home the next day? No, but I wasn't invited to go on Duke's swimming party! [Laughter] In fact, I wasn't even invited to advise him on that. I might have advised him not todo it because it drew adverse criticism. I've heard it criticized especially by the English. FREMONT-SMITH: What was the criticism? LANGHAM: The Ambassador and the Minister of Industry went down to Palomares and had a press conference on the beach, then went in swimming even though the temperature was 54 degrees, to show there was no hazard. This was considered by some to bea stunt to show people that this wasn't going to hurt the iourism, .The Spanish Government's greatest concern seemed to be to find the lost weapon, because of the possible impact that this could presumably have on the development of this area as a tourist resort, It's going along fine, now. If anything, I think now it has received a little added push. The people seem to be back to normal. We're following them to see if they have any plutonium in them. So far it appears that they do not, and [ think this is an incident which in terms of im‘portance will not even be a grain of sand on the beaches in time. FREMONT-SMITH: How long was it before the fourth weapon was dredged up from the ocean?