The Grove, however, was not all fun and games. Since its founding in 1872 by the essayist Ambrose Bierce and a handful of San Francisco journalists and artists, The Grove had alway s had a serious aspect as well. It was in a speech at The Grove, for instance, that an Army general named Dwight Eisenhower had warned of a coming conflict in a place called Korea. Later, after Eisenhower had become president, his director of Central Intelligence, Allen Dulles, warned Grove members of the threat of Communism-a refrain H-bomb “father”
Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr.’s, reluctance to grant interviews has lessened considerably in the past few years, thanks in large part to George Shultz. At Bechtel, Shultz’ responsibilities included supervising press relations. “George pressed us to be more open in dealing with the media,” a former Bechtel colleague explains. “He really helped open up the company to the press and encouraged us to begin putting out an annual report.”
Bechtel now publishes its yearly revenues-something it never did in the past-and gives access to reporters it deems “responsible.”
l3
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
Edward Teller reiterated at The Grove a quarter-century later, this time in connection with the Persian Gulf. Through the years, The Grove, whose membership included numerous governors and senators, three former presidents and whole battalions of cabinet members, past and present, had also been the scene of considerable politicking-most notably in 1967, when Grove member Richard Nixon extracted a promise from fellow member Ronald Reagan that he would not be a candidate for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination. 2
But the real business of The Grove, where a favorite pastime was figuring out the corporate connections and interlocking directorates of incoming members, was just that: business. Not business by contract or by deal-both of which were barred on The Grove’s grounds-but business by sheer association, by men spending time with, getting to know and to like each other. “Once you’ve spent three days with someone in an informal situation,” explained John D. Ehrlichman, who attended Grove encampments while a chief aide to Richard Nixon, “you have a relationship-a relationship that opens doors and makes it easier to pick up the phone. “3
Few understood that better than Steve Bechtel, Jr., who, like his father before him, had been coming to The Grove all his adult life.
Nothing could keep him from this annual encampment, for it was friends like those at The Grove-friends in high places-who, as much as anything, had made the Bechtel Group the master builder that it was. It was they who had provided the contacts and the contracts; they who had opened doors which, in turn, had opened other doors; they who had smoothed the way, recommended, endorsedand on occasion, skirted the law. It was they-and the Bechtel organization’s shrewd courtship of them-who had made everything possible: the power, the nearly $2 billion family
