With the White House so confining, every American president deserves a retreat - a place for relaxation - where the presidential family can take walks without being accosted by photographers.
Camp David, Md., the official presidential retreat, has had surprisingly little publicity since it was claimed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the summer of 1942. In fact, a "60 Minutes" crew got into some trouble recently when they tried to film it.Guards quickly confiscated all the cameras except one, enabling Andy Rooney to show a national TV audience the entrance road and the guards rushing out to stop him.
Disgusted, Rooney argued Camp David is a governmental boondoggle, especially since President Clinton has rarely used it. In fact, he did use it during the holidays and again at the end of January after his European trip. Since he lacks a family home of his own, it seems ideal for him.
Actually, Camp David was originally called Shangri-La by FDR, who named it after the secret paradise in James Hilton's novel, "Lost Horizon." The name was changed by Dwight Eisenhower as a tribute to his grandson.
Admiral Ross McIntyre, the White House physician, who was concerned about the president's declining health, suggested finding a place nearby that FDR could use for short vacations. Roosevelt loved it and found his chief relaxation there for the balance of his life.
The rustic camp is located in the National Park Service's 8-million-acre Catoctin reserve, 75 miles northwest of the nation's capital. Roosevelt's Shangri-La began as a tourist camp, built in the early 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration for rental to vacationers.
At Catoctin, three camps were built with squarish cabins of slab oak, situated near central swimming pools. By early 1942, two of the camps were being used for military training purposes, but McIntyre reserved the third for the president.
Three of the slab houses were pulled together in one, creating for Roosevelt a combined living room and dining room, four bedrooms, a kitchen and butler's pantry, and two baths, the largest of them adjacent to the president's bedroom.
On one side was a screened porch with a flagstone floor and a mountain view. The interior was simple. Framed political cartoons on rough, unpainted walls were scattered haphazardly.
The retreat was practical for FDR, because he could be back at his desk within two hours - and he had a direct line to the White House.
So he often went there on weekends to work and take in the beauty of the Catoctin Valley. He kept a log book record of each visit. Unfortunately, Eleanor Roosevelt never visited Shangri-La.
All presidents since FDR have found a certain peacefulness there - personified by Jimmy Carter's Camp David accords with Israel's Prime Minister Begin and Egypt's President Sadat.
Aspen Lodge is now traditionally reserved for the president, with several other cottages designed for his visitors. There are swimming pools, tennis courts, a golf course, a trampoline, a bowling alley, plus outlets for security, communications, military, medical and press personnel.
During his recent visit there, Clinton played pinball and did some cross-country skiing.
Carter called it "a truly beautiful place with the cottages all named for trees, and paths snuggled on top and down one side of a small mountain and sheltered by a thick growth of stately oak, poplar, ash, locust, hickory and maple trees . . . the close proximity of the living quarters engenders an atmosphere of both isolation and intimacy, conducive to easing tension and encouraging informality."
Just what the president needs.