English: John Steinbeck and son John visit LBJ at the oval office in the White House. To the left is 19 year-old John Steinbeck, IV with his father, John Steinbeck, III. The senior Steinbeck, a friend and sometime speech-writer for LBJ (they had first met in 1963), has written the president to ask on his son's behalf that he would be posted in Vietnam. The 4-minute meeting takes place on Monday, May 16, 1966, shortly after the younger John has finished bootcamp, and a few weeks before his departure for Vietnam.^[1] The visit is to say thank you in person, and to give the younger John the chance to shake the president's hand.