Cash-Landrum Incident -- Senators Tower and Bentsen: The Political Response
Cash-Landrum Incident -- Senators Tower and Bentsen: The Political Response
The Witnesses' Congressional Appeal
In mid-1981, approximately six months after the incident, Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum contacted their U.S. Senators from Texas. This decision reflected the witnesses' growing conviction that their injuries had been caused by a government vehicle and that the government had a responsibility to provide answers and medical care.
Senator John Tower
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | John Goodwin Tower |
| Party | Republican |
| Serving 1981 | U.S. Senator from Texas; serving since 1961; Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 1981 (when Republicans gained Senate majority) |
| Significance for the case | Tower was not only a Texas senator but chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee -- the committee with the most direct oversight of the military operations the witnesses were alleging. His access to classified military information was exceptional. |
| Response | Sympathetic to the witnesses' situation; directed them toward legal channels; did not initiate a formal investigation or use his committee position to demand answers from the military |
| Later life | Tower died in a plane crash on April 5, 1991 |
Senator Lloyd Bentsen
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Lloyd Millard Bentsen Jr. |
| Party | Democrat |
| Serving 1981 | U.S. Senator from Texas; later Vice Presidential nominee (1988) and Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton |
| Response | Also sympathetic; similarly directed witnesses toward legal channels |
The Bipartisan Failure
That both Texas senators -- one from each party, one of whom chaired the most powerful military oversight committee in the Senate -- responded to the witnesses sympathetically but without taking any investigative action says something significant about the political landscape for UFO-related injuries in 1981.
Tower's position as Senate Armed Services Committee chairman was precisely the perch from which one could demand classified briefings about military programs. His decision not to use that power to investigate the Cash-Landrum case may reflect:
- His acceptance of the military's denial at face value
- A classified briefing that satisfied him without producing public accountability
- A political calculation that pursuing a "UFO case" would be reputationally costly
- Genuine uncertainty about whether the incident was government-caused
The senators' referral to legal channels -- which ultimately led to the lawsuit and its dismissal -- was the path of least political resistance. It provided the witnesses with a formal process without requiring the senators to take any politically costly positions.
