Sneaking around

President Franklin D. Roosevelt used a body double to sneak away for a meeting with his British counterpart during World War II. President Johnson on the hush paid a visit to U.S. troops at Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam.

President Bush's covert trip to Iraq on Thanksgiving, when Americans were told he was at his ranch eating turkey and watching football, caught many off guard -- that prime mission, accomplished.

Historically, the White House often has kept details close to the vest on risky travel by presidents and sprung surprise last-minute trips on presidential entourages.

Not as often has the White House openly deceived Americans as it did in saying Bush was in one place when he was someplace else.

For example, when President Clinton flew into Pakistan in March 2000, despite concerns about his safety, he performed a sleight of hand of sorts, switching planes during his departure from India and taking an unmarked plane to Islamabad.

But his destination was known and White House officials did not lie about his whereabouts.

FDR was a master of deception, holding a secret rendezvous in submarine-heavy waters. At one point, he had an impostor wave to crowds from the presidential yacht Potomac while FDR really was meeting Churchill off the coast of Newfoundland in August 1941.

The two discussed their joint war ambitions and what they called the Atlantic Charter. It outlined a vision of a world of free trade, self-governed nations and military disarmament, the model that became post-World War II Europe.

In January 1943, FDR left the United States and arrived in Morocco without anyone knowing. The trip was not disclosed to the public until he was already back in Washington.

Other leaders have pulled off elaborate sneak trips too.

In 1952, President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower left New York on a 47-hour flight to Korea, under cover of darkness and great secrecy, in an attempt to expedite the end of the Korean War, which he would inherit in the White House.

Officials apologized to the sleepy-eyed entourage for not offering coffee. They said staff had to be kept to a minimum to maintain the confidential nature of Ike's trip.

He traveled in planes under false identifications and numbers to guard against any leak that he was en route. Only President Syngman Rhee of South Korea had any notice of the general's arrival.

But while Americans were none the wiser, Eisenhower was greeted in Korea with banners and handmade signs marking his unannounced -- but not unnoticed -- arrival.

Johnson flew to the huge U.S. military complex at Cam Ranh Bay, where he spent 2 1/2 hours, the same length of time Bush spent in Iraq, and confined his visit to the base, as Bush did. The final decision had not been made until the day before, and arrangements were made in secret. Gen. William Westmoreland had urged Johnson to make the trip.

In October 1862, President Lincoln made a surprise visit to Gen. George McClellan at the freshly bloodied battlefield of Antietam in Maryland, where Union and Confederate soldiers had fought to a standoff.