Claim: During wartime, the Seal of the President of the United States is modified so that the eagle's head faces the opposite direction.
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: Seal of the President of the United States
text: changed during times of war, so that the eagle faces the arrows in its left talon. This belief may have arisen because major changes to the seal have coincidentally been made before or after wars – specifically, the 1945 change in the seal, and also the 1916 change in the "flag" (though not the seal) from the right-facing Great Seal to the left-facing presidential seal. This misconception could also have arisen from a comment made by Winston Churchill, who (regarding Truman's redesign of the seal) joked: "Mr. President, with the greatest respect, I would prefer the American eagle's neck to

title: Seal of the President of the United States
text: war, the Seal is replaced with one in which the eagle's head is turned toward the arrows. This is inaccurate. The Dan Brown novel "Deception Point" further perpetuates this misconception with a passage that implies the presidential seal embroidered on the carpet in the White House Oval Office is changed by White House workers. The novel states that one carpet is stored in the basement of the White House, and the workers simply swap the carpets overnight when no one notices. In the film "", there is a variation of the Presidential Seal that shows the eagle clutching a scroll.

title: Seal of the President of the United States
text: that the seal had never had an official definition, meaning there was also no explanation for the eagle facing to its left instead of the typical heraldic custom of having such figures face to their right ("dexter"), which is considered the honorable side. Therefore, he recommended changing the direction the eagle faced, and provided an illustration along with a suggested blazon to be used in an official description. Truman agreed with most of these suggestions, additionally liking that the eagle would now face towards the olive branches (which he felt was symbolic of a nation on the march and dedicated

title: Seal of the Vice President of the United States
text: shield is the same, the eagle's wings are more outstretched, with the wing tips pointing slightly down ("inverted", in heraldic terms). The eagle's right talon holds an olive branch, though with fewer leaves and berries than the depiction used in the 1945 Presidential seal, and the left talon holds a single arrow (rather than the 13 specified in both the Presidential and Great Seals). While the 1945 presidential seal added a ring of 48 stars around the eagle (representing the states), a ring of 13 stars (representing the original 13 colonies) was added to the 1948 vice presidential seal. The

title: Dexter and sinister
text: an eagle clutching an olive branch in its dexter talon and arrows in its sinister talon, indicating the nation's intended inclination to peace. In 1945, one of the changes ordered for the similarly arranged Flag of the President of the United States by President Harry S. Truman was having the eagle face towards its right (dexter, the direction of honor) and thus towards the olive branch. The sides of a shield were originally named for the purpose of military training of knights and soldiers long before heraldry came into use early in the 13th century so the only viewpoint that

title: Seal of the President of the United States
text: in 1846, which also had the eagle facing its left but additionally switched the olive branch and arrows so the head was still looking towards the branch. (Earlier proclamation letterheads, and even the Andrew Jackson White House china, also switched the arrows and branch and had the eagle facing to its left, though they were completely different designs otherwise.) Other influences may have been some U.S. coins and President Grant's china, which used the general design of an arc of clouds though the rest of the details were different. The actual seal used by the president was changed to have

title: Seal of the President of the United States
text: be on a swivel so that it could face the olive branches or the arrows, as the occasion might demand". Also furthering this misconception was an episode of "The West Wing" entitled "What Kind of Day Has It Been?", aired in 2000. Character Admiral Fitzwallace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, observed that the presidential seal in the center of the Oval Office carpet contained a shield bearing a bald eagle clutching the olive branch in its right talons and arrows in its left. The eagle's head was turned toward the olive branch. Fitzwallace mentioned that in times of

title: Seal of the Vice President of the United States
text: of the national coat of arms; it shows an eagle with wings "displayed and inverted" (i.e., wing tips pointing down), with its head turned toward dexter (its own right). In its right talon is an olive branch, and its left holds six arrows (just like the incorrectly drawn 1841 Great Seal die). The shield has the usual blue chief and thirteen white and red stripes. At the top is the legend , and the bottom has . No other impression of a vice presidential seal is known prior to the 1948 version. The Presidential seal and flag were redesigned in

title: Seal of the President of the United States
text: who followed the general arrangement of the Hayes arms but used considerable artistic license with the details. The eagle is substantially altered, with differently-shaped wings and thickly feathered legs. The shape of the shield was different, and the stars were arranged differently, with all stars appearing above the scroll using an arc of 10 stars with three more directly underneath. The scroll's inscription was . President Truman later felt that it was not right for people to walk over it, so when the White House was renovated again in 1948 he had the seal removed and placed over the door

title: Colonel (United States)
text: of arrows in its talons. However, in simplification of the Great Seal image, the insignia lacks the scroll in the eagle's mouth and the rosette above its head. On the Great Seal, the olive branch is always clutched in the eagle's right-side talons, while the bundle of arrows is always clutched in the left-side talons. The head of the eagle faces towards the olive branch, rather than the arrows, advocating peace rather than war. As a result, the head of the eagle always faces towards the viewer's left. However, when worn as a single insignia with no matching pair, such

title: Bald eagle
text: 1782, the Continental Congress adopted the design for the Great Seal of the United States depicting a bald eagle grasping 13 arrows and an olive branch with its talons. The bald eagle appears on most official seals of the U.S. government, including the presidential seal, the presidential flag, and in the logos of many U.S. federal agencies. Between 1916 and 1945, the presidential flag (but not the seal) showed an eagle facing to its left (the viewer's right), which gave rise to the urban legend that the flag is changed to have the eagle face towards the olive branch in

title: Resolute desk
text: Roosevelt ordered a hinged front panel for the knee hole opening in order to hide his leg braces. The panel features the presidential seal—one of only three of the ninety-seven in the White House that have the eagle's head turned towards the 13 arrows in the eagle's left talon, as opposed to the now-official arrangement with the eagle turned towards the olive branch in the right talon with the 13 leaves. The second modification was done to raise the desk by adding a separate, uniform base called a plinth. The first time a base was made for the "Resolute" Desk

title: Seal of the President of the United States
text: State. The envelope has a small circular red wax seal, with the upper portion appearing to have a circle of cloud puffs similar to the Great Seal, with rays of a glory. However, the rest of the design has been obliterated, so nothing further can be determined, and no other uses of this seal have been found. The documented history begins in 1850, when a seal was made after a crude drawing submitted by President Fillmore. It depicted an eagle "displayed with wings inverted", i.e. with its wingtips down, holding an olive branch and three arrows in its talons. The

title: Seal of the President of the United States
text: sent to the War and Navy Departments for comment. In a memorandum dated August 22, 1945 Arthur E. DuBois, the chief of the Heraldic Section of the Army's Office of the Quartermaster General (forerunner to the Army Institute of Heraldry), made several suggestions. He recommended making the eagle in full color per heraldic tradition (the presidential flag of the time depicted the eagle as entirely white), and recommended against using 48 stars, believing that flags and seals should not be subject to external changes such as adding additional states and instead suggested a ring of 13 stars. DuBois also noted

title: What Kind of Day Has It Been
text: carnage, a Secret Service agent can be heard on the radio, asking "Who's been hit?! Who's been hit?!" While waiting with Bartlet in the Oval office for news on the missing pilot, Admiral Fitzwallace makes an observation on the presidential seal. The eagle on the seal holds an olive branch in its right talons and arrows in its left, and faces towards the olive branch. Yet when Congress declares war, he says, the eagle faces the arrows. This is an urban legend; though the design of the seal has changed over time, President Truman decided by Executive Order 9646, in

title: Seal of the United States Senate
text: with a shield on its breast, olive branches in its left talon, and arrows in its right. Above the eagle were rays of light emanating from clouds, representing the emergence of the new nation. Encircling the design was the legend . While the design was clearly based on the Great Seal of the United States, the engraving was distinctly different. It had a spade shield instead of the more familiar shape on the Great Seal, and the eagle had no scroll in its beak. The design of the clouds and light rays was also different, and the inscription showed it

title: Seal of the President of the United States
text: was the first to use the presidential coat of arms on White House invitations, and the design used was the direct precursor to the modern version. Its first appearance was in April 1877, about six weeks after his inauguration. The eagle's wings were shown "displayed" (wingtips up), with an arc of cloud puffs between the wings, and thirteen stars scattered below the arc and surrounding a scroll reading "E Pluribus Unum". The eagle's head was turned to its left toward the arrows for the first time, a feature which would last until 1945. The eagle itself was similar to the

title: Seal of the President of the United States
text: shield is essentially the same as the Great Seal, with a blue chief and red and white stripes and the eagle facing to its right, though there were nineteen stripes and the outermost stripes were red, both unlike the Great Seal. Thirty-one stars were distributed above and around the eagle, indicating that the seal dates from after when California became the 31st state in September 1850. It was made by Edward Stabler, a farmer and postmaster in Sandy Spring, Maryland, who had earlier made seals for the Senate, House of Representatives, and several government departments. Stabler had also made a

title: Seal of the President of the United States
text: of the Right LIVE DVD, another altered version of the seal is shown (the olive and arrows replaced with bleeding gas nozzles, and the eagle replaced with a skull). It is also used by rap group The Diplomats as their trademark logo, except that the olive branch and arrows are usually replaced by two guns and the word "Diplomats" is across the center of the eagle. In the video game "Metal Wolf Chaos", the titular powered armor is piloted by President Michael Wilson, the protagonist, and is adorned with large images of the seal, although modified from the real-life version.

title: Flag of the Vice President of the United States
text: President Truman issued to redefine the coat of arms, seal and flag of the Vice President. Because the seal was to use the same design, the coat of arms was made distinctive from the President's. While still a derivative of the national coat of arms, the eagle's wings are more outstretched, with the wing tips pointing slightly down. The eagle's right talon holds a smaller olive branch, and the left talon holds a single arrow. The eagle emblem is surrounded by a ring of thirteen stars (representing the original 13 colonies). As with previous vice presidential flags, the background color