INTRODUCTION
The Ford Vice
Presidential Papers include materials created and received by Gerald R. Ford
and his staff between October 13,
1973 and August 9, 1974. During the first two months Ford was still
House Minority Leader, but his staff decided to begin the Vice Presidential
file upon nomination rather than waiting until he was sworn in. Therefore the collection documents the last
few weeks of Ford's Congressional career and his eight months as Vice
President.
This description
of the Vice Presidential Papers consists of sections on the Ford Vice
Presidency, the organization and duties of his staff, the arrangement and
content of the papers, and related materials held by the Library.
The Ford Vice
Presidency
Upon the
resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew on October 10, 1973, President
Richard Nixon began soliciting suggestions for a new Vice President. After only two days, he announced the
nomination of Congressman Gerald R. Ford.
Under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution this nomination required
confirmation by both houses of Congress.
Eight days later
President Nixon fired Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox in the
"Saturday Night Massacre."
Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus
resigned over the Cox firing. Because of
the outrage over the dismissal of Archibald Cox, many members of Congress
became convinced that the new Vice President would soon succeed to the
Presidency. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation conducted a detailed investigation of Ford's background and
turned the results over to Congress.
Members of Congress questioned Ford carefully and examined his record
more closely than they might normally have done for one of their colleagues. The final votes in support of the Ford
nomination were 92‑3 in the Senate and 387‑35 in the House. On December 6, 1973, before a joint session
of Congress, Gerald Ford took the oath of office as the 40th Vice President of
the United States.
The only Vice
Presidential duty provided in the Constitution is serving as President of the
Senate, but President Nixon soon assigned additional duties to Mr. Ford. He attended meetings of the Cabinet and
National Security Council and served as Vice Chairman of the Domestic Council,
Chairman of the Committee on the Right of Privacy, and Chairman of the Energy
Action Group. Ford's participation in
most of these organizations consisted merely of attending meetings, but under
his leadership the Domestic Council Committee on the Right of Privacy began
operations, hired a staff, prepared several studies, and presented
proposals. The Vice President chose his
former law partner from Grand Rapids, Philip Buchen,
to head the Privacy Committee staff.
During the 1974
congressional and gubernatorial campaigns, Vice President Ford served as
principal party spokesman making numerous trips to assist Republican candidates
for office. While Vice President, Gerald
Ford represented the administration by making over 200 formal speeches and
traveling approximately 110,000 miles.
The Vice
President also added to his knowledge of foreign policy and intelligence
matters through daily briefings from the C.I.A., regular meetings with
Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, and weekly briefings from National
Security advisor Henry Kissinger or his deputy.
While Ford was
learning his new job, President Nixon's situation continued to
deteriorate. In a special election on
February 18, 1974, Richard Vander Veen won Ford's old
House seat -- the first Democratic victory in Michigan's Fifth Congressional
District in 64 years. The results of
this and other special Congressional elections in the spring of 1974 weakened
the President's political position.
On May 9, 1974
the House Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings against President
Nixon. Philip Buchen,
unknown to Ford, soon began the planning for a Presidential transition. In late July the Judiciary Committee voted
three articles of impeachment against the President. Faced with a rapidly deteriorating situation,
the President resigned on August 9, 1974 and Vice President Gerald R. Ford
became the 38th President of the United States.
The Ford Vice
Presidential Staff
Until Gerald
Ford's confirmation as Vice President on December 6, 1973, his staff consisted
of the dozen or so individuals who had served him for many years as a
Congressman. During the confirmation
hearings several old friends and associates volunteered their assistance and
President Nixon also made available the White House speechwriters and advance staff
to assist Ford on trips.
After December
6, Vice President Ford's staff grew rapidly.
Three key people from his Congressional staff, Robert Hartmann, Mildred
Leonard, and Paul Miltich, became Chief of Staff,
Personal Assistant and Press Secretary, respectively. Later that month Ford hired William Casselman as Legal Counsel, Warren Rustand
to handle scheduling and advance work, Kenneth BeLieu
for legislative affairs, and Bill Roberts as Deputy Press Secretary. The military aides, several clerical and
administrative people, and Walter Mote as Assistant to the President of the
Senate were holdovers from the Agnew staff.
Vice President
Ford continued to make use of the White House speechwriters and advance staff
during the first two months of his Vice Presidency, but that arrangement ended
after he delivered a controversial speech supporting the President to the
American Farm Bureau Federation on January 15, 1974. Ford received much criticism for that speech
from the media and from some of his old friends and supporters. He then created his own speechwriting staff,
hiring Milton Friedman to handle the initial drafting of speeches.
By February
1974, Ford had a staff of over sixty persons and was no longer dependent on
White House assistance. Richard Burress had replaced Kenneth BeLieu
in handling legislative affairs and he had hired John Marsh and Gwen Anderson
to handle defense matters and political liaison respectively.
The sudden
growth of Ford's staff led to administrative tangles owing partly to Chief of
Staff Robert Hartmann's lack of administrative experience. The Vice President decided to hire L. William
Seidman of Grand Rapids to study the organization of
the Vice Presidential staff and recommend improvement. Seidman's
study led to the implementation of a new staff organization in the spring of
1974 (see next page for a copy of the organization chart).
Under the new
organization, the Chief of Staff handled liaison with the senior White House
staff, Cabinet officers, agency heads, state governors, Congressional
leadership, and the Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Hartmann also supervised personnel matters
and the Vice President's personal staff, and had editorial oversight of all
speeches, remarks and formal statements.
The reorganization
plan divided the operational staff into three areas, each headed by an
Assistant to the Vice President. Richard
Burress was in charge of legislative and domestic
affairs and had responsibility for liaison with the executive branch, members of
Congress, and state and local government.
John Marsh handled defense and international affairs, including liaison
with the State Department, the Defense Department, and National Security
Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Veterans Administration, and
foreign embassies. He also supervised
the work of the military assistants and had responsibility for Vice
Presidential travel and logistic support.
Bill Seidman assumed responsibility for
administration and services. He
supervised five Deputy Assistants who handled scheduling and appointments,
liaison with the Republican party and other non‑governmental
organizations, administration, media affairs, and research.
The Ford Vice
Presidential Papers
Because Ford
remained a Congressman until December 6, the organization of the Ford papers
did not immediately change. His
secretaries continued to file most correspondence and other documents in the
General and Case File and the Issues File.
As had always been the case, Robert Hartmann and Paul Miltich maintained separate files relating to their areas
of responsibility.
After January 1,
1974, the staff divided the General and Case File into the General File and the
Case/Individual File and seven other staff members established separate
files. The General File, the Issues File
and the Case/Individual File served as a "central files" for much of
the routine correspondence. The staff
files contain working papers and correspondence relating to the specific
responsibilities of each staff member.
In addition, the Vice Presidential papers originally included
approximately 53 linear feet of public opinion mail including correspondence
answered by form and letters never answered.
The Ford Library has retained a small sample of this public opinion mail
and disposed of the rest.
The Vice
Presidential papers document in detail the work of Gerald Ford and his staff in
answering mail, handling constituent casework, scheduling and advancing trips,
speechwriting, handling administrative and personnel matters, relating with
Republican party organizations, campaigning for Republican candidates, meeting
with foreign and diplomatic officials, and liaison with the Congress. There is little here to document the less
public aspects of the Vice Presidency such as the many briefings received by
Ford, his meetings with President Nixon, or the meetings of the Domestic
Council, the Cabinet, the National Security Council or other bodies on which
Ford served. Little material on the
Watergate investigations and impeachment appears, with the exception of public
opinion in correspondence, references in speeches, and occasional items in the
staff files.
The Michigan
Historical Collections of the University of Michigan received five cubic feet
of Vice Presidential Papers from Gerald Ford in 1974, as part of a large
shipment of Congressional Papers. The
University transferred these materials to the Ford Library under terms of the
Ford letter of gift to the U.S. Government in 1977. The Library received the rest of the Vice
Presidential Papers directly from President Ford.
Related
Materials (February 1995):
The Ford
Scrapbook Collection includes three volumes of newspaper clippings, programs
and occasional documents concerning his activities during the Vice
Presidency. John Marsh's White House
files contain a small file of Ford's schedules and telephone logs from late
July and early August 1974. The Robert
Hartmann Papers contain 4.4 linear feet of additional materials from the Vice
Presidency. Barry Roth's unprocessed
White House files contain his chronological file for the Vice Presidency and
Executive Protective Service appointment records for the Vice President's
office.
The Betty Ford
Papers include her correspondence and other papers relating to her activities
in 1973 and 1974 while her husband served as Vice President. Only selected portions of that collection are
open to research yet, however.
Significant
quantities of audiovisual materials and gifts and memorabilia from the Vice
Presidency can be found in the appropriate units of the Ford Library and
Museum. The Ford Library book collection
has The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, U.S. News and
World Report, Fortune, and the National Journal on microfilm
for all or part of the Ford Vice Presidency.
A vertical file of clippings, pamphlets, magazine articles and other
material on Ford's career is also available.
Series Descriptions
1-9 Correspondence
Control (Index) File, 1973-74 (3.6 Linear Feet)
The Control File
consists of carbon copies of all outgoing letters arranged alphabetically by
name of the correspondent. The file
location of the complete correspondence is written in the upper right-hand
corner.
This file
indexes all mail individually answered by Vice President Ford or his staff, but
does not index mail answered with a form letter or unanswered mail. In addition, it does not index letters of
congratulations received by Ford upon his nomination and confirmation (some are
in the General File and others in the Public Opinion Mail).
Before January
1974, the staff filed constituent casework in the General File. They did not change any of the control sheets
when they removed the case files and made them into a separate series. When the Ford Library received the Vice
Presidential Papers, there were separate control files for 1973 and 1974. Archivists combined these two sequences
during processing.
The Ford Library
staff has not reviewed this file. For
that reason researchers should consult with an archivist to arrange for the
review of those sections they wish to use.
Compiled by
William McNitt, December 1979
10-22 Issues File, 1973‑74 (5.2 Linear Feet)
The Issues File
contains correspondence between Ford and his staff, the general public, and
government officials on a variety of topics concerning the Federal
government. Among the larger files are
defense, the economy, health, labor, social security, and taxes. The Multiple Issues segment contains
correspondence on more than one subject.
The Presidential file consists entirely of correspondence in support of
or against President Nixon. The Vice
Presidential Endorsement file contains letters to Congressman Peter Rodino and Senator Howard Cannon from other Congressmen and
labor and religious leaders endorsing Ford for Vice President.
Staff members
drafted acknowledgments to the correspondence for the Vice President's
signature. On occasions when Ford was
out of town, various staff members signed the responses. The staff referred many letters to other Federal
departments and agencies to draft a response for the Vice President's
signature. The series is arranged
alphabetically by subject.
Compiled by
Kenneth G. Hafeli, December 1979
23-36 Case/Individual File, 1973‑74 (5.6
Linear Feet)
The bulk of this
file consists of routine requests by constituents for assistance in dealing
with government agencies, along with the responses from the Ford office and the
agencies. The requestors asked the Vice
President to intervene in cases involving missing or incorrect pension or
social security checks, attempts to qualify for medical and education benefits,
personnel matters (especially in the armed services), and other problems.
Also included in
this file are occasional unanswered letters concerning matters other than
casework. Apparently the staff filed
such letters in this series when no appropriate category could be found in the
General File or the Issues File.
This file is
arranged alphabetically by the name of the person needing assistance or, in the
case of the unanswered letters, by the name of the correspondent. The Ford Library has not reviewed this
file. For that reason researchers should
consult with an archivist to arrange for the review of those segments they wish
to use.
Compiled by
William McNitt, November 1979
37-58 General File, 1973‑74 (8.8 Linear Feet)
The General File
served as a central file for correspondence between Ford (or his staff), the
public, and government officials on topics of a routine nature. While the staff handled much of the material,
the Vice President or his personal assistant Mildred Leonard dealt with
correspondence from personal acquaintances.
This series also contains correspondence and reports concerning
organizations to which the Vice President belonged by statute, among them the
Domestic Council Committee on the Right of Privacy, the Board of Regents of the
Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.
Among the larger
files in the series are those concerning Vice Presidential appearances,
congratulatory messages to and from the Vice President, greetings, staff
positions, recommendations, Republican campaigns, requests for autographs and
photographs, and thank you letters. The General File is an amalgam of a smaller
subject file, the Ford Personal File, and the Vice Presidential Official
File. It is arranged alphabetically by
subject.
Compiled by Kenneth G. Hafeli,
December 1979
59-71 & 206 Office of the Assistant for Defense and International Affairs:
John O. Marsh
Files, 1973‑74 (5.2 Linear Feet)
The Assistant
for Defense and International Affairs was John O. Marsh, a former Congressman
from Virginia and Assistant Secretary of Defense. He joined the Ford staff on January 29, 1974,
and remained until moving to the White House staff in August.
Marsh's duties
included collecting and evaluating information concerning national security,
maintaining classified materials, supervising travel and logistics, and
monitoring defense and foreign affairs legislation in Congress. In addition, his office served as liaison to
the Departments of Defense and State, the National Security Council, the
intelligence community, the Veterans Administration, international
organizations, foreign missions resident in Washington, and foreign visitors. The Vice President's military aides also
worked out of this office, handling much of the routine work such as drafting
replies to correspondence.
The materials
consist of correspondence, speeches, personnel files, briefing materials
concerning foreign affairs and diplomatic visits, schedules, programs, flight
manifests and itineraries, and billing records.
They are organized in six subseries: Subject
File, Chronological File, Meetings with Foreign and Diplomatic Officials, Vice
Presidential Events, Thank You Letters for Vice Presidential Trips, and Trip
File.
Compiled by Kenneth G. Hafeli,
September 1979
59‑64
& 206 Subject File, 1973‑74. (2.2 linear feet)
Correspondence,
memoranda, speeches and resumes, relating to defense issues and military and
foreign affairs, including the Central Intelligence Agency, National Guard and
Reserve Affairs, Korea, MIA‑POW, Vice Presidential Correspondence and
Vice Presidential Remarks.
Arranged
alphabetically by subject.
64Chronological
File, 1973‑74. (0.2 linear feet)
Carbon
copies of outgoing correspondence and memoranda, written by Marsh or his
military aides, with an occasional incoming letter or background item attached.
Arranged
chronologically.
65 Vice Presidential
Meetings with Foreign and Diplomatic Officials, 1973‑74. (0.4 linear feet)
Memorandums
of conversations, memos, and briefing materials related to meetings between
Ford and foreign heads of state, diplomats, and ambassadors. Most of the material deals with foreign
affairs, with only a small amount concerning domestic affairs appearing.
Arranged
chronologically.
66‑67 Vice Presidential Events, 1973‑74. (0.6 linear feet)
Briefing
memos, schedules, and occasional correspondence relating to requests for and
preparations involving appearances made by the Vice President.
Arranged
chronologically.
67‑68 Thank You Letters for Vice
Presidential Trips, 1973‑74. (0.6
linear feet)
Lists
of persons to be thanked for their assistance on Vice Presidential trips,
carbon copies of letters sent, and an occasional program from a particular
event.
Arranged
chronologically by date of trip.
69‑71 Trip File, 1973‑74. (1.2 linear feet)
Schedules,
passenger lists, flight manifests, flight itineraries, briefing notes, news
media billings, in flight expense forms, seating chart from trips made by the
Vice President, and correspondence to media organizations requesting
reimbursement for passage aboard Air Force II.
Arranged
chronologically by date of trip.
72-73 Office of the Assistant for Legislative
and Domestic Affairs:
Richard T. Burress
Files, 1974 (0.8 Feet)
Richard T. Burress joined the Vice President's staff to handle
legislative and domestic affairs in February 1974, replacing Kenneth E. BeLieu. After Ford
became President, Burress served as an assistant to
Vice President designate Rockefeller until November
1, 1974, when he returned to the Hoover Institution as associate director
and senior Fellow.
Burress' primary duties
were collecting and independently evaluating information on domestic issues
from Congress, the Executive Branch, state and local governments, and boards,
committees, and commissions with which the Vice President was associated. He appears to have assembled much of the
material to help Ford respond to questions or expressions of opinion from
members of the public.
Materials
include correspondence, copies of letters sent by the Vice President, internal
memoranda, proposals, pamphlets, statements of purpose, briefing papers, and
printed materials on such topics as health care, the role of minorities,
energy, the economy, and administrative matters. The papers are arranged alphabetically by
subject.
The files of
assistant to the President of the Senate, Walter Mote, and the legal counsel
for the Vice President, William Casselman, contain
related materials.
Compiled by Christine Ferretti,
May 1979
74-99 Office of the Legal Counsel:
William E. Casselman
Files, 1973‑74 (10 Linear Feet)
William E. Casselman joined the Vice Presidential staff in December
1973 after serving as general counsel for the General Services Administration
since 1971. Casselman
served as legal adviser throughout Ford's tenure as Vice President. He then became Counsel to the President in the
Ford White House. His staff during the
Vice Presidency consisted of legal assistant Barry Roth and staff assistant
Brenda Wilson. This office advised Ford
on questions of administrative and fiscal law, including personnel regulations,
security, archival procedures, appropriations authority, standards of conduct,
litigation, and recommendations on appointments to the federal judiciary.
Casselman also shared
responsibility with Richard Burress, Assistant for
Legislative and Domestic Affairs, for domestic policy analysis and provided
support to Ford in his role as vice chairman of the Domestic Council. Casselman
coordinated issue development within the Domestic Council, helped resolve
policy differences between federal agencies and the Council and assisted the
Vice President in developing and addressing issues of interest. The office acted as liaison between
departments and agencies and the Vice President on domestic policy, providing a
source of information and analysis independent of the Domestic Council.
These files
reflect Casselman's responsibilities for providing
the Vice President with legal services and advice on domestic policy
issues. A subject file documents his
work on privacy legislation, employee standards of conduct, energy problems, American
Indian rights and similar issues that the Vice President addressed. The official correspondence file contains
copies of outgoing correspondence and information on the daily operations of
the office, personnel changes and other matters of secondary importance. There is considerable overlap and duplication
in the two series. A third series
contains photocopies from General Services Administration office files
concerning purchases of office furniture in certain GSA regions.
Other papers on
domestic policy issues during the Vice Presidential period may be found in the
files of the Assistant to the Vice President for Legislative and Domestic
Affairs and in the various Domestic Council collections of the Presidential
period. The files of Chief of Staff Robert
Hartmann contain extensive information on Ford's confirmation hearings.
Compiled by Paul
Conway, September 1979
74‑88 Subject File, 1973‑74. (5.8 linear feet)
Correspondence
and memoranda to and from Vice Presidential staff, federal officials and the
public; draft speeches and reports, studies, court cases and other papers
reflecting Casselman's responsibilities for providing
legal advice on administrative policy matters.
Also included are materials on Casselman's
activities concerning domestic policy, including drafting legislation on
health, energy and personal privacy.
Carbon copies of some outgoing memoranda and correspondence also appear
in the official correspondence series.
Arranged
alphabetically by subject.
88‑93 Official Correspondence, 1973‑74. (2.0 linear feet)
Copies of
outgoing correspondence and memoranda with attached reports and draft replies;
printed materials, notes and other papers exchanged between Casselman
and Ford, federal officials, assistants and the public concerning routine
administrative matters, scheduling and domestic policy issues such as energy,
American Indians and sports. Also
included is information on personnel changes, Vice Presidential archives,
standards of conduct, privacy and other legal matters. Much of the material is unique to this
series, but duplicate correspondence, memoranda and reports are also in the
subject file. Cross-reference headings
typed in the upper right corner of covering letters are supposed to indicate
subject file locations for the full correspondence, but the system is generally
unreliable.
Arranged
chronologically.
93‑98 GSA Furniture Purchases File,
1970-73. (2.2 linear feet)
Copies of
correspondence, supply, requisition and bidding forms, contracts and other
papers retained in Casselman's files after Ford's
confirmation hearings. The material
primarily relates to purchases of Steelcase, Inc.
furniture and office supplies for placement in various General Services
Administration regional facilities and in Ford's congressional l district
offices. Also included is some general
correspondence with GSA on furniture purchases and supply requisition.
Arranged
alphabetically by subject.
99 [Box empty due to
reorganization of the collection]
100-107 Office of the Assistant to the
President of the Senate:
Walter L. Mote Files, 1973‑74
(3.2 Linear Feet)
Walter L. Mote,
Assistant to the President of the Senate, was a carry‑over from the staff
of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. He
remained on the Vice Presidential staff until January 1975, when he retired
from government service. His staff
consisted of H. Spofford Canfield, Josephine Wilson,
and several secretaries.
This office
handled legislative mail, compiled twice daily briefing sheets on Congressional
activity, maintained records for Vice Presidential scheduling, fulfilled
autograph and photograph requests, and arranged White House tours. They also kept the Speaker of the House,
Architect of the Capitol, and other Congressional officials informed of Ford's
activities in his role as President of the Senate and notified Senators and
Congressmen of Vice Presidential visits to their home districts.
Mote's subject
file contains correspondence from Senators and Congressmen, morning and evening
reports on the activities of the Senate, and referrals on correspondence sent
to the Vice President concerning other departments and agencies. His case file contains constituent
correspondence dealing with a variety of subjects.
Vice
Presidential schedules are also located in the files of L. William Seidman and Warren S. Rustand. The files of the Assistant for Legislative
and Domestic Affairs concern contacts with Congress on specific issues. Later material on activities related to the
Congress can be found in the White House files of Max Friedersdorf.
Compiled by Kenneth G. Hafeli,
September 1979
100‑103 Subject File, 1973‑74. (1.6 linear feet)
Correspondence,
invitations, requests for endorsements, appointments, autographs, and
photographs; referrals from various departments and agencies, drafts of
correspondence, daily reports on House proceedings, morning and evening
reports, and the Vice President's daily schedule. The material covers a variety of subjects,
including condolences, congratulations, education, energy, housing, social
security, and veterans affairs.
Arranged
alphabetically.
104‑10
