Gerald R. Ford Library 1000 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2114 www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov

White House Operations Office

A. JAMES REICHLEY

Consultant, White House Staff:

Files, 1976

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

The materials document Reichley's work on the 1976 presidential campaign, including general campaign strategy, development of long‑range goals and policies, the presidential debates, and statements of President Ford's position on specific issues.

QUANTITY

2.0 linear feet (ca. 4,000 pages)

DONOR

Gerald R. Ford (accession number 77-107)

ACCESS

Open. Some items are temporarily restricted under terms of the donor's deed of gift, a copy of which is available on request, or under National Archives and Records Administration general restrictions (36 CFR 1256).

COPYRIGHT

Gerald Ford has donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain.

Prepared by Dennis Daellenbach, May 1984

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

A. James Reichley

1929 Born, St. Clair, Pennsylvania

1946‑50 B.A. University of Pennsylvania

1951‑53 U.S. Army, Counter Intelligence Corps

1953‑54 Technical editor, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia

1955‑56 M.A. Harvard University

1957‑61 Political reporter, Pottsville Republican, Pottsville, Pennsylvania

1961‑62 Legislative Assistant, Sen. Kenneth Keating of New York

1963‑67 Assistant to the Governor, Gov. William Scranton of Pennsylvania

1967‑72 Associate Editor, Fortune magazine

1970 Consultant, President's Commission on Student Unrest

1972‑76 Board of Editors, Fortune magazine

1976 Consultant, White House staff

1977‑present Senior Fellow, Department of Governmental Service, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.

Author: The Burying of Kingsmith, Houghton Mifflin, 1957 (novel)

Hail to the Chief, Houghton Mifflin, 1960 (novel)

States in Crisis, University of North Carolina Press, 1964

Conservatives in an Age of Change: The Nixon and Ford Administrations, Brookings Institution, 1981

INTRODUCTION

The files of James Reichley cover the period May‑October 1976 when he served as a political consultant for White House Chief of Staff Richard Cheney.

A journalist with practical experience in the political arena, Reichley assisted Cheney with President Ford's primary and general election campaigns. His broad responsibility was to consider long range goals and policies, and to generate new ideas. In particular, Reichley produced papers on campaign strategy and drafted statements expressing the President's position on a variety of issues. Although under the direction of Michael Raoul‑Duval, Cheney's political assistant, Reichley usually worked most closely with Cheney himself.

As part of his work on general campaign strategy, Reichley was involved with outlining the long term "vision" of the Ford administration. This involvement ranged from writing analysis papers for Cheney on themes and programs for Ford to stress during the election, to weighing the advantages of potential campaign slogans.

Reichley's draft presidential statements are typical political campaign documents, full of fiery rhetoric about Ford's virtues and the opposition's mistakes and inconsistencies. Some of the material relates to the pre‑nomination struggle between Ford and his Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan. The majority, however, covers Ford's contest with Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate for president. Subjects include housing, employment, crime, taxes, health, older Americans, and‑‑in greater detail‑‑the Ford‑Carter debates and education. The major exception to the heavy political overtones of the files is Reichley's drafts of Ford's nuclear policy statement of October 28, 1976, which announced a far‑reaching change in United States policy on nuclear proliferation.

The files consist of a relatively straightforward subject series, with multiple copies of a document often filed under a number of related folder titles. The majority of items are reports, speeches, and published materials, some dating back to 1974, which administration officials sent to Reichley for background information. Reichley's personal drafts of fact sheets, speeches, radio talks, position papers, and statements are fewer in number, but are also easy to pick out because he typed them on his own distinctive typewriter.

Related Materials (May 1984):

The Ford Library currently has available a number of other collections that are closely related to Reichley's work and the 1976 campaign. Most significant are the Michael Raoul‑Duval Papers and various sections of the PL‑Political Affairs category in the White House Central Files. On the issue of nuclear policy, Glenn R. Schleede's files contain a wide range of documents, including a full set of drafts leading up to Ford's nuclear proliferation statement of October 28.

Series Descriptions

1‑5 Subject File, 1976. (2.0 linear feet)

Reports, speeches, press releases, printed material, and clippings which Reichley used for background information; and memoranda, analysis papers, and draft statements and speeches produced by Reichley. Subjects include general strategy for President Ford's 1976 election campaign, and the Ford‑Carter debates; and the President's position on specific campaign issues such as crime, Eastern Europe, education, employment, health, housing, nuclear proliferation, and older Americans.

Arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically thereunder.

Container List

Box 1 Subject File

Abortion

Acceptance Speech ‑ Republican Convention

Administration Agenda/Program

Aging

Agriculture ‑ Addresses by Government Officials

Agriculture ‑ Rural Development Goals Report

Baroody, William J., Jr. ‑ Speeches (1)-(2)

Bicentennial Themes

Bill of Rights ‑ Campaign Themes

Blacks

Budget ‑ Speeches and Briefings

Busing

Campaign

Carter, Jimmy ‑ General (1)-(2)

Carter, Jimmy ‑ Published Material

Carter, Jimmy ‑ Republican National Committee Report

Cheney, Richard

Box 2 Subject File

Church Property

Cities ‑ General

Cities ‑ Urban Development and Neighborhood Revitalization Report

Common Cause

Community Development

Community Development ‑ Block Program

Constituency Analysis

Crime

Debates, First ‑ 9/23/76

Debates, Second ‑ 10/6/76

Debates, Third ‑ 10/11/76

Delegates

Defense

Democrats

Domestic Policy ‑ Speech Proposal

Eastern Europe

Education ‑ Forward Planning Issues Report

Education ‑ General (1)-(2)

Box 3 Subject File

Education ‑ Speeches by Government Officials

Election

Energy

Environment

Environment ‑ Speeches by Russell Train (1)-(4)

Federal System

Food Stamps

Ford, Gerald R. ‑ General

Ford, Gerald R. ‑ "The Ford Presidency: A Portrait of the First Two Years"

Health ‑ Cost Estimates for National Health Insurance

Health ‑ General

Housing

Box 4 Subject File

Humphrey‑Hawkins Employment Bill

Israel

Jobs/Employment

Law Enforcement ‑ General

Law Enforcement ‑ Remarks by Edward Levi

Law Enforcement ‑ Remarks by Richard Thornburgh

Long Range Goals

Marsh, John

Medal of Freedom Awards

Medicaid

Morality

Nathan, Richard P.

National Education Association (1)-(2)

National Interest

Nuclear Policy Statement (1)-(5)

Box 5 Subject File

Nuclear Policy Statement (6)

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Pennsylvania

Platform Committee

Platforms (1)-(4)

Political Philosophy

Poland

Population

Poverty

Public Interest Groups

Quality of Life

Radio Talks

Reagan, Ronald

Regulation

Reichley, James A.

Religion

Republican Legislative Agenda, 9/8/75

Revenue Sharing

Rockefeller, Nelson A.

Senior Citizens

Skeptic (magazine)

Smith, Mary Louise

Social Security

Speeches/Themes

Strategy Meeting ‑ 6/8/76

Strategy/Planning

Taxes

Theme Speeches

Urban

Vision Theme

Voting Statistics

Welfare