White House History 37 - The White House and the Press

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WHITE HOUSE

A journal published by the White House Historical Association Washington

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY NUMBER THIRTY-SEVEN• SPRING 2015

2 FOREWORD

William Seale Editor, White House History

4 THE PRESIDENT, THE PRESS, AND PROXIMITY: THE CREATION OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS CENTER

James A. Jacobs JAMES A. JACOBS is

a historian for the Historic American Buildings Survey and National Historic Landmarks Program.

24 BEYOND THE PRESS ROOM: REPORTING FROM THE WHITE HOUSE GROUNDS

Photo Essay

34 THE WHITE HOUSE REMEMBERED: VOLUME 2, RECOLLECTIONS BY PRESIDENTS GEORGE H. W. BUSH AND WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON

Edited by Hugh Sidey HUGHS. SIDEY (192 7-2005) was a journalist who covered the American presidency for nearly fifty years.

He chaired the White House Historical Associations Board of Directors fro_m 2000 to 2003.

46 How

LINCOLN IN HIS SHOP: A PRESIDENT OPENED HIS DOORS AS THE PEOPLE'S SERVANT

Ron J Keller

RON J. KELLER

is associate professor of history and political science at Lincoln College and director of the Lincoln Heritage Museum in Lincoln, Illinois.

64 MORE THAN WRITING: REMEMBERING MY YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE SPEECHWRITER'S OFFICE

Kristi Planck Johnson KRISTI PLANCK JOHNSON was

a writer in the White House Speechwriter's Office during the Nixon Administration and is professor emerita of comparative and international education at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.

76 REFLECTIONS: BEHIND THE BRIEFING ROOM PODIUM

Stewart D. McLaurin President, White House Historical Association

:[oreworcf

President John F. Kennedy speaks with Hugh Sidey, White House correspondent for Time magazine, in the Oval Office, which has been set up for filming, prior to making a televised address regarding the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and legislation to reduce federal taxes, 1963.

'Ifie press fias a{ways been part of tfie Wfiite :J-{ouse story. !from frienrl{y to fiostife, witfi many co{ors in-between, tfie passion witfi wfiicfi tfie news was reporter£ fias a{ways Geen rear£ witfi great interest insufe tfie presirlent s rloors. 'Tone in a report can be more important tfian tfie actualfacts of tfie matter, wfiicfi are often impeifect.

'Even Gefore tfie Wfiite :J-{ouse, tfie news easi{y arouse£ tfie emotions of (jeorge Wasfiington, wfio never reaf{y grasper£ tfie importance of newspapers, anrlJI.dams, wfio Jefferson's attitude about tfie news is undear. :f{e sauf tfiat fie wouU ratfier fiave newspapers tfian government, anrl on tfie otfier fianrl fie rlecried tfieir reports.

In tfie Cater nineteentfi century newsmen vegan regu{ar Wfiite :House "Geats,"stationer£ unrfer tfie rlubious sfie{ter of tfie '.J{prtfi Portico, awaiting news. 'Those tfie arlministration trusted migfi.t be aamitterl at times to tfie offices upstairs. Stories were bicyderl up Pennsyfvania JI.venue to tfie tdegrapfi office Gy Goy messengers, wfio stood (Jy. Presirlent 'William Mc1(jn{ey was tfie first to seek, accommodation for tfie press at tfie Wfiite :J-{ouse, orrlering in a visionary ex:pansion of tfie GuiMing in 1900 an entire wing derli­ caterl to tfie convenience of tfie newsmen. 9\&ver rea{izea, tfie idea was recast two years Cater as wfiat we caf{ tfie 'West 'Wing.

In tfiis issue we wi{{ visit Linco{n s office, :l\[j_;r_pn s 'West Wing, anrl tfie creation of space for tfie 'Wfiite :Jfouse press corps in tfie 'West Wing. Of speciaC interest are interviews witfi former presidents (j.eorge :J-{. W. 'Busfi anrl 'Bi[[ CCinton, made by tfie con­ summate Wfiite :J-{ouse press "insirfer":J-{ugfiSirfey before fiis rleat/i in 2005.

au£.

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William Seale Editor, White House History

The President, the Press, and Proximity The Creation of the White House Press Center

JAMES A .

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James S. Brady Press Briefing Room has been the on-grounds quarters for the White House correspondents and news photographers since its construction in 1969-70. Although generally referred to as the White House Press Briefing Room, one of the early project names-the West Terrace Press Center-more accurately takes in its trio of primary functions: press briefings and conferences, workspace, and broadcasting. Authorized by Presi­ dent Richard M. Nixon, this facility stands as the culmination of decades of increased press presence at the White House. Its construction was both an acknowledgment that the press had become an inte­ gral part of the presidency and an effort to provide a more casual alternative for communication between the West Wing and the White House press corps. The General Services Administration (GSA) worked in collaboration with the White House and the Alexan­ dria, Virginia, architecture and engineering firm of Vosbeck, Vosbeck, Kendrick & Redinger to complete the project, which incorporated a one-story Briefing

Reporters use telephones located in the White House Press Room to call the day's stories into their news desks, c. 1937.

JACOBS

Room installed over the swimming pool built for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933 and two floors of work and broadcasting areas to the east of the pool, toward the White House proper.

In light of the relationship between the press and the president, the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room holds both symbolic and functional signifi­ cance. Its location in one of the oldest parts of the White House, nestled between the fabled residence and the West Wing, is evidence alone of the key role the news media has come to play as an intermediary between the public and the executive branch of the United States government. Indeed, the location and extent of the press quarters in history documents the evolution of this relationship over the course of the twentieth century as it was impacted by changes in technology, media, and reporting methods used by the press and the president throughout the twentieth century.

Workspace for the Emergent White House Press Corps Members of the press have had dedicated work­ space at the White House since completion of the West Wing's first iteration in 1902, but the type and frequency of access to the sitting president varied during the first half of the twentieth century.' For most of the nineteenth century, newspaper reporters concentrated most of their government coverage on Congress and its activities. Presidents occasionally

When the camera-shy pilot Charles Lind­ bergh tried to exit the White House after a visit with President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939, he found all the doors covered by news cameramen. He is seen here running the pho­ tographer's gauntlet as he emerged from a side door of the West Wing. The location of the Press Room at the time allowed reporters easy access to the president's visitors.

granted interviews or their secretaries might speak more often with favorites, but there was no specific group assigned to cover the White House. During President Grover Cleveland's second administration (1893-97), William "Fatty" Price emerged as the first reporter known to regularly visit the White House for news stories-initially standing outside the gate waiting to query exiting visitors about their business there. President William McKinley later allowed reporters to work inside at a Second Floor corridor table, and his secretary began a long tradition of more-or-less regular press briefings that is still a primary source of news to this day.2 President Theodore Roosevelt created the first designated office for correspondents at the White House. This unprecedented step in press relations provides some support for the debated claim that he was "the first President ... to develop a clear idea of press management." 3 Aside from the Press Room itself, Roosevelt's major innovation in the press-pres­ ident relationship was that he would often meet with correspondents directly in addition to daily briefings by his secretary. These meetings were not in the same realm as the later press conferences, for he "courted" 6 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

particular reporters and "played to their egos" during meetings with small groups in an effort to shape favorable stories; if the result was not acceptable, Roosevelt denied future access.4 It is not a coinci­ dence that the Roosevelt presidency can be consid­ ered a vanguard administration in its dealings with the press. In the early twentieth century, newspaper circulation increased significantly across the country, and many of the nation's major cities opened Wash­ ington bureaus with staffs that were particularly skilled in news reporting. A 1904 publication entitled Washington Correspondents Past and Present noted: "The larges [sic] dailies, such as those of New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Boston send their very best political writers. Many of these special correspondents have the privilege of signing their names to their dispatches and letters.

These newspapers maintain offices in the northwest portion of the city, close to the departments, White House, and the leading hotels." 5 Around this time, the Washington correspon­ dents headquartered in these dispersed offices were allotted a dedicated room in the new Executive Office Building, which has since been replaced by the

The large table in the lobby of the West Wing, seen left and below in 1942, was a gift from Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo in 1934. It provided a convenient place for reporters to gather while waiting to see the president and store their coats and hats.

enlarged West Wing. Charles McK.im of the famed architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White designed the proto-West Wing as part of a compre­ hensive renovation and expansion campaign at the White House undertaken by Theodore Roosevelt. 6 The modest workspace for the press was located just off the lobby of the new building. Although small, it provided the White House correspondents with an indoor space equipped with three telephones and strategically positioned near the president and his staff. It was located at the building's main entrance, which, in theory, allowed for easy interception of visitors arriving for and departing from executive appointments.7 Unfortunately for the correspondents, guests of the president could also quietly proceed from another White House entrance, along the private West Terrace Colonnade, into his office, avoiding the gauntlet at the public entrance. 8 Despite this built-in circumvention, Roosevelt's assignment of a room for members of the press in proximity to himself and his staff established an unprecedented level of access and conveyed his acknowledgment of the emerging press-president relationship.

The White House correspondents remained in The President, the Press, and Proximity: Creation of the White House Press Center 7

President Harry S. Truman takes a question from a reporter during his first press conference in the Indian Treaty Room in the Executive Office Building (above), March 1950.

The spacious room provided a welcome change from crowded gatherings of reporters around the president's desk in the Oval Office as seen (right) in 1945.

8 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

this workspace through the beginning of the Hoover administration, when they moved across the lobby into larger quarters with new furniture.9 The press photographers-"previously slouched on chairs in the public vestibule" -were also given a room of their own at the northwest comer of the West Ter­ race.10 In 1934, when the West Wing was gutted and expanded by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Press Room was completely rebuilt in roughly its original location, although larger.11 The new room was later described as being "equipped with desks, typewriters, direct telephone connections to the offices of the tele­ graphic press associations, and such recreational facilities as card and chess tables. " 1� Although enlarged, the Press Room remained only a place where White House correspondents worked and waited; communication with the president and his staff for the most part occurred beyond the room.

The Press Conference and Its Need for Space From the time of Woodrow Wilson's adminis­ tration through World War II, open presidential meetings with credentialed members of the press, or "conferences," increasingly became a preferred form of communication. These were held mostly in the president's office and, although each president's approach and demeanor were distinct, evolved into something of a controlled free-for-all. By 1950, Harry S. Truman felt that the in-office press conferences had run their course and decided to move them to the ornate Indian Treaty Room in what is now known as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

A May 1950 Washington Post article presented an impression of the Oval Office press conferences as justification enough for the move.

The informal procedure at the conferences in the oval room of the Executive Offices, with the reporters swarming around the presidential desk, had of course certain advantages. It enabled the President to become personally acquainted with the correspondents who were covering the White House beat, it made for a certain liveliness in the character of the ques­ tions and answers, and it often elicited unex­ pected bits of news. But these advantages grad­ ually vanished as the number of newspapermen, American and foreign, regularly attending the

conferences began to mount into the hundreds.

The oval room on conference day began to resemble a Times Square subway platform at the rush hours. 13 Truman had expressed dissatisfaction with this arrangement almost immediately upon moving into the Oval Office in 1945. His thwarted proposal to extend the West Wing southward called for an addition that would have included a large auditorium intended pri­ marily for press conferences and briefings. 14 It was five years before Truman and his staff identified and secured a location large enough and near enough the West Wing for holding regular con­ ferences with the press. While spacious, the Indian Treaty Room did not necessarily appeal to postwar architectural sensibilities. A writer for the Washington Daily News lamented in an April 1950 article that it "resembles the interior of a Chicago meat packer's mansion, or possibly the main reception room of a lady engaged in another business in San Francisco about the time of the earthquake." 15 The questionable decor notwithstanding, Truman saw the move to a bigger room, with seats, as an opportunity to change press conference protocol. Instead of anonymously shouting out questions from the crowd around the president's desk, correspondents would, in the future, be required to rise and state their name and the news­ paper or agency they represented before speaking.16 Because the conferences occurred outside the West Wing, correspondents no longer had quick access to the "batteries of private line telephones and PBX extensions into their respective offices." 17 When news of the move became public, the eight largest American press syndicates requested and were granted eleven PBX (private branch exchange) extensions, which were installed in booths in the corridor outside the Indian Treaty Room; the government also installed one public pay telephone. i& Dwight D. Eisenhower continued to use the room for conferences during his administration, although initiating a somewhat more rigid format for questioning and, in 1955, "permitting TV and newsreel cameramen to record his news con­ ference on sound film for the first time in history." 19 The next administrations departed the Indian Treaty Room, with John F. Kennedy most often using the State Department Auditorium and Lyndon B. Johnson holding his news conferences in a number

The President, the Press, and Proximity: The Creation of the White House Press Center 9

A ground floor plan made in 1943 shows the location of the Press Room in the northwest corner of the West Wing and the swimming pool in its original location at the center of the West Terrace.

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of different locatiom.!" During tho e ear., the White House correspondents were still working out of their 1930s room, which had been augmented by six broadcast booths installed in a small adjacent space entered from the central lobby. With Kennedy's arrival, the Press Room received its first cosmetic renovation since 1934 in the form of new and more numerous desks and a coordinated paint scheme.21 A credentialed Evening Star writer described the Press Room environment in 1964 while on assign­ ment covering a White House event.

We made a right turn into the press room where the glamorous White House correspondents live and have their being-that is when they are not on the road with the President. ... The room is lined on either side, and up and down the center, by rows of cubicles large enough for a desk, typewriter, telephone and even a correspon­ dent-if he isn't very much overweight.22 10

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

Thi' observati n n t only provide a welcome account of what the West Wing Press Room looked like near the end of its life but also gives some sense of the way in which the working lives of the White House correspondents and news photographers were changing by the 1960s.

Once Kennedy made the milestone first press conference broadcast live on television in 1961, the location and environment for those conferences became less fixed. Expanded jet travel more fre­ quently took the president and members of his staff on the road, with correspondents in tow to report on the travel and associated conferences outside of Washington. It became clear to presidential advisers by at least the Johnson administration that staging press conferences outside Washington was a savvy idea. Not only would the conference get coverage from White House correspondents and news photog­ raphers making the trip with the president, but the local media also tended to give far more attention to

A plan of the West Wing, c. 2014, shows the current location of the Press Corps Offices, Press Briefing Room, and Press Staff Offices in the West Terrace, which were built over the swimming pool during the Nixon administration.

Offices for the president's advisers are now in the former location of the Press Room.

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the event than it would otherwise garner in the national capital. 23 Although formal press conferences in Washington still took place, the flexibility offered by mass communications, fast long-distance travel, and mobile White House correspondents and news photographers contributed to a shift in how informa­ tion passed between the West Wing and the press.

This shift affected the design and intent of the White House Press Center and its later changes.

Advances in communication and transportation lent greater flexibility to where press conferences could be scheduled; at the same time, the character of those still held in Washington also changed because of a steady increase in the number of White House correspondents and news photographers. A 1970 Washington Post article summarized the evolution.

With the much larger Washington press corps, the situation has changed drastically since FDR held conferences in his office, or even since Pres­ idents Truman and Eisenhower held them in the Indian Treaty Room....Today any presidential news conference announced even an hour in advance will draw several hundred reporters, more than can fit into any available White House

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space but the East Room, where the televised conferences are held. With several hundred reporters present, any informality the President may have desired is lost. 24 Increased numbers reduced informality; so, too, did television, whose programming dictated a set amount of time and somewhat rigid structure for each conference. These general trends and a well­ known, mutually antagonistic relationship with the press led Richard Nixon to curtail the number of tel­ evised press conferences.25 His decision to construct a new Press Center seems to have been in part an effort to facilitate greater interaction between him and the Washington correspondents without increasing the number of formal conferences. At the time of its opening, the New York Times reported that the presi­ dent "has privately expressed a wish to use the new briefing room for informal chats and news confer­ ences," a sentiment echoed by the Washington Post: "Presidential aides report that Mr. Nixon will con­ tinue to hold occasional televised conferences and will from time to time drop into the new briefing room to hold more informal conferences without the intrusion of television. "26 With the stated desire to

The President, the Press, and Proximity: Creation of the White House Press Center 11

President Nixon ensured no harm was done to the swimming pool ( seen above during the Kennedy administration) when it was decked over to provide greatly expanded space in the West Colonnade for the White House press corps in 1970. Work was interrupted in late 1969 by the discovery of the underground rooms from Thomas Jefferson's time and their subsequent excavation ( above right).

The curved stone wall may show what remained of Jefferson's ice house.

12

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

bring the White House correspondents nearer to him in an environment that might encourage casual inter­ action, Richard Nixon authorized the design and construction of a new and modern press facility in the West Terrace.

The West Terrace Location The White House Press Center was the latest use of space in the West Terrace, one of two, one-story wings conceived by Thomas Jefferson as extensions to the Executive Residence, not unlike the ones he had earlier built at Monticello. Construction of what came to be known as the East and West Terraces

began in 1805.27 While never fully realizing Jefferson's scheme, the terraces were a functional triumph and afforded successive administrations the space to accommodate needs as they arose. At the time of the Press Center construction, the West Terrace was prin­ cipally composed of a flower room renovated in 1962, a sauna built in 1969 at the beginning of the Nixon administration, and, most notably, an indoor swim­ ming pool and its associated changing or "massage" rooms and mechanical equipment installed in 1933 to provide some relief to President Franklin D. Roo­ sevelt's physical handicaps. 28 At the end of September

1969, the White House announced that President Nixon had decided to deck over the swimming pool inside the West Terrace in an effort "to provide expanded quarters for the press corps. " 29 A combination of spatial and functional factors shaped this decision in addition to Nixon's relationship with the press. The inadequacy of the West Wing Press Room, described around the time that the new facility opened as "a cramped room off the visitors' lobby," was a major factor.30 Despite a recent renovation, the room had quickly become too small for the burgeoning White House press corps.31 After having occupied the

The President, the Press, and Proximity: The Creation of the White House Press Center 13

executive offices for more than half a year, Nixon's staff realized they needed additional workspace in the West Wing. In particular, Henry Kissinger, Nixon's national security adviser, required something better than a base­ ment office with no reception area for meeting with ambassadors and other callers.32 The underused swim­ ming pool in the West Terrace offered an ideal solution for both problems; since occupying the White House, Nixon had rarely used it. In its stead, the press would move to spatially and functionally enlarged quarters in a location still near the president, and members of his staff would be free to take over a considerable piece of valuable West Wing real estate.

Presumably comprehending not only FDR's sus­ tained popularity in the American psyche, but also that the swimming pool, which had been paid for by public subscription, was one of his better-known physical legacies remaining at the White House, Nixon moved the idea forward delicately. Randall Vosbeck, one of the architects of the Press Center, recalled: "We were told in no uncertain terms that Nixon did not want any harm done to the pool, and the design of the Press Room must be done in such a way that the pool could be restored easily, apparently in case he received comments that he had destroyed the FDR pool." 33 From the very first public announce­ ment, it was repeatedly made clear that the changes would be reversible should a later administration desire to use the pool again. Even Nixon's brief remarks at the opening of the facility made such a reference: "All the pool equipment is preserved and in storage if a future President wants to put the press outside again."34 Concern over public relations for the project also extended to the legacy of another revered Democratic president-John F. Kennedy. In 1962, he oversaw the cosmetic renovation of the pool area, which included the installation along three walls of a large mural by artist Bernard Lamotte depicting the harbor at Christiansted, Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. 35 Period press and Nixon's opening-day speech clearly stated that the murals, which had been a gift from Kennedy's father, had been preserved and were in storage.36 Perhaps because of his preemptive explanations, Nixon's proposal appears to have gener­ ated no major controversy, although the White House press corps would have had little incentive to say any­ thing that might impact plans for its quarters.37 14 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

The swimming pool area represented a major portion of what became the new facility; space was also gained from adjacent rooms and a new base­ ment. The Briefing Room proper corresponded more or less to the large room that housed the swimming pool and its small deck, which were covered over with a wood floor. The work areas, broadcasting booths, and lounges occupied a two-story area immediately to the east. A handful of rooms with different functions were eliminated for the ground floor portion. Just beyond the pool to the east were the men's and women's changing rooms, which according to period newspapers articles had also functioned as "massage" rooms. 38 Four months into his administration, Nixon had a "sauna bath" installed in a portion of the changing room area; the Press Room construction displaced this sauna, which was reinstalled at Camp David.39 Next along the line was the "flower shop," which had been completely renovated and updated by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1962. This was where the flower arrange­ ments were created for daily and special events for the White House. The final room given over to the upper level of the press quarters was a dog kennel. 40 The lower-level workspace and broadcasting booths of the facility were situated in a new basement.

Initially planned to encompass only a single story, the November 1969 discovery of below-grade rooms dat­ ing from the West Terrace's earliest history prompted an expansion of the project's scope.41 Period newspa­ per articles reported that experts suggested the two rectangular cellar rooms had originally been used for storage of coal or fodder and the cylindrical one, or "silo," "could have been a water storage tank."42 On his own plans of the terraces, Thomas Jefferson indi­ cated that the silo was built for use as an icehouse.43 By the mid-twentieth century, the three spaces had ceased functioning in any practical manner as they had been in-filled with dirt in some previous time; this in-fill, however, did preserve an array of nineteenth­ century artifacts unearthed by workers as they contin­ ued excavating. The objects dated mostly from a period spanning the Franklin Pierce and Ulysses S. Grant administrations; these were collected and cata­ loged byJames Ketchum, the White House curator.

Despite knowledge at the time that the wall fragments and vaulting likely dated back directly to

Jefferson, the remnants were not viewed as salvage­ able historic fabric or at least not so important that they should be retained at the expense of an expanded concept for the Press Center. Indeed, notice of likely revisions to the plan accompanied breaking reports about the discovery, as reported in an Evening Star article entitled "Vintage 1800s: White House Rooms Found Under Pool," which stated: "White House aides said the discovery has caused some 'replanning and rethinking.' .. . 'We're playing around with this new space and doing some replanning,' one aide said. 'We don't know what's going to come out of it all now.'"44 The Truman reconstruction of the Executive Residence established a precedent for subterranean expansion as a way to augment space while retaining the historic appear­ ance of the White House ensemble if not necessarily its historic fabric. A lower level would double the workspace for members of the press with no obvious exterior changes. It is quite possible that Nixon also backed this enlargement precisely so that the pool might later be reopened-only the briefing room por­ tion of the new facility would be lost with such a reversion and the press could continue working in its bi-level home-next door.

The Design of the Press Center While it was reported that Richard Nixon had the Press Center "prepared to his own specifica­ tions"45 and his Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler "helped design the quarters,"46 the facility also involved the ideas and energies of a number of gov­ ernment and private-sector professionals. The GSA oversaw the entire project and acted as liaison between the White House and the other parties.

Founded in 1949, GSA was in part created to man­ age government buildings and the space needs of fed­ eral agencies. It is one of the governmental entities collectively responsible for the function and mainte­ nance of the White House complex. GSA hired Alexandria, Virginia, architects Randall Vosbeck and William Vosbeck to work with the agency on realiz­ ing the project, as noted in a 1970 Washington Post article: the "new [press] quarters ... were designed

by Alexandria architects Vosbeck & Vosbeck for the General Services Administration to White House specifications."47 Brothers Robert Randall Vosbeck (b. 1930) and

William Frederick Vosbeck Jr. (b. 1924) established an architectural practice in 1962.48 Both had earned degrees in architecture from the University of Min­ nesota. In 1967, they merged their office with the Arlington engineering firm of Kendrick & Redinger, forming Vosbeck, Vosbeck, Kendrick & Redinger.49 Although the 1970 Washington Post article men­ tioned only "Vosbeck & Vosbeck," the larger firm existed at the time of the Press Center project.50 Randall Vosbeck explained in 2007 that, at the time of this commission, the firm "was making a name for itself, and were doing a variety of work in the DC area.'' 51 This mentioned "variety" seems to relate to both building type and aesthetic approach.

For example, in the 1960s the firm designed neo-tra­ ditional buildings for Tavern Square in Alexandria, Virginia, a controversial block-size redevelopment around historic Gadsby's Tavern. About the same time, the firm was also involved with the near-total Modern reconstruction of Arlington, Virginia's, Rosslyn area, which was launched in 1961.52 Among their more prominent designs during their early period were buildings for George Mason College (now University), a high-rise office building for Fair­ fax County, and an addition for the Charles Barrett Elementary School in Alexandria, for which the firm won a local design award.53 The Press Center was one of a number of White House projects the firm com­ pleted for GSA around that time. Randall Vosbeck could not recall in 2007 exactly why GSA chose his firm but observed that "we were doing quite a bit of government work back then." 54 As the plans moved forward, Randall Vosbeck recollected, "most of our design meetings were with GSA staff, but we did meet on several occasions with Press Secretary Ron Ziegler," and at least once "with representatives from the networks who had booths at the rear and had some technical requirements."55 This necessary collaboration, the absolute physical limitations of the space, and the functional needs of the White House correspondents and news photogra­ phers contributed to what Nixon felt was a slower­ than-expected construction schedule.

Approximately six months passed between the public announcement of the planned facility and its completion. In January 1970, the Washington Post suggested that the president believed there had

The President, the Press, and Proximity: The Creation of the White House Press Center

15

already been "months of delay" with construction. 56 Randall Vosbeck provided later confirmation of this report, observing: "I was involved with a brief meet­ ing on the site with Nixon, who was a little upset that the construction was moving so slow." 57 Although it is not known what timetable the presi­ dent was initially presented for the project, progress was interrupted by the November 1969 discovery of the Jefferson-era underground rooms and their sub­ sequent excavation as well as the additional time needed to expand the plans to include a lower level.

The Press Center as Completed The president welcomed the press corps to its new, "pubby-clubby" quarters on April 2, 1970. 58 It would take four more days before the White House revealed its full cost of $574,000, but the first descriptions-likening the space to anything from a pub to a posh hotel lobby-made it clear that the facility was very nicely appointed. 59 The New York Times commented that it was "part fancy hotel lobby, part English taproom," while The Washington Post observed that the "new press briefing room with a built-in stage and spotlights resembles the lobby of a fake Elizabethan steak house when the stage is hid­ den behind curtains. "60 The "ye olde" theme of the decoration and furnishings of the Briefing Room proper was no accident. Judith Farrington, "the government's interior designer .. . on loan from the General Services Administration to supervise the White House project," referred to the concept as "English pubby." 61 A White House press release noted that the decor was "developed from English and early American Public Houses and Inns." 62 Beige suede Chesterfield sofas, burnished tin coffee tables, reproduction antique chairs, ginger jar lamps, colo­ nial molding and paneling, and thick curtains and carpeting all worked in concert to give the impres­ sion of an opulent and rarified, masculine environ­ ment appropriate for those (mainly male) members of the press holding a much-sought-after White House post. 63 This environment was purposefully planned to create a comfortable stage set for what was hoped would be a more laid-back relationship between top White House officials and the press.

While on a tour of the new facility only days after its opening, former President Lyndon Johnson is reported to have commented that the Press Room 16 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

is "a wonderful improvement," and chided the press by asking, "Is there the same improvement in the stories?" 64 Perhaps thinking that the elegant space was not enough to convince the press that he at least superficially desired to facilitate greater communica­ tion (and, hopefully, "improvement in the stories"), cut flowers "as beautiful as any of the floral arrange­ ments that adorn the Red, Green and Blue Rooms for formal parties" were to be placed throughout the Briefing Room daily on "President Nixon's personal instruction."65 As the most public space and with no precedent in earlier quarters, the Briefing Room unsurprisingly received the most media attention. It was, however, only one-third of the total facility; the remainder was fully equipped to serve the modern needs of the White House correspondents and news photogra­ phers. A 1971 study of reporting in the national capital provided a description of the then brand­ new press quarters beyond the Briefing Room.

The new press facilities provide multiple-room space on two levels for reporters' desks, direct­ line telephones, broadcast booths, two comfort­ ably furnished lounges, coin venders for snacks and drinks, and other comforts and conven­ iences. Glass-partitioned rooms or booths are built-in for the Associated Press, United Press International, and the major foreign news agen­ cies, and newspapers that maintain full-time staff for reporters at the White House. Desks and telephones are available for reporters who appear there on a part-time basis.66 A newspaper article covering the facility's open­ ing counted twelve enclosed broadcast booths and forty desks arranged throughout "two working press rooms" on the two floors.67 As first assigned, Ameri­ can networks and wire services had the pick of the "big, glassed-in booths," while major newspapers and foreign news services, such as Reuters and Agence France-Presse, received large carrels with file drawers and individual telephones. 68 A 1981 book on the presidency and the news media detailed the major American networks' portion of the space: "Reporters for the three national television networks may be found in three long but narrow booths, each of which has a rear compartment that may be shut off and

President Nixon first welcomed reporters to the new Press Room and work space in April 1970. Interior designer Judith Farrington described the concept as "English pubby. " The masculine decor and laid­ back ambience was fitting for the nearly all-male press corps of the time. The Press Room, seen above and at right, occupi�d only one­ third of the new facility.

The President, the Press, and Proximity: Creation of the White House Press Center 17

This contact sheet shows a collection of photographs taken in 1970 of the newly finished multiple room space that included desks for reporters, telephones, broadcast booths, and two comfortable lounges with ashtrays, and vending machines.

18 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

The major news agencies were assigned the glass-partitioned booths, and major newspapers were granted large carrels with file drawers and telephones. Desks and telephones were available to part-time reporters.

The President, the Press, and Proximity: The Creation of the White House Press Center

19

used as a sound studio for radio broadcasts. The booths are located at the back of the area that the White House staff has set aside for reporters to work in. " 69 Outside these booths, the north wall of the upper workroom was fitted with telephones in groups of three between the windows and a row of eight fur­ ther along, all of which included ledges for writing and leaning. These phones were allotted to represen­ tatives of smaller newspapers. 70 Enclosed booths on the lower level were allocated mainly to radio broad­ casters, with much of the remaining space on that level given over to work carrels.

Two smaller lounge areas provided places to take a break, rest, or wait for the next piece of news.

The one on the upper level contained a snack bar, which "alone makes [the] move worthwhile for the press, who have served through many a lunchless and dinnerless day of crisis with only a soft drink machine to sustain them. " 71 In addition to soft drinks, the vending lounge included a machine for sandwiches and one for snacks as well as "fresh-made coffee at all hours in glass pots. " 72 This area occupied space in an irregular extension to the north that corresponds with the three easternmost bays of the West Terrace. Rest rooms and a secondary stair down to the lower level were also positioned in this extension. Constructed in the mid-1940s, the one-story addition had been built up against and incorporated an existing wall enclos­ ing the below-grade, L-shaped court at the northwest corner of the Executive Residence. 73 The north wall of the extension was curved to follow the contour of the driveway. In plan, it seems a conspicuous protrusion, but its below-grade location largely masks a low-lying profile with a roof that is several feet below that of the West Terrace roof. The other small lounge was located on the lower level. A period photograph of this lounge, situated at the foot of the principal stair, shows a space with a relaxed arrangement of casual furniture and a drinking fountain, the "family room" foil to the formal "living room" atmosphere of the Briefing Room upstairs. Ashtrays are conspicuously evident in every historic image-from the Briefing Room to the desks and telephone ledges to the lounge area-recording smoking's social acceptability and one strategy for managing a high-stress job.

Although reporters were certainly impressed with their new quarters, it seems that the facility nei20

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

iii C: 0 0

ther improved access nor increased communication to a point that satisfied members of the press. Only months after its opening, Nixon was advised by the White House Correspondents Association that the best way to "improve his press conferences" was to schedule more of them, advice that ultimately went unheeded. 74 In the end, the Briefing Room came to be used primarily for the purpose indicated by its name-daily news briefings by the press secretary, with occasional visits by the president and other members of his staff for more formal, televised con­ ferences. The less casual nature of the Briefing Room space as it came to be used over the course of its first decade was physically codified during the Reagan administration, when couches and movable lounge furniture and a retractable dais were replaced with a permanent stage and podium and fixed auditorium seating. Electrical and communications wiring to sup­ port changes in broadcast technology and computing also had to be, sometimes inelegantly, run throughout the facility. These changes and the wear and tear of intensive daily use took its toll by the 1990s. In 1997, the Washington Post referred to the White House Press Center as being "among the dingiest dumps in Washington," a far fall for a facility once heralded as

Time took a toll on the Nixon-era press facilities. During the Reagan administration, the movable chairs were replaced with fixed seating. In 2000, President Bill Clinton invited former press secretary James Brady to a ceremony to rename the room in his honor ( opposite). The room (seen below in 2009) was gutted and recon­ structed in 2006-7. At right, Presi­ dent Barack Obama holds a confer­ ence in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in February 2013.

The President, the Press, and Proximity: Creation of the White House Press Center 21

"probably the fanciest governmental press room any­ where."75 The James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, renamed by Bill Clinton in 2000 to honor Ronald Reagan's press secretary who had been shot and par­ alyzed during an attempt on Reagan's life in 1981, was entirely gutted and reconstructed in 2006-7. The reconstructed spaces maintain the basic spacial char­ acter and functions of the original Press Center.

The construction of a spacious and modern Press Center in the West Terrace was the clearest indication of the centrality that the news media had attained by the mid-twentieth century in reporting on national issues as put forth by the executive branch of the United States government. The ability of the press to shape public opinion about these activities had long been acknowledged by the White House.

Yet the growth of the press corps assigned there and the explosion of print, television, and radio news coverage (and consumption) in the decades following World War II made the necessity of an expanded and equipped facility all the more urgent for everyone with a stake in the news. The Press Center has ably served its functions for nearly half a century with no major alterations to Nixon's essential layout, and, likewise, it remains an essential tool of the modern presidency.

NOTES This article is an outgrowth of a documentation project conducted by the His­ toric American Buildings Survey in 2006--7 as the Press Center was in the process of being reconstructed.

I.

2.

President William McKinley included press facilities in an unrealized (c.

1900) expansion of the White House designed by Colonel Theodore Bing­ ham. William Seale, The President's House: A History, 2nd ed. (Washing­ ton, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 2008), vol. 2, caption for image 79.

Seale, President's House, l :663; W. Dale Nelson, Who Speaks for the Presi­ dent? The White House Press Secretary from Cleveland to Clinton (Syra­ cuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1998), 14. For summaries of press and president relations, see Helen Thomas, Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times (New York: Scribner, 1999), 124-25; Arthur H. Koonce, "Press Conference," The Mayflower's Log (November 1944), clip­ ping in White House-Press Relationship, 1800-1959 folder, Washingtoni­ ana Division, Martin Luther King Memorial Library, Washington, D.C.

3.

Herbert Corey, "The Presidents and the Press," Saturday Evening Post, January 9, 1932, 100; see also Seale, President's House, 662.

4.

Carolyn Smith, Presidential Press Conferences: A Critical Approach (New York: Praeger, 1990), 22-23.

5.

Ralph M. McKenzie, Washington Correspondents Past and Present: Brief Sketches of the Rank and File (New York: Newspaperdom, 1903--4), 7 8-.

6.

Although initially intended as only a temporary space solution while seek­ ing additional support from Congress for permanent offices, McKim's Executive Office Building was ultimately retained and, in 1909, expanded under President William Howard Taft. This addition to the south nearly doubled the interior square footage and, in a nod to the similarly shaped and positioned rooms in the Executive Residence, created the first "oval

22

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

office" for the president. The Press Room remained intact and in its origi­ nal location off the entrance lobby on the north. Seale, President's House, 1:630, 2:17-21; The Architecture of the West Wing of the White House (Washington, D.C.: Executive Office of the President, 1995), 3.

7.

Nelson, Who Speaks/or the President?, 19.

8.

Seale, President's House, 1:663.

9.

Nelson, Who Speaks for the President', 47--48.

I0. Ibid. For location, see historic plans of the West Terrace located in the Records of the Office of the National Park Service Liaison to the White House, Main Interior Building, Washington, D.C. 11. Architecture of the West Wing, 4.

12. F. B. Marbut, News from the Capital: The Story of Washington Reporting (Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1971), 179.

13. "President and Press," Washington Post, May 2, 1950, clipping in White House-Press Relationship, 1800--1959 folder, King Library.

14. Seale, President's House, 2:254-59. Although initially having congressional support for the expansion, a public relations disaster derailed the project after Lorenzo S. Winslow, architect for the expansion, in a radio interview referred to the project as an "addition" to the White House. Ibid., 2:256.

15. Laurence Greene, "President's Declamations Ran Second to New Decor," Washington Daily News, April 28,1950, clipping in White House-Press Relationship, 1800--1959 folder, King Library.

16. For new protocol, see ibid.; "President and Press"; 'Truman Shifts News Sessions to Room in State Department," Washington Star, April 21, 1950; S. Marvin Ely, "Telephone Service for White House Press at New Loca­ tion," Transmitter, May-June 1950, clippings in White House-Press Rela­ tionship, 1800--1959 folder, King Library.

17. Ely, "Telephone Service."

18. Ibid.

19. "White House Press Parleys Opened to TV and Newsreel," Washington Star, January 19, 1955. See also James Y. Newton, "Eisenhower Sets 5 'Firsts' in Seeing Press," Washington Star, February 17, 1953; Mary McGrory, "All Is Not Gold That Litters Walls of Press Parley Room," Washington Star, January 20, 1955, clippings in White House-Press Rela­ tionship, 1800-1959 folder, King Library.

20. "The President and the Press: FDR's First Press Conference, March 1933," White House Historical Association, Classroom: Primary Documents, available online at www.whitehousehistory.

21. Phil Casey, "Shabby White House Press Room Is Spruced Up in 'Frontier' Green," Washington Post, April I, 1961, clipping in White House-Press Relationship, 1960-69 folder, King Library. The General Services Admin­ istration seems to have undertaken another renovation of the West Wing Press Room in I 965, as indicated on blueprints held by the Public Build­ ings Service of the GSA, Washington, D.C. 22. Frances Lide, "Some Say It's the Best Beat in Town," Washington Star, November 29, 1964, clipping in White House-Press Relationship, 1960--1969 folder, King Library.

23. Michael Baruch Grossman and Martha Joynt Kumar, Portraying the Pres­ ident: The White House and the News Media (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), 89.

24. Carroll Kilpatrick, "A New Pressroom for White House," Washington Post, March 31, 1970, Al8.

25. Nelson, Who Speaks for the President?, 174. Nixon held seventeen news conferences in his first twenty-two months in office, as compared with forty-six for Eisenhower, his Republican predecessor. Kilpatrick, "New Pressroom," reported that Nixon held "less than a dozen news confer­ ences" in his first fourteen months.

26. Robert R. Semple Jr., "For White House Press, Currier & Ives with Muzak," New York Times, April 3, 1970, 22; Kilpatrick, "New Press­

room."

27. The present East Terrace is a total, early twentieth-century reconstruction of the original, which was lost in the nineteenth century. For a thorough discussion of the East and West Terraces, see Travis McDonald, "The East and West Wings of the White House: History in Architecture and Build­ ing," White House History, no. 29 (Summer 2011): 44-87.

28. Dorothy McCardle, "After Nine Years, Sudden Fame: Flowers Are Can­ vases for White House Experts," Washington Post, August 19, 1962, White House-1961-63 folder, King Library. For the flower room renovation, see Isabelle Shelton, "Sauna Bath Moves from White House to Camp David," Washington Star, October 19, 1969, clipping in the files of the Office of the Curator, The White House, Washington, D.C. 29. Wauhillau La Hay, "Newsmen Sink White House Pool," Washington Daily News, September 30, 1969, clipping in the Office of the Curator, The White House.

30. Semple, "White House Press."

31. Don Oberdorfer, "Plushier Place for the White House Press," Washington Post, April 3, 1970, B l; Casey, "Shabby White House Press Room."

32. Kilpatrick, "New Pressroom"; Isabelle Shelton, "Nixon Treats the Press to Luxury," Washington Star, n.d. [April 1970], White House-1971, Additions and Alterations folder, King Library.

33. R. Randall Vosbeck to James A. Jacobs, electronic correspondence, June 25, 2007.

34.

"Remarks of the President upon the Opening of the New Briefing Room," April 2, 1970, press release, copy in Office of the Curator, The White House. See also "Nixon May Make Pool a Press Area," Washington Post, September 26, 1969, A6.

35. "Art Takes a Plunge in White House Pool," Washington Post, August 16, 1962, B3; "A Rare View of the President's Swimming Pool," Washington Star, May 30, 1965, clipping in White House-1964-71 folder, King Library.

50. Oberdorfer, "Plushier Place for the White House Press"; Vosbeck to Jacobs, June 25, 2007.

51. Vosbeck to Jacobs, June 25, 2007.

52. Wolf Von Eckardt, "Martini Crowd Restoring Area Hallowed by Madeira," Washington Post, March 14, 1965, E2; John B. Willmann, "Building Pace Still Sizzles in Rosslyn," Washington Post, June 29, 1968, C l.

53. Richard F. Heyer, "Colonial vs. Contemporary," Washington Post, July 19, 1969, E20; Richard F. Heyer, "Mason Library's Spacial [sic] Flow," Washington Post, September 27, 1969, D8; Myra MacPberson, "Awards for Excellence in Architecture," Washington Post, November 18, 1971, Cl. 54. Vosbeck to Jacobs, June 25, 2007.

55. Ibid.

56. Don Oberdorfer, "The Presidency: Still Very Private After First Year," Washington Post, January 18, 1970, Al. 57. Vosbeck to Jacobs, June 25, 2007.

58. Quoted in Stuart H. Loory, "Tass Miffed by Cramped Press Area," Wash­ ington Post, April 5, 1970, clipping in White House-Press Relationship, 1970-71 folder, King Library. The opinion of Tass, "the official Soviet government news agency," did not relate to the Press Center as a whole but rather to its assigned workspace, described as "only a telephone on the wall and a small area on a common counter with many small American newspapers."

59. Oberdorfer, "Nixon Shows LBJ."

36. La Hay, "Newsmen Sink White House Pool"; Shelton, "Sauna Bath Moves." Isabelle Shelton claimed that the White House weighed the option of leaving the mural in the new Press Briefing Room, but decided against it because they felt it would be "in too much danger from cigarettes." The mural, returned to the Kennedy family, was later donated to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.

60. Semple, "White House Press"; Oberdorfer, "Plushier Place for the White House Press."

37. At least one person took issue with Nixon's plans. A letter from W. D. Lillard, Charlotte, N.C., to the editor published in the Washington Post on October 9, 1969, read in part: "It was very disturbing to hear recently that the President plans to concrete over or eliminate the White House pool and make additional room for the press corps, although I understand his physi­ cian would like for him to use it. We realize President Nixon prefers salt water, but the next occupant may not be able to afford homes in Florida and Caiifornia and will desire the facilities of an indoor pool." "White House Pool," Washington Post, October 9, 1969, clipping in White House-1964-78 folder, King Library.

63. It was estimated in 1966 that the makeup of the White House press corps was approximately 95 percent male, with the "appearance of women in its ranks . . . a comparatively recent innovation." Muriel Dobbin, "Covering the White House and the President," in The Press in Washington: Sixteen Top Newsmen Tell How the News Is Collected, ed. Ray Eldon Hiebert (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1966), 130; see, generally, 126-43.

61. Quoted in Shelton, "Nixon Treats the Press to Luxury."

62. Quoted in Oberdorfer, "Plushier Place for the White House Press."

64. Quoted in Oberdorfer, "Nixon Shows LBJ." 65. Isabelle Shelton, "The Face in the Booth," Washington Star, April 5, 1970, E3, clipping in White House-Additions & Alterations, 1971 folder, King Library.

38. Shelton, "Nixon Treats the Press to Luxury"; "Remarks of the President upon the Opening of the New Briefing Room."

66. Marbut, News from the Capital, 179-80.

39. Shelton, "Sauna Bath Moves."

67. Semple, "White House Press"; see also Oberdorfer, "Plushier Place for the White House Press."

40. Semple, "White House Press"; "Remarks of the President upon the Open­ ing of the New Briefing Room."

68. Loory, "Tass Miffed."

41. Michael Kernan, "White House Archeology," Washington Post, November 25, 1969, B:1-2; "White House Has Hidden Rooms," Washington Daily News, November 24, 1969; Margery Elsberg, "White House Dig Unearths China Shards from the Pierce Administration," Washington Daily News, November 25, 1969, clippings in White House-1964-71 folder, King Library.

69. Grossman and Kumar, Portraying the President, 46.

42. Kernan, "White House Archeology."

73. A floor plan marked 1943 that depicts the ground level of the Executive Residence, the West Terrace, and the West Wing shows shrubs on the future location of the extension, with three windows opening northward that form the extreme east end of the wing. Elevations of the White House drawn by Lorenzo Winslow in 1946 record that the windowless extension had been completed by that time. White House, Ground Floor Plan, 1943, Office of the Curator, The White House; Winslow's 1946 drawings are reproduced in William Seale, The White House: The History of an Ameri­ can Idea, 2nd ed. (Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 2001), 231.

43. See McDonald, "East and West Wings," 60, for Jefferson's plan.

44. "Vintage 1800s: White House Rooms Found Under Pool," Washington Star, November 24,1969, clipping in the Office of the Curator, The White House.

45. Quoted in Don Oberdorfer, "Nixon Shows LBJ New Press Room: He Doubts Stories Will Improve," Washington Post, April 7, 1970, A4.

46. Quoted in Semple, "White House Press."

47. Oberdorfer, "Plushier Place for the White House Press."

48. "Vosbeck, Robert Randall," and "Vosbeck, William Frederick, Jr.," Amer­ ican Architects Directory (New York: R. R. Bowker for the American Insti­ tute of Architects, 1970), 953.

70. Loory, "Tass Miffed."

71. Shelton, "Nixon Treats the Press to Luxury."

72. Ibid.

74. Nelson, Who Speaks for the President?, 174-75.

75. John F. Harris, "White House Works on Improving Image," Washington Post, August 14, 1997, A l 9; Oberdorfer, "Plushier Place for the White House Press."

49. "Firms Merge in Virginia," Washington Post, November II, 1967, C3.

The President, the Press, and Proximity: Creation of the White House Press Center 23

Beyond the Press Room Reporting from the White House Grounds

rr,,ange of the pre�s within the White House Grounds is not

limited to the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room but extends to many areas within the complex from which journalists broadcast the daily news, cover unfolding events, conduct interviews, and attend scheduled press briefings. With the participation of the White House Press Office, they cover the territory fairly well and include many interesting backgrounds in their reports.

Televised presidential press conferences are very often held in the East Room or the Rose Garden, but in recent memory, alternate settings such as the Diplomatic Reception Room have been used as well. The Library, the Blue Room, and other formal parlors on the State Floor are often used by the president for one-on-one televised interviews with journalists.

Representatives from each of the major networks are generally stationed, rain or shine, in a stone-paved area just off the North Drive, called Stonehenge (until recently floored in gravel and nicknamed Pebble Beach). The North Portico provides an irresistible backdrop for the nightly news.

President Reagan faces a barrage of photographers and reporters in the West Wing Cabinet Room in 1986.

8

Opposite: Reporters scramble to photograph former President Dwight D. Eisenhower and President Lyndon B. Johnson on a stroll outside the Oval Office.

AROUND THE GROUNDS

.,. .._ -..._

26 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

'

.....

Reporters cover the arrival of newly inaugurated President Franklin Roosevelt as he poses between his wife Eleanor and son James at the South Entrance in 1933 (opposite top left). The press moves to the steps of the North Portico (opposite top right) as President Eisenhower emerges with President-Elect John F Kennedy in 1961, and reporters surround President Gerald Ford outside the West Wing (opposite) in 1975. In 1991, during the Gulf War, cameras and microphones are aimed at President George H. W Bush from the Rose Garden (above), and in 2012, at President Barack Obama after he disembarks from Marine One on the South Lawn (right).

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� � � Beyond the Press Room 27

IN THE OVAL OFFICE

Reporters gather around President Franklin Roosevelt's desk (above) in the Oval Office in 1944.

Arrangements were much more formal in 2001 during coverage of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President George W Bush.

28 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

IN THE STATE ROOMS

Prime-time televised press conjerences are often set in the East Room. At left, President Barack Obama listens to a question from ABC correspondent Jake Tapper during an . evening news conjerence in July 2009.

Televised inter­ views are often con­ ducted in the State Rooms. At right, President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter are inter­ viewed by journalist Barbara Walters in the Green Room in December 1978.

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Beyond the Press Room 29

24/7 RAIN OR SHINE

Above: A reporter stands at an NBC radio microphone near the North Portico, 1923. Below: A group ofjournalists keep a late night vigil in the cold, awaiting news on the hostage situation in Iran, January 18, 1980. At right, a CBS TV reporter broadcasts the news before the cameras on a snowy day in 2007.

30 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

Beyond the Press Room 31

THE CAMERA IS TURNED

Above: A group of news­ paper correspondents pose for a souvenir picture on the South Lawn in 1923. President Coolidge is standing in the center of the crowd.

At left, in 1947, President Truman turns his camera on the White House Press Photographers Association on the South Lawn after having been named an honorary member of the club.

32 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

At right, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is surrounded by a group of women journalists in the Monroe Room in 1933. Such gather­ ings as this bear her stamp: the first regular press conferences held by a first lady.

They were entirely restricted to women of the press.

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The White House Remembered: Volume 2 Recollections by Presidents George H. W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton INTRODUCTION

12005, The White House Historical Association released The White House Remembered, Volume 1: Recollections by Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan, edited by Hugh Sidey. The audio edition of this volume, read by the editor himself, is inserted in this issue. The publication of volume 2, recollections

by Presidents George H. W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton, was delayed by Sidey's death in November 2005. We now present the two unpublished interviews here, just as they were put into the narra­ tive form by Sidey, in the fitting context of the story of the White House and the press.

Hugh Sidey covered the White House for nearly fifty years, through ten administrations, from the time of Dwight D. Eisenhower to the early years of the George W. Bush presidency. In his introduction to the first volume he explained that we envisioned The White House Remembered "as a continuing series of observations and fresh rememberances by presidents and first ladies of actual life in the White House: the Hugh Sidey is seen here in 1998 in his office at Time magazine, where he was White House correspondent and bureau chief The Hugh S. Sidey Scholarship in Print Journalism was established in 2006 at Sidey's alma mater, Iowa State Universify,, by the White House Historical Association and David M. Rubenstein to support aspiring print journalists. Fred Love, the first recipient of the annual award, is seen above with Anne Sidey and Laura Bush during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

big things and the small things, the great moments of state and the tiny details of daily existence." His objective, he wrote, was to interview the presidents and the first ladies "after they have spent some years in the White House and have adjusted to its spaces and routines as home but before they are long gone and recall gets fuzzy. We seek the real stuff of history; not only the background and mechanics of White House events, but also the moods and feelings that settled on these extraordinary people once in the White House, and their views of the history of which they have become such an important part."

Sidey opened volume 1 by reflecting, "I can count nearly fifty years-a quarter of the total life of the White House -of walking up the Northwest Drive in the constant pursuit of news, more of which is funneled through the White House than any other place. And like almost everyone who works in or around the White House for any time at all, I have come to view the building as an enduring and com­ forting friend in times of tragedy and as a counselor of caution in moments of national euphoria. It always whispers to me, 'Nothing is as good as it may seem right now-and nothing is as bad as you may judge in the moment."'

George H. W. Bush 41st President of the United States, 1989-1993 These recollections were compiled and edited by Hugh Sidey, who interviewed the former president in 2000.

They are presented here as edited by Mr. Sidey.

Barbara and I had been around the White House-in and out for social events and meetings­ for eight years, so we thought we knew what it would be like to live there. But we really didn't. We didn't know how marvelous the atmosphere would be and how the staff would instantly embrace us as family.

The minute we walked in as occupants, we began to sense this wonderful feeling of welcome. It's not just a house but also a cherished home, and the longer we were there, the more strongly we felt that.

There is always a certain formality and respect for the White House because it is the people's house, and the furniture and paintings are beautiful and his36 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

toric. It was not quite living in a comfortable cabin, but it was still very relaxing. I could come home at night and pull my tie down. We could come home on Sunday nights and make our own supper in the little kitchen upstairs. After a while we did that almost every Sunday so the cooks could be with their fami­ lies. I'd tell them to leave out the cold cuts or we would cook an egg or warm up bagels.

There was also a rapid response team at other times. For example, one time, I went to church and saw my friend Sonny Montgomery. I said, "Sonny, come on back and we'll have some ham and eggs for breakfast." I hadn't told the staff, but with no appar­ ent strain at all, they had a very nice breakfast ready for us in 20 minutes.

Barbara used to tease me about bringing people home for dinner or inviting friends over at the last minute. The staff was extremely understanding of it though. It is so different from being a cabinet officer or senator because a president is waited on every

President George H. W Bush takes a question from a reporter in the Press Briefing Room, 1991.

minute. If he were so inclined, he might take advan­ tage of the wonderful services, but we were not so inclined, and I don't think many presidents are. We were grateful to the last day for the staffs service and affection.

Leaving those people was very emotional for us.

On the last day, the groundskeepers, housemen, but­ lers, and staff were all in the Usher's Office. They were like family to us. We knew them all by name. I knew their kids were going to school or if they were at home or whose had won a horseshoe match.

One can't escape history in the White House. And I don't think anyone should want to. The clearest reminder of this for me was the Lincoln Bedroom' in which there's a handwritten copy of the Gettysburg Address. In that room, Lincoln signed the proclama­ tion that freed the slaves.

On many occasions, while sitting in the Yellow Oval Room upstairs, I found myself wondering about Franklin Roosevelt because he had used that room as his office. We used it for small formal par­ ties. One time we had dinner up there for some coun­ try music people and sports figures ,like Chris Evert and her husband.

Just thinking about whatever room I sat in reminded me of the density of the history of the house itself. The Treaty Room is one good example. I remember hearing that in the little sitting room off the Lincoln Bedroom, Nixon and Kissinger said a prayer. My office upstairs was the old Treaty Room, and there was a marvelous picture of Lincoln with his commanders. It embodied the brightness at the end of the war that divided our country. In that room I had a lot of very important meetings. I can recall meeting there with Justice Souter. And we had many meetings in there concerning Desert Storm. I remember sitting in that room once and telling Colin Powell, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs, that we had to do something about the starving children in Somalia because I couldn't stand thinking about them anymore.

I have so many memories of that room because I used it as an office up in the private quarters. I'd come back from the Oval Office or elsewhere, have a drink, have dinner, then go in there and spend an hour or so working, dictating, typing little notes, or talking on the telephone.

We used the Truman Balcony in several ways.

Once in a while I'd have guests up there for a lunch­ eon so they could see the great beauty of the place.

Any time we had a dinner upstairs, or even a State Dinner, we would bring the key participants out on the Truman Balcony, even in the winter, because the view was so striking. Foreign dignitaries who had seen a lot of our country, or thought they had, were deeply impressed when they walked out onto it because the vista was fantastic.

We used the Solarium up on the fourth floor to our grandchildren out of the way. We'd dispatch get them to their little kitchenette. They could have a cookout up there, and they also had a television, which had dreadful TV games with falling people, knights being shot down, and other gruesome things.

I think they call it Nintendo. They'd go up there though, and we wouldn't hear from them for a long time. It was great to get some peace.

The public rooms did not become personal dur­ ing our White House years. We'd watch television in the Map Room sometimes, but there was little warmth to it in a family sense. More often, we'd go downstairs to see how the Christmas tree on the main floor had been decorated. Or we'd take a look at the . State Dining Room being fixed up for the next night's dinner. All of that was ceremonial though, and we didn't really see that part of the White House as our own.

The Oval Office was marvelous. Next to it was a tiny little office that I often used as a dining room.

Outside there was small patio where I could lunch or sit in the sun. In the pool house nearby, I had athletic machines: a Stairmaster, a bicycle, and a sauna.

Many days, I would work till about 4:00 p.m., go to work out, and then come back for signing mail and finishing up the day. Other days, I would work out or go running at noon and have no lunch to speak of. I'd be gone for maybe an hour and fifteen minutes. For

The White House Remembered: Volume 2 37

example, I would run at Fort McNair, come back, take a shower, jump in the pool, climb back out, and go back to work. I felt strongly about keeping up my energy level with exercise. In those days, I tried to run 3 or 4 miles four or five times a week.

I loved the competitive part of working out. I was brought up with competition. In the spring, I would invite people over to play tennis on the White House court or at Camp David. Horseshoes was another good way of blowing off steam. Some people don't understand why the game of horseshoes was so important to me. They thought I was exaggerating my feelings about it, but it truly was a great way to work off the competitive urge. If I went head-to-head with Marvin in horseshoes, I would be in total con­ centration. I would forget everything else. We could get the whole White House staff involved-the groundskeepers, the Marine pilots, the medical staff, and the Uniformed Secret Service-in our thirty-two­ person tournaments. It was great for morale, and I personally loved it. Sometimes families of competitors would come to watch and eat hamburgers by the pool.

I could adjust my day any way I wanted, so I started early. I'd have coffee at about 5:15 a.m. and the dogs would go out. I'd glance through four or five newspa­ pers that were delivered then. Sometimes I'd turn on the TV and watch the 6:30 news, but I'd be out of the residence by 7:15 and in my office by 7:30. Around 6:00 p.m., I'd take some work to do in my office upstairs. There wasn't any time for reading great liter­ ature: I was reading Scowcroft, or NSC, or option papers, or I'd be getting ready for a meeting the next day. As I look back on it, the workday didn't seem all that burdensome even though it was hard to get away.

The adrenaline got me going, and I found the job in general very stimulating.

The physical layout of the White House is perfect. I don't think there's anything wrong with living so close to the office. In fact, I think it's necessary. If a president wasn't there, he'd spend his time going back and forth in a car or helicopter. I felt the same way about my office at Camp David, which I used a lot. I could go up there at about 2:30 in the afternoon on a Friday, take off my necktie and my suit, put on my 38

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

khakis, and go down to that little office. I'd spend two or three hours making phone calls, editing letters, and reading. I could get all this done in this friendly environment, undisturbed. It was just me and the telephone to the White House operator. In my own library there won't be a re-creation of the Oval Office, but a re-creation of the tiny office at Camp David. After working in that office for a while in the afternoon, I'd go for a run in the woods or watch a movie after dinner. In the morning, I'd go there for about three hours and then just relax and play volley­ ball for the afternoon. That was a great way for a president to do work: there was no press and I never had to worry about how I looked.

I couldn't think of one single thing I'd want to change about the White House itself. The staff, how­ ever, is who really deserves the credit for making the White House what it is.

Barbara and I loved the grounds. We had these wood ducks that took up residence there, and we kept watch on them. In the evenings we would go out with our dogs, Ranger and Millie, and walk down to the fence to talk to the tourists. They would find it hard to believe that they were talking to the president of the United States on his lawn. They were always very friendly, though, and we learned what the White House meant to them.

We never went out on the north side of the grounds, however. It was always the site of demon­ strations, and the shantytown across the way was unsightly. I never should have permitted it to devel­ op, but instead, we just didn't go on that side of the White House. The South Lawn was where we could find tranquillity and beauty.

Down by the tennis court there was a little ter­ race where we could sit and have a Coca-Cola. We could wander through the little garden where they had handprints of children. There was great privacy and natural beauty there. I'd get very emotional see­ ing it all from above when I came in on the helicop­ ter, even until the final day of my term.

The White House worked well in crisis. It was designed for it. At those times, I held meetings in the Residence. It was important to have a more intimate

President Bush remembered that 'just thinking about whatever room I sat in reminded me of the density of the history of the house itself."

Here he is meeting with Former President Richard Nixon in the Yellow Oval Room on April 22, 1991. President Bush also used this room for small formal gatherings and found it interesting that Franklin Roosevelt used the room as an office.

setting when secrecy was important. I remember two days before the air war started in the Gulf, I called Tony McPeak, the head of our Air Force, and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney over for lunch.

We could talk business in the Family Dining Room very frankly; it is entirely secure.

I remember when the word came that Iraq had invaded Kuwait. I was down on the first floor in the Medical Room getting a deep heat treatment when Brent came in and said, "We've got a hell of a prob­ lem." I had some other things on my mind but that changed in a hurry. We shifted gears. That is how fast and efficient the White House system is.

I loved the White House art. I had a Childe Hassam of a parade with flags in my little study in the West Wing. It was beautiful and patriotic. Upstairs we had a Monet that was bright and airy, and I remember downstairs that was a portrait of Lincoln in the State Dining Room that is known to be extraordinarily strong. It certainly was special. I also always thought that Jackie Kennedy's portrait was beautiful, very different. The Lincoln picture was the one that moved me the most, though. When I stood before those portraits, it was hard to believe that I was pres­ ident just as they had been.

I know there is a lot of talk about changing the

White House surroundings. It makes sense to me to clean up Lafayette Square so it can be more of a place the American people can enjoy. As it is now, there are too many demonstrators there, and anyone with a cause or a complaint who wants to use it uses it. I think we've been too permissive with it given the unpredictable political climate we live in. Getting rid of the traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House would also be a good thing. Another idea is to have the press in another corner of the house so it's not turned into a backdrop for commer­ cial television.

I loved the South Lawn ceremony when I would greet foreign dignitaries. They seemed to like it, too.

It was tasteful setting: we would hold the arrival cer­ emony and the short greetings, then go into the house for a warm environment in which to have cof­ fee or tea. Afterwards, I could walk a short distance to the Oval Office to get to work.

The State Dinners we gave were quite wonderful, especially because they were so formal. It was a chance to invite visitors, officials, and friends into a very glamorous, yet not overdone, setting. The staff did it just right, and the entertainment community was very generous in agreeing to perform there. We had some enchanting evenings, and the people who came seemed to enjoy them very much.

Historians would occasionally come to talk The White House Remembered: Volume 2 39

President Bush recalled that the "The State Dinners we gave were quite wonderful . . . a chance to invite visitors, officials, and friends into a very glamorous, yet not over­ done, setting. " The President and Mrs. Bush are seen here with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip as they arrive for a State Dinner at the White House in 1991.

about the presidents. They were excellent, but there was never adequate time. I'd go listen, but we never truly could pick their brains.

Sometimes I felt a little overburdened by cere­ monies, but it was important to perform them, and they were usually easy anyway. The Rose Garden was a marvelous facility for that. A president can just walk out of his door onto it. What a beautiful setting. We had some huge affairs on the South Lawn, like the Americans with Disabilities Act sign­ ing, a very emotional day, an event for the Special Olympics, and a barbecue for members of Congress, who loved coming in. I always loved seeing people enjoy themselves at the White House.

40

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

Sometimes it seemed like we made the clock go thirty-six hours in the White House, but I'm not a believer in the theory that the job is too big and can't be done by the president and his advisers. I don't think it needs structural change. So much depends on the people recruited and your confidence in those people. A president can design the best system in the world, but none of it matters more than the quality of the people. They make the job into a task possible for the president to do.

I lived for those security briefings in the morn­ ing, in which I put great faith. The briefer had worked all night to put together the material, and he would come down and give it to me. I would sit with the guy and say, "What the hell does this mean?

We're not certain this is a MiG-25 or that Gorbachev is missing? How can you say that?" I would ask them, and they'd go back for more. Those briefings brought me up to speed. I could never com­ plain about the burdens of the presidency under a system so finely tailored by time.

President Clinton makes a statement to the press from the South Lawn before leaving the White House/or Camp David, July 2000.

William Jefferson Clinton 42nd President of the United States, 199�2001 These recollections were compiled and edited by Hugh Sidey, who interviewed the forme1· president in 2001.

They are presented here as edited by Mr. Sidey.

Many great people have called this house home.

All of them, so far, have been white males of European descent. I am absolutely convinced that in the near future there will be a woman president, and a person·of color will occupy the White House and the Oval Office. The presidency was not built by one person; in a fundamental way, it has been carried forward by the American people since the beginning.

I have spent a lot of time reading the histories of the various periods in the White House and the biog­ raphies of some of my lesser-known predecessors.

These histories include a mixture of the personality, character, and skills of a president; his time; and also

a sense of what personal joys and tragedies surround­ ed presidents.

Just for example, Franklin Pierce, one of the only other presidents who came from a small state and was governor beforehand, generally didn't hold a good reputation as president. However, I wonder if even Lincoln could have succeeded in 1853 instead of 1861. Almost never do I hear anyone mention the story of Franklin Pierce on his way to his inaugura­ tion. With his wife and his only child, he took the train from New Hampshire to Washington. There was a minor accident in which 10 or 11 people received minor bruises, but his son fell on his head' cracked his spine, and died. Neither he nor his wife ever recovered.

Abraham Lincoln would have a hard time get­ ting elected today because he had terrible, periodic but persistent bouts of depression. He was married to a wife who was bubbly and strong and happy and, as far as I know, has the distinction of being the only woman in American history to have been courted by three of the four candidates for president in 1860.

John Breckinridge and Stephen Douglas also pur­ sued her, but clearly she made the right decision.

The Lincolns lost a child before they came to the White House. They lost another child there. She lost three half-brothers fighting for the Confederacy.

All the carnage of the Civil War and the burden of the tragedies they faced broke Mary Todd Lincoln, and in history she is seen as a very different person from who she really was most of her life. In some magical way, all the personal and national trauma of that time was absorbed by Abraham Lincoln in a way that enabled him to become stronger, to over­ come his own demons, to leave aside his own depres­ sion, and to become, in my view, the greatest presi­ dent we ever had.

Rutherford B. Hayes was one of four or five Union generals from Ohio who became president.

After the Civil War, a Union general from Ohio had about a 50 percent chance of becoming president. It's The White House Remembered: Volume 2 41

President Clinton was especially interested in how his predecessors used each room in the White House. He observed that "the East Room has not only witnessed historical events; it has played a role in shaping them. " On November 9, 2000, the East Room was the setting for a formal dinner in celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the White House as the home and office of the presi­ dent. President and Mrs. Clinton and their special guests Lady Bird Johnson, President and Mrs. Gerald R. Ford, President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter, and President and Mrs. George H. W Bush, gathered to honor the house and reflect on their contributions to its history.

the only period in our history that has ever been like that. A lot of the rest of us wish it had been so easy.

Theodore Roosevelt once complained that he would never be viewed as a great president because he had the misfortune of serving when there was no great war. He couldn't have been more wrong. And I'm convinced his temperament was perfectly suited to the time in which he served. Ironically, although he complained about having no war, he's one of only two presidents ever to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. It

42 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

goes to show that a president must show up to do his best and make do with anything that comes his way.

The East Room has not only witnessed historical events; it has played a role in shaping them. It has hosted forty-two administrations and forty-one dif­ ferent personalities-every president except George Washington. The East Room began as a laundry room of Abigail Adams-an auspicious beginning­ reminding us that there are certain basic elements of life that don't disappear just by becoming president.

Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether Lewis laid maps and animal skulls on this floor and charted the Lewis and Clark expedition. Later in 1814, a banquet was held in the White House during which James Madison sent Dolley word that the army had miscal­ culated where the British were going to assault Washington. He told her to cut Gilbert Stuart's painting of George Washington down and get out of the house as quickly as possible. She did, and they had to leave the banquet. The British came in, ate the food, then set fire to the house.

Later, the house and this room were the head­ quarters for the battle-worn Union troops during the Civil War and later, the roller skating rink for

-

Roosevelt's children. Over the years, the house has survived a major fire, two wars, a plane crash, and five weddings. And, of course, it has been a gallery for some priceless art that embodies the history of this country.

Each president in his own time has survived unique challenges, striving to fulfill the purpose of our Founders to form a more perfect union.

When I first arrived in the White House, I wanted to get upstairs and look around. I had only been upstairs twice before, once under President Carter and once under President Bush. I wanted to feel what it would be like. I have to say that even after years as president, I still felt a sense of awe every time I entered into the place. I felt the weight of history there. I would go into each room and try to know what important things had happened in it. Living in the White House was a great blessing, and I think it helped me be a better president because I felt I was carrying on a continuous conversation with all my predecessors and with many of the great dramas of American history.

I know what happened in the room I used as my office. It is the room where Andrew Johnson moved the office of the president after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. And it was the principal office until 1902, when Theodore Roosevelt built the West Wing.

In 1898, the treaty ending the Spanish-American War was signed there on a table bought by General Grant when he became president. For a hundred years, every peace treaty has been signed there. To live and to work every night and on the weekends in a room called the Treaty Room on a table called the Treaty Table that Ulysses Grant brought here in 1869 is incredible. It never ceased to give me a great feeling.

After living there, I changed my mind about quite a number of presidents. I think conventional wisdom about a number of them is wrong. Grant was a better president than most people believe he was. He had corruption in his cabinet and he had a brother that tried to take advantage of him, but he basically was a better president than he got credit for. He was also a phenomenal general, and he wrote the best presiden­ tial memoirs by far.

The White House Remembered: Volume 2 43

The Yellow Oval Room was laid out as it is now by President and Mrs. Kennedy. It was Roosevelt's study during World War II, where he worked in the evenings when he didn't go down to the Oval Office.

Indeed, he slept in that room so he could wheel him足 self in. He also built the Jefferson Memorial with the statue of Thomas Jefferson looking right through the window where his desk was so he could look at him for inspiration.

I felt the history of the room. Jackie had a very good reason for wanting to fix it up. When foreign visitors or people from other states come, a president needs a formal meeting room, but there's no place to bring them except the formal rooms downstairs. The Yellow Oval Room is functional for this purpose.

I haven't seen or heard any ghosts in the White House, but I've been into the Lincoln Bedroom at several times trying to find Lincoln's ghost. He's never presented himself to me.

There was a big dispute on whether the original White House plans included the balcony that Harry Truman had put in. There was also a huge amount of adverse comment by people who thought the balcony was going to spoil the look of the house, but I can say as someone who has lived there, it dramatically increases the quality of life for the first family. In the springtime we would put furniture out there, and every weekend we were in town we spent some time on the balcony. It was wonderful.

Up on the Second Floor of the White House one can walk and look around the office that every president between Andrew Johnson and Theodore Roosevelt occupied, except Lincoln, who used it as a waiting room. And if you go into Lincoln's Bedroom, you'll realize that it was his office and he signed the Emancipation Proclamation there. The little room behind that was Woodrow Wilson's office during World War I, where he ran the war and where the first telegraph and telephone in Washington, D.C., were located. I had to think about the things that happened and the decisions that had been made in that house, and it made whatever mine were seem both do-able and bearable. It kind of lifted me.

No one made any of us become president. Every one of us asked to do it, and it's a great privilege and 44

WHITE HOUSE IIISTORY (Number 37)

honor. Even the bad days are good because we're given the chance-as President Kennedy once said足 to bring together all of our own powers of thinking and doing and persuading in a way that no other job in the world could do. Some presidents like to com足 plain about it, but to most of us it's a phenomenal opportunity. When the drenching news coverage of the day comes along or when things are not going so well, people say, "Gosh, it must be terrible," and I respond, "Even the bad days are good." And they are, every one of them.

I'm amazed at how many presidents, beginning with George Washington, complained about how hard it was to be president, and how all their motives were suspect. George Washington said that once he got to be president, people treated him like a common criminal.

And of course, in the beginning of the country, the politics were about as rough as they are now. The three periods that have been most partisan were, in the beginning, Jefferson and Adams; then around the Civil War; and now our own time.

Harry Truman referred to the White House as a "great white prison." And if he was serious, I must say I disagree with him. The rough times there-and I've had some pretty rough times-are just part of the cost of doing business. The job is a joy. It's a gift to be able to do this kind of work.

It is really quite a wonderful place to live as well.

There's a swimming pool, and Hillary and I spent a lot of happy days there just talking and reading. On Sunday afternoons, we would go up to the Truman Balcony. You can get busy and drift apart, but for us, we had more time together there than we had before.

We have always had a lot of things to do.

In the early years of my term as president, our daughter was finishing up junior high school and high school, and we were together at night quite often. We talked about her schoolwork and what was going on in her life, and that was a lot of fun. After Chelsea left and went to college, we were able to go to Camp David more.

I miss Camp David, the Marine Band, and fly足 ing on Air Force One. I miss working in the beautiful office. It's the most beautiful place I've ever worked

because of the shape of the room and the size of the windows. There was always light there, even when it was raining outside. I miss a lot of things, but the thing I miss more than anything else is the chance to work for the American people every day. It is a joy.

I feel grateful for some of the things that have been passed down to me. The day before I became presi­ dent, I received a copy of the only book that Thomas Jefferson ever wrote, Notes on the State of Virginia, a book remarkable for its incredibly detailed analysis of everything about the state. It is most important today because it contains the first known recording of Thomas Jefferson's condemnation of slavery. It always struck me that every person in this job must live with a certain ambiguity, and I wonder how he dealt with it. I'm grateful for what he left us.

Shortly after I assumed office, Pamela Harriman gave me the ink blotter that President Kennedy used in his office in the White House. Mrs. Kennedy had given it to her husband Averell, about twelve days after President Kennedy was killed, with the letter that Jackie Kennedy had written. Because it was my great good fortune to know Jackie and her children, it is one of my most precious possessions. About once a month I open the ink blotter and read the let-

President Clinton recalled that among his most treasured White House photographs was one taken of John F Kennedy Jr. viewing his father's portrait during a visit to the White House in 1998. President Clinton is seen here beside the portrait with John and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy.

ter again, just remember how fleeting life is and what a great gift every day is.

I think one of the most treasured pictures I have from my time in the White House is the picture I have of young John Kennedy looking at his father's por­ trait on a visit he made here, when he had a wonder­ ful preview here of the great series on space HBO did.

So the history of the country goes on, and the first families come and go. For all of their achieve­ ments and all of their failures, they were also people.

The great premise of democracy is that ordinary peo­ ple will make the right decision most of the time; that no one is irreplaceable, but that freedom is.

The White House Remembered: Volume 2 45

Lincoln in His Shop

How a President Opened His Doors as the People's Servant RON J.

1,he summer of 1864, Kentuckian John Bullock called upon President Abraham Lincoln at the White House to make a personal appeal. The young Bullock took his seat in the reception area adjacent to Lincoln's office alongside numerous other individuals, hoping for an opportunity to have but a few minutes with the nation's leader. Uncertain if the president would even take the time to receive such an insignificant person as himself, the awestruck lad soon found himself ushered to the executive office and, there, in the presence of the president of the United States. Lincoln invited his guest to sit with him next to the fireplace, and Bullock laid out his case to the chief magistrate. He had come to seek the parole of his brother, a Confederate officer held as a prisoner of war in Ohio. The president asked Bullock if his brother would take a loyalty oath, to which he sadly replied that no, that would not happen. Lincoln stared at embers in the fireplace at great length, and Bullock concluded in his mind the certain result: his cause was lost. Bullock was shocked when Lincoln A clipping from the July 29, 1862, Sandusky Daily Commercial Register describes the scene at the White House when one of President Abraham Lincoln's visitors stayed a bit too long. The press was often critical of the president for allowing so much of his day to be taken up by the public during wartime.

KELLER

suddenly bolted out of his seat and declared, "I'll do it," and removed to his desk to sign on a card for the release. In the sudden turn of events, Bullock left stunned but grateful. "I left the White House with my heart overflowing with gratitude to the President," wrote Bullock, recalling the incredible event. To Bullock, the act demonstrated "how true and genuine was Mr. Lincoln's feeling of kindness toward others."'

Bullock told of his meeting with Lincoln to whomever he saw. The simple visiting card from Lincoln magically granted Bullock the authority he needed to secure the release of his brother. But it had more substantial ripple effects. The Bullock family was of Kentucky stock who supported the Confede足 racy, and Lincoln's act altered theit perspective entire足 ly. Their family would no longer again raise arms against the Union. Upon hearing that Lincoln was slain in April 1865, Bullock lamented that "none more truly felt genuine sorrow for the death of Mr. Lincoln than my father and his family. To each one of us it came as a personal loss."2 One kindhearted, sim足 ple act of a servant president in his office likely spared a life and bore the favor of a family. But numerous historical accounts testify that what Lincoln did for the Bullock family was not uncom足 mon. Throughout his presidency Lincoln's open office door and remarkable accessibility time and again had a powerful and personal effect on the nation.

This 1863 phot9graph captures the skyline that President Lincoln would have known, dominated by the Smithsonian Castle and the unfinished Washington Monument.

Lincoln's Presidency Begins At the onset of his presidency in 1861, few imag­ ined this effect, including Lincoln himself. As he took office he found himself vilified by half a nation in rebellion, with the majority of the rest of the country at best apprehensive about his ability. When in March 1861 outgoing president James Buchanan showed Lincoln the executive office, Lincoln was so deep in anxious thought of the overwhelming weight and power of the office that he had not heard a word of anything Buchanan said there. 3 Some administrative coaching may have aided the new chief executive, who had no prior executive experience to tout. Although Lincoln was a sagacious and eager study, early on most in his cabinet found him lacking and expressed little confidence in his leadership abilities. It did not aid Lincoln's standing among his executive department heads when he failed to conduct regular cabinet meetings in his first months of taking office.4 Eventually Lincoln con­ vened the cabinet more regularly, holding meetings on Tuesdays and Fridays, with the office door care­ fully guarded from visitors or the press. 5 The executive office, as it was often then called, 48 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

Lincoln coined as simply "the shop," or even more unpretentiously as "this place. " 6 It was an office that complemented the humble nature of its chief execu­ tive. In 1861 one of Lincoln's secretaries, William 0.

Stoddard, described the room as having "an old-time and half-faded look," not altered since the days of Andrew Jackson thirty years prior. 7 The "shop" occupied the near southeastern upstairs corner of the White House; it was about 29 by 24 feet in size. The centerpiece of the room's furni­ ture consisted of a large, very plain, oak table-the "council table" as it was called-covered with a cloth around which the cabinet sat when it held its meet­ ings. ''Any number of notable men have sat around it," Stoddard noted, "discussing the affairs of the nation and of the world. "8 Lincoln often piled the council table with books, documents, and maps when the cabinet did not meet. Above the table hung a bell cord by which he alerted his secretaries John Hay or John Nicolay when their service was needed. A glass­ glo bed gaslight was suspended from the ceiling. At the south end of the room, between the two windows, stood another table, at which Lincoln sat in a large armchair and used as his desk. In the southwest

"Life in the Lincoln White House," an exhibition presented by the White House Historical Association, March 13-April 14, 2015, featured a recreation of President Lincoln's office (right) as depicted by Francis Bicknell Carpenter in his 1864 painting The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The office is also the subject of the 2011 painting The Visit: A War Worker Calls for a Favor, Late 1862, (below) for which Peter Waddell meticulously researched the details using period illustrations and written documents as references.

From the mass of details in Waddell's painting comes one mystery-the desk (upper right) in front of the doorway. This door, often spoken of, gave access to a corridor the president ordered cut through the adjacent room to allow him to pass unseen to the family quarters. Although graphic documentation all agrees on this location, one wonders how Lincoln accessed his corridor with the desk so placed.

Lincoln in His Shop: How a President Opened His Doors as the People's Servant 49

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The death of the young Colonel Elmer Ellsworth (above), who was shot as he attempted to capture a Confederate flag flying in Alexandria on May 24, 1861, deeply grieved President Lincoln. Ellsworth was a colonel in the National Guard Cadets in Chicago. He became close to Lincoln during the 1860 campaign, vowing to defend the candidate against harm, and he moved to Washington with the Lincolns. The president ordered his remains brought to the White House, where he lay in state in the East Room, beneath a wreath offlowers woven by Mary Lincoln. Photography was not allowed as his body lay in state in the East Room of the White House; this drawing captures the scene.

corner stood another upright mahogany desk so bat­ tered that Stoddard quipped it might have been sal­ vaged "from some old furniture auction."9 Pigeonholes in that desk served as Lincoln's filing cabinet. Two other, larger chairs and two sofas were spaced within the room. Stacked against the walls were numerous books----chief among them the Bible, a volume of Shakespeare, and the United States Statutes. On the walls in frames hung several military maps; other maps were spring-loaded like window shades. Here the positions and movements of troops could be fol­ lowed. Above the fireplace mantel on the west wall hung an old and discolored oil painting of General Jackson and a photograph of John Bright, English member of Parliament. A mantel clock ticked away the seconds of time. Doors opened to the main hall­ way and to the secretary's office. Lincoln had a wall built in the room west of his office so that he could walk unmolested from his office to the private living quarters. 10 50 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

From the large window nearest his desk, Lincoln could gaze out onto the South Lawn into the dis­ tance, as Washington was far from the sprawling city it is today. An unfinished Washington Monument, the Smithsonian Castle, and the Potomac River basin dominated the cityscape. White tents of soldiers' camps dotted the hills within and around the city.

Across the Potomac River stood Arlington House, the home of Robert E. Lee. Just beyond in Alexandria atop a hotel, a rebel flag waved in defi­ ance of the federal government. 11 That Confederate flag flying within sight of the White House bothered Lincoln immensely, and his friend Colonel Elmer Ellsworth volunteered to remove it from the building, only to be gunned down in his heroic act. When given the news of the death of Ellsworth-the first casualty of the Civil War and whom Lincoln called the "great­ est little man I ever saw" 12-the president stared out the White House library window looking toward Alexandria, covered his face in his hands, and wept

White House guard William Crook considered office-seekers to be the "most persistent and unreasonable" group of President Lincoln's many visitors. This detail of a wood engraving made for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper of April 6, 1861, shows a group of office-seekers gathered in the White House Entrance Hall in hopes of meeting with President Lincoln.

bitterly. Those gathered felt moved at the emotion "in such a man, and in such a place." 11 Lincoln and His Visitors Many witnessed Lincoln in similar situations, staring out his office window and pondering the nation's fate. After a few minutes absorbed in thought, he would turn to the council table or to his desk where he would perform-in Stoddard's words-his "political and military miracles" for the many that requested his aid. 14 Those entreaties for miracles were many. This was an era in which anyone could literally walk right into the White House and request a private meeting with the president. If willing to wait long enough, one could likely meet him. Lincoln received everyone from the most important members of Congress, to his generals, to newspapermen, to the private soldier and the humblest citizen. Rules of precedence held that cabinet members and ranking army officers were

generally granted prompt admittance. Members of the House would be received in order of their arrival, although Dr. Anson Henry sarcastically quipped that "it is no uncommon thing for Senators to try for ten days before they get a private interview." 15 Sometimes there might be a great crowd of people waiting their turn in the anteroom adjacent to Lincoln's office.

There in his shop, day after day, and often late into the night, Lincoln sat, listened, talked, and decided.

As Nicolay noted, "Lincoln seldom if ever declined to receive any man or woman who came to the White House to see him." 16 All varieties arrived to see the president: mothers who wanted to have their sons or husbands paroled from the army, sisters or wives of deserters who wanted reprieves for them, brothers of wounded soldiers who wanted their release from service, ambitious men who wanted military or political offices, newspaper editors seeking an interview, self­ appointed advisers who wanted to be listened to, or

Lincoln in His Shop: How a President Opened His Doors as the People's Servant 51

It was observed that President Lincoln's "kindness was most marked" when he met with women in distress. Many mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters traveled to the White House to plead for their loved ones who were in trouble­ frequently jailed for desertion or held as prisoners of war. The note below is an example of a reprieve granted by the president: "Let this man take the oath of Dec. 8, 1863 & be discharged. ALincoln, Dec. 29.1864." Such a request was delivered to President Lincoln by Shirley Temple in the role of the Virgie Cary in The Littlest Rebel in 1935. Frank McGlynn Sr., played the part of Lincoln (opposite).

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people who just wanted to personally meet the presi­ dent of the United States. Of all the visitors, White House guard William Crook remarked that the latter group was the "most persistent and unreasonable." 11 Hay bemoaned the office-seekers who had "invaded and overrun" the White House and who "come in at daybreak and are still coming in at midnight." 18 Lincoln attempted to both attend to other busi­ ness and receive the throngs twelve hours a day. His secretaries Hay and Nicolay sought to persuade the president to adopt some systematic rules for visiting, limiting reception hours to 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., but this limit operated in theory only. They found their boss would disregard those arrangements as fast as they were made. 19 Hay recalled, "The president was always the first to break down barriers" in his contact with people and "disliked anything that keep people from him who wanted to see him."20 Stoddard noted the Executive Mansion was "packed with human beings," recalling that "the throng of eager applicants for office filled the broad staircase to its lower steps, the corridors of the first 52 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

I

floor, and the famous East Room. The president's kindly nature led him to surrender too much of his time and strength to private hopes and ambitions. He had hardly time left him to eat and sleep. "21 Crook observed that "the White House has never, during my forty years' service, been so entirely given over to the public as during Mr. Lincoln's administration."

Suspicious of their motives, Crook asserted, "The house was filled . . . with all sorts of people, of all varieties of political conviction, who felt, according to the temper of the time, that they had a perfect right to take up the President's time with their dis­ course. "22 Nicolay grumbled that he could not walk down the street without "almost every man, woman and child I meet-whether it be by day or night," requesting a meeting with the president. 23 Many, especially the press, rebuked Lincoln for this excess imposition upon him during wartime. The Washington Daily National Intelligencer lamented that the demands on Lincoln's time from visitors was "one of the tribulations which must greatly add to the fatigues of office at this juncture, that our amiable

visitor day Lincoln's physician diagnosed the presi­ dent with a contagious case of smallpox, Lincoln responded good-naturedly that he finally had some­ thing that he could give everybody. 29 But even among the peskiness of office-seekers and those seeking favors, Lincoln generally relished opportunities to communicate in his office with the average citizen. He found it difficult to abide by his own visiting hours because he liked the "plain peo­ ple," as he called them, and believed that his task of governing depended upon their satisfaction. Hay observed that Lincoln gained "something of cheer and encouragement" from these visits. Lincoln lis­ tened "with the eagerness of a child" over stories and battle accounts, and delighted in witty talk.31 He felt the everyday American deserved a chance to talk per­ sonally with the president in his office. "They do not want much," he asserted, "and they get very little.

Each one considers his business of great importance and I must gratify them. I know how I would feel in their place. "32 Lincoln made himself at home in his "shop," and Hay observed that visitors who met Lincoln for the first time were immediately struck both by the plain room and by the president's freedom "from pomposity."33 Of the room's simplicity Lincoln stated, "There is no smell of royalty about this establish­ ment."34 Accordingly, Lincoln's style reflected that simplicity. Lincoln abhorred titles and would often say, "Call me Lincoln; 'Mr. President' is entirely too formal."35 In the course of conversation with guests, it was not uncommon for Lincoln to swing his legs over his chair or to stretch out on his sofa with his hands folded over the top of his head.36The lack of formality and etiquette surely shocked those who pre­ sented themselves in their Sunday best, only to meet a president in his slippers.37 30

President has to give so much of his time and atten­ tion to persons who apparently [have] no business of their own."24 The New York Times derided the presi­ dent, writing: "Mr. Lincoln owes a higher duty to the country, to the world, to his own fame, than to wither away the priceless opportunities of the Presidency in listening to the appeals of the competing office­ hunters. "25 One observer noted that Lincoln's chief trouble in his entire presidency came from the stream of applicants for political office. 26 Lincoln was indeed annoyed by some of the demands. When a group called on him seeking an appointment to the Sandwich Islands for a friend for health reasons, Lincoln sarcastically responded, "Gentlemen, I am sorry to say there are eight other applicants for the place, all sicker than your man."27 A man of stature once visited to ask if the president would lend his name to his business project, only to have Lincoln spring from his seat with an emphatic "No!" and berate him, "You have come to the wrong place; and for you and everyone who comes for such purposes, there is the door!"28 When on a crowded

Meeting a disarming president without pretensions in his White House chambers must have proven surpris­ ing, but inviting, to the common, everyday Americans.

Disdaining social formalities, Lincoln, noted Stoddard, "looked upon whomever he met as no more or less sta­ tion in life than he was."38 Stoddard marveled at how the president greeted mountaineers from east Tennessee like brothers. "He is one of them, really," marveled John Hay. "I never saw him more at ease than he is with these first-rate patriots of the border."39

Lincoln in His Shop: How a President Opened His Doors as the People's Servant 53

On one occasion a southern woman from South Carolina called upon the president out of curiosity, harboring prejudices that Lincoln was a "terrible monster." After listening to him for a few minutes' she blurted out, "Why Mr. Lincoln, you look, act, and speak like a good hearted, generous man."

Lincoln questioned her, "Did you expect to meet a savage?" She retorted, "Certainly I did, or even worse." Clearly changing her opinion of Lincoln and his intentions for the South, she remarked, "I am glad to have met you." From this single experience in Lincoln's office, she became a loyal supporter of the president. 40 John Nicolay's daughter relayed that among Lincoln's numerous callers it was with "women in dis­ tress," particularly "women in the humbler walks of life, that his kindness was most marked."41 In 1863, a lady convulsed by sobs visited the White House for several days hoping for a chance to see the president and ask for the release of her son from soldier duty.

As the last person waiting in the anteroom one day, she was presented to the president. As he stood before the fireplace, hands clasped behind his back, staring at the floor listening, she relayed how her hus­ band was gone and her other son had died in battle.

She pleaded to Lincoln to write for the release of her remaining son to come home to her. Lincoln softly uttered, "I have two and you have none." With that, he walked to his writing table, took up a pen, and ordered the release of her remaining son. James Speed, who witnessed the event, watched the woman stand by him as he wrote "and with the fond famil­ iarity of a mother placed her hand on the President's head and smoothed down his tangled hair." Speed · detected, "Human grief and human sympathy had overleaped all the barriers of formality, and the ruler of a great nation was truly the servant, friend, and protector of the humble woman clothed for the moment with a paramount claim of loyal sacrifice."

The president rose, handed the note to her, and hur­ ried from the room followed by the blessings of an overjoyed mother. Speed recalled, "A volume could not describe the suppressed emotion or the simple eloquences of the act."42 Commenting on the thousands of people that Lincoln opened his door to in his four years, the newspaperman Francis Fisher Browne astutely 54 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

observed, "These meetings and interviews with people devoid of ceremony revealed the man in his true character and endeared him greatly to the popular heart."43 In Ward Hill Lamon's words, "Lincoln believed he was the people's servant, not their master."44 Lincoln and the Press Lincoln experienced more difficulty in winning over newspaper editors to his side. Often reviled in print, he found the constant "fault finding of the press" against him an all-to-common occurrence.45 When a caller expressed his dismay over a harshly written negative column against Lincoln in the New York Herald, Lincoln waived it off, saying, "They are a fair specimen of what has occurred to me through life . ... I am used to it."46 Lincoln sarcastically likened newspapermen to a story he told of a man lost in the forest at night during a thunderstorm. The man dropped to his knees, "O Lord, if it is all the same to you, give us a little more light and a little less noise!" Lincoln wished the same from the press.47 However vitriolic the criticism thrown at the president, when it came to public dissemination and acceptance of his policies Lincoln worked the press to his advantage-especially in regards to abolition policy. By the time Lincoln had decided on a policy of emancipation in the summer of 1862, he knew well that many northerners were unwilling to approve the freeing of a great many southern slaves unless it was coupled with plans for blacks to leave the nation altogether. On August 14, 1862, just weeks before the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, in an unprecedented move Lincoln became the first president to invite African Americans into the White House. In advance of. the release of the preliminary proclamation, Lincoln welcomed a delegation of free black leaders from Washington, D.C., to his office urging them to consider for their race voluntary c�lo­ nization to lands outside the United States so they would no longer endure discrimination by whites. He told them, "Your race is suffering, in my judgment, the greatest wrong ever inflicted on any people. But even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on equality with the white race." Encouraging emigration for blacks to Central America, he told them, "It is better for us both to be separate. " 48

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Horace Greeley (above), editor of the New-York Daily Tribune, supported President Lincoln's election and pressed him for an end to slavery early in his administration. The most widely circulated paper in the nation at the time, the Tribune was invited to the press event on August 14, 1862, which was intended by Lincoln to help prepare the nation for emancipation. As the president had hoped, Greeley included an exact transcription of the event in the August 15, 1862, edition (excerpt at right). Lincoln clipped articles from newspapers and kept one pigeonhole in his desk specifically for Greeley's columns.

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Lincoln in His Shop: How a President Opened His Doors as the People's Servant

55

Visitors to Lincoln's office were often struck by the president's appearance and welcoming greeting.

The first nationally distinguished African American invited into the White House, Frederick Douglass ( opposite, c. 1860) recalled that although he had been nervous about meeting the president, he immediately felt at ease in his presence. An article in the London South Advertiser ( excerpt below left) describes the writer's surprise at President Lincoln's unusual height. The photograph at left captures the scene of the president at his desk in 1864 as so many described.

The Prealdent'a Personal .Appearance and Character.

The general cast of Mr. Lincoln's fea.tures must be fammar to you through the photographic por• traits in the London shop.windows. His a.ctua.I a.ppearanoa is even nearer approached by the ad­ mimble �rioon sketches by Mr. John Tenniel in Punch.. With a curioualy intuitive ftdelity of ap· preciation. Mr. Tennie! has seized upon that lengthy f'ace, those bushy locks, that shovel beard, that unga.inly form, those long. muscular, o.ttonuo.tod limbs, those 'bony and "'ide-spread e:s:­ trenrlties . Mr. Lincoln is so tall tbnt, looking up in his face, you might. did not respect forbid you. oak .. how cold the weather was up there." He is so ta.11, tha.t o. friend who had an interview with him in his private ofllce made use of the expression thatwhen he rose there did not seem the slightest likelihood of his getti.n« up ever coming to au end. He seemed. to be drawing himaeJf out like a telescope.

56 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

Days after the meeting, one of the delegation wrote to Lincoln, "We were entirely hostile to the movement until all the advantages were so ably brought to our views by you ....It is our belief that such a conference will lead to an active and zealous support of this measure by the leading minds of our people. "•9 However, the colonization plans were harshly criticized by other black leaders, chief among them Frederick Douglass.

But Lincoln was clearly not as concerned about the reaction of the meeting from black leaders as he was about the reaction of whites. The meeting's entire purpose was likely to placate white fears. Not only had Lincoln assembled leading blacks to the meeting, but also invited, among other newspapers, Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, which had the largest circulation of any daily in the country.

Lincoln's intent was that the Tribune and other influ­ ential newspapers would record the exact transaction of the meeting-which they did-so his remarks would be dispersed widely in newspapers across the country.This meeting in his office served simply as a "press event" to ready the country for emancipation and to assuage racial fears. Lincoln succeeded in his public purpose. 50 A week following the meeting with the delega­ tion, Lincoln advanced his policy on emancipation by responding to an editorial in the Tribune. In mid­ August, in a piece entitled, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions," Greeley had indicted the president's weak­ ness on the slavery issue. Now, addressing Greeley as "an old friend," Lincoln answered the charge, assert-

ing "what I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union."51 As Lincoln hoped, the Intelligencer and other newspa­ pers across the country picked up the story, and it was read North and South. Lincoln had again successfully used the press to expound upon his administration's policy that any future actions on emancipation were tied to military and larger aims.52 Undoubtedly such press statements helped turn pub­ lic opinion.

Lincoln experienced frustration, however, when newspapers misstated his words. When a Missouri newspaper editor called upon Lincoln, the president charged that the press "like yours ... have persist­ ently garbled and misrepresented what I have said." 53 In 1863, when Lincoln penned a long letter to James Conkling back in Springfield further explaining his stance on black soldiers fighting for the Union, he turned down requests for advance copies from Washington correspondents, including the Associated Press, because he felt they could not be depended

upon for secrecy.Despite his rebuff, much to his cha­ grin the New York Evening Post somehow received a copy and printed the letter word-for-word before it was made public. 54 Noting the press's "power for both good and evil," Lincoln blamed newspapermen and editors and for contributing to public sentiment against the administration.55 After the 1863 New York draft riots, Joseph Medill of the Chicago Tribune led a delega­ tion to call upon Lincoln at the White House. The president listened patiently, then huffed, "You ought to be ashamed of yourselves." Shaking his finger at the delegates and berating them, he retorted, "You and your Tribune have had more influence than any paper in Jhe Northwest in making this war. You can influence great masses, and yet you cry.... Go home and send us these men." Medill admitted he was whipped and went home to raise more troops.56 Editors all over North sent their newspapers to the White House, hoping the president might read their editorials, though likely the papers were first distributed to staff, and most failed to reach Lincoln.57 Stoddard said Lincoln cared little for news­ paper opinion and that the president claimed he "knew the people so much better than the editors did."58 Although Lincoln never saw many of the harshest criticisms against him, he did clip certain articles that he read, filing them in his upright office desk under the heading "villainous articles."59 Lincoln even kept a pigeonhole specifically for Greeley.60 In part because Lincoln perceived that few newspapers treated him fairly, the president gave great favor to editor John W Forney and his Washington Daily Morning Chronicle, which began publication in 1862 and many regarded as a mouthpiece of the adminis­ tration.Both Hay and Nicolay often wrote for it.61 Instead of simply writing to the president, many editors and publishers called upon Lincoln person­ ally, and almost every northern journalist of promi­ nence was a visitor in the president's shop during the war. 62 Greeley, for one, often called upon Lincoln.

Journalists and newspaper editors waited in line with their cards in the anteroom to see Lincoln alongside everyone else. If a subject was of great interest to Lincoln, he would call the reporters into his office to "skirmish" with them or go to anteroom and explain the issue in detail. 63 Welles resented the press's intru-

Lincoln in His Shop: How a President Opened His Doors as th� -l?eople's Servant 57

sion into Lincoln's shop, complaining that Lincoln "permits the little newsmongers to come around him and be intimate."64 Indeed, Lincoln leaked tidbits and allowed personal contact with newspaper men whom he trusted, such as the Sacramento Daily Union edi­ tor Noah Brooks, familiar to Lincoln from his Illinois days. Forney of the Chronicle and Simon Hanscom of the Washington National Republican vis­ ited the White House and received the ear of the president perhaps more than any other men in jour­ nalism. 65 Lincoln and Frederick Douglass Among the stories of visitors from all walks of life whom Lincoln received, particularly moving is the account of the first meeting between two giants of the nineteenth century who emerged from differ­ ent backgrounds. As the first nationally distinguished African American ever invited into the White House, the former slave Frederick Douglass felt trepidation when he first met Lincoln in 1863. He later recalled, "I was somewhat troubled by the thought of meeting one so august and high in authority .. . and had never spoke to a President of the United States before.But my embarrassment soon vanished when I met the face of Mr. Lincoln."66 Deeply conscious that he was a black man who in previous administrations would have been unwel­ come in the president's office in the White House, Douglass recollected: I was never more quickly or more completely put at ease in the presence of a great man, than in that of Abraham Lincoln. He was seated, when I entered, in a low arm chair, with his feet extended to the floor, surrounded by a large number of documents, and several busy secre­ taries. The room bore the marks of business, and the persons in it, the president included, appeared to be much overworked and tired.

Long lines of care were already deeply written on Mr. Lincoln's brow, and his strong face, foll of earnestness, lighted up as soon as my name was mentioned. As I approached and was intro­ duced to him, he rose and extended his hand, and bade me welcome. I at once felt myself in the presence of an honest man-one whom I could love, honor and trust without reserve or doubt.

58 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

Proceeding to tell him who I was, and what I was doing, he promptly, but kindly, stopped me, say­ ing, "I know who you are, Mr. Douglass; Mr. Seward has told me all about you. Sit down. I am glad to see you."67 That auspicious greeting began the first of several grand meetings at the White House between the two leaders.

The Heavy Burdens and Last Years From his shop, Lincoln met with countless indi­ viduals tending to their needs. There he wrote hun­ dreds of letters and other correspondence. There he poured over maps and reports of the numbers of dead, wondering where he would get enough men to continue the fight. Even into evening time, he usually labored in his office, though both Stoddard and Hay recalled that frequently the tired president passed the evening in the company of a few friends "in frank and free conversation."6l! At times, Lincoln's sons, Tad and Willie, would jump onto their father's lap, climb on his shoulders, or lay on his couch until they fell asleep. After Willie died, Tad more frequently occu­ pied the office for the entire evening, dropping to sleep on the floor, where Lincoln would scoop him up and carry him tenderly to bed. 69 But Lincoln's dedication to the service of his country took its toll. With all the troubling duties before him, Lincoln stated to one visitor that he was surprised that "anybody would want the office" at all. 70 As a respite from the hustle and bustle of the White House, Lincoln spent hours at the War Department, where he received telegraphs from his generals. He would also increasingly retire to the Soldiers' Home in the evenings. He did partake in an occasional carriage ride with Mary Todd Lincoln, or in a personal horseback ride. Yet the bulk of his time as president he toiled in that upstairs room in the White House, tending to duties. 71 Even when Lincoln's son Willie lay dying in February 1862, Lincoln was not gone long from his office. Stoddard observed that during Willie's illness, "if the president left his office to visit the sick-room, it was only to return again and meet as before the hourly tribulations of his unrelaxing service of his country."12 While he agonized personally over his dying son, Lincoln felt duty-bound not to flinch from

his obligations and burdens, and returned a few rooms away to the matters of the war on which so many depended on him. He could even be found in his office the day of Willie's funeral. 73 To his detriment, Lincoln spent so much time there that he made himself a virtual prisoner in his own office.74 According to Crook, Lincoln would arrive in his office at half past nine in the morning until he went to bed "almost without cessation. "75 When Lincoln received telegrams following the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville, which exacted heavy loss of life, Brooks observed him pacing back and forth in his office in anguish, exclaiming, "My God! What will the country say!"76 The night after that battle, Stoddard departed the White House at 2:30 a.m., only to still hear from Lincoln's office the heavy foot­ steps from "the all but heart-broken ruler." 77 Said Stoddard, "I remember some nights when all he did was to walk up and down the room. "78 As war dragged on, friends ob.served that Lincoln listened with the same sympathetic patience to the requests and petitions of his visitors as always, but his hearty laugh was heard less often. 79 Hay

Artist Tom Freeman's 1999 painting envisioned President Lincoln pausing under the North Portico en route to the War Department where he received telegraphs from his generals.

expressed that "there was little gaiety in the Executive house" as the years advanced.80 Lincoln's retreat in his White House shop-though miles from the battle­ field-never afforded an escape from the horrors of war. When a grief-stricken widow called upon Lin­ coln, he said empathetically, "Your experience will help me to bear my own affiictions. "81 But where he endured sorrow, Lincoln also encountered success. Whereas at the onset of his term in 1861 most of Lincoln's own unwieldy cabinet per­ ceived their new commander in chief as either inca­ pable of leading or unwilling to lead, Lincoln ulti­ mately harnessed their talents and energies, and, through many sometimes intense and heated cabinet discussions, he and his cabinet directed efforts to win the Civil War. In 1861 just months into the new term,

Lincoln in His Shop: How a President Opened His Doors as the People's Servant 59

The Second Floor room that once served as President Lincoln's office is now the well-known Lincoln Bedroom.

A copy of the Gettysburg Address, handwritten and signed by Lincoln, is displayed on the desk in the corner.

Hanging above it is the painting Watch Meeting-Dec. 31st 1862-Waiting for the Hour by William T Carlton, which depicts slaves waiting for news of the Emancipation Proclamation. An engraving of Francis B. Carpenter 's 1864 painting, First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, is seen reflected in the mirror above the fireplace mantel. This space where Lincoln once readily admitted visitors is not on the public tour.

Secretary of State W illiam H. Seward blasted Lincoln for having no war policy: "Either the President must do it himself, and be all the while active in it, or, devolve it on some member of his Cabinet." Just months later, Seward wrote to his wife admitting he had erred in judgment, remarking, "Executive force and vigor are rare qualities; the President is the best of us."82 60 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

It was in this very room in the summer and fall of 1862 that the cabinet wrangled over emancipation policy in some of the most tense but momentous cab­ inet proceedings in American history. Through sever­ al onerous meetings, Lincoln was able to convince his divided cabinet of the wisdom of the Emancipation Proclamation, hammering out a document that changed the course of the naticn. Then on January 1,

1863, after greeting hundreds of guests in the annual New Year's Day reception in the Blue Room, Lincoln slipped upstairs to his office to sign the awaited proclamation.Sitting at the cabinet table, he paused and prophetically declared to Seward and a few oth­ ers gathered to witness the occasion, "I have never in my life felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper. If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act."83 Indeed, that act pre­ cipitated the eventual release of more than 3 million people from bondage.

In 1864, in one of the many times members of Congress called upon Lincoln in his office berating him for who he had or had not appointed or relieved in his cabinet or on the battlefield, Lincoln walked up and down his room patiently listening; then turning, he unrelentingly admonished his visitor-in this case, Congressman Thaddeus Stevens-"God knows I do not want the labor and responsibility of the office for another four years. But I have the common pride of humanity to wish my past four years administration endorsed; and I honestly believe that I can better serve the nation in its need and peril than any new man could possibly do."84 Lincoln realized his own growth in the office,and how he had used his power and position for the good of the country. Voters agreed in 1864, returning him to the presidency for a second term. From his command center in the White House,Lincoln as commander in chief directed a war effort to ultimate victory and a long-desired restora­ tion of the Union.

Nicolay noted a "deep and tranquil happiness throughout the United States" on the morning of April 14,1865. 85 Just five days following the surren­ der of Confederate General Robert E. Lee,Union General Ulysses S.Grant arrived in Lincoln' s office to meet with the cabinet. Grant expressed his confi­ dence that the final troops in rebellion would soon surrender. The cabinet heartily applauded the news, and Lincoln spoke, advocating for the rapid readmis­ sion of the rebel states. Then,in the same compas­ sionate tone that he had so often employed with those who had come in and out of his door,the presi­ dent offered with malice toward none his desire that the secessionists not be hanged. "Enough lives have been sacrificed," he stressed. 86 The cabinet cheered the leader they had come to fully respect. Following the

meeting,as they left the room, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton told Attorney General Edward Bates, "That is the most satisfactory Cabinet meeting I have attended for many a long day. What an extraordinary change in Mr. Lincoln." 87 What was surely equally evident was the significant change Lincoln had brought to the nation.

Lincoln and his wife planned to attend the the­ ater that evening of April 14. Before departing his shop for the day,he approved a petition from a Confederate prisoner wishing to take the oath of allegiance.On the petition,Lincoln scribbled simply, "Let it be done."88 It was only fitting that among his final executive acts as president,Lincoln would once again use his modest shop in the White House as a conduit of mercy and as the people's servant.

Postscript: The Lincoln Bedroom So much had been accomplished by one man in one room. Lincoln's office and Cabinet Room-the shop--is now known as the Lincoln Bedroom. Its history has afforded it a unique place among the most famous rooms in America; it is a rare privilege to be invited to stay there or even be granted permis­ sion to step inside to view it. The current limited public access to the Lincoln Bedroom is ironic, con­ sidering how often the door would swing open to vir­ tually anyone who wanted to see the president when Lincoln occupied it.To a certain extent that is under­ standable in this age of heightened security. But at least the quasi-sacredness of the room that served as the business space for Lincoln and other presidents has not been lost on later chief executives. "History permeates the room," President Gerald Ford recol­ lected. Recalling how when president he would go to the room to reflect, he reminisced, "I would sit alone ...and I could almost hear the voices of 110 years before. When I left the room I always felt revived. "89 President George W Bush observed that the presence of Lincoln could truly be felt in the room,remarking, "It reminds me of how difficult Lincoln's life was during his presidency."90 The current president, Barack Obama,an Abraham Lincoln enthusiast,has said, "From time to time, I'll walk over to the Lincoln Bedroom ... in search of lessons to draw. "91

Lincoln in His Shop: How a President Opened His Doors as the People's Servant

61

NOTES This article has been made possible by a research grant courtesy of the White House Historical Association.

23. Quoted in Rietveld, "Lincoln White House Community," 29.

24. Quoted in Allen C. Clark, Abraham Lincoln in the National Capital (Washington, D.C.: W. F. Roberts, 1925),38.

25. Quoted in Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,2009), 2:461.

The story and quotations are from Bullock's autobiographical account, John M. Bullock, "President Lincoln's Visiting-Card," Century Magazine, February 1898, 565-71.

26. Discussion regarding the steady stream of applicants for office in Conversations with Lincoln, ed. Segal, 172.

2.

Ibid.,571.

27. Quoted in Helen Nicolay, Personal Trails. 183-84.

3.

John Hay, At Lincoln's Side: John Hay's Civil War Conespondence and Selected Writings, ed. Michael Burlingame (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000), xv.

28. Quoted in Browne, Every-Day Life of Lincoln, 452-53.

Gideon Welles often wrote of his frustration with the lack of procedure when it came to holding cabinet meetings. Gideon Welles,Diary of Gideon Welles (Boston: Houghton Miffiin, 1911), 6, 131. Salmon P. Chase made the came complaint. See also Helen Nicolay,Lincoln's Secretary: A Biography of John G Nicolay (New York: Longman's, Green, 1949), 235-36.

30. Quoted in Helen Nicolay,Lincoln's Secretary, 82.

I.

4.

5.

William 0. Stoddard, Inside the White House in War Times (New York: Charles L. Webster, 191 I), 24.

6.

Ibid., 241--44; Ward Hill Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865, ed. Dorothy Lamon Teillard (Washington. D.C.: Dorothy Lamon Teillard, 1911), 98.

7.

William 0. Stoddard, Lincoln's Third Secretary: The Memoirs of William 0.

Stoddard, ed. William 0. Stoddard Jr. (New York: Exposition Press, 1955), 208.

8.

William 0. Stoddard, Lincoln at Work: Sketches from Life (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1900),62.

9.

Stoddard, Inside the White House, 24.

10. Detailed descriptions of Lincoln's office include Francis Fisher Browne, The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln (Chicago: Browne & Howell, 1914), 300; Benjamin P. Thomas, Abraham Lincoln (New York: Modern Library, 1952), 457; David Herbert Donald, Lincoln at Home: Two Glimpses of Abraham Lincoln's Domestic Life (Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 1999), I 0. Valuable information such as room sizes and furnishings have been provided by the White House Historical Association.

11. Descriptions of the view from Lincoln's White House windows are found in Browne, Every-Day Life of Lincoln, 299-300. See also the accounts of John A. Kasson and James B. Fry in Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of His Time, ed. Allen Thorndike Rice (New York: North American Review, 1888), 377,393; William 0. Stoddard, Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life (New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1896), 60-61; Stoddard, Inside the White House, 152.

12. Quoted in Leonard Wells Volk, "The Lincoln Life Mask and How it Was Made," Century Magazine, December 1881, 13.

13. The account of Lincoln's being informed of Ellsworth's death is in Charles M. Segal, ed., Conversations with Lincoln (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1961), 122-23.

14. Stoddard, Inside the White House, 24.

15. Quoted in Thomas, Abraham Lincoln, 457-58.

16. Quoted in Browne,Every-Day Life of Lincoln, 300-1. See also Ronald Rietveld, "The Lincoln White House Community," Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 20 (Summer 1999): 2.

17. William H. Crook, Through Five Administrations (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1910), 24.

18. John Hay to William Leete Stone,March 15, 1861, in At Lincoln's Side, ed.

Burlingame, 5, 132.

19. Helen Nicolay, Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Century, 1912), 183-84. See also Hay to William H. Herndon, September 5,1866, in At Lincoln's Side, ed. Burlingame, 109.

20. Hay,in At Lincoln's Side, ed. Burlingame, 132.

21. Stoddard, Abraham Lincoln, 212.

22. Crook, Through Five Administrations, 17.

62 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

29. Ibid., 460.

31. Hay, in At Lincoln's Side, ed. Burlingame, 133.

32. Quoted in Helen Nicolay, Lincoln's Secretmy, 82.

33. Quoted in ibid., 305.

34. Quoted in Lamon, Recollections of Lincoln, ed. Teillard, Si. 35. Quoted in ibid.

36. Stoddard, Lincoln at Work, 149.

37. The informality of Lincoln, especially in regards to his slippers, is discussed in several secretaries' accounts. See Hay, in At Lincoln's Side, ed.

Burlingame, 129; Helen Nicolay, Lincoln's Secretary, 84.

38. Stoddard,Abraham Lincoln, 243.

39. Reported and quoted in Helen Nicolay, Personal Traits, 261.

40. Reported and quoted in Browne, Eve,y-Day Life of Lincoln, 301.

41. Helen Nicolay, Personal Trails, 273.

42. The event was relayed by James Speed to John Hay and reported in John Hay, An Oral History of Abraham Lincoln: John Nicolay's Interviews and Essays, ed. Michael Burlingame (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, I 996), 80-82.

43. Browne, Every-Day Life of Lincoln, 450.

44. Lamon, Recollections of Lincoln, ed. Teillard, 81.

45. Quoted in Robert S. Harper, Lincoln and the Press (New York: McGrawHill, 1951), 42.

46. Hay, in At Lincoln's Side, ed. Burlingame, 136.

47. Quoted in Harper, Lincoln and the Press, 97.

48. Abraham Lincoln, August 14,1862, in Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 5:371-75.

49. Edward M. Thomas to Abraham Lincoln, August 16,1862, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress,Washington, D.C. 50. The historian Gabor Borrit holds that Lincoln's meeting "while addressed to black people was meant for white ears." Gabor Borrit, ed., The Lincoln Enigma (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 9. I am in agreement that this meeting was largely a public relations coup not with blacks but with a white populace.

51. Abraham Lincoln, "Letter to Horace Greeley," August 22, 1862, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Bassler, 5:388-89. See 389n I for explanation of Greeley's editorial.

52. Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait, ed. Herbert Mitgang (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1971),xvi.

53. Quoted in ibid., xv.

54. Harper, Lincoln and the Press, 134.

55. Quoted in John Tebbel and Sarah Miles Watts, The Press and the Presidency (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), 183. See also Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:436.

56. Reported and quoted in Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:532-33. See also Helen Nicolay,Personal Traits, 267-68.

57. Harper, Lincoln and the Press, 95.

58. Stoddard, Inside the White House, 148. See also Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, 2:288.

59. The New York Times Complete Civil War, ed. Harold Holzer and Craig L. Symonds (New York: Black Dog & Leventhel, 2010), 10.

60. Harper, Lincoln and the Press, 185.

61. Ibid., 439.

62. Ibid., I 86.

63. Ibid., 94-95; Noah Brooks, Washington, D.C., in Lincoln's Time: A Memoir of the Civil War Era by the Newspaperman Who Knew Lincoln Best (New York: Century, 1895), 26 I. 64. Quoted in Helen Nicolay, Personal Traits, 257.

65. Harper, Lincoln and the Press, 181.

66. Quoted from Frederick Douglass's account in Reminiscences of Lincoln, ed.

R ice, 160.

67. Quoted in Mr. Lincoln and Freedom website, under the heading "Frederick Douglass," at http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org.

68. Hay, in Al Lincoln's Side, ed. Burlingame, 136.

69. Ibid.

70. Quoted in account dated July 18, 1861, in Conversations with Lincoln, ed.

Segal, 124.

71. Crook, Through Five Administrations, 15-16.

72. Stoddard, Abraham Lincoln, 344.

73. Stoddard, Inside the White House, 120.

74. See Donald, Lincoln at Home, 11.

75. Crook, Through Five Administrations, 15-16.

76. Quoted in Brooks, Washington, D. C.,

in

Lincoln's Time, 57-58.

77. Stoddard, Abraham Lincoln, 386. Unlike Hay and Nicolay, Stoddard did not have living quarters in the White House.

78. Stoddard, Lincoln at Work, 63-64. Stoddard makes a similar comment in Abraham Lincoln, 345: "He was so accustomed to walk up and down, in his great Executive work-room, alone, at night, after news had come of some great battle, whether a victory or defeat."

79. Helen Nicolay, Lincoln's Secretary, 88.

80. Hay, in At Lincoln's Side, ed. Burlingame, 134.

81. Quoted in Stoddard, Abraham Lincoln, 346.

82. Quoted in Hilah Paulmier, Abe Lincoln: An Anthology (New York: Knopf, 1953), 130-34. See also Stoddard, Abraham Lincoln, 223-25.

83. Quoted in F. B. Carpenter, Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1866), 269-70.

84. Quoted in John Hay, Oral History of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Burlingame, 78.

85. Quoted in Helen Nicolay, Lincoln's Secretary, 533.

86. Quoted in ibid. In his Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln offered peace "with malice toward none, with charity for all." The address is available online at the Yale Avalon Project, avalon.law.yale.edu.

87. Quoted in Joseph H. Barrett, Abraham Lincoln and His Presidency (Cincinnati: Robert Clark, 1904), 2:355.

88. Quoted in Wayne Whipple, The Story-Life of Lincoln (Philadelphia: John C. Winston, 1908), 643.

89. Quoted in John Whitcomb and Claire Whitcomb, Real Life at the White House: Two Hundred Years of Daily Life at America's Most Famous Residence (New York: Routledge, 2000), 403.

90. Quoted in interview with George W. Bush, in the video Looking for Lincoln, narrated by Henry Louis Gates Jr. (PBS, 2009).

91. Barack Obama, "Perfecting Our Union," Atlantic, February. 2012, available online at http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/20 l 2/02/perfecting­ our-union/8832/#

Lincoln in His Shop: How a President Opened His Doors as the People's Servant 63

More Than Writing Remembering My Ye,ars in the White House Speechwriter' s Office KRISTI

PLANCK JOHNSON

I

February 1972 I was in Caracas, Venezuela, having the time of my life during Carnival season-meeting new people, exploring the area, enjoying pottery and painting. Returning to the hotel one day, I was greeted at the lobby desk with a phone message: "Please call Noel Koch at The White House."

Noel Koch was one of President Richard Nixon's White House speechwriters. I had applied for a position at the White House, and Koch was looking for a replacement for his previous, short­ lived secretary. (When I came on board at the White House, Koch and John McLaughlin, another speech­ writer, actually had a bet as to who would keep his secretary the longest! Koch won.)

Standing directly behind me as I was reading the message in the hotel lobby was an individual obvi­ ously interested in keeping a close eye on my where­ abouts. I could only speculate that he was perhaps a

The author is pictured above in 1971 while working for NASA during a trip to Florida to witness the launch of Apollo 15. Her next job would be in the White House Speechwriter's Office, an office in which wide-ranging assignments included drafting the plaques placed on the moon by the Apollo astronauts. The plaque written for Apollo 11 (opposite) was composed by speechwriting staff and attached to the ladder on the landing gear strut on the Lunar Module. en in a: 0 u

security guard for the Venezuelan Presidential Affairs Office, as the Venezuelan President was due to attend a Carnival Gala at that particular hotel. The mysteri­ ous observer followed me and stood behind me as I placed the call to Washington. He followed me to the door of my hotel room and was there each morning as I left. He escorted me to the outside door of the hotel, and each evening he was there again when I returned. Apparently, they took no chances.

The call to Washington was brief, but I heard Noel Koch's voice for the first time at the other end.

I want more than a writer. I need an assistant for research and writing who can also type.

Actually, I want to hire two persons-an assis­ tant and a secretary-but the word came down that I could only have one person. You have administrative and research experience and you have strong typing skills with a record of success in an office environment. Are you interested?

Was I interested? Of course! But how would I respond to such an offer while visiting in Venezuela?

I had been traveling to the White House for interviews since August 1971. My initial visit was to investigate a position for a friend who worked on Capitol Hill in a "fishbowl" and asked if I would look into a job she was hoping to land. I had top-secret security clearance from my work at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Legislative Affairs Office and could easily file past the White House guard, and I did. In the course of the conversation, it became apparent that the Presidential Appointment Office might be interested in my skills, too, as I had experience in shorthand and typing, as well as academic research credentials with a master of arts degree in Scandinavian studies and European diplomatic history. Further interviews would be nec­ essary. The saga dragged on into the fall months with weekly phone conversations: "We have not made a decision yet but hope to have news for you next week.

Give us a call next Thursday." My summer appoint­ ment at NASA expired. So did the extensions to that appointment. In November, I moved over to the Cost Accounting Standards Board (CASB) to work for a project director.

In December I was told that the presidential schedule position had gone to a man. They were unable to hire a woman, said the personnel adminis­ trator, with some sense of embarrassment. Subse­ quently, I received phone calls from various offices within the White House saying that my resume was in hand and could I report for an interview. Passing the White House guard became a familiar experience.

While most of the positions were not ones in which I was particularly interested, I proceeded to the inter­ views because it was interesting to visit the White House and because an interview might lead to anoth­ er arena, and that, in fact, is exactly what happened.

66 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

In January, I began hearing advertisements on the radio for traveling to Caracas to celebrate the Carnival season. I'd never been to South America, so I thought, why not give it a try. I applied for a week's leave and off I went. The week passed rapidly, and I was thinking it would be nice to extend my time by a few days. I contacted my boss at CASB, and he agreed to extend my leave for four more days. The day I received the extension was the same one in which the phone message appeared in my hotel mailbox.

Additional phone calls from Caracas to Washington took place for the next few days to work out details such as when I would return and have a face-to-face interview with Koch. In addition to the numerous phone conversations, Koch had plenty of White House sources to rely on, as he spoke with fel­ low staff members who had already interviewed me for other job prospects. Even so, we both needed time to talk more seriously about this new and rather unique venture. Koch wanted me to return to Washington as soon as possible. I compromised and returned to Washington two days later. After our ini­ tial meeting and interview, I was hired, and then began the paper trail of necessary forms and bureau­ cratic procedures.

Political Personalities: Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, and Charles Colson Under the purview of the president's speech­ writing staff, there was also the responsibility to con­ trol what other Republican politicians might say on behalf of the president. To that end, Koch and I quite often wrote statements and short speeches for Republican leaders on Capitol Hill. Typically, Koch and I discussed the nature of the statement. I did research at the library of the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB, today the Eisenhower Executive Office Building), read various newspapers from across the nation, and once in a while used congres­ sional resources and the expertise of the staff at the Library of Congress. I presented the research to Koch who, in the meantime, had started writing his message in longhand on a legal-size yellow notepad.

Koch's strength was the ability to write in another person's style. His words were carefully selected, and after a few rounds it was easy to decipher for whom we were writing even without seeing the name of the

President Richard M. Nixon's speechwriters were responsible for composing short speeches for Republican leaders including Bob Dole, seen at right at a Governors' Conference in 1972.

Among the notable members on the speechwriting staff was John McLaughlin, seen below in front of the White House in 1971.

During his years in the Nixon White House McLaughlin was a Jesuit priest. He left the priesthood in 1974 and later embarked on his career as a political commentator.

More Than Writing: Remembering My Years in the White House Speechwriting Office 67

Charles Colson (below, 1973) served as special counsel to President Nixon from 1969 to 1973. His style was known to be demanding, as seen in the memorandum he sent to the president's staff setting the rules and limiting time off during the 24-hour, 7-day a week reelection campaign. He promised to make amends for bruised feelings after the election. The author was among the recipients of the memorandum (opposite).

ever we delivered to him. He did not accept any sug­ gestion of wording without personally reading the material.

Dole, senator from Kansas, was also chair of the Republican Party at the time. Writing for Dole, whether for a speech or for a written text, took courage and stamina because of his wry and sarcastic sense of humor. His wit was tough to mirror, but Koch's skill generally met with approval from Dole, and any given delivery included a wait until the senator saw the text himself and gave his personal nod.

We also worked closely with Charles Colson, then busy with the Nixon reelection. Responding to Colson's seemingly impossible demands was daunting.

Our relationship with Colson was unique in that he was not directly in charge of the speechwriters. Yet he knew that Koch was equipped to write more than speeches. Colson had a way of keeping his staff on constant guard. The memorandum saying that he would walk over his grandmother's body to get the president reelected was personally delivered to all staff members in our suite. We were kept busy during the evening news hour so that we were not privy to the facts of Nixon's almost assured reelection. Colson wanted us to believe that Nixon was not doing well in the polls so that we would continue to work our knuckles to the bone to accomplish the job at hand.

Nixon's University of Nebraska Speech Although written by Koch before I arrived on the speechwriting staff, this was one of my favorite Nixon speeches. It was delivered at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln on January 14, 1971.

person in print. I took the handwritten draft and typed another one, making changes I felt would enhance the writing. After several drafts, I prepared a final copy and the document was ready for delivery.

Gerald R. Ford and Robert Dole were the two most prominent members of Congress for whom we wrote. Koch and I interacted with them on a daily basis. Ford, representative from Michigan and Republican leader in the House of Representatives, was a loyal supporter of Nixon. Nixon depended on Ford to speak on his behalf. Ford was a respected individual who would pause and read carefully what-

There is a story of an old and very wise teacher in early Athens. There was no question the teacher could not answer. There seemed to be nothing in life the old man did not understand.

And finally, one of his students hit upon a way to defeat the old man's wisdom.

The student determined that he would catch a bird and hold it concealed in his hands. He would ask the old man to guess what he was holding. If the old man guessed it was a bird, then the boy would make him say whether the bird was alive or whether it was dead. And if the teacher guessed that the bird was dead, the boy would open his hands and let the bird go, free

More Than Writing: Remembering My Years in the White House Speechwriter's Office

69

I

'i / .l. i,.;'

President Nixon prepares to return fire after being hit by a snowball at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where he spoke to a crowd of 8,000 students in January 1971. He was accompanied by his wife, Pat, and daughter Tricia, and followed by reporters including Helen Thomas, who is seen at center behind the president.

:'//

/.

and alive. But if the wise man guessed that the bird was alive, then the boy would crush out its life and open his hands to reveal a dead bird.

And so it progressed, just as the boy had planned, until he asked the wise man: "Is the bird alive or is it dead?" And the old man said, My son, the answer to that question is in your hands.

In your hands now rests the question of the future of this Nation, of its promise of progress and prosperity, of the dream of democracy and the future of freedom, of whether men can con­ tinue to be governed by human wisdom.

70 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

And I believe that these things rest in good hands, and that as we put our hands together, your generation and mine, in the alliance we forge, we can discover a new understanding, a community of wisdom, a capacity for action, with which we can truly renew both the spirit and the promise of this great and good land we share together.

1

Limousine to the Hill and Other Places Writing for political giants was one aspect of the position, but there were interesting corollary duties­ including the delivery of our writing.

Here comes the fun part! I would call up the transportation office and request a limousine to

travel to the Hill. Sometimes I had company and shared the limousine with other staffers. Other times, I rode solo. Occasionally I had several congressional deliveries to make for one visit to the Hill. These took some time: distances between Senate and House office buildings are not short. Some days I wished I had roller skates. The Capitol subway helped out once in a while.

When my contacts and deliveries were com­ pleted, I was ready to return to my desk to begin yet further assignments. If I had a short visit, the driver would wait for me. Otherwise, my ride back to the White House was just a phone call away.

One ride was especially memorable. Someone had the idea that President Nixon should be nomi­ nated for a Nobel Peace Prize. I was sent to the Royal Norwegian Embassy to secure the necessary forms.

Koch and I proceeded to prepare the necessary docu­ mentation, signatures, and so forth. I then hand­ delivered the nominating papers, first calling up the transportation office and requesting transportation to the Royal Norwegian Embassy. In great style I descended the steps of the OEOB portico, the limou­ sine pulled up, and away we went. Diplomatically important documents delivered, I returned to the waiting limousine and a smooth ride back to the White House.

The drivers were masters at finding the best routes to our destination. On certain days and spe­ cific times of the day, traffic would be seemingly impossible, but not for the White House limousine drivers. They were able to weasel through the tightest spots and arrive more quickly than anyone. When working late at night, or into the early morning hours, White House staffers were offered transporta­ tion home. On those occasions, two or three of us would share a ride. The driver would always know the best and most efficient sequence for delivering his tired cargo.

Daily Impressions and Trials Daily life at the White House was partly a mat­ ter of flashing the photo pass and walking through the gate if entering via the driveway between the OEOB and the West Wing of the White House.

Security and trust were important words to under­ stand. On any given morning upon arrival to work, tight security was necessary to enter the building on

Pennsylvania A venue-first taking a few steps down, a short walk, then many steps up to the landing that gave entry to the main lobby, where you presented your official pass.

After a trek down the hallway to Suite 111, Koch and I spread out our teamwork for the day.

We had very lofty windows in the office that over­ looked Pennsylvania Avenue. The tall door opening into the suite was a formidable door that was stately in appearance and also quite heavy. The hallways were wide, high ceilings throughout, modern eleva­ tors not used often but on occasion to make a trek to the OEOB library. At my desk was a push-button telephone and an electric typewriter. All around on the desk were unfinished speech drafts left from the previous day.

There were times when a certain amount of trust was in order to secure an audience upon arrival or departure of the president. Helicopter visits on the South Lawn were not unusual. One memorable jaunt extended to Andrews Air Force Base to join the wel­ coming committee when Nixon returned from his journey to China. I had just started working when one evening we were invited to hop on a bus to Andrews AFB. Needless to say, this was an exciting evening to be in the hangar waiting for the president and his entourage. These experiences were a part of the atmosphere while working closely at the center of world power and feeling that sense of closeness to something newsworthy.

There were other memorable speechwriters on the staff: John McLaughlin (a former Jesuit priest now married), Harold J. "Tex" Lezar, and John Andrews-all fulfilling particular avenues of interest and expertise. Koch's specific tasks were to write on religious subjects (prayers offered during White House Sunday services) and science interests (words on the plaque placed on the moon).

Dave Gergen was a super speechwriter and worked closely with Ray Price, who was the official speechwriter and closest to the president. Gergen and his immediate staff supervised the speechwriting department. He was calm, fair, sensitive to his staff worker's skills and strengths-as well as weaknesses.

He also had the uncanny ability to smile with an even-tempered personality under the most difficult circumstances. It was never easy to keep everyone

More Than Writing: Remembering My Years in the White House Speechwriter's Office 71

National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger is seen at work in his office on the northwest corner of the West Wing in August 1970. The tall windows behind his desk look toward the Old Executive Office Building, where the offices of the president's speechwriters were located.

happy, engaged, and productive.

Being in the middle of this operation, if you will, was not easy, but we were isolated from the real center that surrounded the president. One would think there would be an enormous amount of activ­ ity, which there was, but in the form of control and order.

Then there was the Watergate Weekend! June 17, 1972. Friday was as usual, not a word in my hearing distance about any unusual activity that weekend. I woke up to the Sunday morning Washington Post as any other law-abiding citizen to read of the break-in.

Surprised as ever! Monday morning was not business as usual. Rather, we were all abuzz as to how, why, WHAT? Each compartmentalized area had its own fences around the arena. Of course, the Watergate Weekend did have interest within the OEOB offices but also at the Reelection Committee headquarters.

The latter consumed the news as much as the White House activity.

Henry Kissinger was a part of our days also. He was a strong figure who would often be seen standing in his West Wing office looking out the tall window, phone in hand. He would smile and wave to us as we walked between the OEOB and the West Wing. When close by, we could sometimes detect his strong German accent, but there were also times when we heard him speak with very little accent-near native speech. We were curious about his cultivation of that accent.

72 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

A drive to Thurmont. Maryland. and the site of Camp David is another vivid memory. The well­ maintained main lodge and cabins were the retreat quarters for several presidents. Our speechwriting staff had some days there. Staying in an individual cabin, with the newspaper delivered to the door, was a luxury. There was the bowling alley, extensive din­ ing areas, with large and small tables available, and delicious food prepared by navy staff. The nature trails for hiking and biking, away from the traffic and media bombardments, made for quiet moments to restore one's mind.

Across the hall from our speechwriting offices was the office of John Dean, White House counsel.

His secretary, Cathy Barker Roth, is a good friend of mine, but also loyal to her position. That loyalty was true in all of our social gatherings. We did not discuss office politics. After Roth left Dean's office, she worked in the East Wing in scheduling and the Office of White House Visitors. It was while working in this special office with First Lady Pat Nixon that she was busy on Easter Monday. Why? A little-known secret is that Roth was the Easter Bunny at the Egg Roll event on the White House lawn. Mrs. Nixon asked her to research the history of the Easter Egg Roll tra­ dition that started during the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes. Then in 1970 and for a number of years after in Nixon and Ford adminis­ trations, Roth had the pleasure of dressing in the spe­ cial Easter Bunny costume to greet the children com-

One day I was told that leaving for a vacation ing to the South Lawn of the White House for the would be unacceptable given the nature of the crisis Easter Monday Egg Roll. of the week. Disappointed is hardly the word to What about lunch time? I remember one lunch describe my feelings that day-furious was more like when, returning from a short break with friends, I it. I had planned for months to take a long-standing was greeted by one of the speechwriters. He was on dream trip to northern Scandinavia-a reindeer his way to someone else's desk to quickly place an safari to be exact. Instead, I remained in the city and assignment on a desk before that individual returned continued to crank out speeches and other writing from a lunch break. When the second person necessary for "the good of the country." returned, there was yet another attempt to transfer Of course, work came first and social life sec­ the assignment to a third person. The problem was ond. It was necessary to understand that you were that this was an assignment to write a speech for working for an important person, at an important Tricia Nixon. Few wanted to tackle that task because she was rarely satisfied with suggestions. Julie Nixon, place, and that your part in that picture was extreme­ ly important. The speechwriting staff was not large. on the other hand, was a co-writer-taking ideas and Each person's contribution was easily weaving them crucial to the completion of any together with her own particular task. Your loyalty to twist. While on a few days' the United States and to the break visiting family in Republican Party was a given.

Omaha, I was particularly Accepting a position at the impressed with a campaign White House carried heavy bag­ speech delivered by Julie gage at times. The speechwrit­ Nixon. Curious to discover ing staff was responsible for who had worked with her more than just writing speeches on the speech, I returned for the president of the United to Washington only to States! As a White House secre­ learn that she had written tary and researcher, I always felt the entire speech herself, this was more than a job. It was and the assignment had also a chance to interact with never crossed anyone's people involved in national poli­ desk in the Speechwriting tics, with opportunity to con­ Office. tribute to the constitutional When looking forprocess of our federal govern­ ward to a dinner engage­ en w ment. ment or a concert with friends after working all Kennedy Center Adventure day, I often had to give up Once there was a rare President Nixon posed for a photograph under a my plans because an emer­ evening when it looked pretty White House tree with his daughter Julie in June gency arose at 5:30 p.m. certain that we would not be Perhaps an important draft 1972. Julie often wrote or co-wrote her speeches working very late. Why not call for the president had to be with help from the Speechwriter's Office. the office that schedules the prepared immediately. presidential box at the Kennedy Perhaps a letter had to be Center to learn if there were written on behalf of the presitickets available? The president was out of the coun­ dent, or a statement drafted based on a breaking try, and evidently no one else had asked for tickets on news event. Suddenly it was clear that three to four that particular evening. Yes, there were tickets avail­ or more hours of work would be essential to com­ able. The adventure was about to begin. Entering the plete the assignment. special door used for entry to the presidential box at More Than Writing: Remembering My Years in the White House Speechwriter's Office 73

President Nixon attended the opening of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in September 1971. The Presidential Seal can be seen here on the presidential box in which he is seated with his wife Pat and the former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower. The author recalls her experience enjoying a performance in this "ultimate Kennedy Center seating" as an adventure.

the Kennedy Center Concert Hall was awe-inspiring.

In fact, there were several doors before the final entry to the special box where the president and his family, or other guests, would normally be seated. Waiting patiently for the opening strains of music, I noticed someone with a pair of binoculars peering at us from one of the upper tiers in the Concert Hall. "Who are these people? They don't look familiar. Have we seen them before? We don't see the president. Could there be a cabinet secretary among them?" I am sure there was disappointment as the anonymous guests en­ joyed the evening in the ultimate of Kennedy Center seating.

Nixon Punch on the Porch And, finally, there was a very personal bonus one day in July 1972. A birthday to remember!

Unaware that anyone really knew it was my birthday, I was quite surprised when summoned to a special speechwriter's office and then quickly escorted to one of the porches of the OEOB overlooking Seventeenth Street. Appropriately named in jest, the "Birthday Cake Building" was soon to be the site for my birthday. I was surrounded by colleagues and friends who had come to join in the celebration. We were high enough up from the street level so that there was some privacy. Yet the gray columns were spaced so that one had a feeling of being out in the open, enjoying the summer breezes.

Soon after we arrived, several carts were wheeled forward exhibiting a spectacular birthday cake and none other than the president's favorite punch, which at that time was our favorite, too.

74 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (Number 37)

President Nixon's Favorite Punch 1 quart Bacardi Light-Dry Rum 2 quarts Hawaiian Punch 2 small bottles ginger ale Cherries and orange slices as garnies Couple shots of Cointreau No "official" function would be complete with­ out this special beverage. Conversation continued.

My colleagues, knowing my love for classical music, managed another surprise-a gift, a recording of Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, recorded in Paris with Mstislav Rostropovich conducting the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus. After cake and sips of the "President's Punch," it was back to the office for a usual afternoon of wondering whether this would be a late night of research and writing.

I remained on the staff until June 1973, a little more than a year before President Nixon resigned as a result of the Watergate controversy.

NOTE I.

Richard M. Nixon, Remarks to a Student-Faculty Convocation at the University of Nebraska, January 14, 1971, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M. Nixon, 1971 (Washington, D.C.: General Services Administration, National Archives and Records Service, Office of the Federal Register), 34-35.

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FREEDOM FROM FEAR THE LIFE AND PRESIDENCY OF FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT

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IN seARCH OF GEORGE WASHINGTON

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Wendell Garrett

REFLECTIONS BEHIND THE BRIEFING ROOM PODIUM STEWART D .

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McLAURIN

PRESIDENT, WHITE HOUSE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

White House press secretary

is one of the most important roles and significant voices related to the modern American presidency. No one knows the critical interface between the president and the media better than the president's press secretary. I asked seven former press secretaries, spanning the time of the Gerald Ford to the George W Bush administrations, to reflect on their time behind the Briefing Room podium. They shared insights that can only be known from their side of the podium. Their own words tell it best.

RON NESSEN, Press Secretary, 1974-77, Gerald R. FordAdministration: Since Presi­ dent Ford succeeded-and pardoned-Richard Nixon, journalists were especially skeptical about the truth of anything the president or I, as his press secretary, said. l don't think the public real­ ized: (1) How focused the White House press corps was on leftover Nixon matters, even though the country was in a deep recession, the Vietnam War was still going on, and the Middle East oil embargo was affecting gasoline prices; (2) Because President Ford tripped and fell walk­ ing down the rain-soaked steps of Air Force One on a visit to Europe, the press portrayed him as an awkward klutz, even though he was one of the most athletic presidents America has had. (He was an All-American football player at the Uni­ versity of Michigan, swam laps, played tennis and golf, etc.) Contributing to this image was the fact that 1975-Ford's first year as president­ was the first year on air for Saturday Night Live, where Chevy Chase portrayed Ford as a clumsy oaf. (3) As press secretary, I and my press office staff-and, in fact, the entire White House staff-anticipated questions that Ford might be asked at news conferences and prepared briefing papers so he would have all the facts to shape his answers. But often these substantive questions weren't asked. Instead the questions too often focused on leftover Nixon matters or Betty Ford's drinking problems.

MARLIN FITZWATER, Press Secretary, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush Adminis­ trations, 1987-93: The press is a major barom­ eter of public attitudes for the president. Bush 41 often asked, "What's the press attitude on this?" and Reagan often said, "I hear the shouts. What are they saying?" and "The White House press corps gathers every morning like a pride of lions.

It snarls and growls, sleeps and creeps, and occa­ sionally loves, but it is always hungry."

DEE DEE MYERS, Press Secretary, 1993-94, William J. Clinton Administration: All pres­ idents believe that they are treated unfairly by the press.And they're all right. Since the press's job is to hold the powerful accountable, they're always looking for evidence of incompetence, partisan manipulation, and outright wrongdoing-and are exponentially more likely to cover the instances where they find it. That reality makes the president's job much harder and contributes to the public's fatigue with every president, par­ ticularly by the end of the second term.

MIKE MCCURRY, Press Secretary, 1994-98, William J. Clinton Administration: I think of the role of the press secretary in relation to the geography of the West Wing. There's a handy back door to the press secretary's office and if you go out and turn right, you are 50 feet away from the Oval Office. Go out and turn left and you are 50 feet away from the briefing room we all often see on TV. That's a metaphor for the job-­ equal distance between the president who signs your pay check and who is rarely happy with cov­ erage in the media and the reporters in the press room complaining about access, restrictions, nar­ row answers, and meager morsels of news. You can never keep both sides of that equation equal, but at least you can strive for some balance and some understanding that the White House and the Fourth Estate both have critical roles to play in our democracy and they must exist in symbio­ sis even if harmony is rarely the result. It's a tough job, but for me the greatest asset to protect myself was not the bullet-proof vest in the closet (which by tradition each press secretary passes on to the next) but a strong sense of humor to earn a chuckle when the relationship with the media was getting a bit too acrimonious. Serious busi­ ness to be sure, but better performed with a smile.

JOE LOCKHART, Press Secretary, 19982000, William J. Clinton Administration: All presidents say they either don't read the press closely or are not influenced by the media. Don't believe them: they are reading and watching everything. My experience is that the president's reaction to the media is very often a clue to how secure they are on a major decision or policy debate. When the president is hypersensitive to press criticism, it often reflects doubts about his own leadership. But when a president seems stoic or immune to the press clamor, it almost always means he is very secure about the decisions he has made.

ARI l<LEISHER, Press Secretary, 2001-3, George W. Bush Administration: The real work between the press secretary and the press doesn't take place in the briefing room. The brief­ ing has long been just a TV show. Instead, many senior reporters used to stroll into my office in the midafternoon to sit down for 5-10 minutes, one­ on-one, to get a more informal brief on the news.

Instead of all the posturing (by both sides) that goes on in the briefing room, it was a good old­ fashioned quality discussion. That's where the real work of the press secretary got done.

DANA PERINO, Press Secretary, 2007-9, George W. Bush Administration: To me, the White House press secretary job was a lesson in complete trust. The president must completely trust the press secretary to deliver clear, persua­ sive, and reassuring messages to the public, and also be willing to hear any of the "bad news" the press secretary has to deliver. As well, the press secretary has to trust the president and the senior staff to provide her with all the facts, no matter how unpleasant they may be, even if there are good intentions to hide things. Our rule was "no surprises": everything had to be on the table at all times. In turn, the press secretary has to earn the trust of the reporters in the White House Brief­ ing Room. But the most important thing I learned was to trust my judgment, my character, and my voice. Serving as the press secretary was the best opportunity of my life, and I will always be grateful for it.