Chief of Staff
Rotondaro, Fred
Chief of Staff, edited by Samuel Ker-nell and Samuel L. Popkin, University of California, $15.95, 244 pp. The problems that have befallen the Reagan White House, most notably Don Regan's...
...Washington Posf columnist David Broder commented that there was little discussion of the political dimension, the uses of power both in a personal and institutional sense, and little analysis of how the chief of staff himself uses his staff to gather and evaluate information...
...Questioned about Watergate, Nixon staff director Bob Halderman noted that it was not the Nixon White House management system that led to Watergate, but rather that the system was not followed...
...Since the NSC's role in conducting operations in Nicaragua had become public a short time before this symposium, the participants discussed whether the NSC should be involved in operations...
...In January 1986, eight former White House chiefs of staff covering administrations from Eisenhower to Carter gathered in to discuss problems and strategies for managing the office of the presidency...
...Alexander Haig, (Nixon's and Ford's) Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Cheney, (Ford's) and Jack Watson (Carter's...
...All participants stressed that the White House staff should be small and lean...
...FRED ROTONDARO...
...Theodore Soren-sen, (Kennedy's...
...There are also some key omissions...
...And all emphasized the need for anonymity...
...The answers to this and other questions varied of course, but some common and important themes were developed...
...The unanimous answer: No...
...Well, very gingerly if your president is Lyndon Johnson," says Harry McPherson...
...Large staffs lead to management problems and increased territorial battles...
...There are many other important elements in this book as well as little bits of fascinating history...
...The difficulties that reach the president are far too complex and his sources of information, bolstered dramatically by modern technology, are too massive to allow for intuitive problem solving...
...The problems that have befallen the Reagan White House, most notably Don Regan's difficulties, might well have been avoided if the lessons in this volume had been followed in the last few years...
...In addition to McPherson and Halderman, the other participants included General Andrew Goodpaster, (Eisenhower's chief of staff...
...There is a vital need for an organizational system for solving problems and weighing options...
...staff members should not become focal points for partisan debate...
...there were no checks and balances...
...Veteran NBC newsman John Chancellor's opening question set a realistic tone: "Sometimes presidents want to do damn fool things . . . How do you talk the president out of a damn fool idea...
...All agreed that the chief of staff should be a coordinator of policy options for the president, not a formulator of policy...
Vol. 114 • June 1987 • No. 12
