GERALD L. WARREN AND MARGITA E. WHITE FILES, 1974-77

This collection contains the working files of two directors of the White House Office of Communications, Gerald Warren and Margita White, concerning news media liaison and coordination of Federal Government public relations efforts. Discussed below under separate headings are the organization and functions of the White House Office of Communications, the scope and content of the Warren and White files, and related materials in the Ford Library.

Organization and Functions of the White House Office of Communications
Created during the Nixon administration, the Communications Office sought to provide almost 3,000 editors and broadcasters outside of Washington with copies of speeches, reports, fact sheets, and other information on administration programs. It also coordinated administration public relations campaigns, acted as White House contact for media organizations and individual newspapers and radio and television stations, supervised public affairs activities in the Federal agencies, arranged special briefings, set up interviews between newsmen and public officials, produced the daily news summary, and compiled briefing books for the President's media encounters.

The Nixon Communications Office often acted independently of the Press Secretary's Office and eventually became deeply involved in the White House public relations response to the growing Watergate scandal. One of Press Secretary Jerald ter Horst's first acts after the change of administrations in August 1974 was to announce the departure of Communications Office Director Kenneth Clawson. Ter Horst also dispersed Communications Office functions to various assistant press secretaries.

In November 1974, ter Horst's successor Ron Nessen gathered together many of the old Communications Office functions and assigned them to Gerald Warren. They initially avoided using the name Office of Communications for this entity, and Warren's title was announced as Deputy Press Secretary for Information Liaison. Over time the name Office of Communications reappeared. Eventually, several functions, such as production of the news summary, which were supervised by Assistant Press Secretary Paul Miltich until his departure from the White House in March 1975, came under Warren's direction.

Warren hired Margita White as his assistant in January 1975. In July of that year, she succeeded him as Director of the Communications Office upon his departure from the White House. White, assisted by her new deputy Randall Woods, served in this position until her appointment to the Federal Communications Commission in July 1976.

Her duties were then assumed by David Gergen, Special Counsel to the President, who once again expanded the role of the office and frequently reported directly to White House Chief of Staff Richard Cheney rather than Ron Nessen.

Scope and Content of the Warren and White Files
The Warren and White files document the work of the Communications Office in two of its main roles - White House liaison with the news media and coordination of Federal Government public affairs efforts.

The collection contains extensive materials on more than 60 media events such as White House briefings and receptions, press interviews, and the President's meetings with editorial boards and media executives in Washington or at regional media breakfasts. Included are transcripts of many of the meetings, especially press interviews and Q&A sessions. Much of the material, however, is routine in nature and consists of correspondence arranging the event, lists of participants, or letters transmitting photographs to participants.

The collection also includes copies of the frequent communications office mailings to the media. These mailings contained copies of speeches by the President, Vice President, Cabinet officers, and other administration officials along with fact sheets on administration legislative proposals.

Materials concerning the coordination of administration public relations efforts include plans for publicizing administration proposals through the media, drafts of opinion and information articles by administration officials for submission to newspaper Op-Ed pages and correspondence with the press attempting to place them, and background materials and agendas for meetings with agency public affairs officers. The file on Op-Ed articles includes materials from the last six months of the Nixon administration as well as the Ford Presidency.

Although the Communications Office prepared the daily news summary and also briefing books for media encounters, Warren and White's files include little on these topics. See instead the files of James Shuman, Agnes Waldron, and David Gergen.

Documents on issues are limited to background materials and transcripts of statements by the President and other administration officials in connection with briefings, interviews, or press conferences, with occasional press plans for publicity for administration proposals. The largest files concern economic and energy issues or issues of special interest to the media such as the Freedom of Information Act. During most interviews or press conferences in 1976 many of the questions concerned the Presidential election.

Related Materials (September 1992)
The files of virtually all other staff members in the Press Secretary's Office are open for research. Closely related collections include the files of David Gergen, Paul Miltich, and news summary editors James Shuman and Agnes Waldron. Another key collection is the papers of Press Secretary Ron Nessen who supervised Warren and White's work. Margita White donated a small collection of related personal papers to the Library in 1992.

Additional material on media relations is available in WHCF category PR 16 (Publicity) and its subcategories. John Maltese's book Spin Control: The Office of Communications and the Management of Presidential News (University of North Carolina Press, 1992) is an important source of information on the work of this White House Office.

Gerald Warren has donated a large collection of personal papers concerning his work in the Nixon and Ford administrations to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.