The collection includes material on Ford's congressional career and Vice Presidential confirmation; miscellaneous domestic and foreign policy issues; scheduling, travel and speeches; office organization; and constituent casework and public opinion mail. However, material on the Watergate affair and relations with the Nixon White House is scattered, and material on the Presidential transition is very limited.
Series Description and Container List
Container List
Collection Overview
Scope and Content Note
The Ford Vice Presidential Papers include materials created and received by Gerald R. Ford and his staff between October 13, 1973 and August 9, 1974. During the first two months Ford was still House Minority Leader, but his staff decided to begin the Vice Presidential file upon nomination rather than waiting until he was sworn in. Therefore the collection documents the last few weeks of Ford's Congressional career and his eight months as Vice President.
This description of the Vice Presidential Papers consists of sections on the Ford Vice Presidency, the organization and duties of his staff, the arrangement and content of the papers, and related materials held by the Library.
The Ford Vice Presidency
Upon the resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew on October 10, 1973, President Richard Nixon began soliciting suggestions for a new Vice President. After only two days, he announced the nomination of Congressman Gerald R. Ford. Under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution this nomination required confirmation by both houses of Congress.
Eight days later President Nixon fired Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox in the "Saturday Night Massacre." Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned over the Cox firing. Because of the outrage over the dismissal of Archibald Cox, many members of Congress became convinced that the new Vice President would soon succeed to the Presidency. The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a detailed investigation of Ford's background and turned the results over to Congress. Members of Congress questioned Ford carefully and examined his record more closely than they might normally have done for one of their colleagues. The final votes in support of the Ford nomination were 92‑3 in the Senate and 387‑35 in the House. On December 6, 1973, before a joint session of Congress, Gerald Ford took the oath of office as the 40th Vice President of the United States.
The only Vice Presidential duty provided in the Constitution is serving as President of the Senate, but President Nixon soon assigned additional duties to Mr. Ford. He attended meetings of the Cabinet and National Security Council and served as Vice Chairman of the Domestic Council, Chairman of the Committee on the Right of Privacy, and Chairman of the Energy Action Group. Ford's participation in most of these organizations consisted merely of attending meetings, but under his leadership the Domestic Council Committee on the Right of Privacy began operations, hired a staff, prepared several studies, and presented proposals. The Vice President chose his former law partner from Grand Rapids, Philip Buchen, to head the Privacy Committee staff.
During the 1974 congressional and gubernatorial campaigns, Vice President Ford served as principal party spokesman making numerous trips to assist Republican candidates for office. While Vice President, Gerald Ford represented the administration by making over 200 formal speeches and traveling approximately 110,000 miles.
The Vice President also added to his knowledge of foreign policy and intelligence matters through daily briefings from the C.I.A., regular meetings with Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, and weekly briefings from National Security advisor Henry Kissinger or his deputy.
While Ford was learning his new job, President Nixon's situation continued to deteriorate. In a special election on February 18, 1974, Richard Vander Veen won Ford's old House seat -- the first Democratic victory in Michigan's Fifth Congressional District in 64 years. The results of this and other special Congressional elections in the spring of 1974 weakened the President's political position.
On May 9, 1974 the House Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings against President Nixon. Philip Buchen, unknown to Ford, soon began the planning for a Presidential transition. In late July the Judiciary Committee voted three articles of impeachment against the President. Faced with a rapidly deteriorating situation, the President resigned on August 9, 1974 and Vice President Gerald R. Ford became the 38th President of the United States.
The Ford Vice Presidential Staff
Until Gerald Ford's confirmation as Vice President on December 6, 1973, his staff consisted of the dozen or so individuals who had served him for many years as a Congressman. During the confirmation hearings several old friends and associates volunteered their assistance and President Nixon also made available the White House speechwriters and advance staff to assist Ford on trips.
After December 6, Vice President Ford's staff grew rapidly. Three key people from his Congressional staff, Robert Hartmann, Mildred Leonard, and Paul Miltich, became Chief of Staff, Personal Assistant and Press Secretary, respectively. Later that month Ford hired William Casselman as Legal Counsel, Warren Rustand to handle scheduling and advance work, Kenneth BeLieu for legislative affairs, and Bill Roberts as Deputy Press Secretary. The military aides, several clerical and administrative people, and Walter Mote as Assistant to the President of the Senate were holdovers from the Agnew staff.
Vice President Ford continued to make use of the White House speechwriters and advance staff during the first two months of his Vice Presidency, but that arrangement ended after he delivered a controversial speech supporting the President to the American Farm Bureau Federation on January 15, 1974. Ford received much criticism for that speech from the media and from some of his old friends and supporters. He then created his own speechwriting staff, hiring Milton Friedman to handle the initial drafting of speeches.
By February 1974, Ford had a staff of over sixty persons and was no longer dependent on White House assistance. Richard Burress had replaced Kenneth BeLieu in handling legislative affairs and he had hired John Marsh and Gwen Anderson to handle defense matters and political liaison respectively.
The sudden growth of Ford's staff led to administrative tangles owing partly to Chief of Staff Robert Hartmann's lack of administrative experience. The Vice President decided to hire L. William Seidman of Grand Rapids to study the organization of the Vice Presidential staff and recommend improvement. Seidman's study led to the implementation of a new staff organization in the spring of 1974.
Under the new organization, the Chief of Staff handled liaison with the senior White House staff, Cabinet officers, agency heads, state governors, Congressional leadership, and the Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Hartmann also supervised personnel matters and the Vice President's personal staff, and had editorial oversight of all speeches, remarks and formal statements.
The reorganization plan divided the operational staff into three areas, each headed by an Assistant to the Vice President. Richard Burress was in charge of legislative and domestic affairs and had responsibility for liaison with the executive branch, members of Congress, and state and local government. John Marsh handled defense and international affairs, including liaison with the State Department, the Defense Department, and National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Veterans Administration, and foreign embassies. He also supervised the work of the military assistants and had responsibility for Vice Presidential travel and logistic support. Bill Seidman assumed responsibility for administration and services. He supervised five Deputy Assistants who handled scheduling and appointments, liaison with the Republican party and other non‑governmental organizations, administration, media affairs, and research.
The Ford Vice Presidential Papers
Because Ford remained a Congressman until December 6, the organization of the Ford papers did not immediately change. His secretaries continued to file most correspondence and other documents in the General and Case File and the Issues File. As had always been the case, Robert Hartmann and Paul Miltich maintained separate files relating to their areas of responsibility.
After January 1, 1974, the staff divided the General and Case File into the General File and the Case/Individual File and seven other staff members established separate files. The General File, the Issues File and the Case/Individual File served as a "central files" for much of the routine correspondence. The staff files contain working papers and correspondence relating to the specific responsibilities of each staff member. In addition, the Vice Presidential papers originally included approximately 53 linear feet of public opinion mail including correspondence answered by form and letters never answered. The Ford Library has retained a small sample of this public opinion mail and disposed of the rest.
The Vice Presidential papers document in detail the work of Gerald Ford and his staff in answering mail, handling constituent casework, scheduling and advancing trips, speechwriting, handling administrative and personnel matters, relating with Republican party organizations, campaigning for Republican candidates, meeting with foreign and diplomatic officials, and liaison with the Congress. There is little here to document the less public aspects of the Vice Presidency such as the many briefings received by Ford, his meetings with President Nixon, or the meetings of the Domestic Council, the Cabinet, the National Security Council or other bodies on which Ford served. Little material on the Watergate investigations and impeachment appears, with the exception of public opinion in correspondence, references in speeches, and occasional items in the staff files.
The Michigan Historical Collections of the University of Michigan received five cubic feet of Vice Presidential Papers from Gerald Ford in 1974, as part of a large shipment of Congressional Papers. The University transferred these materials to the Ford Library under terms of the Ford letter of gift to the U.S. Government in 1977. The Library received the rest of the Vice Presidential Papers directly from President Ford.
Related Materials (February 1995)
The Ford Scrapbook Collection includes three volumes of newspaper clippings, programs and occasional documents concerning his activities during the Vice Presidency. John Marsh's White House files contain a small file of Ford's schedules and telephone logs from late July and early August 1974. The Robert Hartmann Papers contain 4.4 linear feet of additional materials from the Vice Presidency. Barry Roth's unprocessed White House files contain his chronological file for the Vice Presidency and Executive Protective Service appointment records for the Vice President's office.
The Betty Ford Papers include her correspondence and other papers relating to her activities in 1973 and 1974 while her husband served as Vice President. Only selected portions of that collection are open to research yet, however.
Significant quantities of audiovisual materials and gifts and memorabilia from the Vice Presidency can be found in the appropriate units of the Ford Library and Museum. The Ford Library book collection has The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, U.S. News and World Report, Fortune, and the National Journal on microfilm for all or part of the Ford Vice Presidency. A vertical file of clippings, pamphlets, magazine articles and other material on Ford's career is also available.
Details
105.2 linear feet (ca. 210,400 pages)
Gerald R. Ford (accession numbers 77-42, 77-45, 77-55, 77-63, 77-107, 77-127, 77-134, 78-16, 78-73)
Access
Open. Some items are temporarily restricted under terms of the donor's deed of gift, a copy of which is available on request, or under National Archives and Records Administration general restrictions (36 CFR 1256).
Copyright
Gerald R. Ford donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain.
Processed by
William McNitt, October 1980 (Revised February 1995)
Series List
Office of the Assistant for Defense and International Affairs: John O. Marsh Files, 1973‑74.
(Boxes 59-71 & 206, 5.2 linear feet)
The Assistant for Defense and International Affairs was John O. Marsh, a former Congressman from Virginia and Assistant Secretary of Defense. He joined the Ford staff on January 29, 1974, and remained until moving to the White House staff in August.
Marsh's duties included collecting and evaluating information concerning national security, maintaining classified materials, supervising travel and logistics, and monitoring defense and foreign affairs legislation in Congress. In addition, his office served as liaison to the Departments of Defense and State, the National Security Council, the intelligence community, the Veterans Administration, international organizations, foreign missions resident in Washington, and foreign visitors. The Vice President's military aides also worked out of this office, handling much of the routine work such as drafting replies to correspondence.
The materials consist of correspondence, speeches, personnel files, briefing materials concerning foreign affairs and diplomatic visits, schedules, programs, flight manifests and itineraries, and billing records. They are organized in six subseries: Subject File, Chronological File, Meetings with Foreign and Diplomatic Officials, Vice Presidential Events, Thank You Letters for Vice Presidential Trips, and Trip File.
Compiled by Kenneth G. Hafeli, September 1979
Office of the Legal Counsel: William E. Casselman Files, 1973‑74.
(Boxes 74-99, 10 linear feet)
William E. Casselman joined the Vice Presidential staff in December 1973 after serving as general counsel for the General Services Administration since 1971. Casselman served as legal adviser throughout Ford's tenure as Vice President. He then became Counsel to the President in the Ford White House. His staff during the Vice Presidency consisted of legal assistant Barry Roth and staff assistant Brenda Wilson. This office advised Ford on questions of administrative and fiscal law, including personnel regulations, security, archival procedures, appropriations authority, standards of conduct, litigation, and recommendations on appointments to the federal judiciary.
Casselman also shared responsibility with Richard Burress, Assistant for Legislative and Domestic Affairs, for domestic policy analysis and provided support to Ford in his role as vice chairman of the Domestic Council. Casselman coordinated issue development within the Domestic Council, helped resolve policy differences between federal agencies and the Council and assisted the Vice President in developing and addressing issues of interest. The office acted as liaison between departments and agencies and the Vice President on domestic policy, providing a source of information and analysis independent of the Domestic Council.
These files reflect Casselman's responsibilities for providing the Vice President with legal services and advice on domestic policy issues. A subject file documents his work on privacy legislation, employee standards of conduct, energy problems, American Indian rights and similar issues that the Vice President addressed. The official correspondence file contains copies of outgoing correspondence and information on the daily operations of the office, personnel changes and other matters of secondary importance. There is considerable overlap and duplication in the two series. A third series contains photocopies from General Services Administration office files concerning purchases of office furniture in certain GSA regions.
Other papers on domestic policy issues during the Vice Presidential period may be found in the files of the Assistant to the Vice President for Legislative and Domestic Affairs and in the various Domestic Council collections of the Presidential period. The files of Chief of Staff Robert Hartmann contain extensive information on Ford's confirmation hearings.
Compiled by Paul Conway, September 1979
Office of the Assistant to the President of the Senate: Walter L. Mote Files, 1973‑74.
(Boxes 100-107, 3.2 linear feet)
Walter L. Mote, Assistant to the President of the Senate, was a carry‑over from the staff of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. He remained on the Vice Presidential staff until January 1975, when he retired from government service. His staff consisted of H. Spofford Canfield, Josephine Wilson, and several secretaries.
This office handled legislative mail, compiled twice daily briefing sheets on Congressional activity, maintained records for Vice Presidential scheduling, fulfilled autograph and photograph requests, and arranged White House tours. They also kept the Speaker of the House, Architect of the Capitol, and other Congressional officials informed of Ford's activities in his role as President of the Senate and notified Senators and Congressmen of Vice Presidential visits to their home districts.
Mote's subject file contains correspondence from Senators and Congressmen, morning and evening reports on the activities of the Senate, and referrals on correspondence sent to the Vice President concerning other departments and agencies. His case file contains constituent correspondence dealing with a variety of subjects.
Vice Presidential schedules are also located in the files of L. William Seidman and Warren S. Rustand. The files of the Assistant for Legislative and Domestic Affairs concern contacts with Congress on specific issues. Later material on activities related to the Congress can be found in the White House files of Max Friedersdorf.
Compiled by Kenneth G. Hafeli, September 1979
Office of the Deputy Assistant for Non‑Governmental Organizations: Gwen Anderson Files, 1974.
(Boxes 117-126, 4.0 linear feet)
Gwen O. Anderson, a former Republican National Committeewoman from the state of Washington, joined the Vice President's staff as consultant for public affairs in January 1974. In July she became deputy assistant for non‑governmental organizations, but there was no change in her duties.
Anderson's major function was to coordinate the Vice President's appearances at political events and fundraisers. All requests for political appearances were forwarded to Anderson by the scheduling office for her recommendation. She took part in the weekly scheduling meetings and coordinated with Warren Rustand's office the arrangements for events of a political nature. Anderson also served as liaison with Republican group, city, state and county officials, and other political organizations and handled requests for messages, autographs, photographs, and fundraising auction items. When Ford became President, she continued to perform these duties, first as an assistant to Dean Burch and later to Robert Hartmann.
The papers contain correspondence with Republican groups and candidates concerning invitations, schedules, thank yous, evaluations of events, requests for messages, endorsements, or items to auction. Documents on fundraising affairs include information on contributions to the party, the success of events, and arrangements for ensuring the Republican National Committee a share of the proceeds.
Other materials include copies of speeches, messages and political tributes, background information on organizations, minutes of scheduling meetings, intra‑office administrative memoranda, and an analysis of the special election held in the Fifth District of Michigan to fill Ford's congressional seat. The papers are divided into four series: subject file, chronological file, speech file, and state events file.
The Vice Presidential files of Warren Rustand, Paul Miltich, and William Seidman contain related materials.
Compiled by Christine Ferretti, May 1979
Office of the Deputy Assistant for Media Affairs: Paul A. Miltich Files, 1973‑74.
(Boxes 127-173, 18.8 linear feet)
Formerly a Washington correspondent for Booth Newspapers, a Michigan newspaper chain, Miltich joined the Ford Congressional staff as press secretary in 1966, succeeding James M. Mudge. Miltich continued to serve as Ford's press secretary throughout the Vice Presidency and then became an Assistant Press Secretary in the Ford White House.
Miltich and his assistant, John W. "Bill" Roberts, were responsible for compiling background material, preparing speech drafts, releasing information to the press, answering inquiries and requests from the public, and mailing copies of Vice Presidential speeches to those who requested them.
The office coordinated efforts with Chief of Staff Robert Hartmann's speechwriters and Warren Rustand's scheduling office. The latter provided long and short range schedules of the Vice President's upcoming activities and assured that Miltich's office provided suitable remarks and statements when necessary. Miltich also participated in weekly scheduling meetings.
The materials consist of speeches and remarks made by the Vice President, correspondence, background material, articles written for or about Ford or his staff, press releases, drafts, printed materials, and requests for invitations to the Vice President to attend various functions. They are divided into four series: speech file, subject file, speech materials file, and publication file.
Related materials may be found in the files of the Deputy Assistant for Scheduling and Advance (Rustand) and the Chief of Staff (Hartmann) in the Vice Presidential files. Miltich's files in the Congressional papers and the files of Ron Nessen and his staff in the Presidential papers also contain related material.
Compiled by Kenneth G. Hafeli, December 1979
Office of the Deputy Assistant for Scheduling and Appointments: Warren S. Rustand Files, 1973‑74.
(Boxes 174-205, 12.8 linear feet)
Before Mr. Ford's confirmation as Vice President, Mildred Leonard handled his schedule. Dewey Clower served briefly in this role after the confirmation, but Lt. Col. Americo Sardo replaced him. Warren Rustand joined the Ford staff on December 18, 1973, as an assistant to Sardo, and became Deputy Assistant for Scheduling and Appointments on February 1, 1974. In August 1974, Rustand moved to the White House as Appointments Secretary to the President.
The scheduling office formulated both long-range and short-range schedules for all events and appointments. They handled, on the average, 75 written requests and 150 phone calls per day. By April 8, 1974, the Vice President had met over 1,000 office appointments, delivered 60 speeches, convened 35 press conferences and traveled over 35,000 miles.
Rustand coordinated some requests with other Vice Presidential staff, including political requests with Gwen Anderson, personal friend and family requests with Mildred Leonard, VIP Congressional and Cabinet requests with Dorothy Downton, and media requests with Paul Miltich. Those taking part in weekly scheduling meetings were Robert Hartmann, Bill Seidman, Walter Motes, and Jack Marsh, along with Leonard, Miltich, Anderson, and Rustand.
After an event gained a spot on the schedule, the advance team took over. This team consisted of the scheduling director, advancemen, White House Communications Agency, Secret Service, military aide, transportation, and local contacts. Their job was to move an event from conception to execution, including the preparation of a detailed final schedule. In the early months, before this office was fully organized, the White House Advance Office handled preparations for trips.
The files generally cover the period of Rustand's Vice Presidential service, with occasional earlier items. They reflect the work of the scheduling and advance operation and contain memoranda, correspondence, schedules, forms, invitations, regret letters, and other materials.
Related materials include the Vice Presidential files of L. William Seidman, Gwen Anderson, Robert Hartmann, and the White House Advance Office.
Compiled by Dennis M. Lakomy, October 1979
Office of the Chief of Staff: Robert T. Hartmann Files, 1973‑74.
(Boxes 218-258, 16.4 linear feet)
Long‑time congressional aide Robert Hartmann coordinated Gerald R. Ford's preparations for the vice presidential confirmation hearings in the fall of 1973 and subsequently became Chief of Staff to Vice President Ford. As Chief of Staff, Hartmann's duties consisted mainly of the following:
- Liaison with the White House Senior Staff, Cabinet Officers, agency heads, State Governors, the Leadership of Congress, and the Chairmen of the Republican National Committee and the Republican Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committees.
- Overall supervision of the staff with respect to duty and space requirements; review and approval of all cases of employment, separation or change in pay; security and conflict of interest clearances; grievances and complaints against staff members or voiced by them; approval of arrangements for persons detailed to the staff or volunteering assistance; and direct supervision of the Vice President's personal staff.
- Editorial oversight of the preparation of drafts of speeches, remarks, and formal statements by the Vice President.
The files document his Hartmann's work as Vice Presidential Chief of Staff and his work on the Vice Presidential confirmation hearings. The file of staff memoranda details many of his interactions with members of the staff. Included in the subject file are letters he drafted for Ford, briefing materials for meetings, and materials on specific issues, politics, Ford speeches, and the organization and operation of the Vice President's staff. There is little documentation on Watergate or on Ford's transition to the presidency.
Ford Confirmation Hearings Files
On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned from office. Under investigation for multiple charges of alleged conspiracy, extortion and bribery, Agnew agreed to resign, pleading nolo contendere to a single charge of federal income tax evasion. Two days later, President Richard M. Nixon nominated Gerald Ford to become the 40th vice president of the United States.
Ford was the first vice president selected under the provisions of the Twenty‑fifth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1967. The Amendment governs presidential and vice presidential succession and stipulates that whenever the office of vice president becomes vacant through death, succession to the presidency or resignation, the president shall nominate a vice president to be confirmed by a majority vote of both houses of Congress.
Procedural questions arose concerning which committee would handle the nomination in each chamber. The House decided that the Committee on the Judiciary, chaired by Peter Rodino (D‑N.J.), would have jurisdiction; the Senate chose the Committee on Rules and Administration, chaired by Howard Cannon (D‑Nevada). They held separate hearings. Senate proceedings began on November 1, continued for two weeks and ended with a vote to confirm on November 27. The hearings in the House opened on November 15, and that chamber voted to approve the nomination on December 6, 1973.
Hartmann helped Ford to prepare for the committee hearings. The Ford staff pulled together facts, figures and explanatory documents relating to anticipated questions in the hearings. In addition, they responded to queries from committee investigators and provided them with information from office files. As indicated in his book Palace Politics, however, Hartmann felt his most important duty was drafting Ford's opening statements to the committees.
On what Ford and Hartmann informally called the "confirmation team," only two individuals, Hartmann and Paul Miltich, Ford's press secretary, were paid staff members. The volunteer members of the team were old friends and people who had worked with Ford previously -- Benton Becker, Philip Buchen, Kenneth BeLieu, Richard Burress, William Cramer, Richard Haber, and Robert Hynes.
The "confirmation team" thoroughly searched Ford's congressional office files and removed items that might be needed for reference in the hearings. They arranged the material into a general reference subject file and a campaign finance file and used those files to compile a briefing book for Ford's use at the witness table. This briefing book evolved into a loose‑leaf binder indexed by questions that committee members might ask with suggestions for appropriate replies. Ford's personal copy of the book, with his annotations, and the general subject and campaign finance files became a part of Hartmann's files. The confirmation series also include materials created during the confirmation hearings. These include correspondence with the House and Senate committee chairmen and members, working drafts of anticipated questions and recommended answers, and reference material and working drafts used in writing Ford's opening statements.
The House Judiciary Committee requested a compilation of all communications, written and oral, received by executive departments and independent agencies form 1970 to 1973, from Congressman Ford, his staff, or his representatives. A duplicate set of this correspondence appears in the Hartmann files.
Hartmann personally created only a small amount of material within this file in the course of the confirmation hearings. Most of it consists of material removed from Ford's congressional office files and drawn together for reference use by the confirmation team.
Hartmann kept these files in his office until the end of the Ford presidency. He then relinquished this material, along with his congressional and White House files, to the Ford Library under the Ford deed of gift. Hartmann also donated a collection of personal papers to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, his alma mater. In 1992, the Hoover Institution transferred that collection to the Ford Library. It contains 4.4 linear feet of material concerning the Ford Vice Presidency. Some additional information on the Ford confirmation hearings as Vice President is available in the papers of Congressman Edward Hutchinson, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee at the time of the hearings.
Compiled by Leesa Tobin, April 1982