JAMES M. CANNON FILES, 1975-77

James M. Cannon, a former journalist and aide to New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, joined the Ford administration in January 1975 as an assistant to Vice President Rockefeller. Soon thereafter, President Ford assigned the Vice President a major role in the formulation of domestic policy. On February 13, 1975, President Ford announced that Rockefeller would serve as vice chairman of the Domestic Council and oversee the day-to-day work of the Council staff.

Cannon's Role in the Ford Administration
In order to help the Vice President, the President appointed Rockefeller aides James Cannon and Richard Dunham as executive director and deputy director, respectively, of the Domestic Council staff. In addition, President Ford named Cannon to the White House staff with the title of Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs. In both of these positions Cannon succeeded Kenneth Cole, who had served since 1973. Cannon remained until the end of the Ford administration.

The Domestic council existed on two levels. It was a membership body consisting of the President, Vice President and those Cabinet secretaries concerned with domestic issues; and it was a permanent agency within the Executive Office of the President with a staff of 30 to 40 persons. Since the membership body met infrequently the staff of the Domestic Council carried on most of the work.

The duties of the executive director of the Domestic Council varied greatly from those of his staff, since he was the head of an agency and a policy advisor to the President. Domestic Council staff members developed a specialized knowledge and drafted decision memoranda, briefing papers, legislative proposals, and responses to correspondence within their areas of expertise. The executive director had a general knowledge of all issues on which his staff worked, but also spent much time on administrative duties, and representing the Domestic Council in White House meetings and meetings with government officials and lobbyists. As an Assistant to the President, Cannon also provided policy advice to the President and represented the Chief Executive at meetings with various individuals and groups.

Administrative duties handled by the executive director included the budget, hiring, and staff assignments. One of James Cannon's first projects was a reorganization of the Council in which the number of subject areas headed by associate directors increased from five to nine. Specific issues were reassigned in order to balance the workload. This reorganization and several subsequent departures from the staff left Cannon with numerous vacancies to fill during the summer of 1975. Congressional approval of an increase from 30 to 40 staff members in the spring of 1976 led to the hiring of several new assistant directors during the rest of the year.

Besides holding frequent meetings with individual staff members, he instituted weekly staff meetings, weekly progress reports from staff members, and computer control over correspondence and the staffing enrolled bills. During much of 1976, his deputy Art Quern submitted a daily "Morning Report" detailing upcoming deadlines. These tools allowed Cannon to keep track of the issues work of his staff.

Cannon or his deputy reviewed all draft memoranda, correspondence and briefing material produced by the staff for the President and, after determining that they were clearly written, presented all options, and were factually accurate, forwarded them to Richard Cheney's office for eventual presentation to the President.

Cannon had a busy schedule of meetings and public appearances, often seeing people that the President could not accommodate on his schedule. Cannon also testified before congressional committees, participated in meetings between the President and groups lobbying for specific policies, and met with such persons as members of Congress, Cabinet secretaries, businessmen, labor leaders, and other individuals to discuss their views on issues. In addition he regularly attended meetings of the White House senior staff, a legislative liaison group, and the Economic Policy Board. During the 1976 election campaign he participated in meetings of the campaign issues group.

Scope and Content of the Cannon Files
James Cannon's files cover all of his activities from March 1975 until January 1977, with a small amount of earlier material. The collection is divided into series concerning his issues work, political activities, meetings, department and agency budget reviews, and the administration of the Domestic Council.

In general Cannon's Issue File and the material on issues in the Meetings File are useful as an overview of the handling of each domestic issue by the Domestic Council staff. The files of individual staff members, however, contain much more detailed information on each issue.

Cannon's Meetings File is weakened by the lack of documentation on many meetings. Folders on meetings in which the President participated often contain briefing papers, correspondence, memoranda and Cannon's notes on the meeting. A problem is that these notes are usually sketchy and Cannon's handwriting is hard to decipher. For meetings not attended by the President there are few briefing papers, but some correspondence and memoranda. for meetings held within the White House on a regular basis (such as senior staff meetings or Domestic Council staff meetings) documentation is negligible. A few notes written by Cannon, often on the folder itself, may be the entire record of a meeting. Many folders were empty when received by the Ford Library. This does not necessarily mean the files were weeded. The folders may have been created routinely on the basis of Cannon's schedule, available background material added, and given to Cannon for any note taking or reference.

Researchers interested in the 1976 election campaign may find little of interest in Cannon's small Political File. While Cannon was involved in the campaign, he did not hold a key position and his files contain only scattered items of interest.

In addition to the material on domestic issues the greatest strength of the Cannon files lies in documenting the organization and management of the Domestic Council. The Administrative File contains weekly staff reports, Art Quern's "Morning Reports", and staff memoranda which record the activities of the staff. Also included are memoranda and scattered reports, clippings, and publications concerning such topics as Cannon's reorganization of the staff in 1975, the work of the Domestic Council Review Group for Federal Social Programs, and the budget and operation of the Domestic Council.

The Cannon files, especially his Administrative File, contain significant materials relating to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and his staff. As the highest ranking former Rockefeller aide on President Ford's staff, Cannon was the chief White House contact for many of his former colleagues. Since the Vice President had oversight over the work of the Domestic Council for most of 1975, Cannon worked closely with the Vice Presidential staff, especially John Veneman.

While this Rockefeller material dates from Cannon's entire service with the Ford administration, much of it is from the first half of 1975. Included are memoranda, vice presidential schedules, and briefing materials concerning Cannon's service on the Vice Presidential staff in early 1975, his transition to the Domestic Council and the first few months of work in his new position. Among the materials pre-dating Cannon's service with the Domestic Council are a briefing book on the Council prepared for Vice President Rockefeller in January 1975 and memoranda concerning the initiation of a study of national domestic needs.

Related Materials (March 1995)
A key related collection is the personal papers donated to the Library by Mr. Cannon. Other related materials include all Domestic Council staff files, especially those concerning specifically the administration of the Council - the files of Kenneth Cole, James H. Cavanaugh, Arthur F. Quern, Judith Johnston, and the Secretariat.

Although Cannon's files contain materials on meetings of the Economic Policy Board and other scattered items on the economy, the Domestic Council did not handle most domestic economic issues. These are more fully documented in, for example, the files of L. William Seidman, Assistant to the President for Economic affairs, and the record of the Council of Economic Advisors.