JOHN MARSH FILES, 1974-77

John O. "Jack" Marsh served in Congress with Gerald Ford from 1963 to 1971. Although a Democrat, his conservative political philosophy led President Richard Nixon to appoint him Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs in 1972. He later joined Vice President Ford's staff as an advisor on defense and foreign affairs matters. When Gerald Ford became President in August 1974, he appointed Marsh as a Counsellor to the President.

During the Ford administration, Marsh supervised the work of the Congressional Relations and Public Liaison offices and the White House military aides, served as a key advisor on a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues, as well as handling special assignments for the President. Among Marsh's special assignments were: coordination of White House responses to congressional investigations of the intelligence community, White House and federal agency programs to celebrate the Bicentennial, oversight of transition expenditures and other matters concerning former President Nixon, and liaison with Jimmy Carter's staff during the 1977 transition.

Marsh's immediate staff consisted of his deputy Russell Rourke and secretaries Donna Larsen and Constance Banford, with occasional other staff members assigned to his office for special projects. For instance, Michael Raoul-Duval, Mason Cargill, Timothy Hardy, Wes Clark, and Ray Waldmann all worked on intelligence issues and John Stiles and Merrill Mueller handled matters concerning the White House swimming pool, housing, and the Bicentennial.

The Marsh files are strongest in documenting his work on congressional relations, legislation, defense matters, the Bicentennial, intelligence investigations, and relations with former President Nixon over routine transition matters. The work of the Public Liaison Office is not as well documented. Only a small amount of material on the 1976 presidential campaign appears.

For several months after Ford succeeded to the presidency, Marsh handled many of the details concerning Richard Nixon's transition to private life. His files include material on Nixon's staff, presidential papers, and transition expenditures along with President Ford's preparations to testify before a congressional committee concerning the Nixon pardon. Other materials from 1974 show Marsh's involvement in such matters as the clemency program for draft evaders and the Rockefeller vice presidential confirmation hearings.

Marsh was not heavily involved with congressional relations until William Timmons resigned as head of the Congressional Relations Office at the end of 1974. Timmons had held this position since 1970 and appears to have run the office without much direct supervision during the early months of the Ford administration when Marsh was busy with other matters. During the transition from Timmons to his successor Max Friedersdorf, Marsh became more involved in the day-to-day work of the Congressional Relations Office. The files include information on Marsh's presentations to Cabinet meetings about congressional relations, background and minutes for many congressional leadership meetings with the President (more complete for 1975 than 1976), memoranda concerning the organization and operation of the Congressional Relations Office, and memoranda showing Marsh's dealings with Friedersdorf and his staff.

The largest files tend to be on military and defense matters (such as amnesty for draft evaders or MIA's in Southeast Asia); and on significant lobbying efforts in Congress (such as antitrust legislation, oil decontrol, or strip mining controls). However, folders on many, if not most, of the major issues facing the Ford administration are included. These materials show some of the work of Marsh and his staff, but presumably much lobbying was conducted in person or by telephone, activities not always reflected in the files. Materials on issues and legislation are generally stronger for 1975 and 1976 than 1974.

Marsh's involvement with the Public Liaison Office was more limited than his work on congressional relations or specific issues. William Baroody, director of the Public Liaison Office, made reports to Marsh and sought approval for major decisions, but Marsh usually did not get involved in the details of public liaison work. An exception is the activities of Theodore Marrs and Milt Mitler, with whom Marsh worked closely on such matters as the Bicentennial, MIA's in Indochina, and liaison with military and veterans organizations. Besides his work with Marrs and Mitler, the collection includes only a few reports from Baroody and small files of memoranda exchanged with Baroody and staff.

Marsh's files on the Bicentennial cover the period after December 1974 when he inherited responsibility for Bicentennial matters from Anne Armstrong. His files include information on the organization and operation of the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration, meetings of the White House and federal agency Bicentennial task forces (including agendas, minutes, and reports), his dealings with Theodore Marrs and Milt Mitler who handled routine Bicentennial matters, and a variety of exhibits, publications, and projects.

The collection contains an extensive series on intelligence matters, especially the investigation of intelligence community abuses by the Rockefeller Commission and congressional committees and Ford administration attempts to reform the intelligence community. Due to Marsh's role as Chairman of the Intelligence Coordinating Group, this collection contains detailed information on most aspects of these issues. This series currently is unprocessed and unavailable for research.

Marsh's materials on the 1977 transition to the Carter administration, while large in bulk, consist almost entirely of a series of transition reports produced by the federal agencies. Few memoranda concerning the actual conduct of the transition are included.

The collection includes only a small amount of material reflecting Marsh's involvement in political matters, including the 1976 campaign, and it is routine in nature.

Related Materials (January 1996)

All staff files from the Congressional Relations Office are currently available for research, along with most collections from the Public Liaison Office (including the files of Theodore Marrs and Milton Mitler with whom Marsh frequently worked on Bicentennial, military, and MIA matters).

The White House Central Files include many related categories, some of which are:

• FG 2-36 Former President Nixon
• FG 3 Transition
• FG 30 to 37 Congress
• FG 370 American Revolution Bicentennial Administration
• FG 393 Rockefeller Commission
• HO 23 Bicentennial
• LE Legislation
• MC Meetings - Conferences
• ND National Security - Defense
• ND 6 Intelligence
• PR 8-1 Bicentennial

Open collections relating to the intelliegence investigations/reforms include the Richard Cheney Files; the James Connor Files; the Ron Nessen Files and Papers; and the files of various staff members in the Congressional Relations Office, especially the Vernon Loen/Charles Leppert collection.

In addition, the Library holds unprocessed collections of Mason Cargill/Timothy Hardy Files and James Wilderotter Files, and unprocessed series on intelligence matters from the files of Philip Buchen and Michael Raoul-Duval. These collections/series are not currently available for research.