MICHAEL RAOUL-DUVAL FILES, 1974-77

The Michael Raoul-Duval files document a significant portion of his activities as Domestic Council associate director, Executive Director of the Intelligence Coordinating Group, and advisor to the President for the 1976 presidential election campaign. Additional materials on these topics are also available in a separate collection of personal papers that Raoul-Duval donated to the Library.

Raoul-Duval's White House Responsibilities
Raoul-Duval worked on the Nixon Domestic Council and continued in that role after the change of administrations. He handled energy, environment, and transportation issues. Although working under Domestic Council Executive Directors Kenneth Cole and James Cannon, Raoul-Duval had frequent access to President Ford. He often sat in on meetings between the president and members of Congress, cabinet officers, or representatives of business, industry, and labor. Two assistants, Glenn Schleede and Norman Ross, handled much of the day-to-day work, especially in the areas of energy and the environment.

In early 1975, the Senate and House set up special committees to investigate alleged intelligence community abuses of authority. Later that year, President Ford established an Intelligence Coordinating Group (ICG) and appointed White House Counsellor John Marsh as Chairman with Raoul-Duval as Executive Director. The ICG staff, working under Raoul-Duval's direction, included Mason Cargill, Timothy Hardy, Wes Clark, and Ray Waldmann. The ICG prepared a set of recommendations on intelligence community reform and eventually drafted an Executive Order implementing President Ford's decisions.

As the ICG completed its work in 1976, Raoul-Duval began working closely with Richard Cheney, David Gergen and other senior advisers concerned about Ronald Reagan's successes in the primaries. In May, Raoul-Duval campaigned for President Ford in the California primary. Cheney soon urged Raoul-Duval and others to draft a "Rose Garden" strategy for the fall election campaign. In July, Raoul-Duval revised and expanded this strategy memo into an overall strategy plan for the fall campaign. President Ford and his campaign team approved this plan in a series of late August meetings in Vail, Colorado. During the weeks leading up to the Republican Convention, Raoul-Duval also represented the president in negotiations with Reagan's staff over the Republican Party platform.

A key part of the campaign strategy plan was a series of debates with Democratic Party candidate Jimmy Carter. Raoul-Duval coordinated President Ford's preparations for the three debates, helped negotiate with Carter's staff and the League of Women Voters on debate sites and logistics, pulled together numerous suggestions and issues papers, and oversaw technical preparations.

In October 1976, Raoul-Duval drafted plans to smooth Ford's transition to a second term. Following Jimmy Carter's November victory, he served under John Marsh as a liaison to Carter's transition team. He also handled the administration's review of the Peterson Commission's report, which recommended substantial pay increases for federal executives.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Files
Raoul-Duval's Domestic Council files reflect his involvement with energy policy coordination and legislation, his knowledge of selected transportation issues, and his past experiences with community development matters and budget review. When he left the Domestic Council, Raoul-Duval's files on ongoing energy and especially transportation issues were dispersed to his successors. What remains essentially are files on issues and policies both handled and completed during his tenure on the Domestic Council staff. The files only sparsely document the follow-up coordination or end results of the responsibilities delegated to Schleede or Ross. In addition, he did not retain significant amounts of correspondence, apparently referring much incoming mail to agencies for response. The files, however, do show that Raoul-Duval did continue to monitor major energy legislation even after leaving the Domestic Council staff.

The collection contains both an alphabetical subject file on intelligence matters and a chronologically arranged series maintained by Raoul-Duval's assistants Wes Clark and Ray Waldmann. These materials mainly document the work of the Intelligence Coordinating Group in handling liaison with the congressional select committees on intelligence and formulating Ford administration reforms of the intelligence community, but some material on other intelligence/national security matters appears. Included in the series are drafts of various briefing papers and books for the President, plus minutes and notes from ICG meetings and meetings with the President. Both series of intelligence materials are currently unprocessed and unavailable for research.

Raoul-Duval's files on various political issues primarily document his work as White House liaison to the Republican Party committee responsible for drafting the 1976 platform. Also included is miscellaneous advice Raoul-Duval received on debate strategy and tactics. The political files are largely fragments of a more complete political file that is part of the Raoul-Duval Papers.

Related Materials (January 1996)
The Raoul-Duval Files described here are closely related to a separate collection of Raoul-Duval Papers. Among that collection are detailed notes from meetings between President Ford and Cabinet officials, members of Congress and representatives of business and industry. These notes largely date from Raoul-Duval's Domestic Council service. The Raoul-Duval Papers also include significant materials on 1976 campaign strategy planning and the three Ford-Carter debates.

Additional materials related to Raoul-Duval's Domestic Council responsibilities are located in various staff files, especially those of Glenn Schleede (energy and science); Stephen McConahey and Judith Hope (transportation); and Norm Ross, Paul Leach and George Humphreys (agriculture, natural resources and environment). Materials on Raoul-Duval's work with international aviation policy and energy questions (especially the Energy Resources Council) can be found in WHCF Oversize Attachments 3305 and 3391-3392.

Open collections relating to the intelligence investigations/reforms include White House Central Files Subject File category ND 6 (Intelligence); 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 John Marsh. These collections/series are not currently available for research.