NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR. STAFF ASSISTANT ROBERT C. ("BUD") MCFARLANE FILES, 1974-77

After a long career as a Marine Corps officer and a year as a White House Fellow, Robert C. (“Bud”) McFarlane joined the National Security Council staff as military aide to the National Security Adviser in June 1973. He remained in that position for the rest of the Nixon administration and much of the Ford administration, then was promoted to Special Assistant to the President in 1976.

Although officially listed as an aide to Henry Kissinger for much of his NSC service, McFarlane appears to have worked more closely with Kissinger’s deputy Brent Scowcroft. After Scowcroft became National Security Adviser in November 1975, McFarlane assisted both Scowcroft and his deputy William Hyland. McFarlane worked in an office on the Ground Floor of the White House West Wing with other aides to the National Security Adviser for the first part of the Ford administration, but later moved upstairs into Hyland’s office.

McFarlane was responsible for supervision of the NSC decision process, including substantive review, management, and criticism of all matters requiring action by the President or National Security Adviser. He also performed other aide functions, such as assuring logistical, secretarial, and communications support to Kissinger, Scowcroft, and Hyland while they were away from Washington. During the early months of the Ford administration, McFarlane apparently shared the handling of NSC congressional relations matters with Les Janka and participated in the administration’s Legislative Interdepartmental Group, but Janka assumed full responsbility for this area early in 1975.

During the intelligence investigations conducted by the Rockefeller Commission and the Church and Pike Committees, McFarlane served as the NSC contact with other agencies and White House offices for purposes of coordinating the administration’s response. He advised Kissinger and Scowcroft on the release of documents to investigators and drafted memoranda attempting to implement recommendations of the Rockefeller Commission. Later he served as the NSC representative on the administration’s Intelligence Coordinating Group. During the course of the investigations, the NSC brought in Air Force Captain John Matheny to assist McFarlane. Matheny eventually took over most of the intelligence work, freeing McFarlane to focus on other aspects of his position.

Although the McFarlane Files cover a wide variety of issues and activities, the best documented topic is the intelligence investigations and reforms. The subject file contains McFarlane’s drafts of decision memoranda to the President concerning the implementation of Rockefeller Commission recommendations, July-September 1975; testimony of administration officials; and analyses of the reports of the Murphy and Rockefeller Commissions. The chronological file contains additional material on the Church Committee, Pike Committee, Rockefeller Commission, President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and the Intelligence Coordinating Group. However, virtually no materials on the February 1976 Executive order reforming the intelligence community, or the decision making process that led to its issuance, appear in the collection.

The collection partially documents other aspects of McFarlane’s work, including his advice and recommendations to Kissinger, Scowcroft, and Hyland; coordination of NSC decision papers for the President; and NSC congressional liaison during the early months of the administration. His memoranda and notes to the National Security Advisers, often returned to him with their comments or acknowledgment, are especially important. Many documents reveal NSC processes and procedures and provide valuable insights into NSC channels of communication. McFarlane did not routinely save copies of most documents that he reviewed or edited, however, so a researcher must look for them in the files of the National Security Advisers and other NSC collections.

Related Materials (September 2013)
The working files of National Security Advisers Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft are closely related. The files of Staff Secretary Jeanne Davis and Staff Assistants John Matheny and Peter Rodman contain additional materials that reflect the staff role in providing logistical support. They also include documentation related to the intelligence investigations and reorganization, as do the NSC Information Liaison with Commissions and Committees Files and several White House collections, including the files of Philip Buchen, John Marsh, Michael Raoul-Duval, James Wilderotter, and Mason Cargill/Timothy Hardy.