RON NESSEN PAPERS, 1974-77

The Ron Nessen Papers consist of materials which Nessen took home from the White House at the end of the Ford administration presumably to assist in writing his memoir It Sure Looks Different From the Inside (Chicago: Playboy Press, 1978). Mr. Nessen donated the bulk of his papers to the Ford Library on January 22, 1979. In October 1992 he donated an accretion of papers (boxes 294-300). The collection contains the most significant portions of Ron Nessen's working files from his service in the Ford White House, but researchers should also be aware of the Nessen Files received by the Ford Library as part of President Ford's papers in January 1977.

Discussed below under separate headings are: the organization and function of the Press Office, the scope and content of the Nessen papers, and related materials in the Ford Library.

Organization and Function of the White House Press Office
As Press Secretary to the President, Ron Nessen served as head of the White House Press Office. He directed a staff of forty and was responsible for keeping several thousand reporters with White House accreditation informed about the President and his official actions and activities. The Press Office relayed day-to-day news concerning the President and his policies through regular briefings for the White House press corps and responses to their inquiries.

The Press Office also made media arrangements and organized press facilities for functions such as news conferences, formal and informal presidential events and ceremonies, and visits of dignitaries and officials. If there were space limitations at any event, the Press Office selected a "pool" of reporters and photographers who made their reports and photographs available to other media representatives. Other functions of the Press Office included advice to the President and White House staff on media relations and preparing and distributing press releases regarding presidential policies and activities.

Besides his regular briefings and other media contacts, Nessen spent much of his time as an administrator. The Press Office was subdivided into the following offices: main office, Office of Communications, Press Advance Office, Television Advisors Office, and the Office of the White House Photographer.

The main office, located in the White House West Wing, served the needs for news and information of the White House press corps, especially the 75‑100 journalists who covered the White House on a full-time basis.

The Office of Communications handled the scheduling of media appearances by the President and administration spokesmen outside Washington, prepared the President's daily news summary, responded to requests for information from the out of town press, and mailed out fact sheets and administration speeches. Gerald Warren, Margita White and David Gergen successively directed this office.

The Press Advance Office, headed successively by Eric Rosenberger and Douglass Blaser, handled logistics for press coverage when the President traveled. About 100‑150 media representatives normally traveled with the President outside Washington. This office attempted to meet their needs as well as the needs of the local news media in the communities the President visited.

The Television Advisors Office handled arrangements for presidential radio and television appearances and advised the President on the use of the television medium. Robert Mead and William Carruthers successively headed this office, assisted by Helen Collins.

The Office of the White House Photographer, headed by David Kennerly, supplied the news media and visitors to the Oval Office with photographs of presidential functions and activities. It was originally attached to the Press Office, but became part of the White House Operations Office under Donald Rumsfeld's supervision during 1975.

Scope and Content of the Nessen Papers
The Nessen Papers contain materials on virtually all aspects of the work of Ron Nessen and his staff, 1974‑77. The collection is strongest on such topics as media relations and the organization and operation of the Press Office, but also includes significant materials on interactions between Nessen and the President or White House staff members, the 1976 presidential campaign, and a number of administration policies and issues.

Material on media relations includes scattered correspondence with media representatives and material on media policy in general or its application in specific situations. In addition, the collection includes extensive information on Nessen's daily press briefings, including transcripts and materials he used in preparation for the briefings. The President's contacts with the media are documented by briefing books for interviews and press conferences, transcripts and background for media interviews, and trip files reflecting preparations for presidential appearances made by the Press Advance Office.

The administration, organization and operation of the Press Office can be examined through such materials as Press Office staff meeting minutes and the minutes and briefing papers for the occasional Press Office improvement sessions. The staff meeting minutes, although not verbatim transcripts, reflect decisions and assignments. The minutes of improvement sessions are more complete and reflect discussions of Press Office problems and suggestions for improving the operation of the office. Interactions between Ron Nessen and specific Press Office staff members can be studied by examining the Press Office Memoranda series.

The White House Memoranda series reveals many of Nessen's interactions with the President and members of the White House staff and much on the role of the Press Office in the Ford administration. Since this file is arranged by names of staff members, it is easy for the researcher to examine the working relationship between Nessen and any given colleague.

Materials on policies and issues are seldom very complete. They reveal little on the development of policies in the Ford White House and mainly reflect Mr. Nessen's brief involvement with specific issues by handling questions, drafting presidential statements, or coordinating publicity for the administration's views. The materials concern a wide variety of domestic issues, especially the economic and energy questions which were the focus of so much attention at the time. Although there are scattered items on a number of foreign policy issues, the most substantive materials relate to the war in Indochina and the Mayaguez crisis.

Mr. Nessen's materials on the 1976 presidential election are fairly extensive, but basically reflect media relations, publicity aspects of the campaign, and the collection of information about President Ford's opponents. There is little on campaign planning or political strategy.

Approximately 50 feet of this collection consists of routine newspaper clippings, news summaries, press releases, wire service stories, and publications which show very little about the workings of the Press Office, but may be useful for studying media coverage of the Ford presidency.

Valuable accretions of papers were received in 1992 and 2012. This consists of Nessen's handwritten notes from meetings he attended; miscellaneous other notes; additional subject files relating to the operation of the White House Press Office, particularly regarding difficult situations; and Nessen’s audio diary that documents his  account of day-to-day operations within the Ford administration as well as his personal relationships with other White House staff members.

Related Materials (March 1993)
Information on Ron Nessen's work in the Ford White House also appears in the Nessen Files donated to the Library by President Ford. For the most part the Nessen Papers contain the most significant materials from Nessen's service in the Ford White House. Most of the Nessen Files consist of routine materials or copies of series or parts of series in the Nessen Papers, but some unique and useful items are included in that collection.

In addition a number of Press Office staff files are available for research, including a small file for Nessen's predecessor Jerald terHorst. White House Central Files category PR (Public Relations) contains numerous sub-categories relating to the work of the Press Office. The records of the White House Press Release Unit include most of the press releases issued by the Ford White House, along with a keyword index to all presidential statements and speeches. The audiovisual holdings of the Library include a complete set of videotapes of President Ford's press conferences and audiotapes of Nessen's daily press briefings.

The papers of Deputy Press Secretary J. W. ("Bill") Roberts and transcripts of research interviews conducted by Mark Rozell are also helpful for the study of press relations in the Ford White House. Rozell's interviews were conducted in the course of doing research for his book, The Press and the Ford Presidency (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992). The unprocessed papers of Jerald terHorst contain materials on the brief tenure and resignation of President Ford's first press secretary.