WILLIAM J. BAROODY, JR., FILES, 1974-77

William J. Baroody, Jr., began his career in Washington as an aide to Republican congressman Melvin Laird. As Laird moved to other positions, including Secretary of Defense and then White House Counsellor, Baroody continued to assist him. Soon after joining the White House staff, Baroody began to do some liaison work with interest groups, although his was not the only office serving this function. He presented President Nixon with a plan to consolidate all liaison offices within a single umbrella organization in January 1974, but they made little progress before the end of the administration.

Baroody's Role in the Ford White House
Upon the departure of Anne Armstrong from the White House in December 1974, President Ford merged the liaison functions of her office with those of Baroody's office and several independent liaison efforts to form a consolidated Office of Public Liaison (OPL). Baroody and his staff handled most interest group liaison for the remainder of the administration, although for periods of time White House staff members from other offices handled some liaison efforts (e.g., David Lissy's work with Jewish organizations and Bradley Patterson's with Native Americans).

The OPL listened to group concerns and communicated them to the President or the appropriate agency. They also explained to groups the administration's positions and programs and pursued a media outreach effort to make the public aware that there were people in the White House ready and eager to listen to their views. This helped to project an image of an open White House. In contrast to the more political nature of the liaison efforts headed by Chuck Colson during the early 1970s, the Ford OPL tried to be more inclusive and avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

Key tools employed by Baroody and his staff included White House briefings and conferences and staff appearances at interest group meetings. A series of "Tuesday at the White House" and "Wednesday at the White House" meetings brought about 80 to 250 representatives of various interest groups to the White House for meetings with administration officials and an exchange of views.

The OPL also organized White House conferences on domestic and economic affairs between November 1974 and October 1975 and conferences on consumer representation plans in January 1976. These 24 conferences, held in various cities around the country, consisted of day-long sessions usually attended by 1400-1600 people. Administration officials (sometimes including President Ford) made presentations at these meetings and took questions from the attendees.

Scope and Content of the Baroody Files
The Baroody Files are useful for studying White House liaison with interest groups, especially White House briefings and White House conferences. The collection contains extensive information on the "Tuesday at the White House" and "Wednesday at the White House" briefings, the White House Conferences on Domestic and Economic Affairs, and the White House Conferences on Consumer Representation Plans.

A significant amount of material on a small number of issues such as consumer affairs, economics, and energy appears in the collection, but relatively little on most other issues. A large series of White House memoranda documents Baroody's interactions with other members of the White House staff.

One major weakness of the collection is the absence of much documentation on the work of Baroody and the OPL during the last year of the administration. Many folders end late in 1975 and others contain only a few items from 1976. For example, the collection contains little on Baroody's suggestions for the 1976 presidential campaign. These missing materials do not appear among the other collections in the Ford Library.

Related Materials (February 1992)
The collections received from other staff members in the Office of Public Liaison are all closely related. The most complete information on White House conferences appears in the Jeffrey Eves Files, while the Theodore Marrs Files contain much on White House briefings. Other OPL staff files concentrate on liaison with specific interest groups. Scattered material on public liaison appears in a number of other White House collections, including those of Baroody's supervisor John Marsh.