BYRON M. "RED" CAVANEY FILES, (1969-73) 1974-77

The White House Advance Office was tasked with visiting foreign and domestic sites a few weeks before scheduled Presidential trips in order to plan and coordinate logistical matters. These responsibilities encompassed creating the Air Force One manifest, designating hotel room and banquet seating assignments, diagramming site locations, organizing and vetting proposed schedules through protocol and security offices, checking visa and passport credentials, and ensuring the needs of the President, White House staff, and traveling press corps were fulfilled.

Byron M. “Red” Cavaney’s introduction to advance work began as a member of Republican National Committee’s Advance Detail from August 1972 to February 1973. This role in turn led to a staff assistant job in the White House Advance Office in February 1973. Cavaney succeeded William Henkel, Jr., as director of the Advance Office on December 19, 1974.

During his tenure as a staff assistant and later the head of the White House Advance Office, Cavaney was either involved in or oversaw the planning for the initial trips of Vice President Ford, the ensuing President Ford domestic and campaign trips of 1974 and 1976, international trips of President Ford, the First Family trips. This role also included selecting volunteers to assist with the trips. Files on volunteers and volunteer candidates are also included in this collection, in addition to office administrative material.

Scope and Content of the Cavaney International Trip Files

The International Trips series focuses on President Ford’s foreign trips from October 1974 through June 1976. The overall series is separated by date and country with each of these specific country visits sub-divided into folders for background material, cable traffic, contact list and thank you notes, diagrams, manifests for Air Force One and room assignments, memoranda, press clippings and news releases, and schedules. These original folder titles have been utilized for the current arrangement. While the folder titles are based on the Presidential visit date, the bulk of the material in each folder reflects the Advance Office work conducted weeks before that folder date.

Generally speaking, the background material contains the State Department briefing book on the destination country as well as an overview of cultural etiquette. The memorandums and cables range from mundane lists of passport and visa numbers to recommendations, action memos, and discussions surrounding diplomatic scheduling, security, and protocol concerns. The most fascinating source material might be found in the memorandums, cable (or dex), and press clippings sections. For example, the Japan 1974 incoming cable traffic folders discuss potential assassination threats while the Austria 1975 memorandum files trace the request of a Notre Dame University group seeking an audience with President Ford. The press clipping and news releases folder may also provide insight into local approval or disapproval of a presidential visit. The Japan 1974 and Pacific Basin Press Clippings (1975) provide extensive articles from both U.S. and foreign news outlets as well as original broadsheets in English surrounding the President Ford’s visit and the subsequent protests.

Scope and Content of the Cavaney Domestic Trip Files

The earliest materials in the Domestic Trip Files predate the Ford administration by several years, but basically the collection begins with the Nixon-Ford transition. The files give a good overview of the White House Advance Office and the processes for managing the many details relating to a Presidential trip. Much of the collection is understandably routine administrative detail, but taken in entirety it provides insight into life in the Ford White House.

The background material is especially voluminous and varied for a Presidential trip and includes files about cultural sites, hotels, convention centers, airports, local schools, and universities. In addition, the Bicentennial celebrations for the various states are well documented. Likewise, the Presidential election figures prominently in the collection, with files on campaign trips in several swing states, the Ronald Reagan primary challenge, and the Republican National Convention in Kansas City.

There are a significant number of schedule proposals submitted to the President. These proposals list the pros and cons of each event and give evidence of the many factors to be considered by the White House staff and President when making decisions about Presidential activities. The President indicated his decisions by initialing the proposals and sometimes wrote comments in the margins. The files also contain Presidential invitations, brochures, thank you letters, oversize maps, and press releases.

Related Materials (March 2015)
Related materials are located in a number of other fully processed, partly processed, and unprocessed collections. The Trip or “TR” category of the White House Central Files is a fully processed collection of correspondence, schedules, and summaries for foreign and domestic trips. Similarly, the President’s Daily Diary offers a schedule of the President’s actions and the people he met during his trips. The National Security Advisor Security Files contains substantial material pertaining to foreign trips. The Peter Sorum Papers provide details into multiple domestic trips and the Europe trip of July and August 1975. On the purely domestic front, the Jerry H. Jones Files provide material on 1976 campaign trips. Researchers can identify the file locations of related open materials from PRESNET search reports. The personal papers of Byron Cavaney, Robin Martin, and Frank Ursomarso, and the White House office files of Warren Hendriks, William Nicholson and Warren Rustand, and Terrence O’Donnell provide additional insight into advance and scheduling operations.