Chapter Title Preparing to Be President The Memos of Richard E. Neustadt Edited by Charles O. Jones The AEI Press Publisher for the American Enterprise Institute W A S H I N G T O N , D . C . 2000 Book Title 2 Chapter Title Contents Foreword vv Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann Part 1 The Editor’s Introduction The Truman Aide Turned Professor 33 Part 2 Neustadt Memos for the Kennedy Transition Memo 1. Organizing the Transition 21 Memo 2. Staffing the President-Elect 38 Attachment A: Roosevelt’s Approach to Staffing the White House 54 Attachment B: Roosevelt’s Approach to Staffing the Budget Bureau 61 Memo 3. Cabinet Departments: Some Things to Keep in Mind 63 Memo 4. White House Titles 70 Memo 5. A White House Aide for Personnel and Congressional Liaison 72 Memo 6. The National Security Council: First Steps 75 Memo 7. Shutting Down Eisenhower’s “Cabinet System” 82 Memo 8. Appointing Fred Dutton “Staff Secretary” Instead of “Cabinet Secretary” 83 Memo 9. Location of Disarmament Agency 86 Memo 10. The Science Adviser: First Steps 94 iii iv CONTENTS Memo 11. Coping with “Flaps” in the Early Days of the New Administration 997 Memo 12. Possible Remarks by the President at the Outset of the Cabinet Meeting (prepared with Fred Dutton) 101 Part 3 Neustadt Memos from Reagan to Clinton Memo 13. Historical Problems in Staffing the White House (for James Baker III) 107 Memo 14. Transition Planning during the Campaign (for Michael Dukakis law partner Paul Brountas) 120 Memo 15. “Lessons” for the Eleven Weeks (for Bill Clinton friend Robert B. Reich) 125 Memo 16. Role of the Vice President (for Al Gore friend Reed Hundt) 128 Memo 17. Rules of Thumb (Based on Historical Experience) (attachment for Reed Hundt) 131 Memo 18. A White House Title for Hillary Clinton? (for Hillary Clinton friend Diane Blair) 133 Memo 19. Further Thoughts on the First Lady (supplement for Diane Blair) 139 Part 4 The Author’s Reflections Neustadt Advises the Advisers in 2000 143 Appendix: Additional Sources 173 Notes 183 Index 189 About the Author and the Editor 197 ii Chapter Title Foreword Richard E. Neustadt is the dean of presidential scholars. Beginning with Presidential Power in 1960, he reconceived the way Presidents, Washington elites, and the public understand the office of the Presidency. In particular, Neustadt showed all of us how Presidents can muster informal power to supplement their constitutional powers so as to govern effectively. He understood that a President could not rely on his title to get things done, but that he must use his persuasive powers to bring along Congress, the executive branch, his staff, his party, and the public. While Presidential Power is known to every student of poli- tics, it is less known that Neustadt devoted a great deal of energy to a particular aspect of presidential governance—how a new President makes a successful transition into office and begins to govern. In a series of largely private memos, Neustadt advised presidential candidates, Presidents-elect, and Presidents how to shape an administration to hit the ground running. In these memos, we see Neustadt’s analysis at its best, always aware of the outlines of the presidential office, the other players in Washington, and the particular qualities of the President himself. The memos are of great historical interest, but that is not their primary value. They are of lasting consequence and contem- porary relevance because Neustadt puts his observations and insights into the context of the particular needs of a President and his times. Forty years ago, in his first memo to then-Senator John F. Kennedy, he began by distinguishing JFK’s transition in 1960 from FDR’s in 1932. Effective presidential governance requires attention to history, but also a realization that no timeless formu- la exists for a good transition or the success of a President. We owe a debt of gratitude to Neustadt for agreeing to make these memos public and to write a new essay on the role of the transition adviser. His great concern that presidential transitions are critical times in American politics and that they do not always v vi PREPARING TO BE PRESIDENT go as smoothly as they might was sufficient motivation. We are also deeply grateful to Charles O. Jones for selecting these memos from the corpus of Neustadt’s work, editing the selections, and writing a very informative introduction. Jones’s own seminal work on presidential transitions, Passages to the Presidency: From Campaigning to Governing, was published by the Brookings Institution Press in 1998. James Baker III, Paul Brountas, Robert B. Reich, Reed Hundt, and the late Diane Blair granted permission to publish the memos addressed to them. We are most grateful for their cooperation. The timing of the publication of these memos could not be more appropriate. We will elect a new President in November, and on January 20, 2001, the reins of power will be transferred for the first time in eight years. The richly contextual view of pres- idential transitions taken by Neustadt and Jones is consistent with the spirit of the Transition to Governing Project, under whose auspices this book is being published. The project, which is gen- erously funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, aspires to improve the conditions for governing by shaping the way in which cam- paigns are waged and covered by the press and by encouraging early and thoughtful transition planning and implementation. As codirectors of the Transition to Governing Project, we would like to offer special thanks to the Pew Charitable Trusts, whose president, Rebecca Rimel, has championed efforts to improve the quality of campaigning and governing. Paul Light, then director of public policy programs at Pew and now director of governmental studies at the Brookings Institution, was instru- mental in conceiving and launching the project. Michael Delli Carpini, the current director of public policy programs at Pew, made a smooth midproject transition into office and offered tremendous support to our efforts. Elaine Casey, also with Pew, monitored our progress and shepherded us through day-to-day difficulties. In addition, Charles O. Jones acknowledges the sup- port of the Glenn B. and Cleone Orr Hawkins Chair in Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the John M. Olin Visiting Professorship in American Government, Nuffield College, Oxford University. John Fortier, the project administrator, very effectively moved this volume to successful completion and has skillfully managed the larger effort of which it is a part. The presidents of vi FOREWORD vii our respective research organizations, Christopher DeMuth of the American Enterprise Institute and Michael Armacost of Brookings, provided crucial institutional support. Monty Brown, director of the AEI Press, steered the book through the editing and production process. Leigh Tripoli edited the manuscript. The views expressed in this volume are those of the author and editor and should not be ascribed to the organizations listed above or to the trustees, officers, or other staff members of the American Enterprise Institute or the Brookings Institution. Norman J. Ornstein Resident Scholar American Enterprise Institute Thomas E. Mann Senior Fellow The Brookings Institution vii Chapter Title Part 1 The Editor’s Introduction 1 TRUMAN AIDE TURNED PROFESSOR 3 The Truman Aide Turned Professor In his “later reflections” on the “hazards of transition,” Richard E. Neustadt wrote: Everywhere there is a sense of a page turning, a new chap- ter in the country’s history, a new chance too. And with it, irresistibly, there comes the sense, “they” couldn’t, wouldn’t, didn’t, but “we” will. We just have done the hardest thing there is to do in politics. Governing has got to be a pleasure by comparison: We won, so we can! The psychology is part- ly that of having climbed one mountain so that the next looks easy, partly that of having had a run of luck that sure- ly can’t turn now!1 Neustadt acknowledged the “arrogance” that is endemic to this experience, along with the attention and ceremony that feed and nurture it. Therein lies the challenge for Presidents-elect and their entourage to insinuate themselves into a working govern- ment when they often lack the experience and modesty to do so effectively. Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy looked forward to the tasks of governing. He was engaged in one of the closest and most intense presidential elections in history—challenging a sit- ting Vice President to one of the most popular Presidents of all time. And yet he found the time and generated the interest dur- ing the campaign to ponder the transition to governing. It does all start there—with the candidate. For when the campaign ends, the answer to “What do we do now?” is quite simple: You govern. National and world attention is directed to the winner, who is expected to take charge. The recent candidate, now President- elect, is charged with creating a structure to be layered into the permanent government. The top is about to be lopped off every 3 4 PREPARING TO BE PRESIDENT organizational unit, and the new leader has to replace and inter- lace. No one knows exactly how it should be done because each experience is necessarily unique to the people and the purposes to be served. Yet the new team is expected to display confidence in its capacity for control and to articulate its mission and priori- ties. This uniquely American exercise calls for the candidate to think ahead. Substantial evidence exists that Kennedy engaged in forward thinking and encouraged it in others. Many years later, Neustadt offered these reflections on the postelection mood of the Kennedy team: “Part of the brilliance was that those people could not wait to start governing.