White House Fellows Class of 1969–70 After 50 Years
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AWhite House Gamut Fellows Class ofof 1969–70 Leaders after 50 Years by Lincoln Caplan ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lincoln Caplan is a visiting lecturer in law and a senior research scholar at Yale Law School. He teaches writing there and in the Yale English Department. He was a staff writer for The New Yorker, was a member of the editorial board of The New York Times, and is the author of six books. He was a White House Fellow in 1979–80. Members of the White House Fellows class of 1969–70, with the support of the White House Fellows Foundation and Association, commissioned him to write this essay. © 2019 A Gamut of Leaders: The White House Fellows Class of 1969–70 after 50 Years A Gamut of Leaders The White House Fellows Class of 1969–70 after 50 Years by Lincoln Caplan Members of the White House Fellows Class of 1969–70 gather behind President Richard Nixon in the White House for the swearing- in ceremony. Photo by White House Photographer INTRODUCTION In June of 1969 in the White House, Arthur S. before, they had been told that they had been chosen Flemming, chairman of the President’s Commis- as Fellows; now, they were at the equivalent of a sion on White House Fellows, presented the new swearing-in ceremony, at the most important loca- class of fellows to President Richard M. Nixon in tion of American power. the White House’s East Room. There were 18 White House Fellows in the 1969-70 class, 16 men and two The imbalance of men and women reflected the women. Theirs was the fifth class of Fellows, with times. Other markers were unusual. The class is the 50 classes since then in the program’s history. In a only one, from the initial Fellows’ class in 1965-66 photo of the class taken at that moment, underneath until today, that had no members from the military. a famous painting of Abraham Lincoln, listening The administration of Lyndon B. Johnson, when as he leans forward in a chair, they look solemn, it created the application for the ’69-70 year, had expectant, and somewhat misplaced: only hours judged that a rule barring fellowships for anyone 3 A Gamut of Leaders: The White House Fellows Class of 1969–70 after 50 Years working for the federal government applied to The class asked me to evaluate their experience in anyone in the armed services. (The Nixon team the program and what they made of it as Fellows, removed the bar and, in the following year’s class which meant reckoning with the question whether of 15, five were officers in an armed service and members had fulfilled its aspirations for them to two others were veterans.) In addition, the class was develop into leaders. The conversations I was able to unusually diverse for that era. Four were African have with class members convinced me that I should Americans, one was a Native American, and one was not try to evaluate the career of anyone in the class Hispanic. All but one had a PhD or a graduate degree I was not able to speak with. Without that input, I in law or business. decided, my understanding would be too incomplete. A more substantial distinction for the class resulted Class members differed about who should be from the 1968 presidential election. For the first included on the list of leaders. Everyone I spoke time, a class of fellows that applied while one major with agreed that the most meaningful arbiter would party held the White House ended up working in have been John W. Gardner, the author, long-serving an administration of the other. In an angry, unruly foundation leader, and onetime cabinet officer, who contest, the Republican former senator and vice died in 2002 in his 90th year. Gardner envisioned, president Nixon defeated the Democratic former shaped, and watched over the Fellows program as its senator and incumbent vice president Hubert H. visionary architect, attentive guardian, and constant Humphrey, with 55.9 percent of the electoral college beacon. He left an inspiring record of inspiring and 43.4 percent of the popular vote to Humphrey’s Americans, including many former Fellows. He 35.5 percent of the electoral college and 42.7 percent sought to inspire them because he had very high of the popular vote. Alabama’s governor George expectations of them. C. Wallace got 8.6 percent of the electoral college and 13.5 percent of the popular vote. Two weeks As Gardner wrote, “Skills and knowledge we give before the final selection weekend was scheduled our young people—skills so intricate and knowledge to happen, it was postponed for three weeks, until so complex that all earlier generations of American mid-June, so that the new members of the Fellows youth seem half-educated by comparison. But what commission, like assistant to the president H.R. is there in the education to give them a sense of” the Haldeman and special assistant to the president elements that Lyndon Johnson emphasized when he Patrick J. Buchanan, could help select the new class. announced the program, “personal involvement in the leadership of the society, a vision of greatness for A half century later, in the summer of 2019, when the society, and a sense of responsibility for bringing I was commissioned to write this essay and asked that greatness to reality?” Gardner went on, “The to interview members of the class and write about program described here should be so designed and their experience as fellows, I met in Washington, so administered as to give these superbly qualified D.C. with seven members of the class and spoke on young people precisely those experiences.” the phone with four others. I also received written materials from relatives of four others. (I did not The ’69-70 class did not get to know Gardner as speak with seven members: four have died, two were a class and was only superficially aware that they too ill to speak with me, and one was unreachable by were beneficiaries and products of his vision as well class members and me.) Based on those conversa- as test cases of it, though they were. Yet it seems tions and materials, it is safe to say that the year was that Gardner was never clear about exactly what he unforgettable for almost every Fellow, yet affected expected of former Fellows—and his views about their later lives in very different ways. that seemed to change significantly in the quarter of 4 A Gamut of Leaders: The White House Fellows Class of 1969–70 after 50 Years Preparing for the first foreign trip of the White House Fellows, 1969. Photo courtesy of Landis Jones a century after he conceived of the program. Gardner and for Fellows in their careers—that the program asked at the outset where the equivalents were of develop national leaders. The program provided “Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Monroe, Madison, no training about leadership and said little about Hamilton, Franklin, and others.” That was a doubly its expectations of them in the future. Yet a strong daunting standard—in the greatness Fellows were majority of the class fulfilled the ambition for the supposed to match and in how they were supposed program and for former fellows that evolved out to serve. The myth of the founding fathers was that of his conception: some became leaders in their they were farmers and businessmen thrust for brief communities and in their professional fields, some- periods into national leadership who then returned to times with national impact or contributions; a few their local lives. As Gardner envisioned the Fellows became leaders on a national scale and represented program, it sought to attract and develop leaders distinct models for making valuable use of the who would bring the valuable perspective of their Fellowship. For both groups, though, the signifi- far-flung experiences to national service when they cance of the program was not about what they were called back to duty. achieved as Fellows or after; it was about how the fellowship changed the trajectory of their careers Few of the members of the ’69-70 class would have and spurred them to reach for greatness. fulfilled Gardner’s initial ambition for the program 5 A Gamut of Leaders: The White House Fellows Class of 1969–70 after 50 Years WHITE HOUSE FELLOWS CLASS OF 1969–70 Michael H. Armacost William J. Kilberg At 32, he was a graduate of Carleton At 23, he was a graduate of the School of College and had an MA and a PhD from Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell Columbia University in public law and University, with a JD from Harvard Law government. He was the author of two School, where he was a member of the books, The Politics of Weapons Innova- Ripon Society, and had co-authored a tion and The Foreign Relations of the book on the 1968 presidential election United States. called “The Lessons of Victory.” Judge A. Dickson Michael Alan Levett At 29, he had been an Academic All- He was 25 and a graduate of UCLA American Rose Bowl champion in with a JD from UCLA Law School, as 1961 at the University of Minnesota. well as a former editor-in-chief of the He received his BA and his JD from the UCLA Daily Bruin. During the Demo- university and was a lawyer for General cratic Convention in 1968 in Chicago, he Mills. published a daily paper written and edited by students from ten college papers.