Channels, Fall 2018

Page 82 Schwall • 21 st Century Javelin Catchers "administrative assistants" in the late 1930s, increasing staff size to about 50 (Hult and Walcott, 1995). A staff of this size was informally managed by Roosevelt and preceding presidents. Beginning in World War II, the size of White House staff exploded with the incorporation of some bureaucratic agencies into the executive branch (most notably, the Office of War Mobilization and Reconstruction). Dwight Eisenhower appointed the first COS at the advent of his administration. Eisenhower was accustomed to a formal COS in his former military position, so he appointed Sherman Adams to fill the job in his presidential administration. However, the initial innovation of the role did not immediately stick. Democrats immediately branded the role of COS as too formal and militaristic (Johnson, 1974). Democratic presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson did not use a COS, opting instead for a collegial model of White House organization that encouraged staffers to report directly to the president (Walcott and Hult, 2004). Many scholars point to the Nixon administration as the first modern White House staff organization. Nixon built upon his experience as Eisenhower's vice-president to institute a system in which his COS (H.R. Haldeman) acted as a strong systems manager in the style of Sherman Adams, oversaw all White House operations, and reported directly to Nixon. Even still, the pattern of White House organization tended to reflect what scholars refer to as "partisan learning" (Hult and Walcott, 2004). The method that Republicans used to organize their White House was "wrong" to Democrats, and Democrats often took extremes to prevent the appearance of any form of staff hierarchy in their organization. President Jimmy Carter was the last president to attempt to govern without a formal COS, but toward the end of his first term, he caved to the mounting disorganization and appointed Hamilton Jordan as his COS. For the most part, this settled the scholarly debate about the need for a COS in the modern White House. It had simply grown too large and complex for the president to manage his staff on his own. This does not mean that a formal staff hierarchy is not without its faults. Ronald Reagan's effective but factious "troika" and Bill Clinton's "spokes of a wheel" highlighted the complexities of having multiple staffers with direct access to the president. On the other end of the spectrum, Ronald Reagan's second COS, Donald Regan, and George H.W. Bush's first COS, John Sununu, were brought down by their strong gatekeeper tendencies. By strictly limiting access to the president, each COS failed to control the people or the processes in the White House, and ultimately, their overreaching tendencies led to their demise as COS. While the need for a COS was evident to all, the exact formula for success was elusive. Case Study #1 - George W. Bush Overview George Walker Bush was elected as the 43rd president of the United States in 2000, after he defeated Democrat Al Gore in a contentious and controversial election that involved a recount in Florida. Eight months into Bush's first term, al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States, flying hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center in New York City. Bush's response was forceful, launching the War on Terror that included military action in Iraq and Afghanistan and created the cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security