Conflict of Egos Told by Ex-White House Aides : Turf Battles at a President’s Elbow

A two-day seminar of top advisers to former American Presidents ended Saturday with sponsors saying the discussions will help provide future Presidents with a blueprint for managing their administrations.

The unprecedented summit meeting of key presidential advisers, representing administrations from Dwight D. Eisenhower through Jimmy Carter, gathered at University of California, San Diego, as part of the university’s 25th anniversary celebration.

While the advisers acknowledged that they had different styles and methods of conducting business, they agreed there is great value in passing on their knowledge to future chiefs of staff.

Of Vital Importance

“A President has to make very important decisions,” said Theodore Sorensen, adviser to John F. Kennedy. “The most important is the choice of his principal White House staff.”

Only the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson was not represented Saturday, because Harry McPherson, Johnson’s special assistant, did not attend the session. Also absent was Alexander M. Haig, chief of staff for Richard M. Nixon and President Reagan’s first secretary of state. The Nixon Administration was represented, however, by H. R. Haldeman, who served as Nixon’s chief of staff before Haig.

Attending Saturday’s session along with Sorensen and Haldeman were Andrew Goodpaster, from the Eisenhower Administration; Donald Rumsfeld, who served in the administrations of Nixon and Gerald R. Ford; Richard Cheney, a Ford Administration aide, and Jack H. Watson Jr., chief of staff for Carter.

The advisers agreed that a stable and honest top staff is necessary not only for the good of the President but for the good of the nation.

As they did on Friday, the advisers were congenial and relaxed, at times engaging in banter and swapping amusing anecdotes. They never really let their guard down and they talked about stressful behind-the-scenes tensions or exchanged sharp comments among themselves.

Watson received a hearty laugh from his counterparts when he described the job of chief of staff. It’s not like that of a utility infielder, quarterback or goalie, he said, but “more like a javelin catcher.”

Battle of Egos

While the panelists mildly criticized the press and public for dwelling too much on personalities and not enough on issues of substance, they also agreed that the tug-of-war between strong egos was an important element of their jobs.

Sorensen said that at first, Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy, President Kennedy’s brother, had problems with the White House’s internal management structure supervised by Sorensen. “Bobby was not willing to submit his legislative plans and policies to my office as other cabinet members did,” Sorensen said. “Later he realized coordination made more sense.”

Both Rumsfeld and Cheney talked about the difficulties Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state and head of the National Security Council, posed for President Ford. Cheney, who called Kissinger a “super personality,” said Ford wanted Kissinger’s “intellect.” But what happened is “the president (wasn’t) getting credit for foreign policy, Henry Kissinger (was) getting credit.”

Finally, after Ford “wrestled with (it) for a long time . . . Henry lost his second hat,” that of national security adviser. Cheney also had something to say about Kissinger’s long-running feud with Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the Ford Administration’s United Nations ambassador and now a U.S. senator from New York.

“I can’t count how many times, once a month, either Pat Moynihan or Henry Kissinger was threatening to resign,” said Cheney, recalling the “battle of those big egos.”

Watson, who described the Carter cabinet as generally harmonious, said the biggest rift during his tenure at the White House involved Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who resigned after the ill-fated attempt to rescue the American hostages in Iran, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, the President’s national security adviser. In this case, Watson was unable to remedy the squabble and “the arbiter there was the President himself.”

Haldeman said the press’ preoccupation with turf battles and personality conflicts may be “pretty titillating stuff,” but it doesn’t further “the cause of good government.” Haldeman, who resigned as chief of staff as a result of the Watergate scandal, said, “The way you solve internal problems is internally.”

Not on the Street

Chiefs of staff “work within the President’s office . . . not in the press room and on the street,” Haldeman said, responding to a suggestion from James Squires, editor of the Chicago Tribune and a panelist, that advisers and Presidents should be more open and candid about the inner workings of the White House.

“I had problems . . . but you didn’t hear about them,” Haldeman said.

Saturday’s session was closed to the public. It was not marked by the protests staged the first day, when about 300 people gathered outside the seminar and complained that few students were allowed inside.

The session Saturday met in a large conference room with only about 30 people, including reporters and guests of the university and panel, watching the proceedings. The panel itself consisted of the six advisers and 14 others, including three members of the press and various professors and researchers.

The two-day session was recorded and filmed, and a one-hour program about the seminar will be produced for public television stations and broadcast nationwide. In addition, a book about the seminar will be published.