The famous thousand days of President John F. Kennedy’s “Camelot” brought many new developments to American politics and society. The potential for a glamorous and wealthy post-White House career for staffers was one of the most enduring, and often overlooked.
For the first 150 years of U.S. history, presidents relied on their Cabinet secretaries to formulate policy. The White House staff was, like the government itself at the time, small and highly focused. The big personalities, chief policymakers, and visionary thinkers were heads of the most prestigious agencies — typically the Departments of State, Treasury, Justice, and War. In the 1930s, this changed under Franklin Delano Roosevelt. An activist president facing a massive depression needed more manpower, specifically in the form of aides who could report directly to him and do his bidding.
The first entity to recognize the need for a White House staff was the Brownlow Committee on Administrative Management, set up by Roosevelt in the summer of 1936. The committee considered how to reshape the executive branch to deal with expanded governmental responsibilities: “There is need for improvement of our governmental machinery to meet new conditions and to make us ready for the problems just ahead.” In 1937, the committee issued its famous four-word conclusion: “The president needs help.”
Initially, this help would come via “not more than six administrative assistants” and the movement of the Bureau of the Budget into White House operations. These six “executive assistant” positions would “remain in the background, issue no orders, make no decisions, [and] emit no public statements.” Chosen by the president, all assistants had to be “possessed of high competence” and a “passion for anonymity.”
The committee’s recommendations became law when Congress enacted the Reorganization Act of 1939, which created the Executive Office of the President, composed of a new entity, the White House Office, as well as the existing Bureau of the Budget, which had been lodged in the Treasury Department. The famous four words of the Brownlow Committee had set into motion a decadeslong expansion, leading to the current White House operation of more than 1,600 people and the creation of the modern White House staff, now a glamorous group inspiring novels, TV shows, movies, and generating many prominent careers.
Growth of the modern White House staff took time. Both Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower followed the old ways and looked to their Cabinet secretaries to make policy, using a tightly structured, loyal staff organization to tamp down rivalries. By the 1960s, however, Kennedy, following Roosevelt’s model, made policymaking a White House prerogative, hiring prominent and experienced presidential aides. This has continued in every presidency since then, in one way or another. And since the Kennedy administration, presidential aides could also become political and media heavyweights with lucrative careers later.
The power of television was instrumental in electing Kennedy, as modern celebrity culture began to influence the world of politics. While the concept of aides with a “passion for anonymity” still existed, the advent of the celebrity White House aide was certainly not what the Brownlow Committee had expected.
Some of the Kennedy team, such as longtime speechwriter Ted Sorensen, became famous as a result of his association with Kennedy. Others, such as Harvard professor Arthur Schlesinger, were part of Kennedy’s active effort to recruit prominent intellectuals to his team. Both garnered considerable press attention during their time in the White House. Sorensen had the more prominent role inside the White House, but Schlesinger was already famous and a Pulitzer Prize winner before joining the White House staff.
Once advisers such as Sorensen and Schlesinger became household names, their memoirs became highly anticipated and greatly desired. Sorensen and Schlesinger, as two of Kennedy’s best-known aides, stayed briefly in the Johnson administration, each leaving in early 1964, and then set out to write their memoirs of the Kennedy administration. In January 1964, Schlesinger wrote in a letter to his parents, “I am inclining more and more to the idea of writing a book about the Kennedy administration, though I understand that Ted Sorensen has this in mind too.” The race was on. This contest between the two men to get a book out first fascinated the media and contributed to book sales. Sorensen finished first, and his book, Kennedy, hit No. 1 on the bestseller list. Schlesinger’s book, A Thousand Days, came second, and it also hit No. 1, displacing Sorensen’s. Sorensen reacted to being leapfrogged by sending Schlesinger a chipper note: “Welcome to the number 1 slot. As number 2, we try harder.”
The Kennedy mystique, and the attention generated by the Schlesinger and Sorensen memoirs, further raised the profile and prominence of the position of White House aide. Following Kennedy, exiting top White House officials now had access to lucrative book contracts, as well as an array of glamorous and career-defining job opportunities. Jack Valenti left Lyndon Johnson’s administration to head the Motion Picture Association of America. William Safire left the Nixon administration to become a New York Times columnist, and Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan wrote a bestselling memoir and secured a Wall Street Journal column. Former Carter aide David Rubenstein helped found the Carlyle Group. Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos became the host of ABC’s This Week. Former White House aides have become Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, and Supreme Court justices as well.
Given the potentially rewarding and high-profile careers that serving in a White House could bring about, the position of White House aide became highly sought-after. People toiled away in staff jobs in Congress or joined political campaigns in the hope of someday securing a spot in the White House — and a choice job or book contract afterward.
With opportunity came risk. As the White House slots became less anonymous and more prominent, staffers also became targets, facing enemies from both within and without. White House rivalries are among the most poisonous, and the media and opposing party can and do target individual aides as well. Accordingly, many a White House aide hoping for fame or fortune has instead faced legal jeopardy, or left in disgrace.
But the chance for career-making riches and fame keep White House placement enviable. The jobs continue to evolve, especially today, as White House aides now maintain their own Twitter accounts, which is a far cry from Brownlow’s suggested “passion for anonymity.” But the prominence that the Kennedy administration brought to a position that was once relatively obscure has only grown since.
Tevi Troy is a presidential historian and former White House aide. His latest book is Fight House: Rivalries in the White House from Truman to Trump, from which this is adapted.
