As you may have heard from the sounds of the jackhammers, the East Wing of the White House is no more. The new ballroom under construction will surely create its own stories, but the East Wing’s demolition — and the enormous attention it garnered — makes it worth looking back at the history of the East Wing and its cultural significance.
The West Wing and the Oval Office itself have been the most significant places of action in White House complex. The East Wing, in contrast to those tougher, policy-heavy locales, has long been seen as the softer, more uniting domain of the first lady and the White House social office.
This dichotomy was especially pronounced in the Kennedy administration. President John F. Kennedy’s team had a hard-working, hard-partying reputation, with the tone set by Kennedy himself. His aides often looked down upon the more effete Arthur Schlesinger, Kennedy’s White House intellectual and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. Kennedy speechwriter Richard Goodwin recalled that Schlesinger resided “on the other side of the mansion, in the East Wing.” Press secretary Pierre Salinger similarly joked about Schlesinger’s placement that he must have found the “calmer atmosphere … more congenial to his cerebrations.” Secretary of State Dean Rusk had a particular disdain for Schlesinger, whom he saw as a leaker, and noted Schlesinger’s placement in the East Wing, “with the women.”
The feminine symbolism of the East Wing was also a recurring theme during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. First lady Nancy Reagan recognized the East Wing’s subordinate position in the White House hierarchy, writing in My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan that “The West Wing has traditionally seen itself as the sole center of power, and the men surrounding the president have resented any assertion of independence and autonomy on the part of the first lady.” West Wingers asserted their power in that administration in petty ways, excluding East Wingers from an office Christmas party and not allowing them access to the White House tennis courts.
This time, however, the East Wing was the domain of a formidable first lady. Nancy’s closeness to her husband made her someone one didn’t want to mess with in the Reagan White House. In fact, one of the sources of deputy chief of staff Michael Deaver’s influence was the fact that he was, in the words of presidential expert James Pfiffner, the “primary link to the East Wing,” which Reagan White House aide Peter Wallison noted was “code for Mrs. Reagan.”
Some saw Nancy’s influence in the administration as a problem. New York Times columnist William Safire, a Nancy critic, noted in his widely-read column that Nancy was “supported in her power playing by a bloated, expensive East Wing staff.” Regardless of the criticism, she was willing to exercise that power. Nancy feuded with White House chief of staff Don Regan, whom she said liked the sound of “chief,” but not “of staff.” After the Iran-Contra scandal broke, Nancy blamed Regan for not fixing things. Regan, for his part, would get impatient with Nancy’s demands, once even hanging up the phone on her.
Regan survived that fight, but he was on thin ice. Then the White House had an embarrassing mishap when it hired John Koehler as White House communications director, only to learn that Kohler had a Nazi past in his native Germany. After Koehler was fired, Regan said in a staff meeting that his name came “directly from the East Wing,” effectively blaming Nancy for the debacle. According to Wallison, “Regan’s remark about the East Wing was the last straw,” and Reagan finally acceded to Nancy’s wishes and fired Regan. (Regan would get his revenge, though, releasing a memoir, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington, that revealed that the first lady consulted an astrologist for decisions regarding the president’s schedule.)
The flip side of the East Wing’s status as peripheral to the White House action is that it could spare its staffers from some of the problems taking place in the West Wing. In the Nixon administration, first lady Pat Nixon’s press secretary, Helen Smith, observed that she faced less infighting on that side of the White House, noting, “There were no internal politics in the East Wing, no concealed weapons.” When Smith was in charge, one reporter observed that “it’s so quiet in the East Wing you can hear the hiss of a hairspray can.”
Similarly, during the first Trump administration, being in the East Wing could serve as an excuse for not being involved in controversial White House decisions. A spokesperson for first lady Melania Trump explained that she was not involved in White House controversies as she was focused on “her own work in the East Wing.”
The East Wing’s out-of-the-way location has allowed it to provide some measure of secrecy, in contrast to the carefully monitored and closely watched West Wing. In the Nixon administration, when national security adviser Henry Kissinger wanted to have secret meetings in the Map Room with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, Dobrynin would enter via the East Wing, his entry blocked from view by the rhododendrons.
In the Clinton administration, former President Bill Clinton would secretly get advice from the conservative-leaning pollster Dick Morris, who was disliked by the more liberal White House staff. In an attempt to maintain his anonymity, Morris took on the nickname “Charlie,” in homage to the skilled Republican operative Charlie Black. Clinton kept his meetings with Morris secret by holding them in the East Wing. The ensuing disconnect between what the liberal staff agreed to and what Clinton, advised by “Charlie,” actually did flummoxed deputy chief of staff Erskine Bowles, who complained, “Where was the real meeting taking place? And it became clear that the real meeting was taking place over in the East Wing with this guy who I had never heard of!”
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Another well-known aide who saw the possibility of identity protection from the East Wing was Trump’s short-lived Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci. When chief of staff John Kelly fired Scaramucci after 11 days, “the Mooch” requested permission to sneak out via an East Wing exit to avoid press attention.
Scaramucci could sneak out via the East Wing because it was insulated from the hard focus and tough political realities of the other side of the building. Once reopened, it is unlikely there will be such a clear gender divide. The new East Wing will be absorbed into the drama and energy of the most important executive building in the world, and as such, it will have its own tales to tell.
Washington Examiner contributing writer Tevi Troy is a senior fellow at the Ronald Reagan Institute and a former senior White House aide. He is the author of five books on the presidency, including, most recently, The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry.
