DAWSON, RHETT B.: Files, 1987-1988 – REAGAN LIBRARY COLLECTIONS

 

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DAWSON, RHETT B.: Files, 1987-1988

 

Assistant to the President for Operations

Operations, White House Office of 

 

Rhett Dawson was born in 1943 in Canton, Illinois. He grew up and went to high school and college in Illinois.  He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966 from Illinois Weslyan University.  Following college he attended Washington University, St. Louis where he received a law degree in 1969.  He is married to Mimi Weyforth Dawson who also worked in the Reagan administration at the Federal Communications Commission and as Deputy Under Secretary of Transportation.

 

Dawson had held several adjunct positions in the White House, prior to joining the White House staff.  In 1985, he was appointed Director of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management (the Packard Commission), and in November 1986 as chief of staff of the President’s Special Review Board (the Tower Board) investigating the Iran-Contra affair. Prior to his White House involvement he had been the Staff Director and Chief Counsel for Senate Armed Services Committee where he worked closely with Chairman, Senator John Tower, and had a long working relationship with Senator Tower.

 

Recruited by new White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker, Dawson joined the White House staff in April 1987.  In a revamped White House staff, Dawson took on the titular head of White House Operations post.  Over the past 6 years of the administration, the person running White House Operations also carried both titles and functions - director of White House Operations and Director of the Office of Administration.  Baker’s new staff alignment eliminated this dual functionality, and Dawson did not become the Director of the Office of Administration.

 

Dawson, while nominally the head of White House Operations, turned over most of the day-to-day running of the various offices affiliated with White House Operations to Claire O’Donnell. In August 1987, she was named Special Assistant to the President for White House Operations (a newly created title to suit her present functions). Dawson acted more in the capacity of an Executive Secretary for the White House, in much the same function that Richard Darman had occupied in the first administration.

 

Currently, Dawson is the president of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC), a trade association comprised of the leading IT companies.

 

Dawson’s collection includes some of his work as Director of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management.

 

Previously Box CFOA 707 was considered a part of the Dawson collection.  It is a box of the President’s unpublished schedules.  These were sent from Dawson to A.B. Culvahouse, White House Counsel, probably in regards to the Iran-Contra Legal Task Force investigation at the White House.  This box is now included in the Culvahouse collection.

 

          CF 0726

          Rhett Dawson’s Copy of the President’s Weekly Update, 06/26/1987

          Rhett Dawson’s Copy of the President’s Weekly Update, 10/02/1987

          Rhett Dawson’s Copy of the President’s Weekly Update, 10/09/1987

          Rhett Dawson’s Copy of the President’s Weekly Update, 01/29/1988-10/14/1988

 

          CF 0784

          [Rhett Dawson Chron Files] April 1987

          [Rhett Dawson Chron Files] May 1987

          [Rhett Dawson Chron Files] June 1987

          [Rhett Dawson Chron Files] July 1987

          [Rhett Dawson Chron Files] August 1987

          [Rhett Dawson Chron Files] September 1987

          [Rhett Dawson Chron Files] October 1987

          [Rhett Dawson Chron Files] November 1987

          [Rhett Dawson Chron Files] December 1987

          [Rhett Dawson Chron Files] January 1988

          [Rhett Dawson Chron Files] February 1988

          [Rhett Dawson Chron Files] March 1988

         

          OA 14162

          “Interim Report to the President by the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on      

                   Defense Management, 02/28/1986”

          Press Conference - Interim Report to the President - 02/28/1986

          Press Conference on the Packard Commission Final Report

          Option C Draft: Organization and Acquisition

          Draft - A Chunk of Option E - 02/03/1986

          “Defense Acquisition Background Papers, Volume I: Papers Prepared for the Acquisition

                   Panel of the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, June

                   1986”

          “Defense Acquisition Background Papers, Volume II: Papers Prepared for the

Acquisition Panel of the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense

Management, June 1986”

          “Defense Acquisition Background Papers, Volume III: Papers Prepared for the

Acquisition Panel of the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, June 1986”

          “Defense Acquisition Background Papers, Appendix to Volume III” (Part 1)

          “Defense Acquisition Background Papers, Appendix to Volume III” (Part 2)

          Blue Ribbon Defense Panel Report - 1970

          Navy/Marine Corps Acquisition Review Committee Volume I Report January 1975

          “Report of the Acquisition Cycle Task Force - Defense Science Board 03/15/1987”

          Acquisition Advisory Group Report - September 1975

          Legislative Recommendations of the Commission on Government Procurement: 5 Years

                   Later - 1978

          Defense Resource Management Study Final Report - February 1979

          Acquisition Policy Effectiveness: Department of Defense Experience in the 1970’s

                   October 1979

          “A Uniform Profit Policy for Government Acquisition” (II) - November 1979

          “Price Competition in the Department Of Defense” - Logistics Management Institute -

                   September 1982

          The Affordable Acquisition Approach Study: Final Briefing - February 1983

          Deregulation of Government Management Federal Procurement Interim Report – March

                   1983

          Grace Commission Report on the Office of the Secretary of Defense - July 1983

          Compendium of GAO’s Views on the Cost Saving Proposals of the Grace Commission

                   - February 1985

          “Toward a More Effective Defense” - CSIS - 1985

          “The Legal Structure of Defense Organization,” by Moore and Turner - 01/15/1986

                   (Binder)

          Recommendations on Procurement to the Packard Commission - October 1985

          Dwight D. Eisenhower

          [The Eisenhower Record of Defense Reorganization, 1958 - Selected Documents

                   from 1957-58 DDE Library] (1)(2)

          Goldwater and Nunn

          JCS Reorganization

         

          OA 14827

          [34/146 File (Legislative Strategy Group)] (1)-(12)                    

         

          OA 16106

          Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty (1)-(8)

 

          OA 16155 (Contained within OA 18922)

          The White House Conference for a Drug-Free America - Notes

          The White House Conference for a Drug-Free America - Los Angeles

          The White House Conference for a Drug-Free America - Cincinnati

          The White House Conference for a Drug-Free America - Jacksonville

          The White House Conference for a Drug-Free America - Albuquerque

          The White House Conference for a Drug-Free America - New York

          The White House Conference for a Drug-Free America - National

          The White House Conference for a Drug-Free America - Omaha

          Regional Conference Press Clips (Notebook)

          National Conference Press Clips (Notebook)

 

          OA 16713

          21st Century Foundation (1)-(6)

         

          OA 16952 (Contained within OA 18922)

          Nuclear Waste Negotiator, February 1988-October 1988

         

          OA 18921

          Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

          AIDS Commission: Management (1)-(3)

          AIDS Staff Director (1)(2)

          Aircraft Rules/Usage

          Air Force One

          Air Force One:  Air Force 1

          Alerts

          Blue Group

          Bork Statement

          Cabinet Information

          Defense Management

          Domestic Policy Council Notes

          Drugs/Military

          Fire Drill

          Half-Staffing of Flag

          Intermediate Nuclear Force

          Intermediate Nuclear Force:  Potential Treaty Reservations

          Intermediate Nuclear Force:  Intermediate Nuclear Force: Conditions

          Iran-Contra

          LSG[Legislative StrategyGroup] -- Budget

          LSG[Legislative StrategyGroup] --Trade

          Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary

          Medal of Freedom -1988

          National Day of Mourning

          Organization

          Personnel

          Planning Group Meeting Notes

          Prisoner of War Issues

          Quad Commission

         

          OA 18922

          Reagan Record

          Reimbursable Detailees

          Rostenkowski

          SRING/LRINF Materials

          State of the Union Message [1988]

          Thanksgiving Proclamation

          Veto/Signing Statements

          Voyager

          White House Budget and Personnel Status FY 1987

          White House Mess

          White House Military Office

          34/146 Group Meetings

          [Staff Secretary's Office Diskette Printout - Rhett Dawson Memos 04/09/1987-

08/12/1987] (Duplicates of Chron Files in CF 0784)

         

          Box 92458 (with NSC collections)

          NSDD re: INF Ratification System II #91400

          SCG Meeting (Strategy and Coordination Group)12/18/1987

          SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group) Meeting 12/30/1987

          [Expanded SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group)  01/5/1988]

          SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group) Meeting 01/13/1988

          01/11/1988 Meeting re: INF Negotiating Record

          01/07/1988 Briefing with Senator Baker

          SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group) Meeting 01/12/1988

          INF Final Game Plan Meeting 01/07/1987 #0085

          SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group) Meeting 01/19/1988

          SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group) Meeting 01/21/1988

          SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group) Meeting 02/02/1988

          Dawson Notes re: INF Dec. 1987

          Schedule of Inter Agency Briefings re: INF

          Phone Conversation with Tower re: INF

          SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group) Meeting 01/26/1988

          SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group) Meeting 02/05/1988

          SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group) Meeting 02/19/1988

          Meeting with Baker and CLP (Colin Powell) 02/19/1988

          Miscellaneous Points re: INF issues November 1987

          Senate and INF Treaty

          INF Ratification Plan #0275

          NATO Summit Goals #0702

          INF Treaty Implementation Request

          INF/NATO Strategy [2 folders]

          Senate Principles

          Organizing for INF Ratification

          INF Briefing Schedule

          SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group) 12/30/1987

          Public Affairs Game Plan

          SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group) 01/12/1988

          ADD Study Group

          Miscellaneous re: INF (2)

          INF Ratification SCG (Strategy and Coordination Group), various dates