Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, National Archives and Records Administration

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WHITE HOUSE OFFICES

White House offices are described below. We have provided information on the offices in the Reagan White House and listed the collections that came from each office. For various reasons, the staff collection titles do not include many names that would appear in a roster of office personnel. Offices would often incorporate the files of a staff member into the files of a successor or a more senior colleague. Some record systems, such as the records of the White House Curator and the White House Usher, stay in the White House complex from one President to the next. The National Security Council also retained some NSC records, known as "institutional" records, into the next Administration.

Administrative Office, White House (White House Operations)

This office was responsible for the administrative affairs for the White House and the White House staff. Throughout most of the administration the Head of Operations was also the Director of the Office of Administration – a federal agency working at the White House. Therefore, some federal records are intermixed with presidential records in these collections. See White House Operations for collections for the head of this office and the Office of Administration federal records for material on the dual functions of the Director of each of these offices.

See collection entries for

Advance, Office of Presidential

Events and Briefing Books

Advance, Office of Presidential:

Photo File

Advance, Office of

Presidential Site Surveys

and Misc. Material

Advance, Office of

Presidential: Trip File

Brennan, Joseph

Henkel, William

Hildebrand, Joanne

Hooley, James

Oldham, Jennifer

O’Neill, Paul

Prince, Stephanie

Richter, Betty

Schmidt, Robert

Skidmore, Mary Lou

African Affairs

Directorate, NSC

Cohen, Herman J.

Ringdahl, Philip

Rosenberg, Alison P.

Soos, Helen

Wettering, Fred

Appointments and Scheduling, White House Office of

The office received and coordinated requests for the President’s time, helped prioritize the President’s time, and developed the President’s daily and monthly schedules.

See collection entries for

Brooks, Linton F.

Heiser, G. William

Linhard, Robert E.

Mahley, Donald A.

Steiner, Steven S.

Tobey, William H.

Asian Affairs Directorate, National Security Council

In 1983, the NSC reorganized and created five geographical directorates from the old Political Affairs Office. The Asian Affairs Directorate was one of the five geographical directorates created. For further information on this geographical region for the first administration only, please see the Executive Secretariat, NSC: Country Files (Far East).

See collection entries for

Asian Affairs

Directorate, NSC NSC

Childress, Richard T.

Kelly, James A.

Laux, David N.

Paal, Douglas H.

Sigur, Gaston J.

Cabinet Affairs, White House Office of

The Office of Cabinet Affairs created the working logistics for President Reagan’s belief in “cabinet” style government. The Office of Cabinet Affairs acted as the liaison and facilitator between various agencies and the White House. In the first administration, the office was heavily involved in making the seven cabinet councils work - scheduling meetings, pursuing action plans, and so forth. In conjunction with the Counsellor to the President’s office, Cabinet Affairs created a detailed tracking system for issues before the Cabinet and the various Cabinet Councils. These issues were marked as "CM-#" and you will find frequent reference to this tracking system within the records of the Office of Cabinet Affairs and the Counsellor to the President. While Cabinet Affairs handled the Cabinet issue tracking and worked with agencies, the actual Cabinet Council secretaries were from the Office of Policy Development.

During the second administration, the Councils were reduced to two - the Domestic Policy Council and the Economic Policy Council - and were an actual part of the Cabinet Affairs office. In early 1985, the head of this office was renamed the Cabinet Secretary. There are no actual records for an Office of the Cabinet Secretary - just material for the individuals with this title, Al Kingon and Nancy Risque.

Cabinet Affairs, WHO of

Clarey, Donald

Davis, Richard A.

Dunlop, Becky Norton

Faoro, Patsy

Fuller, Craig

Gibson, Thomas

Hall, John

Hauptli, Todd

Herbolsheimer, Lawrence

Hodapp, Nancy “Missy”

Kuttner, Hanns

Neuman, David

Preston, Edward F.

Stucky, Edward

Cabinet Council On Economic Affairs

See collection entry for

Cabinet Council on Economic Affairs

Cabinet Secretary

See collection entries for

Chief of Staff, White House Office of the

Considered by many to be the most powerful position in a modern White House, the Chief of Staff during the Reagan administration acted as a close advisor to the President and was responsible for the smooth operation of the White House. During the first administration, Chief of Staff James A. Baker was part of a senior staff triumvirate with the Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver and the Counsellor to the President Edwin Meese. This group came to be known as “the Troika.” In the second administration, Donald T. Regan (1985-87), Howard H. Baker (1987-88), and Kenneth Duberstein (1988-89) served as Chief of Staff.

See collection entries for

Baker, Howard H., Jr.

Baker, James A.

Cicconi, James

Crippen, Daniel L.

Darman, Richard

Dawson, Thomas C.

Duberstein, Kenneth

Hodsoll, Francis (Frank)

Oglesby, M.B.

Regan, Donald

Thomas W. Dennis

Tuck, John C.

Tutwiler, Margaret

Communications, White House Office of

This office was largely an umbrella White House office over the offices of speechwriting, media relations, public affairs, public liaison, and the press office, although the mix varied somewhat during the eight years of the Reagan presidency. The primary function of this office was to ensure that the White House staff was consistent in dealing with the media, and that the White House had a focused message. From January 1984 to February 1985 the Communications office was downgraded to a unit within the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, allowing Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver direct oversight of communications during the 1984 campaign season.

See collection entries for

Bailey, Pamela

Bistany, Joanna

Buchanan, Patrick

Communications, WHO of

Gergen, David

Griscom, Thomas C.

Maseng, Mari

Olsen, Karen

Reid, Kathleen

Consumer Affairs, White House Office of

This office advised the President on a wide variety of consumer-related issues. Virginia Knauer, the chief White House consumer advisor for Presidents Nixon and Ford (1969-1977), performed this same role for President Reagan. From 1981 to 1983 she worked within the White House Office of Public Liaison, and dealt with public liaison outreach in addition to consumer issues. After Elizabeth Dole resigned as director of the Public Liaison Office in 1983, Consumer Affairs was upgraded to a separate White House office headed by Knauer. Knauer also served as Director of the US Office of Consumer Affairs, a unit within the Department of Health and Human Services.

See collection entry for

Knauer, Virginia

Coordination Office, National Security Council

This office primarily provided planning and coordination assistance to the President for head of state and foreign official visits, as well as other international meetings in which the President participated.

See collection entries for

Correspondence, Office of White House

This office coordinated the distribution of incoming mail to the White House, and in many cases the Correspondence Office staff also prepared and sent responses. The Correspondence Office also included the Volunteer and Comment Office, which received public opinion mail and calls, and received and sent out numerous personal greetings on behalf of the President on occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries.

See collection entries for

Anderson, Robert B.

Batten, Michael

Bell, Lillie

Correspondence, WHO of

Correspondence, WHO of:

DeCain, Joan

Dehart, Linda

Donovan, Charles A.

Higgins, Anne

Hudson, Maureen

Ingals, Mary

Kelley, Sally

Miller, Amy

Theis, Nancy

Tobin, Loesje (Edward)

Proclamations

Council of Economic Advisers

The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) was established by law in 1946, to brief the President on overall economic policy objectives and policy issues. The CEA also prepares an annual economic report to the President and an Economic Report of the President for submission to Congress. During the Reagan administration, the CEA chaired an interagency forecasting group that included the Treasury and OMB for developing economic projections.

See collection entries for

Burnham, James

Carliner, Geoffrey

Council of Economic

Advisers, CEA: Staff CEA: Staff Economist’s Files

Feldstein, Martin

Hemel, Eric L.

Jordan, Jerry

Moore, Thomas

Mussa, Michael

Niskanen, William

Poole, William

Sprinkel, Beryl

Weidenbaum, Murray

Counsel to the President, Office of

This office provided legal advice to the President and White House staff. The Counsel staff advised the President and White House staff on a wide variety of issues, including constitutional and administrative powers and duties of the President, legislation, judicial appointments, and regulatory issues. It also coordinated the screening of Presidential appointees and White House staff for security and potential conflict of interest problems. The Counsel staff was responsible for gathering material in response to Independent Counsel requests for documents for investigations.

See collection entries for

Astrue, Michael

Boggs, Paula

Bolton, John

Brady, Phillip D.

Bryan, Patricia Mack

Cohen, Ben

Cooksey, Sherrie

Counsel to the President:

Office of the

Cox, C. Christopher

Culvahouse, Arthur

Counsel to the

President, Office of the:

Appointee File

Counsel to the President,

Office of the:

Investigation File

Counsel to the President,

Office of the: