Hartmann, Robert

ROBERT T. HARTMANN

Reporter; Assistant to Representative Gerald R. Ford;

Chief of Staff to the Vice President;

Counsellor to the President:

Papers, (1884) 1930-1981

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

Materials concerning Hartmann's early life; his career as a reporter and bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, public relations aide for the Republican Conference of the U.S. House of Representatives, and senior advisor to Gerald R. Ford (1969-77); and the drafting of his memoir Palace Politics: An Inside Account of the Ford Years.

QUANTITY

86 linear feet (ca. 172,000 pages)

DONOR

The Hoover Institution at Stanford University - transferred to the Ford Library at the request of Robert T. Hartmann (accession number 92-64)

ACCESS

Open. Some items are temporarily restricted under terms of the donor's deed of gift, a copy of which is available on request, or under National Archives and Records Administration general restrictions (36 CFR 1256).

COPYRIGHT

Robert Hartmann has retained during his lifetime his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in this collection. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain.

Prepared by William H. McNitt, February 1994

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Robert Trowbridge Hartmann

1917 Born, Rapid City, South Dakota; the family moved to Beverly Hills, California when he was young.

1934 Graduated from Beverly Hills High School

1938 B.A., Stanford University

1939‑41 Reporter, Los Angeles Times

1941‑45 Active duty from Ensign to Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Naval Reserve; served in Pacific operations as command press officer and naval censor

1945‑54 Reporter and editorial/special feature writer, Los Angeles Times

1954‑63 Washington bureau chief, Los Angeles Times

1963‑64 Middle East and Mediterranean bureau chief, Los Angeles Times

1964‑65 Information adviser for North America, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

1966‑69 Editor, Republican Conference, U.S. House of Representatives

1969‑73 Minority Sergeant-at-Arms and Legislative Assistant to the Minority Leader (Gerald R. Ford), U.S. House of Representatives

1973‑74 Chief of Staff to Vice President Gerald R. Ford

1974‑77 Counsellor to the President, The White House

1977-Present Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Trustee, Gerald R. Ford Foundation

1980 Author, Palace Politics: An Inside Account of the Ford Years

INTRODUCTION

The Ford Library has two Robert Hartmann collections - the Hartmann Files and the Hartmann Papers. The Hartmann Papers consist of historical materials from throughout his career that the Ford Library received in 1992. Described below under separate headings are Hartmann's career, the scope and contents of the collection, and related materials in the Ford Library.

Hartmann's Career

Although born in South Dakota, Hartmann spent most of his early years in southern California, graduating from Beverly Hills High School and Stanford University. After his college graduation in 1938, he took an extended trip to Japan, Manchuria, and Korea, returning via Europe. He then took a job with the Los Angeles Times. During World War II, he served in the Pacific in Navy public relations and press censor posts. Returning to the Times after the war, he worked for many years as a reporter, editorial and special writer, and bureau chief in Washington and Rome. In 1951, he spent a year reporting from the Middle East as the recipient of an Ogden Reid fellowship. After leaving the Times in 1964, he spent a brief stint as a public affairs officer for the United National Food and Agriculture Organization.

During Hartmann's newspaper career, he developed friendships with Richard Nixon and other California Republican leaders. His media expertise and these political connections assisted him in obtaining a position as an editor and public relations consultant for the Republican Conference of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966. In this position, he advised the House Republican leaders on media strategies, coordinated research projects on the Johnson administration, edited publications, and drafted some speeches.

When Melvin Laird, chairman of the House Republican Conference, left Congress in 1969 to become Secretary of Defense, Hartmann joined the personal staff of Minority Leader Gerald Ford. Hartmann and Ford were close in age, had served in the Navy during World War II, had ties to Richard Nixon, and had similar beliefs on policy issues. Over time, Hartmann assisted Ford in his efforts to improve his speech delivery and media contacts. Ford also came to appreciate Hartmann's candid and unvarnished advice on political and policy matters. In addition to his continued writing and political duties, Hartmann took on new duties in the area of liaison with the Nixon White House.

After President Nixon nominated Gerald Ford to be Vice President on October 12, 1973, Hartmann coordinated Ford's preparations for the confirmation hearings on the nomination. He then became Vice President Ford's chief of staff. It soon became obvious that the burden of administrative matters -- hiring staff, finding office space, etc. -- kept Hartmann from devoting sufficient time to speeches, political liaison, and advising the Vice President. Ford solved this problem by hiring L. William Seidman as an assistant for administration.

When Gerald Ford succeeded to the presidency on August 9, 1974, he quickly named Hartmann as Counsellor to the President, with Cabinet status. In this position, one of Hartmann's main responsibilities was supervision of the Editorial Staff in the preparation of presidential speeches, statements, messages, and correspondence. He also handled White House liaison with Republican Party organizations and advised President Ford on a wide variety of matters that went beyond his formal duties.

In the early months of the Ford administration, Hartmann continued to draft a number of President Ford's speeches, as he had done for several years, but as time passed he worked on fewer speeches (except for major addresses) and concentrated on his other duties. Although Paul Theis and then Robert Orben headed the day-to-day work of the Office of Editorial Staff, Hartmann often edited material prepared by that office.

Hartmann was also responsible for White House liaison with the Republican Party and various Republican organizations. Gwen Anderson and John Calkins assisted Hartmann in this work. Although Hartmann worked with Republican organizations throughout the administration, White House Chief of Staff Richard Cheney's office handled liaison with the President's campaign organization, the President Ford Committee. One of Hartmann's key contributions to the campaign was the drafting of President Ford's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

In his role as an adviser to the President, Hartmann spent considerable time conferring in the Oval Office, attending Cabinet and other meetings, and reading for input or editing copies of White House staff and federal agency memoranda before they were submitted to the President. Hartmann often clashed with other White House staff members and administration officials, especially Nixon administration holdovers whom he suspected of working in their own self-interest rather than the President's. Although some administration officials found Hartmann hard to deal with or were jealous of his close relationship to the President, Ford remained loyal to his long-time aide and friend.

After the end of the Ford administration, Hartmann devoted himself to the drafting of his memoir Palace Politics: An Inside Account of the Ford Years, which was published in 1980. He also continued to assist former President Ford with major speeches.

Scope and Content of the Hartmann Papers

The first two series in this collection concern Hartmann's early life and his newspaper career. While they provide detailed documentation on some periods and some aspects of his life, there are several gaps. For instance, the collection contains only scattered items from the years 1939-54. Extensive materials appear on his relationship with his parents and other family members (boxes 2-9); his college days at Stanford University (Boxes 2-3 and 19-20); a 1938 trip to Japan, Manchuria, and Europe (Boxes 3-4 and 11-14); and his work as a Los Angeles Times bureau chief (Boxes 5-7 and 21-34). Only a single box documents his brief service on the staff of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and much of that concerns his search for a different job.

More than one third of the collection consists of a significant set of files concerning Hartmann's work for the Republican leaders of the House of Representatives. Materials from his service on the staff of the Republican Conference (1966-68) include research files on issues and the activities of the Johnson Administration, transcripts of the joint press conferences of the Republican leaders of Congress (Boxes 50 and 51), liaison with Republican Party organizations (Boxes 83-96), and information on the drafting of Republican responses to President Johnson's State of the Union addresses (Boxes 96-97).

With the inauguration of a Republican President in 1969, Hartmann's role shifted to liaison with the White House. Documentation on his new role includes case files on weekly liaison meetings of the Republican leaders of Congress with President Nixon and his staff (Boxes 106-107) and files on legislation introduced by the Nixon administration. The collection also contains extensive documentation on the 1972 delegation to China headed by Gerald Ford and Hale Boggs, including transcripts of their discussions with Chinese leaders and their reports to President Nixon and the House of Representatives (Boxes 41-44). Although Hartmann assisted Representative Ford in the attempt to impeach Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas during 1969 and 1970, little of significance on that issue appears in this collection.

The Hartmann Papers contain only a small fragmentary subject file dating from Gerald Ford's brief service as Vice President. The material is uneven in quality - much is routine in nature or duplicates information found elsewhere in the Library's holdings.

The extensive files from the Ford presidency are divided into a subject file and a speech file. While there is some duplication between these materials and the documents in the Robert Hartmann Files, there is also much that is unique. Included are notes from the President to Hartmann and Hartmann's notes on various meetings.

The subject file reflects the broad range of Hartmann's duties and interests, including such topics as the organization and operation of the Editorial Office, selection of a new vice president in 1974, the 1976 presidential campaign, liaison with national and state Republican Party leadership, and public opinion polling.

Hartmann's case files on presidential speeches and statements contain significant files on Ford's three State of the Union addresses, including handwritten instructions from the President to Hartmann on the drafting of the 1976 address. Other large case files include those for the major speeches celebrating the Bicentennial of American independence, the Republican Convention acceptance speech, and various addresses to Congress. Smaller, but often significant, amounts of material appear for other speeches.

Documents from the post-White House years consist mainly of drafts and research materials for Hartmann's memoir Palace Politics, although some information on speeches drafted for Gerald Ford also appears.

Provenance and Related Materials (November 1993):

This collection includes much material that Hartmann took from his office at the end of the Ford administration, along with such items as early family papers, correspondence from his newspaper career, and drafts of his memoirs. Hartmann originally donated this collection to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. The collection remained at the Hoover Institution until August 1992, when it was transferred to the Ford Library at Hartmann's request.

In addition to the papers which Hartmann took home in 1977, he left behind in the White House a large collection of files covering the entire period of his work for Gerald Ford. Those materials came directly to the Ford Library as part of President Ford's donation and currently comprise the Hartmann Files (part of the White House Staff Files) and the Hartmann series in the Ford Congressional and Vice Presidential Papers. The documents in these collections are closely related to, and sometimes duplicate, those in the appropriate series of the Hartmann Papers.

Additional related materials from the White House years include the files produced by the staff members of the Editorial Office, which Hartmann supervised, and the files of his political aides Gwen Anderson and John Calkins.

January 1994 Accretion

In January 1994, Robert Hartmann delivered to the Ford Library approximately 10 cubic feet of additional papers comparable in scope and nature to the papers described above. These new papers are not available to research, pending completion of a deed of gift for them and subsequent archival processing.

Series Descriptions

1-21 Early Life and Personal File, 1884-1974 (8.2 linear feet)

This series is rich in the memorabilia, minutia, and ephemera that accompanied decades of events in the Hartmann family, much of it evidently saved by Hartmann's mother. One large segment consists of letters exchanged between Hartmann, his parents, and his wife. Written frequently, the letters provide intimate documentation of Hartmann's life and times, including his college days at Stanford University; a 1938 trip to Japan, Manchuria, and Europe; and his joys and frustrations as a Los Angeles Times reporter and bureau chief.

Hartmann's propensity for writing is pervasive. Included are early literary publications, high school and college newspaper articles, post-college editorials and short stories, Navy press releases, and the beginning drafts of a book on the Aleutian Islands in World War II.

Also included in the range of material are such items as his father's schoolbooks and company newspapers; family photographs; childhood drawings; printed materials; political campaign flyers; menus; school and theater programs; small amounts of material on his Navy service in the Pacific during World War II; and a file on his service in the Naval Reserve.

Arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically thereunder.

21-34 Los Angeles Times Subject File, 1946-64. (5.4 linear feet)

Correspondence, wires, awards, resumes, and newspaper clippings related to Hartmann's work for the Los Angeles Times, as a reporter, Washington Bureau Chief, and Chief of the Rome-based Mediterranean and Middle East Bureau. Included are letters and wires between Hartmann and editors, publishers, and colleagues concerning company policy, stories, assignments, staff, and business matters. Also included is correspondence with Vice President Richard Nixon, state and national political leaders, and Naval Reserve officials. The letters fully document Hartmann's activities, frustrations, and career decisions over two decades, including his resignation. Also present are interviews, untranscribed dictaphone discs, notes, wires stories, and press kits from various assignments, including the 1960 presidential campaign. The series also contains an extensive set of Hartmann's articles in the Times, including serial articles on Nixon's 1958 trip to South America, the Americans for Democratic Action, and Latin America.

Arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically thereunder.

35 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization File, 1964- 66. (0.4 linear feet)

Correspondence, press releases, conference papers, FAO publications, and expense vouchers related to Hartmann's brief employment as director of FAO's North American information program. Much of the correspondence concerns Hartmann's continuing job search.

Arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically thereunder.

36-107 House of Representatives Subject File, 1966-1973. (28.8 linear feet)

Correspondence, memoranda, proposed legislation, reports, meeting minutes, press releases, publications, and newspaper clippings. The materials concern many aspects of Hartmann's work for the House Republican Conference, 1966-68, and on Gerald R. Ford's staff, 1969-73. They document Republican opposition to Johnson administration programs and liaison between the Nixon White House and Republicans in Congress. Only scattered folders from the year 1973 are included as the bulk of the documents from that year appear in the Hartmann series of the Ford Congressional Papers, along with other Hartmann materials.

Important topics include Republican political campaigns; campaign reform legislation; the Ford/Boggs trip to China in 1972; the Johnson Administration "Credibility Gap"; the "Ev and Jerry Shows" (joint Senate-House Republican leadership press conferences); Ford speeches drafted by Hartmann; House Republican leadership meetings; allegations of mismanagement of the Vietnam War leveled at Defense Secretary Robert McNamara; allegations of misdeeds by the Democratic Party fundraising organization known as the "President's Club"; the 1968 and 1972 Republican National Conventions, the activities of the Republican Congressional Committee, the Republican Coordinating Committee, the Senate Republican Policy Committee, and the Republican National Committee; the drafting of Republican responses to Lyndon Johnson's State of the Union addresses in 1967 and 1968; and virtually weekly meetings of the Republican Senate and House leaders with President Nixon and his congressional liaison staff. Some large runs of relatively routine materials such as newsletters and press releases are also included.

Arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically thereunder.

108-118 Vice Presidential Subject File, (1949) 1973-74. (4.4 linear feet)

Correspondence, memoranda, office manuals, and reference materials which document selectively Hartmann's activities as Vice President Ford's chief of staff. Topics documented in more than fragmentary form include Ford's confirmation as Vice President under the 25th amendment; office procedures, operations, and staffing; scheduling for the Vice President; and, speeches, remarks, and press releases.

The files do not appear to have been kept or retained systematically. Their quality is uneven. The Speeches and Statements section, the most lengthy in the Subject File, contains copies of Ford's remarks and press releases but only in rare instances includes reference material or drafts. The Personnel Files are currently closed under terms of the donor's deed of gift. The bulk of Hartmann's files concerning his work on the vice presidential staff can be found in the Hartmann series of the Ford Vice Presidential Papers.

Arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically thereunder.

119-170 White House Subject File, 1974-77. (20.8 linear feet)

Correspondence, memoranda, schedules, briefing books, press releases, and clippings relating to a wide range of issues and daily activities during the Ford administration. The materials concern such topics as the organization and operation of the editorial and speechwriting office, selection of a vice president in 1974, the 1976 presidential campaign, liaison with national and state Republican Party leadership, and public opinion polling. Some information in this series also appears in the Robert Hartmann Files or in other collections, but there are several unique segments. An example is a run of folders titled "President - Notes to Hartmann." These are clippings and articles the President sent to Hartmann with notes indicating they contained information that could be useful in the drafting of speeches. Another unique segment is Hartmann's handwritten notes from various meetings, including some meetings of the 1974 transition group and the Cabinet and discussions of the 1976 presidential campaign. The papers also contain Hartmann's schedules, personal correspondence, and telephone call logs.

Arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically thereunder.

171-191 White House Speech File, 1974-77. (8.4 linear feet)

Case files on presidential speeches containing drafts by Hartmann and others; memoranda from the White House staff and others including suggestions on theme and contents or comments on drafts; and briefing papers and background information. Included are files on many of the speeches given by the President during his administration. Drafts of most major speeches contain President Ford's handwritten changes and comments. Additional materials on the drafting of speeches appear in the White House Subject File and in the separate Presidential Speeches and Statements Series in the Robert Hartmann Files.

Arranged chronologically by the date of the speech.

192-199 Post-White House Subject File, (1965) 1977-83. (3.2 linear feet)

The bulk of this file relates to Hartmann's memoir, Palace Politics: An Inside Account of the Ford Years (1980). In addition to reference materials consisting of bibliographies, limited correspondence, notes, and interviews, the materials include drafts of his book proposal and four book drafts and the master proof. The files reflect Hartmann's planning for, and organization of, the book and show its evolution, but do not document either the editing process or the subsequent marketing of the book.

The Post-White House Subject File also contains incomplete information about Hartmann's other writing assignments, including continued drafting of speeches for Ford.

Arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically thereunder.

200-215 Invitations File, 1969-77. (6.4 linear feet)

Invitations received by Mr. and Mrs. Hartmann, responses, programs and souvenirs from events attended, and occasional newspaper clippings about the events. Although some invitations from Hartmann's service on Gerald Ford's congressional staff are included, the bulk date from the vice presidential and White House periods.

Arranged chronologically by month with separate folders for many months labelled "Official" and "Mrs. Hartmann." The former were apparently maintained by his secretary and the latter by his wife.

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