Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum

COLLECTION FINDING AID

RON NESSEN FILES, 1974-77

Press Secretary to the President
Press Secretary's Office

CONTENTS

Summary Description | Biographical Information | Introduction | Series Descriptions | Container List

View digital copies of the Press Secretary's Press Briefing Transcripts

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

An incomplete set of files concerning his work as Press Secretary to President Ford. This collection includes transcripts of press briefings, case files on media interviews, correspondence with the media and an incomplete subject file. The bulk of his files can be found in a separate collection - the Ron Nessen Papers.

QUANTITY
32.4 linear feet (ca. 64,800 pages)

DONOR
Gerald R. Ford (accession numbers 77-91, 77-128, 82-48, and 83-32)

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
Gerald Ford donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections. 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 Leesa E. Tobin, August 1983
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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Ronald H. Nessen

May 25, 1934 - Born, Washington, D.C.

1952-54 - Student, Shepherd College, Shepherdstown, WV and Radio Newscaster, WEPM, Martinsburg, WV

1954-59 - Part-time student, American University, Washington, D.C. (received B.A.)

1954-55 - Radio newscaster, WARL, Arlington, VA

1955-56 -Writer, Montgomery County Sentinel, Rockville, MD

1956-62 - Reporter and editor, United Press International (UPI), Washington, D.C.

1962-74 - Television news correspondent, NBC News. During this time he served as White House correspondent (1962-1965), foreign correspondent in Vietnam and other countries, and news reporter covering such topics as the 1968 election, urban affairs, and the vice presidency (1973-1974)

1974-77 - Press Secretary to the President, The White House

1977-80 - Freelance writer and lecturer

1980-84 - Senior Vice President, Marston & Rothenberg Public Affairs, Inc., Washington, D.C. and Senior Associate, Robert Marston & Associates, New York

1984 - Vice President, Mutual Broadcasting System

INTRODUCTION

Ron Nessen was appointed White House Press Secretary on September 20, 1974, replacing Jerald F. terHorst who had resigned in protest of President Ford's grant of an unconditional pardon to Richard Nixon eleven days earlier. Nessen remained as Press Secretary and head of the press office through the end of the Ford administration. Discussed below under separate headings are: organization and function of the office of the Press Secretary and the scope and content of the Nessen Files.

Organization and Function of the Office of the Press Secretary
As Press Secretary to the President from September 20, 1974 to the end of the administration, Ron Nessen served as head of the White House Press Office operation. He directed a staff of forty and was responsible for keeping informed 3,000 reporters with White House accreditation.

While the duties of the Press Secretary were many and varied, the major responsibility of everyone in the Press Office was to respond to questions from the news media relating to the President and his official actions and activities. Although the President articulated official policy and his appointees spoke on his behalf on subjects over which they had jurisdiction, the day‑to‑day news concerning the President and his policies was relayed through regular briefings for the White House press corps and responses to daily queries.

The main source for news and information from the White House was the Press Secretary's daily briefing. The briefing began with announcements concerning the President's activities and the floor was then opened for the press corps to question the Press Secretary. In addition to the regular daily briefing, special briefings were held to announce new programs or to bring before the press corps administration spokesmen on major issues.

In addition, the Press Office was responsible for arrangements needed for the news media at presidential functions where the press was in attendance. This included news conferences, formal and informal events and ceremonies, and coverage of dignitaries and officials who visited the President in his office. If there were space limitations for the press at any event involving the President, it was the responsibility of the Press Office to select a "pool" of reporters and photographers who made their reports and photos available to all. The Press Office was also responsible for preparing press releases regarding the activities of the President, such as speeches, messages, nominations, daily schedules and appointments.

Much of the Press Secretary's time was spent as an administrator. Nessen was also responsible for other divisions within the Press Office which handled specific activities. The Office of Press Advance handled arrangements for press coverage when the President traveled. Of the 3,000 accredited reporters about 100 to 150 normally traveled with the President outside Washington. The Press Advance Office was responsible for meeting their needs, as well as the needs of the news media in the communities the President visited.

The Office of Television Advisors, headed by Robert Mead, handled the arrangements for presidential radio and television appearances. This office also advised the President on the use of the television medium.

The Office of the White House Photographer, headed by David Kennerly, was attached to the press section but was transferred to the Office of the White House Operations under Donald Rumsfeld's direction in 1975.

The largest subdivision within the office of the Press Secretary was the Office of Communications. An independent entity during the Nixon administration, the Communications Office during the Ford administration handled the scheduling of media appearances by the President and administration spokesmen outside Washington, prepared the President's daily news summary, responded to requests for information from the out‑of‑town press, and maintained a close working relationship with the public affairs officers of various executive branch departments and agencies. Deputy Press Secretary Gerald Warren and Assistant Press Secretary Margita White, successively directed this office until June 1976 when the operation was reconstituted and headed by David Gergen until the end of the administration.

In addition to Nessen's responsibilities as the President's spokesman and administrator of the Press Office, he also acted as a senior editorial and communications advisor on the President's immediate staff. Nessen or one of his deputies conferred with the President regularly concerning how issues should be presented to the press to effectively promote administration policies.

Scope and Content of the Nessen Files
This inventory describes the files Ron Nessen left in the White House in 1977 to become part of Gerald Ford's presidential materials. They are called the Nessen Files. There is a separate and much larger collection known as the Nessen Papers, consisting of very closely related materials donated to the Library by Mr. Nessen in 1980.

The heart of the Nessen Files are the daily briefing transcripts, and especially case files on presidential interviews which typically include requests, background and transcripts. This "Presidential Media Interviews" series is not quite complete, however. Several presidential interviews do not appear here but are available in the Nessen Papers.

The related series "Media Requests for Interviews with the President" documents only some requests. Other requests for interviews with the President are scattered in several locations, but the majority are in the White House Central Files Subject File category Publicity ‑ News Leaks (PR 16).

Other portions of the Nessen Files include somewhat fragmentary subject and correspondence files, reference files, drafts of press releases, and transcripts of Sunday public affairs interview shows. Other related collections in the Ford Library at this writing include all of those in the Office of the Press Secretary. The audiovisual holdings of the Library also include a complete set of video tapes of President Ford's press conferences and audiotapes of Nessen's daily briefings. There is a subject indexed set of White House press releases in the White House Permanent Operating Offices.

Related Materials (August 1983)
See especially the Ron Nessen Papers, the files of members of the Press Secretary's staff, and White House Central Files Subject File category PR (Public Relations).

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Press Secretary's Press Briefing Transcripts, 1974-77. (Boxes 1‑23, 9.2 linear feet)
Complete set of transcripts of the Press Secretary's daily briefings. Occasionally, a special additional briefing was held to announce a new program or to bring before the White House press corps an administration spokesman on a major issue. Most briefings were held in the White House press briefing room, but briefings were also held outside Washington, D.C. Briefings were conducted for the press corps by Jerald TerHorst, John Hushen and Ron Nessen. Audiotapes of the briefings are available in the Library audiovisual collection.

Briefings are numbered consecutively and arranged chronologically. An incomplete index appears in boxes 23A-23C.