SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

Press clippings, interview and press briefing transcripts, speech texts, press releases, and briefing books used by the White House Communications Office, as well as subject files of newspaper articles on the post-presidency of Richard Nixon and on Congress’ investigation in 1975 of Northrop Corporation’s foreign arms sales.

QUANTITY
1.0 linear feet (ca. 2,000 pages)

DONOR
Gerald L. Warren (accession number 97-18)

ACCESS
Open. Some items may be 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
Mr. Warren has donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.

Joshua D. Cochran, June 2004
[s:\bin\findaid\warren, gerald - papers.doc]

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Gerald Lee Warren

Aug. 17, 1930 - Born, Hastings, Nebraska

1951-52 - Reporter, Lincoln Star, Lincoln, Nebraska

1952 - B.A., University of Nebraska

1952-56 - Pilot, U.S. Navy

1956-61 - Reporter and later assistant city editor, San Diego Union

1961-1963 - Traveling representative, Copley News Service

1963-68 - City editor and later assistant managing editor, San Diego Union

1969-1975 - Deputy Press Secretary, The White House

1975- - Editor, San Diego Union

INTRODUCTION

The Gerald Warren Papers concern his work as Deputy Press Secretary and Director of the White House Communications Office between August 1974 and August 1975. He joined the White House Communications Office in 1969 as Deputy Press Secretary to Ron Ziegler in the Nixon administration, often delivering the daily press briefings as the Watergate scandal intensified in 1974. Following the resignation of Richard Nixon, Warren remained in the Communications Office, first serving as one of several deputies to Jerald ter Horst. He eventually assumed the role as Deputy Press Secretary for Information Liaison under ter Horst's successor Ron Nessen in November 1974.

As Deputy Press Secretary, Warren oversaw the functions of the White House Communications Office. This office produced the daily news summaries, and provided copies of speeches, reports, fact sheets, and other information on administration programs to almost 3,000 editors and broadcasters outside of Washington. The office coordinated administration public relations campaigns, acted as White House contact for media organizations and individual newspapers, radio, and television stations, and supervised public affairs activities in the Federal agencies. It arranged special briefings, set up interviews between newsmen and public officials, and compiled briefing books for President Ford’s media contacts.

The press clippings, briefing books, speech texts, and interview and press conference transcripts within the Warren Papers reflect these daily duties. They provide examples of how the media, especially the print media, covered events and issues during the first year of the Ford presidency. In addition, this collection supplements the existing files and papers of press office personnel, in containing several newspaper articles about and interviews with former President Richard Nixon. These clippings provide insight and examples of how the press covered President Nixon and Watergate in the decade after he left office. The Warren Papers also hold press clippings related to Congress’ 1975 investigation of a bribery scandal involving the Northrop Corporation, an aerospace firm and defense contractor.

Of special interest in this collection is a folder containing the transcripts of several Department of Defense press briefings during and following the Mayaguez rescue in May 1975. These briefings detail the military implications of the crisis and discuss how the operation unfolded, as well as casualty reports. These briefings complement the White House Press Secretary’s daily briefings on Mayaguez found in the Ron Nessen Files.

Related Materials (June 2004)
The most important related collection is the Gerald Warren and Margita White Files (14 feet) which give a much more complete record of the work of the Communications Office. The Library also holds the papers of Margita White who served as Assistant Press Secretary and later Director of the White House Communications Office after Warren’s departure. The files of David Gergen, who headed the Office of Communications after Gerald Warren and Margita White's departures, and the files of James Shuman, who edited the news summary and prepared briefing books for the President's media encounters, are part of the library’s collection. Another related collection is the papers of Press Secretary Ron Nessen, who was Warren’s supervisor.

In addition, Gerald Warren has donated a large collection of personal papers concerning his work in the Nixon and Ford administrations to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Additional material on his post-White House activities is housed at the Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of California-San Diego. Papers relating to Warren’s service in the Nixon White House are presumed to be part of the Nixon Presidential Materials Project.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Subject File – Ford, Gerald R., 1974-1975.  (Boxes 1‑2, 0.6 linear feet)
Primarily press clippings, interview and press briefing transcripts, speech texts, press releases, and briefing books used by the Communications Office during President Ford’s first year in office.

Arranged alphabetically by subject.

Subject File – Nixon, Richard M., 1972-1984. (Boxes 2‑3, 0.3 linear feet)
Newspaper clippings related to former President Nixon during the decade after he left office. Many of the articles discuss the books published in this period about Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal.

Arranged alphabetically by subject.

Subject File – Northrop Corporation, 1975. (Box 3, 0.1 linear feet)
Newspaper reports regarding the aerospace company Northrop Corporation’s involvement in questionable contributions to the 1972 Nixon re-election campaign, congressmen, and foreign officials in order to secure defense contracts.

Arranged alphabetically by subject.

CONTAINER LIST

Box 1 - Subject File – Ford, Gerald R.

• Compassion
• Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (1)-(2)
• Diego Garcia
• Energy Policy- Briefing Book
• First Year in Office (1)-(2)
• Foreign Policy/Détente- Press Clippings
• Foreign Policy Press Briefings (1)-(2)
• Ford Interviews (1)-(4)

Box 2 - Subject File – Ford, Gerald R.

• Mayaguez- Department of Defense Press Briefings
• Mayaguez- Press Clippings
• Philosophy (1)-(2)
• Pool Donors
• Schlesinger and First Strike, 1975- Press Clippings
• Solzhenitsyn Visit
• Style- Press Clippings (1)-(2)
• Style- Vision Memo

Box 2 (Continued) - Subject File – Nixon, Richard M.

• Above the Law—Washington Star 6/5/1977
• ASNE Speech and Interview, 1984
• Books
• Disclosure of 6/23/1972 Tape

Box 3 - Subject File – Nixon, Richard M.

• The Final Days (1)-(2)
• Interview with James S. Copley
• New Yorker Series (1)-(2)

Box 3 (Continued) - Subject File – Northrop Corporation

• Foreign Contracts- Press Clippings (1)-(2)