Written by former JFK aide Ted Sorensen to then-Speaker Carl Albert (D-Okla.) when it looked, during the Watergate Scandal and with Vice President Agnew’s looming bribery and extortion prosecution in Maryland, like Albert might become President on very short notice. Sorensen suggested that Albert destroy the memo if that did not come to pass; fortunately the Speaker didn’t take his advice:
I don’t know. But Ford assumed the office in a little more traditional way, from the office of VP. It still would have a lot of good advice.
I found it a fascinating memo. One reason I kept thinking about as I read it, it was pre- word processor, and flawlessly typed. Those big firms sure had good typists.
No indication in the podcast that Ford ever saw that memo.
My grandfather was a lawyer in the Seventies (and earlier), and I once spoke to one of his secretaries about her work. If she or her coworkers made a typing error on a document for a very important client, they would be expected to type that page all over again. Wite-Out wasn’t good enough. Perfection was the expectation.
It’s not only the typing that is flawless. The content is written perfectly, too.
The organization, the intro, the table of contents. How many revisions did it take, and how many times to re-type almost the exact same page, with just one or two sentences moved,etc.?
I wrote papers in college on an electric typewriter. I first wrote the entire thing in cursive handwriting, and then typed it mechanically, like a robot. My fingers copied what my eyes were seeing , one letter at time, at about 40 words per minute. I used white-out to fix simple mistakes.
.But for a major change, like re-arranging two paragraphs–I’d often just decide to leave the original because fixing it would take too long.
Also there was one minor issue in the document which surprised me: appointing a new White House doctor.
The purpose of the document is to give vital advice for a new guy about to unexpectedly take on the top job as President, and needs help in maintaining the smooth transition and stability of government…
So there is a list of vital appointments that the new guy is supposed to take care of quickly. Why does he need to select a new White House physician?, Surely the entire staff of Walter Reed Hospital is always available.
Yes, and a big part of that role was keeping JFK’s many medical conditions – and the steps he took to treat them – out of the public eye. Presumably Sorenson’s point was to find a doctor who can keep his mouth shut.
What struck me was how mature and measured it was. No braggadocio, and with a big emphasis on not making a big show of everything. Making it clear that this was about the good of the nation, and not the person taking over the office.
Could you imagine anything of the sort coming from the Trump Era? We need people like this back in charge at every level of government.
The whole thing is visually very well organized using only underlining and indentation. No italics, bold, font size changes. Simple double-spaced typing. Clean and uncluttered.
Of course pretty standard for the time. Probably didn’t take all that long to type, details of the formatting were likely from a style guide - the typist probably didn’t need to think too much, other than doing the page numbering in the table of contents once the rest of the document was typed.
I’m pretty sure this is what people reference when they talk about “being presidential”, and it’s the polar opposite of how the previous holder of the office conducted himself.
Page number 17 contains a list of prominent private individuals “Various wise men, elder statesmen” that could be consulted. Some names stand out - Ralph Nader, and “possibly George Wallace”. I did not see any women, and I do not know all of the names, but I would suspect there are no African Americans?
I just want to say that that was really cool to read. The wording is simply flawless – a list of what to do, but it does not seek to influence the decisions or actions. What incredible writing. I would want any new POTUS to read this or something like it.
It is also astounding how many of those actions the previous toddler in chief failed to take. “Avoid all perceptions of conflicts of interest.” [not a direct quote] Yeah, right.