I.O.U.S.A - Addison Wiggin [105]
What we ’ d like to do is have you come over and meet with the president and basically say that you ’ ve decided to go back to the private sector, that you ’ re ready to quit your involvement with the Treasury. ” And I said to him, “ You know, I ’ m in the middle of a meeting here, I ’ ll call you back in a little while. ”
And so the people came back into my offi ce and we fi nished up whatever the topic was we were talking about, and then I called the vice president back. I said I didn ’ t think I needed another meeting with the president, thank you very much. I thought I ’ d had plenty of meetings, and I thought he probably didn ’ t need a meeting and I certainly didn ’ t need a meeting.
And I also said to him, “ You know, I ’ ve been going along now for 65 years or so and, you know, for me to say that I ’ ve decided to leave the Treasury to go back to the private sector is a lie, and I ’ m not into doing lies. And so what I want to do is issue a press release tomorrow morning before the markets open so that they ’ ll have time to digest this news in case it creates any stir. I ’ m going to meet with my staff at 8 o ’ clock to tell them so they won ’ t hear it from the media but they ’ ll hear it directly from me, because I recruited most of these people; they ’ ve done great work while I ’ ve been here, and I want to tell them personally. And as soon as I ’ m done telling them, because fi ve minutes after I tell them, c16.indd 213
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somebody will call the media, I want to issue a press release that basically says I ’ ve decided to resign. And I ’ ll send the president a note telling him I ’ m resigning. ”
And I think he was surprised by that. He didn ’ t try to argue me out of it, I think probably because he ’ d known me long enough to know that it wouldn ’ t do any good, that I ’ d made up my mind and that was it. So I called my chief of staff, Tim Adams, back in, and my press assistant came in and I said, “ I would like to issue a statement that says I hereby resign. ” Well, they didn ’ t think that was a very good thing to do, and so I wrote a little more of a note then, saying that I appreciated having the opportunity to serve and I hereby resign and that was it. And so the next morning, I came in and met with the staff, and I had an opportunity to tell them in person, face to face, all of them together, “ I ’ m leaving. You all need to stay. The president needs help and you ’ re all talented, thoughtful people, so my actions should not lead the rest of you to do anything except to stay and serve. ” And that was it. I went back to my offi ce and latched up my briefcase and went down to the parking space that ’ s reserved for the secretary of the Treasury, got in my car, and drove back to Pittsburgh.
Q: What did it feel like to get fi red?
Paul O ’ Neill: Well, it ’ s a fi rst in my life — I ’ d never been fi red before, I ’ d only been promoted to ever higher levels of responsibility. But it was okay with me because I would have really been uncomfortable arguing for policies I didn ’ t believe in. One of the things I actually said to President Bush and Vice President Cheney when they asked me to come and have lunch with them, and to ask me to serve as the secretary of the Treasury, was that I had reservations about doing this. And one of the reservations I had was that, having been the CEO of a very big corporation for 13 years and the president of a very big corporation for the period before that, I wasn ’ t sure how easy it was going to be for me to knuckle under when I thought the policy was wrong.
The thing I didn ’ t know is how diffi cult it would be to knuckle under if you thought the policy was not well vetted, that it was c16.indd 214
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decided on the basis of ideology instead of what was right for the country. At that point I really thought the decisions were not being made on the basis of what was right for the country, they were