Known and Unknown - Donald Rumsfeld [109]
The circumstances surrounding George H. W. Bush’s nomination to be director of the CIA is a particularly stubborn chapter of the myth that I had stage-managed Ford’s staff reorganization. Typical of this “Rumsfeld takes out Bush” storyline was the view expressed in a sympathetic biography of Bush, George Bush: The Life of a Lone Star Yankee: “Rumsfeld, who took over as secretary of defense in the administration’s cabinet shake-up that fall, had a motive for shunting Bush off to the CIA…. Rumsfeld took a backseat to no one…and steered his organizational system to ‘diminish the influence of all potential rivals at the White House.’” The Bush biography cited a memo I wrote to the President in 1975 that “lauded” Bush’s qualifications for the job at CIA. From this memo the author argued that “Rumsfeld was more than a contributor to the Bush transfer. He was a promoter.”*
At the President’s request, I provided him with a memo listing strengths and weaknesses of twenty-three potential CIA candidates, one of whom was Bush. At the end of this long list, the memo included the senior staff’s rankings of the candidates listed. Rather than promoting Bush, I put him “below the line.”16 That meant that I recognized his qualifications for the job but that he was not on my personal short list of top recommendations to the President.
I understood why Bush might be a reasonable candidate for the position. He had served in Congress and had good relationships in both parties. It made sense to put a former legislator in the post, since it looked like the principal responsibility for the new CIA director during that period would be to deal less with intelligence matters and more with the Congress during difficult ongoing investigations. The investigations centered on covert programs authorized by several of Ford’s predecessors as president that had been leaked and that had appeared in the press under a series of sensational headlines. One article described a program authorized by President Johnson to investigate ties between antiwar groups and foreign supporters, which continued during the Nixon administration. The CIA had monitored some ten thousand American citizens, a newspaper claimed. The reports also focused on a 1973 CIA review that documented the Agency’s covert operations stretching back a quarter century. The list included alleged assassination plots against foreign leaders authorized during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. The explosive document tracing these activities was quickly given the title the “Family Jewels.”17 I was amazed by the allegations and shared President Ford’s desire to have a CIA director in place who had some credibility with Congress.
Bush was eager to return to a high-profile post in the United States.18 His wife, Barbara, later noted that Bush was “thrilled” when he was asked to take the job at CIA.19 My distinct impression was that he not only was greatly pleased, but also that he had actively sought the assignment.
The Bush nomination engendered a controversy when Democrats in the Senate insisted that he agree not to be a vice presidential candidate in 1976 before they would consider his nomination. The senators argued that the CIA had been politicized, its credibility damaged, and Bush was a former Republican National Committee chairman with obvious political ambitions.
When I heard about the demand, I told President Ford that I thought he and Bush should not agree to the Senate’s request. I said any president ought to be able to select anyone he wants for vice president, including Bush. Ironically, Ford told me that it was Bush who insisted that he agree to the senators’ condition, because he was afraid he could not be confirmed otherwise and he badly wanted to be CIA director.* In his autobiography, Ford recalled that what actually took place was not what Bush