Truman Library - Matthew J. Connelly Oral History Interview, November 30, 1967

Chief investigator for the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program (the Truman Committee), 1941-44, Executive Assistant to Senator and Vice President Truman, July 1944-April 1945; and Appointments Secretary to the President, 1945-53.

New York, New York
November 30, 1967
By Jerry N. Hess

NOTICE
This is a transcript of a tape-recorded interview conducted for the Harry S. Truman Library. A draft of this transcript was edited by the interviewee but only minor emendations were made; therefore, the reader should remember that this is essentially a transcript of the spoken, rather than the written word.

Numbers appearing in square brackets (ex. [45]) within the transcript indicate the pagination in the original, hardcopy version of the oral history interview.

RESTRICTIONS
This oral history transcript may be read, quoted from, cited, and reproduced for purposes of research. It may not be published in full except by permission of the Harry S. Truman Library.

HESS: Mr. Connelly, at the end of our discussion Tuesday, we were talking about the Cabinet and your duties in relation to the Cabinet, and there are a couple of other questions I would like to ask you on that subject. Today, don't want to get into the Cabinet appointments themselves, but just about your duties on the Cabinet--to keep things in a chronological order. Did any of the other members of the White House staff have occasion to sit in on the Cabinet meetings, other than yourself?

CONNELLY: No, none of the members of the White House staff sat in on those meetings, with one exception, John Steelman, who regularly sat in on the Cabinet meetings.

CONNELLY: Well, he sat in on practically all of them. He sat there as a participant in the discussion, and I sat there as a reporter.

CONNELLY: Except when I was not available, and he would take the notes in my place.

HESS: Was there an agenda worked out ahead of time for the business that was to be taken up at the Cabinet meetings?

CONNELLY: Well, Cabinet meetings were very seldom held with an agenda, except the President might want to bring up some particular subject. Otherwise, it was just an open meeting, and he handled that deliberately because his predecessor, unfortunately, did not have a Cabinet (the members would not talk in front of each other), and he was determined that he would eradicate that procedure and have a real Cabinet and let each Cabinet officer bring up his own problems and there would be discussion among other members, if they agreed or did not agree with his position.

HESS: On September 23, 1945, the New York Times published a story that in a Cabinet meeting Wallace had proposed that Russia be given the secret of the atomic bomb, and according to a statement in the book Out of the Jaws

of Victory by Jules Abels, Wallace said that the idea was proposed by Henry Stimson, and he blamed you for that particular leak. Do you remember anything about that episode?

CONNELLY: No, offhand, the only comment I recall Wallace making was that the Russians would have the atomic bomb in seven years anyway, so why should it be such a big secret. So, with reference to any leak from me, I never heard of it.

HESS: This was one thing that I had run across in my background work, and I wanted to bring that up.

CONNELLY: Well, I know that there was never any leak about Cabinet proceedings from me in any event or in any discussion.

HESS: At a later date we will cover the Cabinet appointments them selves, but right now I'd

like to ask one question that I should have asked in our last interview. During the time that you were with the Truman Committee, did you have any working relationships with Mr. Truman's private staff; and the second part of that question: What do you remember about the various members of that staff?

CONNELLY: Oh, certainly we had relationships because that was his principal project at that time. Prior to that he was just a Senator from Missouri, but even lower than that because the Senator from Missouri. in those days was Bennett Clark, and Truman was not known publicly outside of the Senate, except in the State of Missouri. But when you referred to the Senator from Missouri, it was taken for granted that you were talking about Bennett Clark, who was the senior Senator, and had been in the Senate for many years. But Truman, before the Truman

CONNELLY: The relationship was very cordial up to a point. They had minor differences, naturally, but Senator Clark seconded the nomination of Senator Truman for Vice President. So they worked very closely together in the interest of the State.

HESS: On Mr. Truman's private staff, who was there besides Victor Messall, Harry Vaughan, Mildred Dryden, and Catherine Bixler?

CONNELLY: Reathel Odum, and Lauretta Young--that was the total staff, until General Vaughan left for the wars in Australia, and then Bill Boyle left the committee to act as secretary to Senator Truman in General Vaughan's absence.

CONNELLY: Well, the people in his office had very little to do with the committee activities. Their work was principally Missouri business, and there was never any direct conflict between his office staff and the committee staff, because the committee was set up independently of his personal office.

HESS: When Mr. Truman became President, of course, Harry Vaughan made the switch with him from his personal staff to the White House, but why didn't the others? Miss Odum was the secretary to Mrs. Truman, is that correct, in the White House?

CONNELLY: Mrs. Dryden had left before he was sworn in as President. She had other employment in Washington. Miss Bixler had other employment in Washington, and the other girls, who had been with him for many years, stayed with him. They were Reathel Odum, Shirley Green, and Lauretta Young, and of course, General Vaughan. He had returned from Australia.

HESS: Taking April 12, 1945, as the date now, just what were the problems relating to staffing, that presented themselves at this date? I have reference to probably the decisions about which of the Roosevelt people to keep, what other people to bring in. Were those problems during those days?

CONNELLY: Those problems were problems, but we decided that the best thing to do was to keep as much of the Roosevelt staff together as possible, because Senator Truman, myself or Harry Vaughan

knew nothing about how the White House was operated. We had to keep these people together so that we would have a continuity of the running of the Government. We purposely made that decision because we needed them, and there should be no blanket-turnout of people who knew what they were doing when we did not. So, those people were largely kept because of that fact. Secondly, Steve Early, who had already announced his retirement from the White House, stayed on to help us in that transition, and to work out a blend between the White House people of Roosevelt and the little group that Truman arrived with.

HESS: Did he ask you to do this to take on yourself the responsibility of looking out after the staff?

HESS: Shortly after he became President, he left for Potsdam, of course. Was this part of your duties when he was gone?

CONNELLY: Yes, he asked me to go to Potsdam with him, and I said, "No, I think somebody should be here to take care of the store." So, I stayed in Washington while he was in Potsdam, to coordinate the communications between the White House and him in Potsdam, and of course, on route.

who worked in the White House during Mr. Truman's administration. Some of these were holdovers from the Roosevelt administration. Some of them came in sometime later, but I'd just like to ask you a few questions about these various individuals, and a little bit about what their backgrounds were, what their duties were in the White House, how effective they were in those duties, and things of that nature. Let's start with the gentlemen who were Special Counsels to the President, the first one being Samuel I. Rosenman.

CONNELLY: Judge Rosenman had been counsel to President Roosevelt for several years, and in the same theory of keeping Roosevelt's people together because they should know what was being done in the White House, what was required, Judge Rosenman agreed to stay on and help President Truman, and did for several

HESS: He left on February 1, 1946. He was there a little less than a year. What seemed to be his relationship with President Truman?

CONNELLY: It was a very close relationship. President Truman relied on him for legal decisions and points that had the legality problem, and he helped him on legislation, and he helped him on messages to Congress. He had been formerly a speech writer for President Roosevelt, and I believe, he and Robert Sherwood wrote most of Roosevelt's principal speeches. But the Roosevelt style and the Truman style were two different things in making a speech, because Truman would not be effective in using the Roosevelt technique in speechmaking. They were two different people, two different personalities. If he had copied Roosevelt he would have not come over as being very sincere.

HESS: Tell me how Mr. Truman's speaking ability evolved and developed during this time?

CONNELLY: Well, when I first worked with Mr. Truman on the Truman Committee, the few minor experiences I had with him in speechmaking were pretty sad. He had a great tendency to want to get things over, and you'd give him a prepared speech and he couldn't wait until he got to the end of a sentence so that he could get started on the next one. As a result, the delivery was terrible.

CONNELLY: No. He made a speech at some kind of lawn party in Washington, and it was a pretty sad situation. When he became Vice President one of the first things I wanted to do was to try to correct that little fault of his about rushing through a speech.

CONNELLY: We had a boy named Leonard Reinsch, who was a speech adviser on radio, which was the media, of course, in those days; and he was from the Cox Broadcasting Company. He had worked on the technical side of speeches for Roosevelt, in presentation and engineering, and so forth. So, when Truman returned to Missouri to prepare for his campaign for Vice President, I brought Leonard Reinsch to Kansas City. Leonard Reinsch and I made

arrangements with a friend of Mr. Truman's, named Tom Evans, who owned a radio station. He had a studio set aside at his station and we'd have Mr. Truman come up there to work on the speech of acceptance that he was going to make in Lamar, Missouri, his hometown. We had a text of the speech, and we would have him come up to the studio every morning, and have him run through it and record it, and we'd play it back to him and point out where the bugs were. Eventually, we finally worked him down to completing a sentence without running through it. So, he turned out to be much improved, and as he went along, eventually he had more confidence, and he made a better speech. But it took a little training.

HESS: Who worked with you on writing that particular speech? Did you help write that acceptance speech?

CONNELLY: No, I don't believe so. I think that was largely developed at the National Committee.

HESS: That was the speech at his birthplace when he was informed that he was the official nominee of the party, is that right?

CONNELLY: Yes, a committee of Senators went out to announce to him that he had been selected. We had a very funny experience. Tom Connally was to introduce him, the Senator from Texas. We looked at Senator Connally's speech, and it was too long. We made a very bad mistake, Reinsch and myself. We just crossed out what Connally was not supposed to say in the speech, but we didn't block it out, so when Connally got up to make his speech, he ignored our markings and continued on and cut in on the President's time. But that was one of those things, because Senators are not known for terminal facilities.

HESS: We discussed Tuesday about a few of the speeches that were given during the campaign and some of the people that helped in the writing on those, but after Mr. Truman became President, who helped write the initial speeches, who helped write the speeches that were given, let's say, shortly after he became President?

CONNELLY: Initially it was George Allen, his man Friday, Eddie Reynolds, who was a speech writer, and had several college degrees, a good writer.

CONNELLY: He had been with George Allen for many years in private industry. Judge Rosenman, I'm not sure that Clark Clifford was there. I don't believe he had gotten to the White House at that time. And myself.

CONNELLY: He came to the White House with Commodore Vardaman, who became Naval Aide to the President, shortly after we arrived at the White House, he was brought back to be Naval Aide by General Vaughan, who had served with him in World War I in the artillery.

CONNELLY: In the Second World War Vardaman entered the Navy. He was in Okinawa and General Vaughan brought him back to become Naval Aide to the President.

HESS: I have it down that Mr. Vardaman came in on May 4^th of '45, shortly after. The first date that I have for Clifford is about the same. In fact, it's about a month earlier. I'll have to check that. I have an April the 4^th date, and that's probably wrong.

CONNELLY: That's wrong, because I know that he did not arrive until Vardaman picked him as his assistant.

HESS: So, he was assistant naval aide, probably brought in at the same time--it's a typographical error.

Also, in Mr. Truman's Memoirs he states that Judge Rosenman helped him write the twenty one point message that was sent to Congress on September 6, 1945.

CONNELLY: I believe that is correct, but I think the principal architect in this speech was Clifford.

CONNELLY: I don't recall. I sat in on the discussion about the speech, but my contribution to speeches were largely negative. If I knew something didn't quite agree with the President's own thinking, I'd object to it. If there was a word used, or a phrase used that you have difficulty in delivering, I would object to that. When he first read the draft of a speech, I always sat in and went through the speech, and he would make changes, or suggestions, or he would want to say it his way, and then when we got through with that discussion, he would take that draft home, and he would have Mrs. Truman review it. And if she didn't like some phase of it, she would

make corrections. So we would finally get together again, and work out the final product. There are many instances, in fact, in most, where the President himself made the changes or revisal to what he wanted to say.

HESS: Was the President usually present at the first session when it was first discussed what was going to be in a speech?

CONNALLY: That's correct. And then there would probably be six or seven of the staff in the White House work on the draft of a speech.

They would probably wind up with seven drafts before they would finally present it to him. He would read it in front of the staff who had worked on the speech, he would read it aloud, and then he would be interrupted from time to time for changes.

CONNELLY: Clark Clifford, Rosenman--Rosenman originally--Charles Murphy, David Bell, David Lloyd--there are a few more--George E1sey.

CONNELLY: Charles Ross sat in, yes. He never participated in writing the speeches, but he always sat in on the review of the draft.

CONNELLY: He was there as an editor, but he didn't have time with his job to be a creator. But he would be an editor of every one of them.

HESS: Judge Rosenman left the White House in February of 1946, did he play any particular role in White House affairs after he left?

CONNELLY: No, other than contributions of ideas for speeches or messages to Congress.

CONNELLY: Yes, he did, for quite a while. When there was a message to Congress going up,

Clark Clifford, who had succeeded him, would call him and ask him to come to Washington and sit in on the preparation of a draft for a presidential message or a presidential speech.

CONNELLY: I do not know if he helped Charles Murphy. I think by that time since Clifford left, I believe Rosenman did not contribute after that.

CONNELLY: Well, I'm pretty sure that Judge Rosenman was long gone on contributing to speeches.

HESS: Now, the Judge did come back and help some in 1948, isn't that right, for the preparation of the convention, for the matters that went on at the convention?

CONNELLY: That's right. I think he came back to help Clark Clifford prepare the usual draft, which was not a speech, it was an outline.

CONNELLY: Well, instead of making a formal speech, we decided that the best thing to do was to make an outline and let the President make the best impression off-the-cuff, with guidance from an outline. He was a much better speaker off-the-cuff than he was from reading a printed text.

CONNELLY: I believe Rosenman helped on that with Clifford. The same group that Clifford had working on the other speeches set up the outline.

HESS: Why didn't he assist through the entire production, the convention and the campaign? Why was he there just for the convention, do you recall?

CONNELLY: Oh, no, no. He may have given some telephonic advice but he didn't actively participate in the campaign.

HESS: And when he left there was a period of time from February the lst until July the lst, when there was no Special Counsel. Was there any particular reason for that lapse of time?

CONNELLY: That was because the President wanted to make sure that he would get somebody who could follow in Rosenman's steps and knew what the job would be about and eventually he settled for Clark Clifford.

HESS: Had Mr. Clifford been active in any way in Mr. Truman's senatorial campaigns?

HESS: Was the role that he played as Special Counsel different in any significant manner than that played by Judge Rosenman?

CONNELLY: Well, it was fundamentally the same. It was a question of examining bills that came to the President for signature and also getting the opinions of department heads, and making recommendations for signature or veto. His position was largely legality of documents that the President had to approve or disapprove.

CONNELLY: Oh, certainly, he gave him opinions and suggestions like everybody on the staff did.

CONNELLY: I would say that Mr. Clifford was too academic to be a good political adviser, because Mr. Clifford's experience in politics had been nil, so from the point of practicality, I would not say he was a very good political adviser.

CONNELLY: Mr. Clifford had an ambition to become Attorney General, and when the President appointed an Attorney General to succeed Attorney General Clark, Mr. Clifford was very

unhappy, and he told me himself that he was under the impression that he would be the new Attorney General. We had luncheon one day and I explained to him that it was a political problem. There are little divisions in our country such as Catholics and Protestants, and I knew that President Truman was going to be severely criticized for not replacing Frank Murphy on the Supreme Court, who was a Catholic, by replacing him with Clark who was not--Tom Clark. So, I told Clifford probably what the reason might be. Mr. Truman had a little problem making that decision, and there would be great reaction among Catholic groups but by appointing a successor to Tom Clark as Attorney General who was a Catholic--I knew I would get the brunt being one myself, but if the criticism came to me I would have a complete offset.

CONNELLY: That is correct. And if they came to me I would say, "Well, when did you have two Catholics on the Cabinet?" And there was no argument.

CONNELLY: Certainly I did. And he agreed with me. As a matter of fact, I suggested McGrath.

HESS: Was there much of an objection raised at the time that Tom Clark was appointed to the Supreme Court, to the effect that it should have been a Catholic appointment?

CONNELLY: All over the country. Being a Catholic, I was the fellow who got the heat from the Catholic groups.

CONNELLY: He could care less. He had no religious bigotry at all. He didn't care what you were if you could do a job.

HESS: Had Mr. Clifford discussed the possibility with Mr. Truman about his becoming Attorney General?

CONNELLY: At one time President Truman--Mr. Clifford told me--offered Mr. Clifford an appointment as Under Secretary of State and Mr. Clifford told me that he didn't want that, but that someday he would like to be the Attorney General. He told me that Mr. Truman said, "Well, I'll keep that in mind."

When McGrath was appointed, Clifford, naturally, was upset, and that was what brought about his departure from the White House.

was appointed Special Counsel to the President. What can you tell me about Mr. Murphy? What was his background and how did he come to be a member of the White House staff?

CONNELLY: Charles Murphy had worked as legislative counsel to the Senate. He had been there for several years and he was well-known to Mr. Truman, and was highly respected up there. Charles Murphy is and was then a very able lawyer. One time when we were trying to build up a new staff, which could be Truman's staff, I invited Mr. Murphy to lunch. We had lunch, and I told him that the President would like to have him in the White House. He said, "Well, I would kind of like it too, but I've got to get clearance with Senator Barkley," who was then, I believe, the majority leader.

So, he went back to the Capitol, and he talked with Senator Barkley who was not very happy about the idea. Barkley wanted to know if the White House was trying to steal his brains. Murphy called me and he said, "It's no dice. Barkley won't let me go."

I'd say that within about a year later, Murphy called me and he said, "Is that job still open? I talked to Senator Barkley today and he thinks he's standing in my way, and I can take the job if it's still open."

I said, "You've got a job," which pleased Mr. Truman very much, because he had very great respect for Charles Murphy.

HESS: He was Administrative Assistant from December of 1946 until February the lst of 1950, when he became Special Counsel. Did he carry on the job of Special Counsel in any different manner than

CONNELLY: I would say only in one way, because the same problems arose for him that arose for Clifford. I would say that he was a little less flamboyant. He was a very level headed fellow, his feet were on the ground, and his main ambition was to do a job, where I believe Clifford's ambition went a little beyond the job he was in. All of the time I was with Murphy he never indicated in any way that he wanted to be anywhere but where he was. I would say that that was the principal difference.

HESS: The gentlemen who held the job as Secretary to the President, your name is first, we'll just skip that name, and start with William D. Hassett.

the Roosevelt administration and we used to call him the "Poet Laureate of the White House." His job was to write messages for the President's signature, write proclamations, which the President also signed. But that's principally what his activity was.

CONNELLY: He was an old newspaperman and one of the assistant press secretaries to Steve Early under Roosevelt. We made him Correspondence Secretary technically, but he was still Secretary to the President.

CONNELLY: He sat in on them, but he contributed very little because he was, I'd say, in the stratosphere. He was a literary figure. But as a politician, no.

HESS: And for the last few months of the administration after the death of Joseph Short, his wife was Correspondence Secretary.

CONNELLY: I made the suggestion to President Truman after Joe Short died, because we had a very short time to go, that it would be a nice tribute to Joe Short as a loyal and hard worker for Mr. Truman to appoint his wife to that position. So that the President agreed with. But Mrs. Short never had the real authority that her husband had, and after Bill Hassett resigned, we put her in Bill's place and got Roger Tubby, formerly from the State Department to become Press Secretary. That was close to the end of the administration.

HESS: The White House press office: We start off with J. Leonard Reinsch. Mr. Reinsch was in the press office for just a little while from April 12 to May 15. Why was he there for such a short time?

CONNELLY: Mr. Reinsch wanted very much to be press secretary, but the White House press, even more so than today, was press, in other words, newspapermen, and they personally resented what they called a radio man. They didn't like the idea of a radio man being press man for the President. That was very widely discussed between the President and myself, and I made a suggestion to the President that I go to Steve Early who was still at the White House and ask Steve to make a poll of the press people at the White House (the White House correspondents) and to have them recommend who should be Press Secretary. Because I wanted somebody who would

be respected by the press, and who could be accepted by the President. So Steve Early took that poll. He came to me with two recommendations and he told me that he didn't think the President would go for either one of them. I asked, "Why?"

He said, "They both are with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch," which had been very violently opposed to Senator Truman when he was Senator.

I said, "Well, those are the recommendations, let's give them to the President. Let him make up his mind."

So Steve Early said, "Mr. President, these are the two top boys on the list. One is Charlie Ross, St. Louis Post-Dispatch; and the other is Pete Brandt, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The President grinned and said, "You know, I was thinking about Charlie Ross myself.

Did you know he was a classmate of Mrs. Truman and myself in the Independence High School?" which neither Steve Early nor I knew.

So Steve Early was flabbergasted, of course, but pleased. He said, "Well, I'll get in touch with him."

Charlie was covering the United Nations in San Francisco at that time. When he finished his tour of duty out there, he came back to Washington. Steve Early set up an appointment to have him come over and see the President. The President had left by the time that Charlie Ross arrived; he had gone back to the Blair House, where he was living at that time. We went over to see the President, and he said, "Charlie, how are you? I want you to be my Press Secretary."

He said, "Well, I want to know." So, he turned to me and said, "Matt, get that no-good Pulitzer on the phone. I want to talk to him," which I did.

So, he told Pulitzer, the Post-Dispatch publisher, that he wanted Charlie Ross for Press Secretary. Pulitzer said it was a great honor. He said, "Mr. Pulitzer, I'm not through with you yet. Where's Charlie Ross on his retirement? Is he going to lose it?"

Pulitzer told him, "No, no, we'll take care of that. He'll have his retirement."

He said, "O.K., I wouldn't accept him if he was going to be cut out of his retirement." So, that was arranged.

We sat down again. Truman sent for some drinks to celebrate the occasion. We had the

first drink and he turned to me and said, "Matt, get Miss Tillie Brown in Independence on the phone."

So, I finally got Miss Tillie Brown. The President got on the phone and the President said, "Miss Tillie, who do you think this is?"

Well, it was such a touching scene. Steve Early was a pretty touch guy, a hard-boiled newspaperman. But I can be very frank

and say that Steve Early and I had little droplets when we heard that conversation. Steve Early finally said when we left that day, "Boy, what a man. I'll never forget it. I loved Roosevelt, but we have a President."

CONNELLY: I suggested to the President that the gracious way to do it was to call James Cox, who was the former candidate for President, and was head of Cox Enterprises, and have Cox tell Leonard Reinsch that he, Cox, could not afford to let him go, that he was too vital to his organization, which was done.

HESS: What kind of duties did Mr. Reinsch undertake in behalf of the White House after that time?

call Mr. Reinsch and tell him to come to Washington, that the President was going on the air, and we wanted him there to supervise the broadcasts.

HESS: Charles Ross is next on the list. What kind of a Press Secretary did Charles Ross make?

CONNELLY: Charles Ross was a very intelligent, quiet, but effective Press Secretary. Charles Ross had the ability to exude confidence. And the press corps admired him tremendously. And having been picked by them, or the key members of that group, they naturally couldn't take any offense to his appointment, because they had recommended him. Charles Ross, all during his job in the White House, became an excellent

Press Secretary. He had great relations with the responsible members of the press, and he made a great Press Secretary.

CONNELLY: The same as they would be at the White House. He would brief the press on what was going to happen, and what they should expect, where the speeches were going to be, so that they were completely filled in on all the activities of the day. If some event came up which came through from Washington, he would inform them of any developments from the home office. Every trip that the President made, Charles was there.

HESS: Mr. Ross died on the afternoon of December 5, 1950. I understand that that evening was the evening when Margaret Truman was singing at Constitution Hall and the next day, I believe that there was a letter written to a critic by the name of Paul Hume. Is that right?

CONNELLY: I recall it very well. I arrived in the office the next morning and the President called me in and said, "I want you to read something."

He had this longhand letter and I read it and I said, "You're not going to send this."

He said, "I knew you'd say that. It's already been mailed." He said, "You don't like that?"

So, I read that. I looked at it and I said, "All right, I'll settle for the one you mailed."

HESS: I believe that when Charles Ross died, Steve Early was called back for just a couple of days, wasn't he, two or three days, to act as Press Secretary?

CONNELLY: That's right. When Charles Ross died I called Steve Early. John Snyder was at the concert and I was in the next box and at the intermission, Snyder called me over and said, "Well, what are you going to do about Charlie

I said, "Yes, I'll call Steve Early when I get home from the concert, and ask him to fill in until the President decides who he wants." So, Steve Early agreed and showed up at the staff meeting the next morning.

He said, "Oh, Matt called me last night and asked me if I would fill in temporarily until you decided on a successor to Charlie Ross. That's why I'm here."

So, naturally, Truman expressed his appreciation because it took Steve away from a private job. Until Truman made his decision on who he wanted, Steve remained on the job.

CONNELLY: He was with the Pullman Company--Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Company, railroad cars.

CONNELLY: Mr. Hillman had the same qualifications that Mr. Reinsch had. He was a radio man. At that time he was a radio commentator. But he had been helping John Snyder improve his public image. John, in those days, was not received very well in the press. He was a number one target for a fellow named Drew Pearson. So Bill Hillman was moved in to help him with his press relations. Naturally, having that association with Bill, it was the first thing that Snyder thought of in connection with the White House job.

CONNELLY: Mr. Truman chose him himself. He had watched him during the campaign--Joe Short covered the campaign--he covered the presidential trips, and he impressed Mr. Truman.

CONNELLY: Baltimore Sun, that's right. He was a correspondent for the Baltimore Sun at the White House.

CONNELLY: Yes, he did, but of course, he was an anticlimax. Following Charlie Ross, naturally, was a letdown for the press. But he made a very effective Press Secretary.

CONNELLY: Because of the respect they had for Charlie Ross, he was a "dean," but Joe was

one of their own. You know the old story--prophet without honor in your own territory.

HESS: September 18, 1952, and at that time, Irving Perlmeter and Roger Tubby were both placed as Acting Press Secretaries for just a short while until Mr. Tubby was made Press Secretary by himself in December of that year. What kind of men were Mr. Perlmeter and Mr. Tubby?

CONNELLY: Well, Mr. Tubby had been information officer at the State Department, and Joe Short regarded him very highly. Mr. Perlmeter, Short knew him through, I believe, through Internal Revenue. But he had always been more or less a Government information officer. He didn't have the wide connections with the national press that Tubby had had with the

HESS: And the Assistant Press Secretary under Charles Ross had been Eben Ayers. What do you recall of Mr. Ayers?

CONNELLY: Eben Ayers had been with Steve Early for many years, I believe, prior to our coming to the White House. And then Charlie Ross took over, he kept Eben Ayers on as his assistant. But Eben had very little opportunity to front for him, because Charlie Ross

CONNELLY: Oh, yes. He had to be or he wouldn't have been there. Charlie Ross ran his department. Nobody else in the White House interfered.

HESS: And as the gentlemen who had the post of Administrative Assistants, I'll start off with--I have these by the date that they came to the White House dating back into the Roosevelt period. The first few names are holdovers from the Roosevelt administration. William McReynolds?

CONNELLY: William McReynolds was the personnel officer for Roosevelt and shortly after we came into the White House we began to get a little information about his activities, and he

was not the type of man who would represent Mr. Truman's thinking about Government.

CONNELLY: Well, number one, he was widely criticized for nepotism. I believe he had about nine relatives on the Federal payroll, which did not appeal very much to Mr. Truman. And shortly thereafter, he pulled a few indiscreet acts as director of personnel.

CONNELLY: This I don't recall; there were minor things, but they were important indications that he was not going to be Truman's man. So he had a departure shortly thereafter.

CONNELLY: James M. Barnes was a very able fellow, a lawyer in Washington. He was very well liked by the President, but Mr. Truman had an idea about filling his particular spot. He wanted to get his own men, because you can't operate an army or a family unless somebody is with the army or with the family. James Barnes remained a very close friend with President Truman, but President Truman thought he had someone else for the job he wanted done. So it was an amicable departure.

CONNELLY: I forget in what niche Barnes operated. Each one of the Administrative Assistants had a certain function, but who succeeded him I couldn't say.

CONNELLY: Lauchlin Currie was administrative assistant on foreign affairs and I believe he left and went over to the State Department.

CONNELLY: Jonathan Daniels had been appointed by Roosevelt to succeed Steve Early as Press Secretary when Steve resigned, and he was Press Secretary when we arrived. He was a very highly emotional fellow. He frankly went pretty much to pieces after Roosevelt died. We knew that he did not have the stability that the President would want in this job.

HESS: I have heard that Stephen Early made the announcement of President Roosevelt's death and that Jonathan Daniels resented that somewhat, since he was officially Press Secretary at the time. Is that correct?

HESS: He was Administrative Assistant to the President until May of 1945. He did come back to assist in the 1948 campaign. Whose idea was it to bring Mr. Daniels back to assist in the '48 campaign?

CONNELLY: No, he was always friendly, the President was always friendly with him, partly because of his father. The President respected his father very much, Josephus Daniels, who was Secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson.

HESS: Did Mr. Daniels make any of the campaign trips in 1948? 1 believe there was one when they went down South, North Carolina...

HESS: Did Mr. Daniels ever express an interest to you in returning to the Government in any capacity?

CONNELLY: Well, we were at Key West one time and the President invited him down to visit with him while we were on this vacation trip, and Jonathan approached me at Key West one evening, I remember it very well, and he asked me if I would talk to the President about making him Secretary of the Navy. I said, "Well, I'll talk to him, but these things he has to do himself. They're not my appointments. All I can do is to tell him that you're interested."

I said, "Certainly." And I did. I didn't get a very loud response from the President on the suggestion.

CONNELLY: He handled minority group problems for Roosevelt, and we kept him in the same job, because he was very effective. He was very effective with the Jewish groups, Negro groups, Slav groups, in fact, all the minority groups in the United States David Niles was effective with. And they had great respect for him and they trusted him.

HESS: Was he a very effective political adviser when it came to advice on minority groups?

CONNELLY: Oh, very much so. Originally he was with Harry Hopkins and Harry Hopkins was

administrator of WPA and David Niles was an assistant to him. Then when Harry Hopkins came to the White House, he brought David Niles with him.

CONNELLY: That is correct. He was also very effective in the problems we had in connection with the recognition of Israel.

CONNELLY: Well, he used to get the sentiments from the Jewish groups around the country. He used to get information that was not available to the State Department. The State Department was not widely accepted by the Jewish groups in this country. But he worked very closely with me and with Clark Clifford in advising the President on the whole Israeli situation.

HESS: Do you recall a few of the names of the people with whom he had contact in these various Jewish groups?

CONNELLY: Well, you can name your pick, David Dubinsky, Abraham Feinberg. You name any leader in the Jewish faction, and he had intimate contacts with him.

CONNELLY: Mr. Feinberg was in private business. He was the president, I believe at that time, of the Kayser Company, who manufactured hosiery and women’s wear. Then he later became a partner in Kayser Roth, which is probably the largest in the business now. He later became chairman, I believe he was

chairman of the executive committee of the American Trust and Banking Company here in New York.

CONNELLY: He was intimately associated with the leadership to try to get the recognition of Israel. And of course, clandestinely, I found out later, he arranged for the shipment of armament to Israel during that war they were having after the partition.

CONNELLY: Oh, very much so, very much so. He was interested in the picture, what was going on,

so being in the practice of law outside and having no connection with the Government, he was in a position to get information which would be helpful in resolving the whole problem. He used to report to Mr. Niles and to me about what he had learned in various Jewish groups around New York and from people who were financing the campaign around New York. That information came to us primarily through Max Lowenthal and through David Niles.

CONNELLY: After the death of David Niles, I selected Abe Feinberg myself as our point of contact, because we used to get requests from the heads of different Jewish groups and not having knowledge of who was who or what was what or what their angle was, I could call Abe Feinberg and ask him about this

CONNELLY: That's right. That's after Niles died, because prior to that time Niles handled everything of that nature. Philleo Nash followed Niles. He had been an assistant to Niles, but he didn't have the contacts that Niles had.

HESS: Mr. Nash had been in the White House from about '45 or '46 until '51 when he was made Administrative Assistant at the time of the death of David Niles.

CONNELLY: Yes, he was very effective, but he did not have the experience that Niles had. What he had learned he had learned through his association with Niles. But he was very effective.

HESS: Were there any tasks that Mr. Nash could carry out that Mr. Niles would not? What I have reference to here is perhaps speech writing, or messages to Congress--were there things that he worked on that Mr. Niles did not?

CONNELLY: Not that I would know of. If there were, they were very incidental, maybe he would make a suggestion connected with something involving a minority group which should be included in a presidential message. But those were channeled through Clifford or Murphy.

HESS: When Mr. Niles was living, did he like for everything dealing with minorities to be handled in his office? Did he want to know what was going on in minority affairs?

CONNELLY: Whether he wanted to know or not I can't answer. But I know that that was the duty assigned to him, to keep informed about what was going on, what the opinion was, what their moods were.

CONNELLY: I believe he followed McReynolds. He had been with the Internal Revenue Service. He was a career man, and he was in charge of personnel records at Internal Revenue, so looking around for a successor to McReynolds, Schoeneman was recommended by Bob Hannegan, who was then Democratic National Chairman and who had been

previously Commissioner of Internal Revenue. He recommended Schoeneman to take over that slot, which he did.

HESS: He was liaison officer for personnel management for awhile, and then special executive assistant. Then he left in 1947.

CONNELLY: Yes, he left. The President admired him very much, and he appointed him to a vacancy as Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

CONNELLY: Raymond R. Zimmerman was originally suggested by George Schoeneman. He was more or less a career man in personnel around Washington. He never cut the mustard, so he had a pretty short career.

CONNELLY: Richmond B. Keech was recommended by, I believe, the senior judge of that time with the courts in the District of Columbia. And Richmond B. Keech came in on legal problems. He was very able and gained the respect of the President. When a vacancy occurred on the courts in Washington, the President appointed him.

HESS: That was in October of '46 after being there one year, October of '45 to October '46. And Donald Dawson came in in 1947.

CONNELLY: That's right. He was with the RFC, and he was director of personnel, I believe at RFC. I had known of his activity, and I checked him out pretty well. He was brought in then to take the personnel job, which he

HESS: Mr. Dawson later had a little trouble with his old RFC connections, did he not?

CONNELLY: Frederick J. Lawton was originally with the Budget Bureau, and I believe he became chief of the Budget Bureau after the retirement of--was it Jim Webb or Frank Pace. I've forgotten which.

HESS: I believe he came from the Budget, and then he went back to the Budget after a short time at the White House. Do you recall why he was brought in? He was there from April of '48 until September of '48. Do you recall why he was brought in for this period of time?

CONNELLY: I do not recall offhand, unless it was connected with the preparation of the material for the next presidential message to Congress, economic report or something of that sort.

CONNELLY: I do not recall who recommended David Stowe. David Stowe had been active in labor relations, and he may have been suggested by John Steelman, but he arrived at the White House and he turned out to be a very effective, and a very efficient operator.

HESS: He was deputy to Mr. Steelman for several years, wasn't he, '47 to '49, deputy to The Assistant to the President?

CONNELLY: That probably is how that transition came about. And as a result of his activities with Steelman, then he became an administrative assistant.

CONNELLY: George Elsey was in the Navy when he first arrived at the White House, and I think he was in the so-called Map Room--a secret room at the White House--and he used to brief the President of secret movements during the war. And I believe as a result of that, Truman or Clifford recommended him--I believe Clifford probably recommended him as an administrative assistant after the war was out of the way.

HESS: Mr. Elsey left in 1951. Do you know why he left the White House at that time?

CONNELLY: Yes, I do. He had a little problem. He was talking when he should be listening.

CONNELLY: Well, there was information that sort of leaked out which was pretty well traced back

CONNELLY: I don't recall. I know it was some inside material that shouldn't have gotten out.

CONNELLY: I don't know who recommended him. But he was there for awhile, but he reported directly to Clifford. I had very little personal contact with him except at staff meetings, but he operated pretty much under Clifford.

HESS: I believe he was brought in in early 1948 to help write the President's message on civil rights, the so-called "Ten Point Message" of February the 2nd.

CONNELLY: That could be. Well, that would be Clark Clifford, I'm sure. Spingarn's father

CONNELLY: That's right, I believe so, I'm sure his father was one of the first presidents, if not the first president of the NAACP.

CONNELLY: Well, he would have been called back by Clark Clifford. He probably worked on speeches.

HESS: And then he left in October of 1950 to go to the Federal Trade Commission. Do you know why he made that switch from the White House to the Federal Trade Commission?

CONNELLY: I believe that would have been at the recommendation of Clark Clifford. I was never very close to Spingarn because he reported directly to Clifford and I had very little contact with him.

CONNELLY: David Lloyd came in principally as a speech writer, and I believe he was recommended by Clifford. But I know he reported directly to Clifford.

HESS: He came to the White House staff shortly after the 1948 campaign. He had been a member of the Research Division of the Democratic National Committee.

CONNELLY: That may well be. I don't recall. I never knew him until he arrived at the White House.

CONNELLY: He was very good as a speech writer, and also he was pretty alert as a researcher. He worked very hard in setting up the foundation of the Truman Library. And later, I believe, he became the Executive Director of the Truman Library Corporation.

HESS: He was brought over as an executive assistant at the White House both in '47 and in '49, and was brought over from the Bureau of the Budget during that time.

CONNELLY: That's right. I believe he was at the Bureau of the Budget--he'd worked principally with Clifford or Charlie Murphy, but I know he worked with the Counsel to the President.

HESS: Then he was administrative assistant on his own from December of '51 until the end of the administration.

CONNELLY: That came about because his work had been admired by the President during the time he had been assigned to the White House.

HESS: Do you recall anything that he may have had a hand in that we haven't mentioned?

CONNELLY: No, no, your best information on that would have to come from Charlie Murphy or Clark Clifford.

CONNELLY: Clayton Fritchey was an old newspaperman and we thought he might be helpful in connection with the campaign.

CONNELLY: He was more or less a liaison man for the press between the national committee and the White House.

HESS: And then I have a few people that I believe were on Dr. Steelman's staff, Dr. John R. Steelman. And he had two titles, at two

different times, as I understand. He was first Special Assistant to the President, from December of '45 until December of '46, and then he was The Assistant to the President. The first question is what had been his background and how did he come to be a member of the White House staff? The second question is why was he given the title The Assistant to the President?

CONNELLY: His background is that he had formerly been Director of Conciliation in the Labor Department under Roosevelt. He was considered to be very able and knowledgeable about labor matters, and I believe somebody talked the President into bringing him in, because in those days after the war there was considerable labor difficulty. And he came in as an adviser to the President to give advice on labor matters. Now, I frankly didn't react too well to it

because I tried to convince the President that he would be overriding his own Secretary of Labor with that relationship. But he thought about it and decided to do it anyway. So then he became really the labor boy after that. And that was his principal function.

HESS: Did it create any problems between the White House and the Labor Department?

CONNELLY: Naturally, there was a little resentment initially, but it was worked in such a way that the Labor Secretary was convinced that this would be helpful to him.

CONNELLY: I'm not certain of this because it's merely hearsay with me, but I believe he had a conversation with the President and convinced him that in the interest of prestige that he would like to have that title. Beyond that I don't know.

HESS: How did he get along with the people who held the job Special Counsel, Clifford and Murphy?

CONNELLY: No, not that I can recall because the President wouldn't stand for it from the beginning, because he wanted each man to run his own show, and he did not want any interference between them. If there was a question of jurisdiction, he would decide, because he wanted a ball team.

CONNELLY: Minor ones, but they never got out of hand. The President would never allow them to get out of hand.

HESS: I will just name a couple of the people who worked for him, there were quite a few. Russell P. Andrews?

CONNELLY: Bill Bray used to be secretary to Jim Farley when he was Postmaster General and Bill Bray needed a job and he had done some favors for Truman when he was Senator--through Farley, of course--as a result of that, I talked to Truman and told him Bill Bray was not doing very well and he had

a political background and could be helpful to us and he put him on the staff. I believe he worked under Steelman.

CONNELLY: Oh, yes, he came on as sort of an assistant to me. He would greet the local politicians, because most of them knew him, having been with Farley. He was very helpful in that vein, as he was in Michigan, there was a state delegation that would ride from Detroit to the next town where they were from, that sort of thing. He would greet them first and make the arrangements to bring them in to meet the President on their way off the train. We'd have them in one car and bring them through the President's car and they would be able to get off at their own home stations so the local people could say that they had seen the President, and they got a handshake

with the President on the way out. They filed through the door just like a receiving line so they could say that they saw the President and had shaken hands with him and the local people could see them off at the back end of the train.

HESS: Those were the dignitaries of a little higher stature, the ones that got to ride from one stop to the next, is that right?

key figures in the party in say a town like Lansing, well, they get off and they would say they were on the President's train and people would say, "That's right. I saw him getting off." It was just a political gimmick.

HESS: Who picked the people who do not get to ride from one station to another, but just come in and walk through the car and then get off?

HESS: Well, there are several others here, James Fitzgerald, does that ring a bell?

HESS: These are all men who worked for Mr. Steelman, I won't read the whole list.

All right, here's a few people who held jobs as special assistant to the President for various assignments. I won't read them all. How about Edwin A. Locke, Jr.? Now, we mentioned him Tuesday, when we were discussing the Truman Committee. Mr. Truman used him several times as his personal

representative of the President for China in 1945 as special assistant to the President in 1946 and '47. Was there any discussion at any time of bringing Mr. Locke in as a permanent member of the White House staff?

CONNELLY: I believe the President offered Mr. Locke that opportunity, but he was doing well in outside business, as a matter of fact, I believe he's now vice president of a bank here in New York. I believe Chase. But he never wanted to get involved on a permanent basis. He was brought in on special assignments, which he conducted very well, too.

HESS: Kenneth Hechler was special assistant to the President from '49 to the end of the administration. What was his background?

representative in Congress from West Virginia, but he reported sort of jointly, I believe, to Steelman and Charlie Murphy.

HESS: Richard Neustadt was special assistant from 1950 until the end of the administration.

CONNELLY: That's right. He was one of the top speech writers for the President. He later became a professor, I believe, at Harvard.

HESS: There were some men that had the title of legislative assistants that served on the White House staff, and they were brought in in 1949. That brings up several different subjects, as well as just these men, it brings up the general subject of congressional liaison. Joseph Feeney and Charles Maylon

were brought into the White House staff in 1949 with the definite title: Legislative Assistant to the President, but there had been no one on the staff with that title until this time. How was the business of legislative liaison handled before these men were brought in?

CONNELLY: Well, of course, every Congressman and every Senator wants to talk to the President and if that happened there wouldn't be room for anybody else, so it had to be done on a lower level. If they had a local problem in their own state and wanted to call it to the attention of the President, or they had some bill that they were interested in that

they may have sponsored, or we may have had some bills that we wanted to get down on the Hill, and to inform the right sources they could be done either of two ways: Either at the meeting in what we called the "Big Four" with the President, the leaders of the House and the Senate; at the lower level I would handle it myself. Then it got to be too much because I had too much to do, so I hired Feeney for the Senate because he had been liaison man in the Senate for several years for the Navy, and Maylon had been liaison man for the Air Force. So they both knew the Hill and the members on the Hill because of previous favors they had done for Senators and Congressmen.

CONNELLY: I picked them, with the approval of the President, of course. So they used to do the

leg work for me on the Hill which I formerly had to do on my own, which I didn't have time for.

HESS: Now the "Big Four" meeting usually was on Monday morning, is that correct?

HESS: Did they really discuss business--matters of congressional liaison business during those meetings?

CONNELLY: And after Lucas was McFarland. He succeeded Barkley as majority leader. From the House was Rayburn and McCormack.

HESS: Would the President conduct some of this liaison himself? If he wanted to take something up with someone in the House, would he phone Sam Rayburn?

HESS: Whereas, in some administrations or under some speakers it might have been all right to phone someone else on the Hill, but for Mr. Rayburn wasn't it usually the accepted practice to centralize your phone calls and phone him when you wanted something, is that right?

CONNELLY: That's correct. The President always believed in working with the leader. Unless there was some particular Senator in charge of some committee he wanted to get a message to where the bill was in that committee and he wanted his views known to that chairman of that committee.

CONNELLY: Very influential. He was secretary of the Senate and he'd been there for a long time and he was respected by the members of the Senate.

CONNELLY: Yes, he did. If he didn't, I would. As a matter of fact, we had a direct line from his office to the President's office.

CONNELLY: Yes. Leslie used to have about three phones in his office and the White House phone was designated by a red, white and blue ribbon he had wrapped around the telephone.

CONNELLY: No, no, he operated in different channels doing the same thing. He had been in the Senate, as you know.

CONNELLY: That's right. And then he was defeated, and the President liked him and he needed something to do, so he would visit different Senators he knew on a very close basis. He used his influence to get what the President wanted.

HESS: One list that I have found--I do not have it with me today--listed as being an employee in your office or under your supervision was Franklin N. Parks, one of the old Truman Committee men.

CONNELLY: Well, Franklin Parks I called in on a special assignment with Herbert Maletz.

CONNELLY: They were brought in to prepare a case for General Vaughan when he was appearing before a congressional committee, and they came in at my request to work with Max Lowenthal in setting up testimony for General Vaughan to give before the committee.

CONNELLY: Oh, I forget now explicitly, but they were doing a little smear job on the General. They brought up the old "deep freeze" situation where Vaughan had arranged to get some deep freeze units for members of the White House staff and other people in the official family.

HESS: Were there any other times when Parks and Maletz were used during the days of the Truman administration?

HESS: The Military and Naval personnel: The Chief of Staff to the President was Fleet Admiral William B. Leahy. He was there from April 12, '45 until March, '48. What kind of a man was Admiral Leahy?

CONNELLY: Admiral Leahy was a very capable naval officer. He was also a very intelligent fellow and he had been there under Roosevelt as a sort of a White House contact with the Navy Department, in fact all the military, and the White House. And he had two offices, one in the White House and one in the Pentagon. He would report every morning to the President on military and military secret problems, which I had nothing to do with and wanted nothing to do with because if there was any leak, I would not have a finger point to me. So all top secret information regarding military matters was brought to the President every

morning after the staff meeting by Admiral Leahy and usually the Naval Aide accompanied him.

HESS: For the Naval Aides, Vice Admiral Wilson Brown stayed around for just about a month after April the 12th.

HESS: And then the first Naval Aide was Commodore Vardaman whom we have mentioned.

CONNELLY: He succeeded Vardaman. He was recommended by the Navy Department to succeed Vardaman when Vardaman was moved up to the Federal Reserve Bank.

CONNELLY: Well, it was a fourteen year appointment. The President thought that Mr. Vardaman had been a little cause of annoyance while around the White House and getting into things that didn't belong to him or shouldn't have, so it was suggested by the President that Mr. Vardaman take this job at the Federal Reserve Bank and he could put his feet up on the desk for fourteen years, and that if he kept his mouth shut he would get along all right.

HESS: And Rear Admiral Robert L. Dennison came in in January of '45 and stayed until the end of the administration.

he was the captain of the Missouri when we made a trip to Rio. On the way back Admiral Foskett fell out of favor with the President because he wouldn't tend to his own chores, he was a little too impressed with sightseeing. So he told me he had to get a new Naval Aide. I called John Sullivan who was then Secretary of the Navy and told him that I'd like to see him. He came over and I told him the problem; so I said, "Will you go back and come up with three recommendations and get the files for each of the ones you recommend," which he did. So he came back and among his recommendations were Captain Dennison. So I said, "Well, I've got news for you, I don't think you have to go much further." I said, "He made a very fine impression on the President and on me on that trip back from Rio," because when we returned to Washington from Rio on the Missouri,

So he said, "Well, I'll tell you, there's one thing I'd like to do." He said, "The wife of the Naval Aide is very important, too."

"Suppose I set up a dinner at my house. Do you think the President and Mrs. Truman would come out so that they could both take a look at Mrs. Dennison?" I knew Mrs. Truman knew the Captain because she was on the Missouri and she liked him, but they didn't know Admiral Dennison's wife.

So they had dinner at Sullivan's house, and the next morning the President said, "We have a new Naval Aide." So Dennison came in, and Dennison stayed on until we left. He was very capable, bright, conservative--never pushed anything, but did a job.

HESS: And Commander John Tyree, Jr. was Assistant Naval Aide to the President for a short while.

HESS: Yes, it was and I think it continued under Truman for just a little while.

CONNELLY: Well, I believe he probably was there until Vardaman brought Clifford in.

HESS: And then Clark Clifford whom we have already discussed, and then Commander William Rigdon.

CONNELLY: That's right. Ridgon had been there prior to Truman, but he was sort of a junior officer. He never contributed anything to the policies of the office. He more or less was the office manager for Admiral Leahy and for the Naval Aide.

CONNELLY: Well, of course, the Naval Aide was really in charge, but Rigdon did the work.

CONNELLY: He was recommended by the Air Force. The President decided we should have a third aide, so Landry was recommended to the President by the Air Force and he became Air Force Aide. That caused a little consternation.

CONNELLY: Well, I recall that very well. I went out to lunch one day after Landry had arrived. When I got back--we used to have a receptionist in the White House lobby named Bill Simmons--when I got back from lunch, he said, "Mr. Secretary, would you go in and see Secretary Ross? The poor man has not been out for lunch."

And I said, "O.K." So I went in and Charlie Ross was at his desk, his head in his hands. I asked, "What's the matter?"

"Well," he said, "he met the press in the lobby today and they wanted to know what the situation was with the new Air Force Aide.

Well, he announced he was going to be senior aide and the other two aides would be under him."

HESS: Ross told me General Landry came in and said, "To hell with this, I'm going back to the Air Force."

So the President came back from lunch and I informed him, "We've got a little problem."

"Well, he had a press conference apparently and he announced he was going to be senior

"Look, as a favor to me could I bring Charlie Ross in and brighten him up a little bit?"

So with that he picked up the phone and called General Vaughan, "Harry get over here on the double."

So Charlie came in and Truman said, "Charlie, I'll straighten this out. Don't worry about it. I'll correct that." He said, "You go back and announce to the press there's not going to be any difference between the aides at the White House. Each will have their own positions and equal rank."

So Charlie went back through my office, and Vaughan came in and inquired, "What does he want? What does he want?"

So, I escorted him into the President and left. He came out with his tail between his legs, walked through my office without saying a word, and went back to his office. So that was the end of the seniority of Harry Vaughan as chief of the aides.

HESS: And General Vaughan was also coordinator of Veterans' Affairs from July of '46 until the end of the administration. Just exactly what did that post entail?

CONNELLY: Well, he would call the Veterans' Administration if there was somebody who wanted a transfer or somebody wanted to be upgraded or somebody would try to get into a veterans hospital, things of that sort.

HESS: There were a few men who served as special consultants at various times; George E. Allen was one.

CONNELLY: That's right. George Allen was the advance man for President Truman when he was running for Vice President and occasionally we had had contacts with Allen. I had worked with his assistant, a fellow named Eddie Reynolds, in writing speeches. He participated in some of the speeches when the President was Vice President and later contributed to some of the speeches after he became President.

HESS: Was Mr. Allen in Washington at the time Mr. Truman was sworn in on April the 12th?

CONNELLY: I am not sure. I believe--yes, I believe he was because he worked on the first drafts of the speech that the President had to

give to Congress and the speech that he had to make to the troops overseas. Yes, he was there.

CONNELLY: Allen and Eddie Reynolds, Hugh Fulton originally came in and he wanted to take over the speech which didn't go over very well with the rest of the boys. I expect toward the latter part, John Snyder may have been there. He was in Mexico when President Roosevelt died. He and Senator Symington may have been in on part of it. I believe Sam Rosenman was in on part of it.

HESS: The first official duty I have for George Allen was Personal Representative for the President for the Liquidation of War Agencies, and the starting date on that is August 30, 1945, and that ran until January

of '46, about six months, but was Mr. Allen at the White House between April and August?

CONNELLY: Yes, he spent part of that time on a study of the possible reorganization of the White House setup, and he was accompanied by two boys who were in the service. One was named Jim Windom, he was a commander in the Navy and another one named Sam McIlwain, who is now a law partner of Clark Clifford. Mr. Allen was, of course, senior, and these two other boys worked on the possible reorganization of the staff functions at the White House, probably streamlining them. And from that, I believe, he later became director of the RFC.

CONNELLY: Because he had so much experience in the banking business and insurance, and he was

CONNELLY: That's right. That was just on some special function. He was a Federal judge in Kansas City.

HESS: There are a couple of others; Harry Hopkins, Advisor and Assistant to the President from '41 to '45, '46 to '47. The President used him right after he came into office.

CONNELLY: I believe so. I believe he sent he and former Ambassador Joe Davies to Russia to make a personal report to him on what they could find out about what was going on in Moscow.

CONNELLY: I don't believe I know. I think it was partly on the recommendation of the State Department because Ambassador Davies had been Ambassador to Russia prior to that time.

HESS: And Major General Frank E. Lowe was President Truman's confidential observer in Korea. Do you recall anything about that?

CONNELLY: No, I don't know what that meant, you'd have to ask Harry Vaughan about that.

HESS: Now that, of course, doesn't cover everyone who was a staff member. A name that I skipped earlier was Ed McKim. Why was Ed McKim added to the staff?

CONNELLY: Ed McKim happened to be in Washington at the time that Roosevelt died, and he had been a friend of Truman's. He had been in his battery in World War I. He was a successful insurance man in Omaha, and Truman

suggested that as long as he was in town, he might just as well stick around and give him some help. So he was appointed an administrative assistant.

CONNELLY: Yes, he first went to the Chief Clerk at the White House and announced that he would be Chief Administrative Assistant, for which there was no such title.

CONNELLY: That's correct. So the Chief Clerk called me and said, "There's no provision for a title like that."

"Well," I said, "I knew nothing about the title. As far as I know he was administrative assistant, period, which he did revert to."

CONNELLY: Well, he didn't have any specific duties. He initially decided he was going to make an investigation of the White House personnel, and without any knowledge on my part or any knowledge on the President's part that I know of, he requested the FBI to make an investigation of all the White House personnel. So when that information got around--I believe the FBI did start--and one of the staff who had been with Roosevelt came to me and said, "They are beginning to grumble."

I said, "What's the matter? My job is to try to keep harmony between our people and the old crowd until we find out where we're at."

So I told the President about it and he said, "Well, he was a sergeant in my battery once, I busted him and I can bust him again. That's a fine way to make friends."

So to make it look good, he transferred him to another department and later he faded out and went back to his own business.

This pretty well finishes the things that I have on the staff. Have we left anyone out?

CONNELLY: Not that I can think of offhand. I think we've got it pretty well covered.

CONNELLY: Well, my senior girl was a girl named Roberta Barrows, and when I first arrived at the White House, Steve Early introduced me to her. She had been previously secretary to General [Edwin M.] Watson, who was my predecessor with Roosevelt, and prior to that with Marvin McIntyre, who was also a secretary of Roosevelt's, and she had been in the White House since the time of Herbert Hoover.. So Steve Early brought me in and introduced me to her and he suggested to me that if I had any sense, I would keep her on that desk because she knew the ropes. So I said, "Well, Steve, you should know."

He said, "Well one assurance I can give you beyond the fact that she's the right girl for the job, she’ll be as loyal to you as she would be to anybody else she has worked for."

So, I went out and I asked her if she'd like to have the job and she agreed. I said,

"I think you and I will get along well." She stayed with me until I left, but she knew every point in Government. She was a complete help to me, I frankly would have been lost without her there in the beginning and she made a great contribution not only to me personally but to the President himself. There wasn't any member of that White House staff that I: know of who didn't have the highest regard and respect for her. As a matter of fact, the staff was talking about her on one of our trips to Key West about the way she handled the telephone and the President was very much interested. So we came back and one day she was busy on the phone and she was looking out the window alongside her desk, and the President came out quietly and sat on the edge of my desk and just listened, when she turned around and was very much flustered with him being there without her

knowing it. She popped to her feet automatically. He said, "Now, sit down, young lady, I've heard about you and I came out here to learn," which, of course, pleased her. But he found out what the boys were talking about, and she made an amazing contribution to our effort. I know that neither he nor I will ever forget it.

HESS: How were relations between the members of the White House staff? Were there any conflicts that aren't generally known?

CONNELLY: No, because, as I said before, if any conflicts developed, the President would take care of them automatically. He wanted no part of that. He wanted a family.

HESS: On the subject of the President's staff meetings, or the staff meetings of the White House staff, how did the President run those

CONNELLY: He had a staff meeting every morning. Originally he had them at 9 and then later he put them off until 10, but at the staff meetings the same personnel were there at each meeting.

CONNELLY: They were attended by the three secretaries: Ross, Hassett and myself. They were attended by Steelman, and it varied in administrative assistants depending on what subject was coming up, sometimes there'd be three there or sometimes five, and also included, of course, was the counsel, but the regular members were the secretaries, counsel, Military Aide, Naval Aide, Air Force Aide and then additional administrative assistants, sometimes the pattern would vary.

conducted. It was done the same way every morning. Each member of the staff had a location around the desk. It started first with Bill Hassett who was on Truman's left hand, then it would go around in a semi circle. He would go around, Hassett first; then it would be Clifford or Murphy, counsel; then it would be one of the administrative assistants; then Dr. Steelman and then the other administrative assistants would sit on the side. It was done that way, and each one would bring up the problems of his own department, and if there were any discussions, it was discussed openly with the whole group. If there were any differences of opinion, we would bring it up then and settle it. The President made that clear. That's the way he operated.

HESS: Was there a time in 1946 when it was thought that perhaps staff meetings ought to be discontinued because of the "Kitchen Cabinet" objections that were being raised in the press? Do you recall anything about that?

CONNELLY: I don't recall. It may have happened because the press always has to have something to shoot at.

HESS: In the New York Times I found indications that that may have been discussed.

CONNELLY: It may have been discussed but if it was discussed, it was of short tenure. But it wasn't discussed by the President or members

HESS: Did you attend the President's pre-press conferences that were held on Thursday before the press conferences?

CONNELLY: Charlie Ross or Joe Short, whoever happened to be Press Secretary at the time, would come in with a list of suggested questions that might be asked at the conference and then we would hash out what reply should be made to it, and the President would make the final decision on what the answer to that particular question, if it came up, would be.

Steelman, Clifford, myself and, I think, maybe once in a while if some particular problem might be coming up, one of the administrative assistants or two, and the Naval Aide and the Military Aide and the Air Force Aide.

HESS: The press conferences were held in Mr. Truman's office until April 27, 1950 when they were moved from the President's office over to the Indian Treaty Room.

CONNELLY: That's correct. In the old State Department building. It was right across the street.

HESS: Did you stay in Mr. Truman's office when the press would come in when it was held in his oval room?

HESS: Do you recall anything of interest that might have come up at any of the press conferences?

CONNELLY: Offhand--I know there are a lot of things that came up there but I'd have to check the transcripts to really evaluate what I consider to be something of magnitude.

HESS: A little while ago we were discussing Mr. Truman's speaking style. How did he develop his extemporaneous speaking style? Some people say that it showed great improvement during the trip that was taken in June of 1948, would you agree with that?

CONNELLY: I would say definitely. He was not a natural public speaker and did not like to make speeches. As a matter of fact, I believe that in the Senate I doubt if he made more than a half a dozen speeches all the time that he was in the Senate. He was not known as a speaker, and, as a matter of fact, in my first association with him he was pretty terrible. He was much more effective when he could talk off-the-cuff,--in other words, extemporaneously, but reading from a prepared text, he always lost something. He could not get it across from a prepared text where if he went off-the-cuff and he was sure of his grounds, he could be very effective and also very dramatic.

CONNELLY: That was a good name for it, but actually, he had to get well-known around the country, and that was a prelude to the campaign.

CONNELLY: I believe the idea originally came from the national committee. This I'm not sure of because it was sort of thrown together in those days and everybody had a hand in it.

CONNELLY: What I recall mostly is it was a back-breaker. He made so many stops, he covered so much territory and, as you know, he is an early riser and he would be up at 5 o'clock

in the morning. If we were at a station somewhere, he would be out on the back platform talking to the railroad workers. He had the advantage of getting to bed early whereas I would have a little problem of arranging the next day's events. I would be up until 2 or 3 in the morning.

CONNELLY: Coordinating with the advance people on the trip mostly or greeting people that came in and we shook hands.

CONNELLY: On that early one I'm not sure. I think Oscar Chapman did some advance. He had contacts through the National Committee on who we should expect to see in different states--the National Committee did a lot of it. I believe Don Dawson did some advance work on that trip.

CONNELLY: Well, he goes into a town ahead of the President and sets up the arrangements--where the meeting will be held, how it will be held, who will be there, who will introduce the President, who will be the people on the platform with the President, where the location will be, what time it will be, what broadcast facilities there will be, and coordinate all the activities in advance of the President coming into town. The Secret Service would also have to go ahead and make the security arrangements.

HESS: In Omaha that year they had a rather sparse crowd show up at the meeting. What went wrong that time?

left that pretty much in the hands of Ed McKim who had just retired to Omaha to the insurance business, but without knowledge or without experience the thing turned out to be pretty much of a fiasco. We had the biggest hall in town and it was almost a death knell for the campaign but fortunately we were able to pull out of it. It was so widely publicized that it was a flop and that there was no public interest, and following on what was happening before the convention, it indicated that the president was not getting anywhere, and the people wanted no part of it, and they wouldn't even turn out to see him. So that was a great handicap but that was because of local arrangements.

HESS: When the president passed through Carey, Idaho and dedicated the airfield to the wrong person, do you recall anything in particular

CONNELLY: Yes, somebody gave Charlie Ross the wrong information on the thing. The President left the hotel and we followed him out, I knew where we were supposed to go but by that time the cavalcade had stopped and the President was greeting, I believe, a private flyer or some woman, I don't know. I didn't participate in it because it was just for a few minutes and then it was time to pick up again. I didn't even know what happened until we got to the next stop. It was wrong information given to Charlie Ross,

CONNELLY: That was organized by, I believe, Clifford who was then counsel. I know he was. And Clark had a group picked from the staff, some of the boys we had mentioned earlier, I believe,

as speech writers, David Lloyd, Charlie Murphy. Some of these speeches referred to one phase of an operation, say it was foreign affairs, we would get suggestions from the State Department which would be forwarded to Clifford or Murphy who would incorporate the ideas in the speech in the President's own way.

HESS: I believe at a luncheon that was held in Berkeley the President was introduced by Dr. [Robert G.] Sproul who was in charge of the University of California. Were you there at that time?

HESS: As I recall, the introduction that he obtained from Dr. Sproul was none too complimentary, is that right?

CONNELLY: That's correct. That was arranged by Ed Pauley who was on the Board of Regents of the

HESS: Continuing on with information relative to the very eventful year of 1948, what can you tell me about the background and the operations of the Democratic Policy Committee in 1948?

CONNELLY: I recall the group, Oscar Ewing, Leon Keyserling and I forget--I think I went to two of their meetings.

CONNELLY: In a suite at the Carlton Hotel. As a matter of fact, they were just thinking and accomplishing nothing, so I didn't return to the third meeting.

CONNELLY: Trying to develop a policy for the campaign, but my interest was not so much in the strategy of perfecting a policy as in the strategy of political practicality, that's what my field was, so I left it largely to the eggheads.

CONNELLY: Well, there are two that I do recall. I only went to two meetings. They were small. There were no more than four or five people there. Those two I remember. Oscar Ewing established himself as head of this so-called Policy Committee.

CONNELLY: I don't think Oscar had ever been in a precinct in his life, so he was trying to dictate policies from the top. I would much rather get the opinions of the state chairman or a local committeeman than I would the boys around Washington who were dreaming up policy.

HESS: On February the second of that year was when Mr. Truman sent his ten points message to Congress on civil rights.

CONNELLY: Well, that was part of his inauguration speech. That was incorporated in the message to Congress. That was largely drafted by Clark Clifford and the boys in his group.

HESS: And in the October previous to that, the President's Committee on Civil Rights came out with their report To Secure These Rights, and then the rather strong ten points message. Did the people in the White House think such a

strong stand on civil rights might offend the Southern States and cause a bold of the Southern States as actually happened during the convention?

CONNELLY: Oh, sure, that was a calculated risk. But the major point of the thing was he had to make that statement in the interest of civil rights, that these people should be entitled to franchise which they were being denied, particularly in the south. That was a calculated risk.

CONNELLY: Oh, he was for the program as he outlined it, and it knew that he would get--having been partially southern himself--he knew what the reaction would be in the south. It wasn't any secret to him that it came about.

two civil rights planks that came into being. One was the so-called regular civil rights plank and then the second one was the Humphrey-Biemiller plank that was finally passed and put into the platform.

CONNELLY: That's correct, and that's what caused the setting up of the Dixiecrat movement.

HESS: Which of those planks did the President support? Didn't he support the regular plank?

CONNELLY: Initially, because, I believe, the Humphrey proposals didn't come up until it was brought up on the floor of the convention, but after it was resolved by the platform committee, he stuck with the platform.

HESS: Looking back on those days of the Philadelphia convention in 1948, what are your memories, what do you recall? Just start at the beginning.

CONNELLY: Well, in 1948 1 remained, naturally, in Washington and some of the Cabinet officers, some of the people from the administration were in Philadelphia. John Snyder, I know, was in Philadelphia, and we had the train ready to go and John Snyder was to contact me when he thought it was a propitious moment for the President to go to Philadelphia. We didn't want to go up there before something was pretty much

Oral History Interview with Matthew J. Connelly

Oral History Interview with
Matthew J. Connelly