As I concluded an interview with one of the Truman respondents, he perceptively remarked, “Your project can’t make recommendations or draw organization charts. You can only say what has been done.” This is certainly the case. Even the keenest observer of Presidential staffing practices could be of only limited value in advising a President about the organization of his office. History has not produced a model system. Each President must develop the staff organization and staffing practices which can be the most useful to him. The White House Office exists to serve the President in a very personal manner. That has never been in doubt since 1939.
However, any President could learn much by studying the staffing practices of His predecessors. He will not find all of the alternatives which will be available to him. in their experience. There is still plenty of room for innovation in Presidential staffing practices. But he will get a general idea about the alternatives available to. him and he may be able to reject some of them immediately on the basis of the experience of his predecessors.
Each President since 1939 has had a distinctively different White House Office Operation. However, each President has also learned from and built on his predecessors' work to some extent. Thus Truman rejected the disorder of the Roosevelt staff but he followed its most salient characteristics as he gathered a group of generalists around him and, carefully guarding his own position as President, personally supervised their activity. And although Kennedy rejected the basic tenets underlying the Eisenhower staff organization, he found that particular aspects of the Eisenhower experience could be useful for him, and he incorporated them into his own organization.
In spite of the major differences which existed among the staffing practices of the five Presidents studied here, a strong thread of continuity does carry through each administration from Roosevelt to Johnson. The central structure of each White House Office has been. oriented around the recurrent. legal and political duties of the President. The titles and the incumbents' approach to their work have been different from one administration to the next, but such functions as appointments, press relations, and patronage have steadily formed the spine of the Office.
Each President’s personnel decisions for the White House Office have been crucial. In fact it may be more difficult for a President to recruit personal staff than to recruit Cabinet members. The criteria which the staff member must meet are frequently more restrictive than those necessary for prospective Cabinet members. Moreover, the application of the criteria can require some very subtle and difficult judgments on the part of the President. The 169 men who have served on the White House Office’s professional! staff during the period of this study have been a very able, well-trained group. It is very difficult for anyone other than the President. himself to judge the effectiveness of their performances. However, there have been very few abject failures among them.