Although Truman did not use borrowed staff in the White House Office, he did make maximum use of his military aides, Gen. Harry Vaughan, Adm. William D. Leahy, and Adm. Robert L. Dennison. Leahy had been Chief of Staff to the President under Roosevelt and continued as a trusted aide to Truman for the immediate post-war period. Vaughan was an old friend who had been with Truman longer than anyone else except Connelly. Both he and Dennison were among the President’s favorite poker companions. Vaughan tended to handle specific military problems and developed a special interest in the Dennison was held in especially high regard by his fellow staff members. He was responsible for maritime matters and had charge of the White House processing of military and intelligence communication
Like Roosevelt, Truman found that the pressures of war necessitated special services from his White House staff. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, Truman appointed W. Averell Harriman as a Special Assistant to the President with the special responsibility of keeping the President informed about the war situation. Harriman sat with the National Security Council and gave special attention to the coordination of State and Defense efforts. Harriman quickly assembled a huge staff which was larger than the rest of the White House Office staff combined. He never really functioned as a White House Office staff member, and in 1951 he and his staff were installed in a new office, the Director for Mutual Security, in the Executive Office.
The daily schedule of the Truman staff members was designed to complement the President’s schedule. The day began with a formal conference attended by most of the staff members. In the early months these conferences were held at 8:00 or 8:30 [A.M. The] hour was gradually moved up» to 9:00 or 9:30 A.M. The staff meetings were so regular that everyone sat in the same position relative to the President’s desk at each conference. Truman presided at the conferences and began by discussing previous reports and handing out new assignments. Then Truman went around the circle, permitting each staff member to be heard beginning with Leahy when he was in the White House.
The Truman staff members felt that these meetings were especially important. As one respondent evaluated them, “Every staff man could hear what his colleagues were doing, be informed, know what was going on.” There can be little doubt that the daily staff conferences were important as a means of coordination. When minor disputes would arise among staff members, Truman would iron them out here. It permitted the staff members to get to know each other and apparently gave them something akin to a sense of teamwork. One staff member estimated that Truman initiated about three-fourths of the staff assignments, but the give and take of the conferences permitted the staff members to make a case for the need for a particular chore.
So Immediately after the staff conference, Dennison gave the President a briefing -on the morning’s intelligence communications. Unless a press conference was to be held that day and special briefings were in order, the President was generally not available to the staff again until 3:00 P.M. The hours from 3:00-5:00 P.M. were set aside exclusively for staff and Cabinet members, and it was during these hours that »basic policy matters were discussed. These were invaluable hours for Clifford and (Murphy.
After the afternoon conference, Truman would depart for his living quarters with a huge leather desk folder under his arm with cabinet matters in a pocket on one side and staff matters on the other. The evenings were devoted to reading and study for the President and his staff and the staff was constantly amazed at Truman’s capacity for evening reading.
Truman’s staff was made up of very able men who came to be especially devoted to their chief. Although they did not have an intellectual background comparable to the Kennedy staff, Truman probably could not have gotten maximum mileage out of a group of intellectuals. He did get maximum mileage out of the men he had. In the. words of one of the staff members, “He [Truman] had a good concept of staff work. He could delegate. Once he got confidence in a man, he used him to his advantage.”