Title: David R. Young Papers, White House Special Files, 1969-1973

Dates: 1969-1973

Collection Number: 6852606

Creator/Collector: Young, David R. (David Reginald), 1936-

Extent: 12 linear feet, 3 linear inches; 28 boxes

Repository: Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum

Abstract: David Young was Special Assistant to the National Security Council and later was detailed to the Domestic Council to work for Egil Krogh. In the latter position he was involved in domestic and external security matters including investigating leaks of information within the administration. He was a co-director of the White House Special Investigations Unit ("The Plumbers"). Because of the sensitivity of Young's responsibilities many of the NSC documents in his files have been withdrawn for national security reasons.

Language of Material: English

Collection is open for research. Some materials may be unavailable based upon categories of materials exempt from public release established in the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974.

Most government records are in the public domain; however, this series includes commercial materials, such as newspaper clippings, that may be subject to copyright restrictions. Researchers should contact the copyright holder for information.

David R. Young Papers, White House Special Files, 1969-1973. Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum

These materials are in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration under the provisions of Title I of the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-526, 88 Stat. 1695) and implementing regulations.

Except for a few items dated in 1969, the materials of David R. Young, Jr., cover the period from January 5, 1970, to April 30, 1973. During that time he held two major, consecutive assignments within the Executive Office of the President with the National Security Council and with the Domestic Council. Shortly after his appointment to the Federal service, as a Special Assistant to the National Security Council, Young became an administrative assistant to Henry A. Kissinger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. For the most part, his duties for the next year and a half involved arranging Council staff meetings, handling Kissinger's office appointments, taking part in a detailed study of the Brookings Institution, and assisting with briefing sessions for Kissinger prior to his meetings with the President, with news correspondents, and before his public speaking engagements. At the beginning of July 1971, Young was permanently detailed to the Domestic Council, where he worked with Egil Krogh, deputy to Presidential Assistant John D. Ehrlichman. In his new duties, Young became concerned with domestic and external security matters, and he worked with them for the most of the remainder of his tenure at the White House. At the Domestic Council, Young was closely involved with the writing of Executive Order Number 11652, subsequently promulgated on March 8, 1972. This directive established a new government-wide system that provided improved and progressive rules and procedures for the classification and the accelerated declassification of government documents relating to national security information and matters. To assist in providing the means by which the United States government could better protect against the violence practiced in 1972-73 by international terrorist organizations, Young served as the Domestic Council's representative to the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism. This agency became an effective interdepartmental intelligence evaluating group which provided American guidance, cooperation, and assistance in an international cooperative effort relating to combating and containing international terrorists and their violence. While working with these governmental organizations and as a result of the appearance in the media of sensitive and frequently classified security information, Young was directed to lend his abilities toward investigating and helping stop information leaks within the Nixon administration. This was in direct response to the publication by The New York Times of "The Pentagon Papers," which comprised some 7,000 pages of classified material assembled from sensitive and classified files belonging to the Departments of State and Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency. Toward the end of stopping the unauthorized release of government information, the White House Special Investigations Unit was formed and included, under Egil Krogh and Young's co-direction, E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. Better known subsequently as "The Plumbers," this group participated in clandestine activities–the 1971 attempted burglary of the office of "Pentagon Papers" defendant Daniel Ellsberg's former psychiatrist and of the 1972 attempted burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters located in The Watergate Hotel. The discovery of both attempted burglaries lead directly to "The Plumbers" resignations from government service and, except for Young, prison sentences. Young was spared jail through the grant of limited immunity on the motion of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (the "Senate Watergate Investigation Committee") and the approval of United States District Judge John J. Sirica on July 5, 1973. There is one folder of additional material in the Names Files of the National Security Council Files which bears Young's name. The materials are arranged into three series: Chronological Files, Subject Files, Files of the Working Group of the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism.