Jeb Stuart Magruder Papers, Committee for the Re-Election of the President, 1970-1972

1970-1972


Descriptive Summary

Title: Jeb Stuart Magruder Papers, Committee for the Re-Election of the President, 1970-1972
Dates: 1970-1972
Collection Number: 2570458
Creator/Collector: Magruder, Jeb Stuart, 1934-
Extent: 12 linear feet, 8 linear inches; 29 boxes
Online items available
Repository: Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
Abstract: The Jeb Stuart Magruder papers from the Committee for the Re-Election of the President Collection consists of correspondence to and from Magruder and John Mitchell, along with materials relating to individual states, voting blocs, political strategies and day to day operations of the committee.
Language of Material: English

Access

Open for use by researchers with exceptions for personal privacy.

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Preferred Citation

Jeb Stuart Magruder Papers, Committee for the Re-Election of the President, 1970-1972. Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum

Acquisition Information

In February, April, and May 1973, the materials of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President were placed into courtesy storage with the National Archives and Records Service for eventual deposit into Richard Nixon's presidential library (the materials of the separate Finance Committee to Re-Elect the President were not placed into NARS' custody). Throughout the spring of 1973, subpoenas for civil and criminal investigations concerning the Committee were served on the General Services Administration (at the time the overseeing agency of the National Archives). NARS personnel reboxed the textual committee records and created draft descriptions of the materials in preparation for compliance of the subpoenas. Despite NARS' requests, the agency never received a deed of gift for the materials. The collection remained in NARS' physical custody through 1986 until the decision of the 1972 Campaign Liquidation Trust to deed all of the remaining money and records from the Committee and Finance Committee to the Republican National Committee, which in turn gave the records of the Committee to Richard Nixon. In 1989, the Committee records were moved to California, where they were temporarily stored at the Reagan Presidential Materials Project in Culver City, California, and were subsequently placed by the Nixon Foundation in an offsite storage facility in Orange County, California. On July 10, 2007, Don Bendetti, the chairman of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation, signed a deed of gift deeding the Committee materials to the newly formed Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, part of the National Archives and Records Administration. In February 2008, due to space constraints in Yorba Linda, the materials were moved from the Foundation's offsite storage facility to the NARA facility in Laguna Niguel, California. In November 2008, the Jeb Magruder papers were moved to the Nixon Library.

Biography/Administrative History

In late 1970, members of the Nixon administration's White House staff began planning for President Nixon's re-election campaign. Accordingly, in the spring of 1971, Attorney General John Mitchell, who had managed the 1968 Nixon campaign, was tapped to serve as campaign director and the nucleus of the campaign staff opened offices at 1701 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Originally called the Citizens Committee to Re-Elect the President, the organization, then headed by acting director Jeb Magruder (who became deputy campaign director when Mitchell resigned from the Justice Department to take up his political duties full-time in 1972), began planning to run a national campaign independently of the Republican National Committee. The White House and the Citizens Committee decided to keep the fundraising and financial operations of the re-election effort separate from the rest of the campaign apparatus. Francis Dale was named campaign chairman with a committee of eight co-chairmen, Maurice Stans became the finance chairman, and John Mitchell formally inhabited the campaign director position in April 1972. Under Mitchell, the committee (renamed the Committee for the Re-Election of the President) was split into three divisions: Administration, Citizens and Political. The Administration division of the committee consisted of the advance/tour office, the attack division, the counsel for the committee, polling and scheduling. It also incorporated an in-house advertising agency called the November Group (as opposed to hiring an outside company as had been the practice of campaigns) and the convention planning office. The citizens groups focused on voter blocs such as Labor, Ethnic, Business, Veterans, and Spanish. Each group had a division leader. The political division was split into regions with each region assigned to one political leader. On June 17, 1972, five men, including James McCord, the committee's head of security, were arrested while breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Complex in Washington, D.C. Upon hearing of the break-in, members of the committee staff proceeded to destroy records relating to the burglars' activities from the committee offices. As a result of the break-in and subsequent publicity, Mitchell resigned as campaign director on June 31, 1972. Former Congressman Clark MacGregor replaced Mitchell. Jeb Magruder retained the rank of deputy campaign director but White House personnel chief Fred Malek officially joined as a second deputy campaign director. Malek's ascension prompted a reorganization of the committee, with Magruder remaining in charge of Administration and Malek assuming command of the Citizens and Political divisions.

Scope and Content of Collection

The Jeb Stuart Magruder papers from the Committee for the Re-Election of the President Collection (CRP) consist of memoranda, letters, reports, advertising materials, campaign advertisement scripts, and clippings from Magruder's office of Deputy Campaign Manager. These materials concern the day-to-day operation of the Committee, as well as political strategy materials for individual states and voting blocs, and range in date from 1970 to November 1972. Included in the materials is correspondence with Attorney General and Campaign Director John Mitchell, as well as members of the White House staff, including Harry Robbins (H.R.) Haldeman, Charles Colson, and John Dean. The papers are separated into two series: Correspondence (Series I) and Subject Files (Series II). Within the Correspondence series, there are two sub-series separating the chronological correspondence. The first sub-series (sub-series A) consists of materials sent through or written by Magruder to Attorney General John Mitchell (Campaign Director designate) from May 1971 to April 1972 (Mitchell became the official Campaign Director in April 1972), including memorandums concerning the setup of the Committee, the hiring of personnel, and the evolution of campaign strategy. The second sub-series (sub-series B) consists of materials sent to and from Jeb Magruder ranging from January 1972 to November 1972, and includes correspondence relating to the operation of the committee. The Subject Files are also split into two sub-series. The first sub-series (sub-series A) is a run of files titled by individual state, and consists of political materials, correspondence and reports for said state and its representatives. The second sub-series (sub-series B) is an alphabetical run of subject files relating to the creation of the committee's internal advertising agency the November Group, the Republican National Committee, specific voting blocs, operational issues, and political strategy.

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