Key Takeaways

• The Teapot Dome Scandal caused a shock wave across America in the 1920s due to the level of greed and corruption seen within the federal government. The investigation would see Albert Fall become the first former Cabinet officer to be sent to prison.
• The Whiskey Ring took place between 1871 and 1875, during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. The scandal involved whiskey distillers and distributors bribing high-level officials in the US Government to avoid paying federal taxes on liquor.
• The Iran Contra Affair involved a secret arms deal with Iran, and subsequent funds being secretly sent to the Contra insurgency in Nicaragua.
• Thomas Jefferson was one of the founding fathers, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the 3rd president of the United States. He fathered at least one child with his slave Sally Hemings.
• President Grover Cleveland is the only American president to serve two non-consecutive terms in office. However, his win came after he managed to bury a sex scandal.

Introduction

The Teapot Dome

• The Teapot Dome Scandal caused a shock wave across America in the 1920s due to the level of greed and corruption within the federal government. An investigation by the Senate began in April 1922. Albert Fall, a former Secretary of the Interior, was charged with taking bribes from private oil companies for drilling rights on federal lands.
• The scandal is named after the teapot-shaped outcrop in Wyoming, known as the Teapot Dome. The U.S. Navy had asked for this land, and land in California to be put aside to keep the oil reserves for its needs. In 1920, Warren G. Harding had won the presidency with the financial backing of wealthy oil donors. After appointing Albert Fall to the role of Secretary of the Interior, Harding was convinced to transfer the petroleum reserves from the Navy to his Interior Department.
• Secret negotiations took place and two oil company won the drilling rights, Mammoth Oil Company, and Pan-American Petroleum Company, owned by friend's of Albert Fall. The deal included $404,000 in payments and gifts to Albert Fall. On April 14th 1922, The Wall Street Journal published an article exposing the deal, which lead to the six-year senate investigation.
• The investigation would see Albert Fall become the first former Cabinet officer to be sent to prison. While he was the master mind behind the deal, Harding had personally approved the lease of the oil reserves. However, it is not known if he knew exactly what he was approving.

 

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• President Harding's involvement in the scandal remains unknown. There is speculation that he was to embark on a cruise aboard the yacht owned by Harry Sinclair, the owner of Mammoth Oil Company. However, in August 1923 Harding died, before the investigation was completed, likely escaping impeachment.

The Whiskey Ring

• The Whiskey Ring took place between 1871 and 1875, during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. The scandal involved whiskey distillers and distributors bribing high-level officials in the US Government to avoid paying federal taxes on liquor.
• The investigation into the scandal discovered that the high-level officials had been stealing the liquor taxes that should have been paid to the government. In total, 110 officials were discovered to have been involved, and $3 million in liquor taxes was recovered.
• Grant was the first president to appoint, and fire a special prosecutor, and testify as a defense witness in a criminal trial. There were allegations that the Republican Party had used the stolen taxes to fund Grant's re-election campaign. While Grant was never implicated, his private secretary, Orville E. Babcock was. Grant testified in his defense and he was acquitted.

 

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• President Grant was a Civil War hero, and was highly regarded before the scandal. Although he was never accused of having knowledge of the scandal, his reputation was tarnished. The scandal also led to public weariness of politics, and the end to the Reconstruction Era.

Iran Contra Affair

• The Iran Contra Affair is also known as “The Iran-Contra Scandal” and “Irangate." Ronald Reagan had promised to assist anti-Communist insurgencies around the world in his “Reagan Doctrine”.

 

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• The Boland Amendment restricted the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense in foreign conflicts. The amendment was specifically aimed at Nicaragua, due to the ongoing struggle between the communist Sandinista government, and anti-communist Contras.
• At the time of the scandal the US had a trade embargo with Iran, due to the Iran Hostage Crisis, where 52 Americans were being held hostage. In 1985, Ronald Regan was approached by MacFarlane, who had been contacted by Iran to purchase weapons from the United States for its war against neighboring Iraq.
• While many around Reagan encouraged him to ignore the deal, MacFarlane argued that it would help negotiate the release of the hostages and improve relations with Lebanon. The deal would also allow for secret funds to be used by the CIA to send to the Contra insurgency in Nicaragua. 
• In 1986, Al-Shiraa, a Lebanese newspaper, reported the secret arms deal, by which time 1,500 American missiles had been exchanged for $30 million. Ronald Reagan initially denied the allegations that he approved the deal, retracting his statement a week later.
• An investigation by Attorney General Edwin Meese, found $18 million of the $30 million paid by Iran was unaccounted for. This was when it came out that the money had been sent to the Contras in Nicaragua, who used them to purchase weapons. 
• In 1987, a subsequent Congressional investigation was televised and included testimonies from Reagan. He was never charged for any part in the scandal, but 11 others were. Despite breaking his promise to never negotiate with terrorists, Reagan left office as a popular president.

Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings

• Thomas Jefferson was one of the founding fathers, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the 3rd president of the United States. Despite being one of the fathers of independence he owned over 600 slaves during his lifetime. 

 

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• One of the slaves was Sally Hemings, a slave that came from an inheritance from his marriage to his first wife, Martha. Sally worked for Jefferson during his time in Paris, and was at that time free. She however, returned to Monticello as slave with special privileges, and with the promise that any children she would have would be freed from slavery.
• During Jefferson's first term as presidency rumors began to swirl that he was the father of Sally Heming's children. In September 1802, political journalist James T. Callender published an article stating that Jefferson was having a sexual relationship with a slave named Sally. Jefferson made no private or public comments on the matter. However, his daughter denied the reports. 
• Jefferson kept his promise and freed Sally Heming's children from slavery. These were the only slaves he granted freedom to.
• The reports of the affair were discussed throughout history, with some disregarding the rumors. In 1998, a DNA test was conducted by the scientific journal Nature, on descendants of Jefferson and Hemings' child. The test proved that Jefferson fathered at least one of Hemings' children. 
• Due to the uncertainties at the time about Jefferson's relationship with Hemings his presidency was not impacted by the scandal. His presidency saw a reduction in federal debt, and he would go on to found the University of Virginia.

The Halpin Scandal

• President Grover Cleveland is the only American president to serve two non-consecutive terms in office. However, his win came after he managed to bury a sex scandal.

 

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• Grover Cleveland was courting Maria Halpin in 1973. In an affidavit she reported a violent sexual assault by Cleveland, which left her pregnant. On September 14, 1874, her son, Oscar Folsom Cleveland was born.
• Cleveland arranged for the child to be removed from Maria, and she was forcibly entered into the Providence Lunatic Asylum. Oscar was placed in the Buffalo Orphan Asylum. Maria was soon released, when the facility's medical director determined that she was not insane, and had been sent there due to an abuse of political power.
• During his campaign for presidency, his team created a smear campaign against Maria, when it became public knowledge that he had an illegitimate son. Cleveland's officials portrayed Maria as a woman who drank to excess and was intimate with multiple men. Oscar was adopted and disappeared from the public record.
• Eventually, Cleveland would admit to being the child's father, but not to the circumstances around his conception. He would go on to serve two non-consecutive terms as the US president.

Research Strategy

Key Takeaways

• In 1797, President John Adams appointed his son John Quincy Adams as the minister to Prussia (part of Germany and Poland).
• In 1961, President John F. Kennedy nominated his brother Robert Kennedy to be the Attorney General. Robert was confirmed by the Senate and served as the Attorney General from 1961 to 1964. 
• The 1967 anti-nepotism statute prohibits public officials including the President from hiring a close relative (son, daughter, brothers, mother, sisters, first cousins, nieces, spouses, uncles, and aunts).
• In January 2017, President Donald Trump appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner as his assistant and senior adviser. The President also appointed his daughter Ivanka Trump to serve as an adviser. However, they were not compensated for their services.

Introduction

1797: John Adams and John Quincy Adams

• In 1797, President John Adams appointed his son John Quincy Adams as the minister to Prussia (part of Germany and Poland).

• While at the time the appointment of John Quincy was criticized, the president's son was an experienced diplomat and had served as a minister under President Washington.
• John Quincy is regarded as one of the "greatest diplomats and secretaries of state in American history." He served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to 1829.
• Adams also nominated William Stephens Smith, his son-in-law, to several high-level government positions. Smith was implicated in several scandals, such as trying to invade Venezuela with 200 men.

1937: James Roosevelt

• In January 1937, James Roosevelt was hired by his father President Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve as an administrative assistant who oversaw 17 government agencies.
• James was criticized for allegedly using his title as the "President’s son to win contracts for his insurance firm."
• Despite rejecting the accusations, he left his position as a White House employee in November 1938.

1961: Robert Kennedy

• In 1961, President John F. Kennedy nominated his brother Robert Kennedy to be the Attorney General. Robert was confirmed by the Senate and served as the Attorney General from 1961 to 1964. 

 

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• According to Constitution Center, Robert's nomination was controversial because "he lacked vast legal experience." However, various authors believe that Robert Kennedy did well in his role as the Attorney General. He is remembered as a "champion of civil rights." 
• Robert Kennedy's appointment by his brother was widely criticized. According to an article by The New Republic that was published on January 9, 1961, "practically all the world" had "feelings of one sort or another on that aspect of the nomination." This uproar resulted in the passing of the Anti-Nepotism Statute in 1967.

1967: Anti-Nepotism Statute (Code 3110)

• The 1967 anti-nepotism statute prohibits public officials including the president from hiring a close relative (son, daughter, brothers, mother, sisters, first cousins, nieces, spouses, uncles, and aunts).
• A person who is appointed in violation of the statute is not entitled to pay. 
• Additionally, the legislation states that the "Office of Personnel Management may prescribe regulations authorizing the temporary employment, in the event of emergencies resulting from natural disasters or similar unforeseen events or circumstances, of individuals whose employment would otherwise be prohibited by this section."

2017: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner

• In January 2017, President Donald Trump appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner as his assistant and senior adviser. The President also appointed his daughter Ivanka Trump to serve as an adviser. However, they were not compensated for their services.
• Before the appointment of Jared Kushner, Daniel Koffsky, the Deputy Assistant Attorney General provided a statement explaining that the anti-nepotism legislation was not applicable to the White House. It stated that the "special hiring authority" of the President exempts the White House Office position from the legislation.
• According to the statement provided by Daniel Koffsky, the anti-nepotism legislation concerns appointments in an agency and the White House is not.
• However, the appointment of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner was criticized by the public. Critics felt that they lacked the skills necessary for the positions of adviser and senior adviser.

Additional Findings

• Other presidents, including James Madison, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, and Zachary Taylor, employed relatives in the White House.

Research Strategy

Key Takeaways

• During his re-election campaign in 1964 against Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented himself as the rational and peaceful alternative and promised that the US would not get itself involved in the Vietnam War. He famously promised, "We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves." However, amid escalating violence in Vietnam after he assumed office, President Johnson authorized a campaign to bomb North Vietnam and subsequently deployed the first American combat troops in the country.
• A popular moment of Richard Nixon's election campaign in 1968 was the promise, "I have a secret plan to end the war." While sources close to Nixon claimed that he had never uttered the remark, it had become a pivotal part of his campaign lore. Nixon had also "promised to find a way to make 'peace with honor' in Vietnam." During his term, he took the war into Cambodia and Laos. The war continued even after his re-election in 1972. Eventually, in 1973, President Nixon finally settled for an agreement of peace that could have been concluded in 1968 itself.
• During his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention in New Orleans in 1988, then Vice President George H.W. Bush promised that he would not impose any new taxes if he came to power. He famously said, "Read my lips; no new taxes." However, after coming to power, President Bush faced a persistent recession that led to a sharp increase in federal deficits and the "prospect of severe cuts in entitlements." Eventually, in November 1990, the Bush administration passed a bill that raised taxes.
• During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush had famously criticized the previous administration of President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore for their efforts at nation-building in countries where the American troops had been deployed. However, after the 9/11 attacks, as the United States' "view of the post-Cold War order changed" significantly, so did the attitude of President Bush towards such missions. The missions in Iraq and Afghanistan ultimately turned into nation-building missions.
• When Barack Obama started his presidential campaign in 2007, he had promised the closure of the prison facility in Guantánamo Bay after he became president. On January 22, 2009, on the second day of office, the 44th president of the US passed an executive order to close down the prison facility within a year. Another announcement was made on February 23, 2016. However, even after eight years in power, President Obama failed to close the facility.

Introduction

Lyndon B. Johnson's Promise to Not Send American Troops to the Vietnam War

• In 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson became the 36th president of the US after the shocking assassination of John F. Kennedy. Not only did President Johnson face the unenviable task of replacing his popular predecessor, but he also faced problems like the Cold War, US-Cuba relations, civil rights issues, and the escalating war in Vietnam.
• Compounding his problems was the fact that he had to stand for re-election in 1964 against Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. While Senator Goldwater's bellicose rhetoric conveyed his affinity for war, President Johnson presented himself as the rational and peaceful alternative and promised that the US would not get itself involved in the Vietnam War. He famously promised, "We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves."
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• As Mitchell Lerner wrote in the journal titled 'Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 4,' the personalities of the two candidates decided the fate of the election more than specific issues. President Johnson won the election comprehensively and was re-elected as the president of the US.
• However, amid escalating violence in Vietnam after he assumed office, President Johnson authorized a campaign to bomb North Vietnam and subsequently deployed the first American combat troops in the country.
• While several historians have argued that President Johnson had cleverly "concealed his plans to escalate American involvement in the war in order to win re-election," public opinion quickly turned against him due to his U-turn and President Johnson pulled out of the presidential race in 1968.

Richard Nixon's Promise to Quickly End the Vietnam War

• Just like his predecessor, Richard Nixon came to power on the plank of the Vietnam War. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the election campaign of the 37th president of the US prominently centered on opposition to the Vietnam War. However, in actuality, his winning the election depended on the continuation of the Vietnam War.
• A popular moment of Nixon's election campaign in 1968 was the promise, "I have a secret plan to end the war." While sources close to Nixon claimed that he had never uttered the remark, it had become a pivotal part of his campaign lore. Nixon had also "promised to find a way to make 'peace with honor' in Vietnam."
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• Smithsonian Magazine has reported that Nixon had purposely sabotaged the Paris Peace talks in 1968 that were meant to end the 13-year-long Vietnam War. To become the president, he needed the war to continue. According to the BBC, "Nixon feared a breakthrough at the Paris Peace talks designed to find a negotiated settlement to the Vietnam War, and he knew this would derail his campaign." BBC also stated, "In late October 1968, there were major concessions from Hanoi which promised to allow meaningful talks to get underway in Paris — concessions that would justify Johnson calling for a complete bombing halt of North Vietnam. This was exactly what Nixon feared."
• Riding on his public opposition to the Vietnam War, Nixon won the presidential election by only 1% of the popular vote. However, within the first six months of Nixon's term, the number of US casualties in the Vietnam War increased.
• During his term, President Nixon also took the war into Cambodia and Laos, which resulted in the loss of lives of an additional 22,000 American soldiers. The war continued even after his re-election in 1972. Eventually, in 1973, he finally settled for an agreement of peace that could have been concluded in 1968 itself.

George H.W. Bush's Pledge to Not Impose Any New Taxes

• During his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention in New Orleans in 1988, then Vice President George H.W. Bush promised that he would not impose any new taxes if he came to power. He famously said, "Read my lips; no new taxes." As CNN states, he made this promise to gather conservative support and appear as a tough presidential candidate before the election.
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• However, after coming to power, President Bush faced a persistent recession that led to a sharp increase in federal deficits and the "prospect of severe cuts in entitlements."
• After months of trying to eke out a deal with Congress for a steep reduction in spending, President Bush ultimately conceded on June 27, 1990, that an increase in tax revenue was the only possible solution. In November 1990, the Bush administration passed a bill that raised taxes.
• President Bush's broken promise came back to haunt him in 1992 "when he lost his bid for re-election."

George W. Bush's Promise to Not Send American Troops for Nation-Building

• During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush had famously criticized the previous administration of President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore for their efforts at nation-building in countries where the American troops had been deployed.
• In the October 3, 2000, debate vs Al Gore, presidential candidate George W. Bush said, "If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road. I'm going to prevent that. I'm going to rebuild our military power. It's one of the major priorities of my administration." He had also stated that he disagreed with Al Gore's policy of using the American troops as nation builders.
• However, after the 9/11 attacks, as the United States' "view of the post-Cold War order changed" significantly, so did the attitude of President Bush towards such missions. In a speech given by President Bush at the Virginia Military Institute in April 2002, he said, "We know that true peace will only be achieved when we give the Afghan people the means to achieve their own aspirations. Peace will be achieved by helping Afghanistan develop its own stable government."
• While critics have pointed out the inconsistency in President Bush's campaign rhetoric and the eventual fate of the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan that ultimately turned into nation-building missions, George W. Bush has bluntly admitted in his memoir titled 'Decision Points' that he changed his mind after 9/11.
• In his memoir, he has also written, "Afghanistan was the ultimate nation-building mission. We had liberated the country from a primitive dictatorship, and we had a moral obligation to leave behind something better. We also had a strategic interest in helping the Afghan people build a free society because a democratic Afghanistan would be a hopeful alternative to the vision of the extremists."
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Barack Obama's Promise to Close the Guantánamo Bay Prison Facility

• When Barack Obama started his presidential campaign in 2007, he had promised the closure of the prison facility in Guantánamo Bay after he became president. He had said, "As president, I will close Guantánamo, reject the Military Commissions Act and adhere to the Geneva Conventions. Our Constitution and our Uniform Code of Military Justice provide a framework for dealing with the terrorists."
• On January 22, 2009, on the second day of office, the 44th president of the US passed an executive order to close down the prison facility within a year. President Obama's promise indicated a break from the Bush-Cheney era of governance.
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• On February 23, 2016, President Obama again "announced the plan to close the prison facility at Guantánamo Bay once and for all." He said, "For many years, it has been clear that the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay does not advance our national security—it undermines it. It’s counterproductive to our fight against terrorists, who use it as propaganda in their efforts to recruit. It drains military resources, with nearly $450 million spent last year alone to keep it running and more than $200 million in additional costs needed to keep it open going forward. Guantánamo harms our partnerships with allies and other countries whose cooperation we need against terrorism."
• However, even after eight years in power, President Obama failed to fulfill the promise. According to an article published by The New Yorker Magazine, the reasons for not being able to close the detention facility included continued opposition from Congress, the Pentagon, and foreign officials.
• As of July 25, 2022, the Guantánamo Bay prison has still not closed, and 36 prisoners are currently held at the facility.

Research Strategy

Key Takeaways

• Presidents since John F. Kennedy have received a daily intelligence briefing, or the President's Daily Brief, that provides a personalized report of the most important and up-to-date national security information.
• President Obama during his time in office stated that there are, in fact, "deep secrets" that the President has access to, but it is believed that he was referring to the set of nuclear contingency plans (the Presidential Decision Handbook) contained within the nuclear briefcase that travels with the president at all times, or the "Nuclear Football." He said, according to a Washington Post story: "I'm inheriting a world that could blow up any minute in half a dozen ways... I will have some powerful but limited and perhaps even dubious tools to keep it from happening."
• The most well-known reference to a national book of secrets is the 2007 movie sequel to National Treasure (2004), the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets.  

Introduction

The President's Daily Brief

• Presidents since John F. Kennedy have received a daily intelligence briefing, or the President's Daily Brief, that provides a personalized report of the most important and up-to-date national security information.
• Inside the US national intelligence industry, this daily briefing is nicknamed "the Book."
• Many Presidents, such as Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, considered it "far and away the most important document they saw on a regular basis while commander in chief."
• In 2017, a former US intelligence officer who was intimately involved in creating the Daily Brief for many presidents, released a book titled The President's Book of Secrets: The Untold Story of Intelligence Briefings to America's Presidents. For this book, he "interviewed every living president and vice president as well as more than one hundred others intimately involved with the production and delivery of the president’s book of secrets. [In the book,] he offers an unprecedented window into the decision-making of every president from Kennedy to Obama, with many character-rich stories revealed here for the first time."
• The first time the public learned of the Daily Brief was in July 1946, when The New York Times ran an article that stated: "the president’s new secret 'newspaper' made him the best informed Chief Executive in history on foreign affairs."
• Some Daily Briefings have been declassified, and are available on the CIA website.  

Other "Secret" Documents for Presidents

• Some believe that the so called Book of Secrets is actually based on the letters/notes that outgoing presidents leave to the incoming president.
• According to Mark F. Hall, a research specialist in the Library of Congress’s Digital Reference Section, the president does have access to real national secrets, but most of these are held by the National Archives and Records Administration as classified documents.
•  Politico identified multiple secrets the president would have access to, such as "Kill Lists," ongoing covert action programs, the identities of secret agents and/or international figures providing information to the US government, the location of US nuclear warheads, information about spy satellites and aircraft, classified Presidential Policy Directives, counter-terrorism reports, FBI surveillance reports, and more.

President Obama

• President Obama during his time in office stated that there are, in fact, "deep secrets" that the president has access to, but it is believed that he was referring to the set of nuclear contingency plans (the Presidential Decision Handbook) contained within the nuclear briefcase that travels with the president at all times, or the "Nuclear Football." He said, according to a Washington Post story: "I'm inheriting a world that could blow up any minute in half a dozen ways... I will have some powerful but limited and perhaps even dubious tools to keep it from happening."
• President Obama again referred to "deep secrets" when he stated that incoming President Trump would "learn a series of 'deep secrets' upon entering the White House."

Pop Culture References

• The most well-known reference to a national book of secrets is the 2007 movie sequel to National Treasure (2004), the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets.  

 

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• Roll Call fact-checked National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

• Mary Graham wrote a book titled "Presidents' Secrets: The Use And Abuse Of Hidden Power." While the book did not focus on an actual book of secrets, it did focus on the massive amount of secrets the president is privy to.
• Another pop culture reference to the book of secrets is a History channel series titled "America's Book of Secrets" and hosted by Lance Reddick. The latest episodes aired in July 2021.  

Conspiracy Theories

• Conspiracy theorists in the US believe that "there's an actual book handed from president to president containing the truth about JFK's assassination, alien life, and the moon landing, among other secrets." However, there is no proof of such a book and most believe these theories are based on the actual existence of the President's Daily Brief.
• One conspiracy theory states that the book of secrets is hidden somewhere in the Library of Congress, with only "the president and the Librarian of Congress" privy to its location. In the event that the president is assassinated, the librarian would be able to tell the next president where the book is.
• Other conspiracy theorists believe that the book is hidden in the White House and moved every time a new president takes office. For example, some believed that President Obama "kept the book in a secret compartment hidden in an Abraham Lincoln statue in the White House."
• The fictional book of secrets supposedly contains information about "Area 51, the Kennedy assassination, D-Day, government ESP research" and more.

Research Strategy