476 PART FIVE ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES CHAPTER 20*THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT:LEADING THE NATION 477 THE VICE-PRESIDENT AS POLICY ADVISER Though the vice-president works in the White House,he Other vice-presidents have played much smaller roles. is not necessarily a member of the president's inner cirde Marw of them were selected for their ability to attract of advisets.The Constitution assigns the vice-president votes rather than because of their cose association with no polky authority.Accordingly.whether the vice. the president.Lyndan was Senate majority leader president plays a lange or small role is the president's before becoming John Kennedy's vice-president and was selected because Kennedy beljeved that he would not win bility than any preous vice-president had received,and the presidency unle carried Texas,Johnson's home Mondale served as one of his confidanta.George Bush state.As vice-president,lohnson was given few tasks and ed a responaibilitie,playing second d o Kennedys per and lochr such as Ted Sorensen and McGeorge with Congress and as chairman of the crisis-management Bundy.When Kennedy was assassinated in 1963,Johnson team within the National Security Council.When he suddonly was presdent an正Kn9aerm4 became president, fawe wished that they had been more attentive to [ohnson FIGURE 20-I Executive Office branch and is itself a small bureaucracy.It currently consists of ten arganiza dutses he had performed during his vice-presidency. while he was vice-president of the President tions (see Figure 20-1).The leading ones are the White House Office (WHO) The Executive Dlfico of the President acts as the president's which consists of the president's closest personal advisers;the Office of Management and Budgel (MB)which consists of experts who formulate and obtaining the president's approval,leading others to question whether he is then administer the federal budget:the National Security Council (NSC),which actually in charge of his office.Finally,advisers have sometimes been so intent a六 assists the president on foreign and milltary affairs:and the (ounctl of on maintaining their close relationship with the president that they have done t Manual1957/1988 Economic Advisers (CEA)which advlses the prrsident an the national econo- him a disservice by not challenging his views.Recognizing this poesibility. my. President John F.Kennedy,during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962,sometimes asked his advisers to meet without him.His purpose was to allow the discussion Presidential Assistunts Of the EOP's ten organizations,the White_Hause- of possibilities that might not be raised if he were present.Kennedy had not Office serves the president most directly and personally.The WHO consists of used this approach in planning the disastrous Bay of Pigs operation of 1961,and the president's personal assistants,including his close personal advisers,press he was determined to have the benefit of opposing opinions during the new agents,legislative and group haison aides,and special assistants for domestic crisis and pollcy.They work in the White House,and the president can hire and fre them at will.Total loyalty to the preskdent is expected of these staff members A president's personal assistants do much of his legwork for him and serve as his main source of advice.Because of their closeness and loyalty to the president,they are among the most powerful individuals in Washington.They are not expert advisers in the sense of having studied or worked for years in a specialized policy field,but they often possess political savyy When George Bush took office,he appointed John Sununu as his top White House assistant. Sununu had been governor of New Hampshire for six years Before becoming The president's persanal advisaes Bush's chief of staff,he had headed Bush's victorious New Hampshire primary n prenrice valab金8山idanc全 bt they can also be a source af campaign,which was widely seen as the tumning point in Bush's drive toward the 1988 Republican nomination. h wn eatly in his farst team Although no modern president could function effectively without his close hi质Four aldes.lame assistants,they can aiso c use problems.In trying to conserve the president's Clark Edwin time,they may withhold views or information that he could use.At times advisers have also presumed to undertake important initiatives without first y恤e of perjury and Meese 240 wis under a cloud for sidential Office,"in Amold 1.Meltsner,ed.Polirics and the Doel kind af questlonable behavior. (Paul Conklin)