Page 254 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

BECOMING A FELLOW

Larry O’Brien was an advisor to President Johnson and was also his spe-
cial assistant for congressional relations. He was a powerful force in Demo-
cratic politics, and in the 1950s he had been the organizational genius behind
John F. Kennedy’s two successful U.S. Senate races in Massachusetts and
then his 1960 national campaign for the presidency. In 1964, he ran Lyndon
Johnson’s winning campaign against Senator Barry Goldwater, a landslide
victory. He is credited for being the architect of the Great Society legislation,
and everyone in and around Washington—and many points beyond—was
aware of his influence. Johnson had been planning to reward O’Brien with
the position of Postmaster General. “President Johnson picked up the phone,
pressed a button, and said ‘Lar, get down here.’” O’Brien entered the room
and saw Lee, and he immediately broke into a grin and said, “Hey, Ronnie!
How are you doing?” The stunned president listened while Lee and O’Brien
explained that they had known each other for twenty years, since the time
O’Brien had worked as a congressional aide for Congressman Furcolo, who
had appointed Lee to the U.S. Military Academy. “You got me, young feller,”
the president replied. “I like that.” And thus began a friendship between a
young new White House Fellow and the President of the United States.
Lee was assigned to work with O’Brien and accompanied him to his
new position as U.S. Postmaster General, where Lee would be put in charge
of reenergizing the U.S. Postal System and transforming it into a public
corporation. He did such an exemplary job that O’Brien asked him to stay
on at the end of his Fellowship year, but there was a hitch: Lee still had an
obligation to the Army. When deciding whether Lee could accept the Fel-
lowship, the general counsel for the Department of Defense had deter-
mined that he would have to pay the Army back two years for the privilege
of spending one year in a Fellowship. “O’Brien said that if the commander-
in-chief wanted me to stay, it could be worked out,” Lee said. “The pres-
ident said he wanted me to stay because this was not a good time to be
bringing others up to speed on all of the things O’Brien and I had started
at the Post Office Department, so he called the Secretary of Defense to
find out why I should not be released.”
The president was given a long list of reasons. As a West Point grad
with ranger and counterinsurgency training and a person fluent in foreign
languages including Vietnamese, Lee was simply too valuable an asset to
the Army. At a time when doctors’ tours were being extended and eigh-
teen-year-olds were being drafted to fight in Vietnam, there was absolutely

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