The Army Aide Who Became a President’s Friend

Maj. Bob Barrett spent a formative two years assisting President Gerald Ford, after initially being tapped to assist in the Nixon administration.

"Inside the President's Team: Family, Service, and the Gerald Ford Presidency" by Bob Barrett.

The 1970s were a restless decade in America. Vietnam and Watergate were open sores on America’s consciousness; the country was ripe with paranoia and suspicion, and inflation was sky high.

As detailed in his biography, “Inside the President’s Team: Family, Service and the Gerald Ford Presidency,” Army Maj. Bob Barrett was caught up in the Watergate maelstrom. On the morning of July 10, 1974, the major was summoned to Washington by W.L. “Bill” Gulley, the military office director for President Richard Nixon’s White House.