The Presidential Oral History Program at the University's Miller Center for Public Affairs is filling holes in White House records through comprehensive interviews with former presidents and high-ranking Washington officials.
What began in the early 1980s as University Prof. James Young's ambitious effort to document the Carter administration, has developed into an ongoing program responsible for the largest interview archive of the American presidency.
With scandals plaguing modern administrations, written records have become potential evidence for criminal investigation, causing Washington officials to avoid documentation.
"The written record of presidential administrations is not as complete as it once was because of the hostile legal climate in Washington," said Russell Riley, an assistant professor and research fellow at the Miller Center who is one of the program's project leaders.
This is where the Presidential Oral History Program comes in, saving future students of politics from inadequate, gap-ridden records.
"The program tries to get those who know the president best to commit to the permanent record their recollections so that people who are not yet born can know more about the presidency as we experience it during our lifetimes," Riley said.
The program's interviews with presidents, vice-presidents and cabinet members take a more scholarly approach than typical, journalistic-style interviews.
"Most oral histories are done one-on-one, whereas we will have anywhere from three to five people asking questions," said program project leader Stephen Knott, also an assistant professor and research fellow at the Miller Center. "It's a very relaxed discussion, almost a case where the person we're interviewing is the teacher and we're the students asking questions of him or her."
Because of deadlines, newspaper articles often are incomplete, Knott said. The press "writes the first draft of history, and we try to write the second and third drafts for a deeper perspective."
The tape-recorded interviews are confidential and conducted under a "set of stringent ground rules in order to encourage respondents to be candid," Riley said.
The people interviewed are given the opportunity to review the transcripts before research documents on the presidency are created. One copy is housed in the Scripps library at the Miller Center and another copy typically is given to the corresponding presidential library.
Because oral history endeavors are expensive and time-consuming, overburdened presidential libraries are willing to defer to and cooperate with the established, non-partisan Miller Center, Riley said. He added that past presidents have been "very willing to participate and very responsive."
The program is the only institution in the United States that documents presidential oral history. Knott said it's possible that post-presidency interviews at the Miller Center will become traditional for future presidents.
The Presidential Oral History Program currently is undertaking projects on the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Riley expressed confidence that current President Bush also is likely to participate at the end of his tenure in office.
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