WHCA Slush Fund

Warren "Bill" Gulley wrote "Breaking Cover" - a book about the White House Communications Agency  (WHCA) and their secret slush fund. Gulley is one of those with duel identities.

THE WHITE HOUSE CONFIRMS ACCESS TO SECRET FUND

AP  JUNE 14, 1981

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/14/us/the-white-house-confirms-access-to-secret-fund.html

A White House official has confirmed that Ronald Reagan has access to a secret military fund, reportedly used for years to finance Presidential perquisites, but the official says he swears that the President will not misuse it.

''My assurance is that there will be no abuse of the fund and that it will remain secret,'' said the aide, Edward V. Hickey Jr., director of the White House military office.

In a book, ''Breaking Cover,'' Bill Gulley, former director of the military office, said the multimillion-dollar fund was established in 1957 to build and maintain secret sites where the President could take cover during a military attack. The fund is controlled by the military office.

Mr. Gulley said several Presidents had used the fund to hide the use of taxpayer money to build such things as swimming pools and movie theaters.

Mr. Gulley maintained that because the fund was classified, Presidents could use it any way they wished and never be discovered. Author Sees Abuse

''There were a lot of reasons Presidents abused the fund,'' Mr. Gulley said. ''In some cases it was a simple matter of getting the military to do and pay for something a President wanted, like the work that was done at the LBJ Ranch. In others, it was also a way of keeping what was being done and the extravagance of it a secret from Congress and the people.

''The temptation of a ready source of money with no strings attached - no questions to answer or explanations to make - is tremendous. Things you'd hesitate to do, or would never do if you had to account for them, seem OK when no one is looking.''

But Mr. Hickey contended that during the Reagan Administration the fund would be used only for its official purpose. ''I could never in conscience classify something that really wasn't classifiable for the sake of just trying to cover something,'' the former Secret Service agent said. Assurances Cited

Mr. Hickey said he had given private assurances among Congressmen to ''every committee chairman that has a need to know what the nature of the fund is.''

He said the fund, the exact amount of which is unknown, is classified because ''it deals with very sensitive aspects of the President's role as commander-in-chief.

''It's more than a secret fund,'' he said. ''It's a classified project that supports the commander-in-chief.'' Mr. Hickey said President Reagan was informed of the fund when he was briefed on the military secrets he was inheriting upon taking office, including the codes that would begin a nuclear war. Nixon Use Cited

According to Mr. Gulley's book, President Nixon used the secret fund to build a $500,000 swimming pool at Camp David, and a helicopter pad and office complex and landscaping at his San Clemente, Calif., home. Nick Ruwe, a spokesman for the former President, said Thursday that ''I think it's probably better not to comment.''

Mr. Gulley said President Johnson used the fund to improve his ranch, including installing a shower and sprinkler system, repairing roads and converting a hangar into an air-conditioned movie theater.

Mr. Gulley said that President Ford used it to rent villas in Vail, Colo., and hotel rooms in New York and elsewhere so staff members could be near him. Regarding that, Bob Barrett, a former military aide to President Ford and now in private business at Vail, confirmed Thursday that ''the funds were used. That is a correct statement.'' But Mr. Barrett said President Ford had no knowledge of it.

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