June 21, 1996

MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT .

THE VICE PRESIDENT
FROM: MACK McLARTY and RON KLAIN
SUBJECT: OPERATIONS DURING THE OLYMPICS
The Centennial Olympics, to be held fro in July 19 to August 4, are one of the most
significant international events to be held on U.S. soil in recent years. Gargantuan in scope,-the
focus of unprecedented media :d complexity, the. safe and
staging of these Games of paramount impeft?nce _ the people of this country, and
the White House. .
The bulk of the responsibility for the smooth functioning of the Games falls to state,
local, and (predominantly) private officials, namely, ACTG .. and the IOC.
have a considerable federal investment in the Games-- and a_ considerable federal stake. For this
reason, you established the White House Task Force on the Olympics in 1993, and designated the .
Vice President and Mack as the Chair and Co-Chair respectively.
The Task Force has function...snccessfully for the past three years, coordinating federal
to the Games and serving as a central point of contact for Olympics officials at the
White House. Two large public meetings have been held in the past year -- and weekly private
meetings between the Vice President, Mack, and Ron, have driven an agenda for weekly
meetings of senior White House staff working meeting.
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Overall, the result has been an extremel hi -dew-ee C?f cooperation Olympics
officials, state and localofficials in Georgia, and seruor - 1fe o e o 1c1a s. Many substantive
achievement,s have been reached -:- for example, in the Vice President achieved an
agreement among federal, state, and local officials to DOUBLE the number of uniformed law
enforcement officials in Atlanta -- and a positive feeling has been left behind.
Now, as we arrive at a time when the Olympics will foSUs at the White House,
the time has arrived to make the Task Force operatiOllal in nature; i.e., in a position to deal with
the daily tra_ffic of security, diplomatic, communications, ind !2gistical
Games. To address this challenge, we recommend management strudu?es in five specific areas,,
as detailed below. c.. ____ _
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((f) Da)C-to-Da)C Problem Solving "\
order for the positive aspects or:!:: Olympics-- and the President's support for our
athletes participating in the Olympics-- to shine through, the White House must show
competence and quickness in dealing with the myriad of "day-to-day" problems that are likely to
arise during the Games. Examples of such problems include:
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Having athletic equipment belonging to competitors being stopped in Customs;
Arrests of competitors for minor offenses;
Crimes against tourists or locals that seem particularly significant.
These are the sorts of issues that our day-to-day operations at the White House must be prepared
to deal with. To achieve this, we propose the following steps:
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of a White House staff member to Atlanta, splitting time)etween ACTG. 's
Command Post and the Interagency Coordination Center at City Hall East. We
recommend Steve Ronnel for this position;
At the morning meeting, our Atl@ta staffer art on developments from
the daily jointACTG.-IOC management eld at 8:30am; -
Steve Silverman would report on any developments from the agencies, as
tracked by a special 8:45am daily agency conference call Steve will conduct;
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Agency r_eps from the agencies with
Justice, Treasury, and FEMA) wil e t g;
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Key White House partments would participate in the daily meetings.
Daily n . on time Conference Calls would coordinate between us at the White House and
ey p ayers in Atlanta. Participants would include: Mack, Ron, our AtlantaJ)taffer, a
representae of ACT<k_ IOC, USOC, Gov. Miller's office, and Mayor Caf!1pbell's
office. This call would deal with emerging issues at a political level.
. and coordinating activity, as outlined
insure that all relevant parties at the White aware, on a real-time basis,
of critical developments at the Games, critical issues raised by those and our
response to these challenges. c:;, .
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-Security IssueJ . .
ecurity issl;les daily coordination issues -- security
developments that are not of a critical'natur<Usee below) nonetlleless neecTI<i:be traclsed daily for
any adjustments or modifications that might be required. Here, we. would envision the following
steps:




The daily national security briefings for the President and Vice President will be modified .
to ;ontain informat10n ab,out developments that thieaten the Olyrp.pics (if any).
d fe Conference Call to be or ari.ized b Gil Childers,
security coor ma or, om Atlanta. Partic!J?ants will include
Cabinet Affairs here at the White House; officials from Justice and Treasury here in
Washington, and others as appropriate.
Our Atlanta Staffer will attend dail .secu ornmand Center at City (
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Hall ast,. and have access to the FBI Command Center t the Perimeter. will also
arrange to ave 1stn ute , to those who need to have it, the daily security briefing
produced at City Hall East. .
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Senior Justice and Treasury officials have both expressed a willingness to come to the
White House for any additional briefings, as necessary.
should insure that the success of the securi
an updated daily. .
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' Management)
In the event of a particularly sensitive issue emerging -- such as a major breakdown in the
security or transportation systems, or1he defecuon of a foreign athlete ,...- special immediate
response mechanisms will need to be triggered.
These response mechanism come in four tiers:
(_ Response )
The first response to such a problem would be for White House Cabinet Affairs to
convene a quick conference call among the relevant agency officials, both here in Washington
arid their Atlanta counterparts, to assess the situation and determine the facts. Mack and/or Ron
would also participate in the call, as would someone from the Communications Team.
If this call could resolve the situation, responsibility for informing AQl)J., state and local
officials, the IOC, and other relevant parties would fall to Cabinet Affairs, with he p
Ron, or Janet Abrams as necessary. (
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Tier 2: Consultative Response
In the event that the situation required a more cgmplex or sensitive response, a
Conference Call would be established, involving the following individuals:
Mack McLarty, Ron K.lain NSC Re Cabinet Affairs Re Bill Pa e Bill Rathburn,
IOC ep, teve Wrigley, Gary McConnel, Steve Labovitz, Chief Harvard, Jamie
Gorelick, Gill Childers, Ray Kelly, James Lee Witt, W1fCornmurucahons/Press
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Mack would run the call, and ask Cabinet Affairs to report on the results of the Tier 1 review.
Then opinions from the Atlanta-based entities would be solicited.
In this scenario, the issue could be discussed and resolved at the above level. Appropriate
press responses would be considered, and decisions would be implemented.
If a particular situation merited consideration of postponement or cancellation of the
Games, a Tier 3 call would be initiated. Participants would inthide:
----- Mack McLarty, Governor Miller, Mayor Campbell, Billy Payne,
President Samaranch, the Attorney General, Secretary Rubin, James Lee Witt.
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Mack would brief the participants on the results of prior conference calls and consultations, and
raise the issues necessary for decision. If needed, the Vice President and Mack could brief the
President before any final decisions were made.
Tier 4: National Security Situations
If a particular situation was so grave as to threaten national security, the appropriate
\ response mechanisms in the White House would be employed. A I 1er 3 Conference Call would
\ be convened as appropriate.
Monitoring Sporting and "Good News" Developments at the Games
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As you know, a critical part of OJ!f communications approach to the Games is to have the
four principals, in a coordinated way, commend the success (or console the failure) of selected
athletes and other participants. There may also be dramatic stories involving volunteers, federal
employee volunteers, or other attendees at the Games. FOr our contacts with these "heroes" to
be effective, they must be timely.
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Thus, a critical part of our a:pproach mUst be a system for ohtainjug and making
judgements about sporting and "good news" developments at the Games. To do this, we would
systems:

Jennifer Miller would_tpce principal responsibility for utilizing these reports (along with
our(""preextstmg information about particular athletes/teams that the pnncipals are
following) to prepare call sheets or other proposals for real-time congratulations from the
President or one of the principals;
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Developments in Atlanta could also be tracked more carefully by use of"InfuJ.6," the
line database, operated by ACTG. and IOC, that will be utilized by NBC to shape their
coverage of the Games. Talks are underway with ACTG. to provide us with access to the
"Info 96" system.
aily meet' gS f Likely
c:: ants wou resentatives from unications, the Social Office, and
vi Correspondence (all key to outreach), meeting with Jennifer Miller, Janet Abrams, and
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.+ staff from News Analysis who are tracking the Games. l t
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c v' key is to able to be spontaneo ting s cesses at the Game ng foti' .$0 ( ( I
,L.. . "spontaneity." We shou schedules of the four 7
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J.J each day to. allow the
iY- participants, and the hke.
( 5. Communications Coordination ) . . . . "
Finally, mechanism. or getting out our_ message each day, both on positive
side and on front. .... ---
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In this regard, we would recommend the following coordinating mechanisms:
l Don Baer and Lorraine Voles should weet with from NBC
Sports,_J:o 1 ti he athletes we are following with special interest, to discuss possible

visits by principals to the Games, and other angles for possible involvement by the White
House in NBC's coverage;
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and Lorraine might want to conduct a daily conference cal!_ with
ag_ency press_gJficers to identifx press jssues ___ from the agencies, and to secure
-agreement on plans for handling those issues. this could be handled by the
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daily agency call being conducted by Cabinet Affairs.
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