Memorandum from Dick Cheney to Jim Connor Regarding the Coffee Bill for White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld’s Office, 10/20/1975

Subject: The Chief of Staff’s Coffee Bill

Deputy Chief of Staff Dick Cheney wrote this memo to Staff Secretary Jim Connor in October 1975, wanting to know why the coffee bill for Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld’s office had been so high the previous month. Connor’s handwritten note succinctly sums up why the bill was over $100: “They are drinking too much coffee and have too many people drinking it!”

The White House Mess records showed that the bill covered 200 pots of coffee, meaning that the nine staff members and their guests had consumed about 50 pots per week in September.

Image: Memorandum from Dick Cheney to Jim Connor Regarding the Coffee Bill for White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld’s Office, 10/20/1975. From the James Connor Files, Box 18, folder “Rumsfeld, Donald - White House Chief of Staff (11)” (National Archives Identifier 16637889)

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