Faith Amy Whittlesey ( Ryan; February 21, 1939 – May 21, 2018) was an American Republican politician, White House Senior Staff member, and author. She was noted for her efforts to communicate Ronald Reagan's entire policy agenda to U.S. opinion leaders and for bringing together for the first time in the Reagan White House evangelical, Catholic, and other conservative religious groups who opposed legalized abortion and were concerned about moral and cultural decline and the break-up of the family. These groups became a significant component of the Reagan coalition as they grew more politically self-conscious in the 1980s.FoxNews, "Interview with Faith Whittlesey," June 11, 2004.
She organized the White House Central American Outreach Group at the direction of Chief of Staff James Baker to provide information about Reagan's anti-communist policies in the region and was an active supporter of Reagan's defense buildup and the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
Whittlesey served twice for a total of nearly 5 years as U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and also served for 2 years on the Reagan White House Senior Staff as Assistant to the President for Public Liaison.
Early life and education Faith Amy Ryan was born in 1939 in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Martin Roy Ryan and Amy Jerusha (Covell). She grew up in Williamsville, New York.
Her father was a "Catholic in the Irish tradition" and it was incorrectly assumed that Faith grew up as a Catholic,Kristin E. Heyer, Mark J. Rozell, Michael A. Genovese (2008) Catholics and Politics: The Dynamic Tension Between Faith and Power. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press; when her mother's family did not approve of her father's Catholicism. "[S]o he left the Catholic Church", Whittlesey wrote in her memoir. "He attended the Methodist Church with my mother and brother, Tom, and me. I was thus raised as a Methodist. As a family we went to the Williamsville, New York, Methodist Church every Sunday. I went to regular Sunday school and sang in the choirs." However, she converted to Roman Catholicism in 2000.Obituary , inquirer.com. Accessed July 29, 2022.
She earned a full-tuition scholarship to attend Wells College in Aurora, New York, where she graduated in 1960. She earned a full-tuition scholarship to the law school at the University of Pennsylvania.
Career To earn money while in law school, Whittlesey became a substitute teacher in the City of Philadelphia (1962–64) because "[i]n my last year of law school [the female students] were advised by the law school administration not to even come to the [law firm job] interviews because we would not be hired". She was admitted to the bar of Pennsylvania in 1964.
Pennsylvania State Representative In 1972 she was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives representing the 166th Legislative District in Delaware County. She had canvassed door-to-door for this race while pregnant with her third child, William. In 1974, she was reelected to the Legislature. In 1975, she was elected to the Delaware County Board of Commissioners, now known as the Delaware County Council and reelected in 1979. (Delaware County was at the time larger in population than 5 states of the Union.) She served alternately as Chairman and Vice Chairman. She lost the 1978 Republican primary for Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania.
While serving in the Delaware County government, Whittlesey briefly held her first job in the private sector, taking a part-time job at the law firm Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen LLP in Philadelphia.
Ambassador to Switzerland Whittlesey served as U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland from 1981 to 83. In her first term as Swiss Ambassador she initiated negotiations in an acrimonious dispute between the U.S. and Switzerland that later led to the signing of a "Memorandum of Understanding on Insider Trading", the first major changing of the strict tradition of Swiss banking secrecy. Of this memorandum, Ambassador Jean Zwahlen, later a Member of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, wrote her: "I still keep a vivid memory of your skill to help delicate negotiations in the 80s."
White House Liaison Office
Whittlesey was named Assistant to the President for Public Liaison in 1983 at the suggestion of Ronald Reagan's Ambassador to Austria and personal assistant Helene von Damm,Von Damm, Helene (1988) At Reagan's Side. New York: Doubleday, p. 248 and at the urging of White House Chief of Staff James Baker and Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver."Memoirs of Faith Whittlesey", Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University.
Her tenure was marked by initiatives to improve the access of conservative religious believers to the American political process and national policymaking. She was considered their most "aggressive ally" in the White House.Martin, William(1996) With God On Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America. New York: Broadway. pg. 235
She wrote a memo in October 1983Faith Whittlesey to James A. Baker III, et al., "The Fundamentalist and Evangelical Groups" and "Tuition Tax Credits, School Prayer, and Pornography", October 11, 1983, Faith Ryan Whittlesey Files, box 7F, Reagan Library that fundamentalist and evangelical groups had done "little organizational work" for "the 1984 election period" and that to maintain Ronald Reagan's "credibility" with those groups, Catholics in particular, "the tuition tax credit bill must come up for Senate floor action this fall". She noted that school prayer was "not unlike the tuition tax credit issue. Politically we win if we get votes on the Senate floor".Lichtman, Allan J. (2000) White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, p. 376.
In 1985, she sent the anti-abortion film The Silent Scream, which was a documentary of an ultrasound abortion at three months produced in 1984 by anti-abortion activist and former NARAL founder Bernard Nathanson, to every member of Congress and arranged for a screening at the White House at which Nathanson presented the film.Hudson, Deal W. (2008) Onward Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States, New York: Threshold Editions, pg. 236;
At its height, her office included 38 people. She developed White House outreach to labor leaders, "Reagan Democrats", and Jewish leaders. She clashed with some other members of the Reagan White House senior staff whom she regarded as "largely Washington permanent government party functionaries not very committed to advocating the President's policies in a serious or consistent way."
While she was the Director of the Liaison Office (1983–85), there were conflicts with the staff of Reagan's Chief of Staff James A. Baker III and his deputy Michael Deaver, which led to Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) and others urging her to take a federal judgeship on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. After careful consideration, she declined the nomination.Simpson, Peggy (1988) Working woman. New York MacDonald Communications Corp. pg. 34
A judicial appointment would have effectively removed her from the public policy and political arena. She had taken the job of Public Liaison because of "a profound sense of obligation to the grassroots voters who had elected Reagan believing him to be a man of deep principle and traditional faith."Hudson, Deal W. (2008) Onward Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States. New York: Threshold Editions, pg. 235;
She returned to Switzerland after Donald Regan became Chief of Staff, replacing James A. Baker.
Iran-Contra At the direction of White House Chief of Staff James Baker, Whittlesey spent a great deal of her time as assistant to the President for Public Liaison organizing communication of information about Reagan's policies in Central America and, in particular, the anticommunist "Contras" in Nicaragua.Dent, David W. (1995) U.S.-Latin American Policymaking: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, pg. 153;
In 1983, she established the White House Outreach Working Group on Central America to help increase private sector understanding of Reagan's policies,Sklar, Holly (1995) Washington's War on Nicaragua. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, p. 244; including working with, among many other individuals and groups, the American Security Council Foundation, to produce anti-Sandinista propaganda (what she would call "truth-telling") films, and the Russ Bellant (1999) Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party: Domestic fascist networks and their effect on U.S. cold war politics. Cambridge, MA: South End Press. pp. 48-51; Council for National Policy to produce materials that revealed the Marxist–Leninist orientation of the Sandanista movement.
Among the groups that participated in the Outreach Group effort was the AFL-CIO because "the Sandinistas were against free labor unions."Lane Kirkland, quoted in "Memoirs of Faith Whittlesey," Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Constantine Menges cited "the very effective public outreach staff headed by Ambassador Faith Whittlesey"Constantine Menges, Inside the National Security Council, p. 172 in his reflections on Reagan foreign policy.
Despite its effectiveness, Whittlesey says the Outreach Group was shut down in 1985 when Donald Regan took over as Chief of Staff and the White House "started the brown bag operation with Ollie North. What we were doing was completely open and above board. It was an honest effort to change minds and hearts and to provide a forum for truth telling". According to Whittlesey, "the Washington establishment, especially Democratic but also most of the Republican, was opposed to, wanted to downplay, or gave the silent treatment to Reagan's Central American anti-communist policies."
Later, when asked about Iran-Contra she said: "I had no knowledge of the Iran-Contras connection. I had no involvement in it, nor was I asked to be a part of it." The final House report on Iran-Contra concluded that Whittlesey unsuccessfully attempted to help Oliver North obtain a U.S. passport for a fake Saudi prince who claimed to have knowledge of the locations of hostages being held in Lebanon.U.S. Representative Lee H. Hamilton & U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye's 1987 Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran/Contra Affair. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, pg. 111;
Whittlesey emphatically denied the claim, for which she maintained no proof was produced, as a politically motivated attempt by a Democrat-dominated House to discredit her White House Outreach Group initiative, which had been "a legitimate and in every respect legal attempt to communicate Reagan's anti-communist policy in Central America."
Of her association with Oliver North, she asserted, "We worked closely together. That's why I was investigated. That's why I was hauled before a congressional panel and investigated. They were criminalizing policy differences."Patti Mengers, "Keeping Faith: Former Haverford politician is the focus of new biography", Main Line News, October 8, 2012.
Return to Switzerland She resumed her duties representing the U.S. in Bern for a second term in 1985.