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nazi youth
Believe it or not, Reagan had a media chief who lasted even less time than Scaramucci
John O Koehler, who lasted a week, had been in a Nazi youth organisation as a young child.
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI’S BRIEF but dramatic tenure as President Trump’s communications chief ended this week.
The tough-talking Italian-American’s departure was announced on Monday night – the same day Trump announced a new chief of staff.
He had lasted just 11 days.
Almost as soon as he left, political observers began wondering if it was some kind of record.
And if the thought happened to cross your mind too, the answer is – no, it wasn’t. Not by some stretch.
It’s probably of scant consolation to Scaramucci, but Ronald Reagan once had a director of communications who lasted less than a week.
John O Koehler, who had served in the US Army in the 50s and 60s, worked for the Associated Press news agency in a number of roles in the years before his White House appointment – eventually becoming the AP’s assistant general manager.
The German-born Koehler said he had accepted the communications job after a 15-minute interview with Reagan, and planned to be as “low key as I can” in the role.
Unfortunately for the man tasked with managing the administration’s message, he was embroiled in controversy almost as soon as he took up his job – as NBC reported that he had been in a Nazi youth group as a child.
Koehler had been a member of the Jungvolk Nazi organisation as a ten-year-old child in Dresden.
Speaking to the Washington Post on the night the NBC report came out, Koehler explained:
If you lived in Germany at that time and were of a certain age, you had something to do with the party. Do you really begin to think at that age?
He added:
Having been a newspaperman in this country for more than 30 years, I think this is a black day in journalism.
He also highlighted his service in the US Army and Army Reserve to the paper, and said his membership of the Nazi youth organisation had been known when he received his security clearance for the White House.
According to the Post, Koehler had also translated for the US Army as a teenager in the closing stages of World War II.
Reagan expressed confidence in his newest hire the day after the NBC report emerged, but tensions flared behind the scenes.
New chief of staff Howard Baker Jnr asked Koehler to leave his role on 7 March.
Although the controversy about the Nazi youth group hit the headlines in late February, Koehler hadn’t officially started his new job until 1 March. He lasted less than a week.
Reporters were told his departure had nothing to do with his membership of the Nazi organisation.
Koehler wrote to the President: “I have believed totally in your goals for the United States and for the world from the first day we met in the early 70s. Thus, I welcomed the privilege to serve you albeit briefly.”
He insisted was stepping aside to allow the new chief of staff name his own team.
Koehler authored several books later in life, including one about the ‘Stasi’, the East German Secret Police. He died in 2012, aged 82.
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