Russell A. Rourke counselor John O. Marsh. In 1976, he became a special assistant to President Gerald R. Ford. His responsibilities included legislative liaison between the White House and Congress. After President Ford lost his bid for re-election in 1977, Rourke serve on the White House Transition Team. At the close of the Ford Administration, Rourke accepted a position as administrative assistant to Republican Congressman Harold S. Sawyer of Michigan. In May 1981, President Reagan nominated Rourke as assistant secretary for legislative affairs in the Department of Defense. In that capacity, Rourke was the principal adviser to Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger
The Death of a President reprinted in 1988, and reissued by Back Bay Books, an imprint of Little, Brown, and Company, in October 2013. The Death of a President The Death of a President: November 20–November 25, 1963 is historian William Manchester's 1967 account of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The book gained public attention before it was published when Kennedy's widow Jacqueline, who had initially asked Manchester to write the book, demanded that the author make changes in the manuscript. "Death" is dedicated ""For all in whose hearts he still lives -- a watchman of honour who never sleeps"". The book chronicles the