CALIFANO, Joseph A., Jr. 1931–

(Joseph Anthony Califano, Jr.)

PERSONAL:

Born May 15, 1931, in New York, NY; son of Joseph A. and Katherine Califano; married Gertrude Zawacki, July 4, 1955 (divorced); married Hilary Paley Byers; children: (first marriage) Mark Gerard, Joseph Anthony III, Claudia Frances; (second marriage) Brooke, John F. Byers IV. Education: Holy Cross College, B.A., 1952; Harvard University, LL.B. (magna cum laude), 1955. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, 633 3rd Ave., 19th Fl., New York, NY 10017-6706.

CAREER:

Admitted to the Bar of the State of New York, 1955, and to the Bars of the District of Columbia and the U.S. Supreme Court; Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood (law firm), New York, NY, associate, 1958-61; U.S. Department of Defense, Washington, DC, special assistant to general counsel, 1961-62, special assistant to the secretary of the army, 1962-63, general counsel of the department of the army, 1963-64, special assistant to the secretary and deputy secretary of defense, 1964-65; White House, Washington, DC, special assistant to the president, 1965-69; Arnold & Porter (law firm), Washington, DC, associate 1969-71; Williams, Connolly & Califano (law firm), Washington, DC, partner, 1971-77; U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, DC, secretary, 1977-79; Califano, Ross & Heineman (law firm), Washington, DC, partner, 1980-83; Dewey Ballantine (law firm), Washington, DC, senior partner, 1983-92; Columbia University, New York, NY, founding chair and president of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, 1992—, and adjunct professor of public health. Principal legal advisor to U.S. investigating committee of the Organization of American States on the Panama riots, 1964; member of president's Appalachian Regional Commission, 1964; executive secretary of president's advisory committee on supersonic transport, beginning 1964; member of Federal Radiation Council, beginning 1964. Director for Viacom, Inc.; Willis Group Holdings, Ltd.; and Automatic Data Processing, Inc. General counsel for Democratic National Committee, 1971-72; member of Democratic Party Charter Commission, 1972-74; member of board of directors, Overseers Law School Visiting Committee of Harvard University and Child Welfare League; member of Annual Corporate Board, Children's Hospital, Washington, DC; founding chair, Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; board member, Midway Home Entertainment, 2004—; member, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences; advisory council member, American Foundation for AIDS Research and the Council on Foreign Relations; trustee, Mater Dei School in Washington, DC, New York Presbyterian Hospital, the Urban Institute, the Century Foundation, the National Health Museum, and the American Ditchley Foundation; trustee emeritus, John F. Kennedy for the Performing Arts. Military service: U.S. Navy, Judge Advocate General's Office, 1955-58; became lieutenant.

MEMBER:

American Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, American Judicature Society, Bar Association of the District of Columbia, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Federal City Club.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Distinguished Civilian Service Award, Department of the Army, 1964; Man of the Year Award, Justinian Society of Lawyers, 1966; named "One of Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Year" by Junior Chamber of Commerce, 1966; Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, U.S. Department of Defense, 1967; Ford Foundation grant, 1969; recipient of honorary degrees from numerous universities, including Seton Hall, City University of New York, City College of New York, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, Elkins College, University of Michigan, Howard University, and the University of Notre Dame.

WRITINGS:

The Student Revolution: A Global Confrontation, Norton (New York, NY), 1969.

A Presidential Nation, Norton (New York, NY), 1975.

(Editor, with Howard Simons) The Media and the Law, Praeger (New York, NY), 1976.

(Editor and author of introduction, with Howard Simons) The Media & Business, Vintage Books (New York, NY), 1979.

A Cabinet Officer's View of the Ethics and Politics of Health: A Lecture, University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH), 1981.

Governing America: An Insider's Report from the White House and the Cabinet, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1981.

An Insider's Report (sound recording and study guide), Encyclopedia Americana/CBS News Audio Resource Library (New York, NY), 1981.

The 1982 Report on Drug Abuse and Alcoholism, State of New York, Executive Chamber (Albany, NY), 1982.

America's Health Care Revolution: Who Lives? Who Dies? Who Pays?, Random House (New York, NY), 1986.

The Triumph & Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: The White House Years, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1991.

Radical Surgery: What's Next for America's Health Care, Times Books (New York, NY), 1994.

Inside: A Private and Public Life (memoir), Public Affairs (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to periodicals, including the New York Times, Washington Post, New Leader, Washington Monthly, Journal of the American Medical Association, Reader's Digest, New England Journal, and New Republic. Former editor, Harvard Law Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

An attorney and Washington insider, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., served in various offices during the Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter presidencies. Most notable among his political appointments was his time as special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson from 1965 to 1969, and his three years as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare during the Carter years. In the latter role, Califano was in charge of the third largest budget in the world (exceeded only by that of the entire government of the United States and that of the Soviet Union), and it was his aim to make his department a model of governmental efficiency. However, his opposition to smoking as detrimental to the public's health put him at odds with the powerful tobacco industry, and when President Carter decided to reorganize his administration and requested that his Cabinet members resign, Califano was the first to leave.

After resigning from his Cabinet post, Califano returned to his law career. His desire to work for the public good, however, led him to become founding chair of Columbia University's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse in 1992. Over the years, Califano has taken his experiences in law, government, and health policy, and produced a number of well-received books. Among these is The Triumph & Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: The White House Years, which offers the author's personal take on Johnson, his cantankerous personality, and his vision of a "Great Society." President Johnson was infamous for often treating his political underlings in demeaning and insulting fashion, and Califano does not hesitate to relate how he himself experienced such treatment, but the author also relates that Johnson had his brilliant side and a noble goal for the American people. The result, insisted Hugh Sidey in a Time review, is that Califano has "delivered a hard, pure nugget of L.B.J. that is close to the truth." While a contributor to Reviews in American History was disappointed that Califano offers few insights into politics at the time, the critic admitted that the author "excels at relating the flavor (and smell) of Johnson's presidency." Henry F. Graf, writing in the New Leader, concluded: "The author's details are graphic, intimate, sometimes scatological. They bring the Johnson manner alive and glowing."

With his background as former secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and as the current chair president of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, Califano knows a great deal about how government health care programs work. He joins in on the debate about the current crisis in health care with Radical Surgery: What's Next for America's Health Care. After providing what Kathy Thornton called an "excellent history of the development of the current system over the past century" in her National Catholic Reporter assessment, Califano goes on to describe some of what he sees as problems in the current system. For example, he points out that attempts to reform certain parts of the system and not others will not work, and he calls for more personal responsibility on private citizens to take care of their health before they become ill. Interestingly, as Henry A. Foley reported in his America review, the author explains that "current medicine is failing the United States because there is profit to be gained from services and procedures for those in poor health." Foley further observed: "Among a series of practical recommendations, Califano suggests that we change the financial incentives in the provision of services and penalize both patients who fail to take preventive measures and physicians who fail to offer such measures." Thornton felt, however, that Califano "leaves the reader with more questions than answers," while Foley insisted that Radical Surgery "not only provide the diagnosis our health care system needs but also the treatment it deserves."

Califano combines his professional and personal lives in his 2004 memoir, Inside: A Private and Public Life. Here he reflects on his Catholic upbringing and how it has impacted his life, including his desire to do good in the world—"he became the nation's leading advocate and fundraiser for research on addiction" after leaving politics, according to David O'Brien in Commonweal—and his reconciliation with the Church after he divorced his first wife and remarried. Although the "memoir is an insider's story, filled with interesting anecdotes about American politics," O'Brien reported: "He tells us much about the people he worked with, less about the policies, little about the failures." America contributor Joseph A. O'Hare described the book as a "richly documented and thoroughly engaging memoir" and praised the author for "never [being] spiteful or small-minded" when discussing the challenges of politics. "Most interesting to the observer of American politics, though," concluded Jeffrey Marsh in World and I, "is his reconciliation of the hardball tactics used by Lyndon Johnson and himself with the ends they sought and largely achieved."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Califano, Joseph A., Jr., Inside: A Private and Public Life, Public Affairs (New York, NY), 2004.

periodicals

America, June 17, 1995, Henry A. Foley, review of Radical Surgery: What's Next for America's Health Care, p. 33; August 16, 2004, Joseph A. O'Hare, "From Punch Ball to Hardball," review of Inside: A Public and Private Life, p. 23.

Commonweal, July 16, 2004, David O'Brien, "Two Catholics in the Public Square," review of Inside, p. 27.

Issues in Science and Technology, fall, 1995, David Blumenthal, review of Radical Surgery, p. 85.

National Catholic Reporter, May 26, 1995, Kathy Thornton, review of Radical Surgery, p. 30; July 2, 2004, Richard P. McBrien, "Catholic Politicians' Dilemma an Old One," review of Inside, p. 18.

New Leader, December 30, 1991, Henry F. Graff, review of The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: The White House Years, p. 15.

Reviews in American History, June, 1993, review of The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, p. 329.

Time, December 30, 1991, Hugh Sidey, review of The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, p. 80; April 12, 2004, John F. Stacks, "An Ultimate Insider: Joe Califano Served under Three Presidents, Knows Lots of Secrets, and Helped the U.S. Try to Kill Castro," review of Inside, p. 70

World and I, November, 2004, Jeffrey Marsh, "Memoir of a Mover and Shaker," review of Inside. *