Panetta knew the White House was run informally, but he had no idea how informally. “I went to Mack and said, ‘I’d like to see your organizational chart for the White House staff.’ And he said, ‘You know, Leon, I don’t believe we have one of those.’ And I said, ‘Oh, shit.’ That’s when I knew I was in deep trouble! I had to basically organize the White House using little boxes. My army training helped me well because I basically established a kind of chain of command on the staff, who reported to who, and built the staff based on that organization chart.”
