White flew as a navigator on dozens of missions for the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, having earned the Distinguished Flying Cross.
The movement grew to a full-time operation with the opening of a Manhattan office in the spring of 1962; its address in the Chanin Building gave White the title of his account of the Goldwater campaign, Suite 3505.
White was credited with organizing highly effective grassroots operations in the states that secured enough delegates for a surprising Goldwater victory on the first ballot at the 1964 Republican National Convention held in San Francisco.
Following the convention, however, Goldwater declined to give White the lead role of chairman of the Republican National Committee, a designation which went instead to Dean Burch of Arizona.
Goldwater named his personal friend of nearly three decades, Denison Kitchel, a Phoenix lawyer, as the national campaign manager.
Reagan came in third at the 1968 Republican National Convention held in Miami Beach, Florida, with 182 delegates, behind Rockefeller and first-ballot winner Richard M. Nixon, the former Vice President of the United States.
The Buckley campaign was his first with young pollster Arthur J. Finkelstein, with whom White would go into business in their consulting firm, DirAction Services.
[9] Their 1972 campaigns included the Committee to Re-Elect the President (Finkelstein as one of several pollsters), and the successful bid of broadcaster Jesse Helms for the U.S. Senate from North Carolina.
White broke with most conservatives and remained loyal to President Gerald R. Ford Jr. against Ronald Reagan in the contest for the 1976 Republican nomination.