Sources

Sources for the Foreign Relations Series

The Foreign Relations statute requires that the published record in the Foreign Relations series include all records needed to provide comprehensive documentation on major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant U.S. diplomatic activity. It further requires that government agencies, departments, and other entities of the U.S. Government engaged in foreign policy formulation, execution, or support cooperate with the Department of State Historian by providing full and complete access to records pertinent to foreign policy decisions and actions and by providing copies of selected records. Many of the sources consulted in the preparation of this volume have been declassified and are available for review at the National Archives and Records Administration.

The editors of the Foreign Relations series have complete access to all the retired records and papers of the Department of State: the central files of the Department; the special decentralized files (“lot files”) of the Department at the bureau, office, and division levels; the files of the Department’s Executive Secretariat, which contain the records of international conferences and high-level official visits, correspondence with foreign leaders by the President and Secretary of State, and memoranda of conversations between the President and Secretary of State and foreign officials; and the files of overseas diplomatic posts. All the Department’s indexed central files for these years have been permanently transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland (Archives II). Many of the Department’s decentralized office (or lot) files covering this period, those that the National Archives deems worthy of permanent retention, have been transferred or are in the process of being transferred from the Department’s custody to Archives II.

The editors of the Foreign Relations series also have full access to the papers of President Johnson and other White House foreign policy records. Presidential papers maintained and preserved at the Presidential libraries include some of the most significant foreign affairs-related documentation from the Department of State and other Federal agencies including the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Sources for Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, Volume X

In preparing this volume, the editor made extensive use of Presidential papers and other White House records at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library. [Page XII] The bulk of the foreign policy records at the Johnson Library are in the relevant component parts of the National Security file. Within the National Security file, the NSC Meetings file, the Agency file, and the Subject file proved to be of particular value. The editor also made extensive use of the files of President Johnson’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs Walt W. Rostow and Charles E. Johnson, a member of the NSC staff with primary responsibility for national security issues. Transcripts of President Johnson’s telephone conversations, especially with Secretary of Defense McNamara, added important depth to the record.

Second in importance to the White House records at the Johnson Library were the records of the Department of Defense, particularly the records of the Secretaries of Defense, the Assistant Secretaries of Defense for International Affairs, and other major assistants and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Some important documents are found only in the Department of State lot files. The conference files maintained by the Executive Secretariat contain briefing materials as well as records of conversations.

The Central Intelligence Agency provides the Department of State historians access to intelligence documents from records in its custody and at the Presidential libraries. This access is arranged and facilitated by the CIA’s History Staff, part of the Center for the Study of Intelligence, pursuant to a May 1992 memorandum of understanding.

All of this documentation has been made available for use in the Foreign Relations series thanks to the consent of the agencies mentioned, the assistance of their staffs, and especially the cooperation and support of the National Archives and Records Administration.

The following list identifies the particular files and collections used in the preparation of this volume. The declassification and transfer to the National Archives of the Department of State records is in process, and many of those records are already available for public review at the National Archives.

Unpublished Sources

  • Department of State
    • Central Files and Lot Files. See under National Archives and Records Administration below
    • INR/IL Historical Files
  • National Archives and Records Administration
    • RG 59, Records of the Department of State
      • Subject-Numeric Indexed Central File
        • DEF 1, Defense affairs, policy, plans, readiness
        • DEF 1 EUR, Defense affairs, policy, plans, readiness concerning Europe
        • DEF 1 EUR W, Defense affairs, policy, plans, readiness concerning Western Europe
        • DEF 1 US, U.S. defense affairs, U.S. policy, plans, readiness
        • DEF 1–1, Defense affairs, contingency planning
        • DEF 1–2 US, Defense affairs, U.S. stockpiling of strategic and critical materials
        • DEF 12, Defense affairs, armaments
        • DEF 12 US, Defense affairs, U.S. armaments
        • DEF 12–1 US, Defense affairs, armaments, U.S. research and development
        • DEF 15 US, Defense affairs, armaments, U.S. bases, installations
        • INT 6, Intelligence, collection of intelligence
        • ORG 7, Organization and administration, visits
        • POL 1 US, General policy, U.S. political affairs and relations
        • POL 1 US–USSR, General policy, U.S.-U.S.S.R. political affairs and relations
        • POL 15–1 USSR, Political affairs and relations between the heads of state of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
      • Lot Files
        • Ball Papers: Lot 74 D 272
          • Files of Under Secretary of State George Ball, 1961–1966
        • Bohlen Papers: Lot 74 D 379
          • Files of Ambassador Charles E. Bohlen, 1942–1970
        • Bruce Diaries: Lot 64 D 327
          • Files of Ambassador David K.E. Bruce, 1948–1974
        • Presidential Correspondence: Lot 66 D 294
          • Presidential exchanges of correspondence with heads of government for 1953–1965, maintained by the Executive Secretariat
        • S/MF Files: Lot 66 D 182
          • Multilateral force documents, 1960–1965, maintained by the Executive Secretariat
        • S/P Files: Lot 74 D 344
          • Senior Interdepartmental Group memos, agenda, and correspondence, January 1968–December 1969
        • S/PC Files: Lot 70 D 199
          • Files of the Policy Planning Council, 1963–1964
        • S/S Files: Lot 67 D 272
          • Presidential and Secretary of State’s official exchanges of correspondence with various foreign statesmen for 1966
        • S/S Files: Lot 70 D 217
          • White House and executive departments’ memoranda and letters to the Secretary of State and Under Secretary of State for 1963–1966
        • S/S Files: Lot 71 D 228
          • Transition Books for members of the Nixon administration, December 1968
        • S/S Files: Lot 71 D 460
          • Files of Foy D. Kohler for 1962–1968, including memoranda of his discussions with Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin and Foreign Minister Gromyko
        • S/S Files: Lot 74 D 164
          • Files on President’s Evening Reading, 1964–1973, and Secretary-President Luncheon Meetings, 1964–1969
        • S/S–I Microfilm Files: Lot 79 D 246
          • Microfilmed master files of international conferences attended by the President, the Secretary of State, and other U.S. officials for 1956–1966
        • S/S–NSC Files: Lot 70 D 265
          • Master set of papers pertaining to National Security Council meetings, including policy papers, position papers, and administrative documents for 1961–1968
        • S/S–NSC Files: Lot 72 D 316
          • Master file of National Security Action Memoranda (NSAMs) for 1961–1968
        • S/S–NSC Files: Lot 72 D 318
          • Files on NSC meetings, 1966–1968, the Cabinet, 1967, and the NSC Special Committee, 1967
        • S/S–RD Files: Lot 71 D 171
          • Restricted data files maintained by the Executive Secretariat for 1957–1967
        • S/S–SIG Files: Lot 70 D 263
          • Senior Interdepartmental Group files for 1968–1969
      • RG 200, Records of Robert S. McNamara
        • Defense Programs and Operations
      • RG 218, Records of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
        • JCS Files
      • RG 263, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency
  • Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland
    • Records of the Department of Defense
      • McNamara Files: FRC 330 71 A 3470
        • Files of Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, 1961–1968
      • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330 68 A 4023
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs for 1964
      • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 70 A 6648 A, 70 A 6649
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs for 1966
      • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330 71 A 4919
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs for 1967
      • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330 72 A 1498
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs for 1968
      • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330 72 A 1499
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs for 1967–1968
      • OSD Files: FRC 330 69 A 7425
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for 1964
      • OSD Files: FRC 330 70 A 1265, 70 A 1266
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for 1965
      • OSD Files: FRC 330 70 A 4443, 70 A 4662
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for 1966
      • OSD Files: FRC 330 72 A 2467, FRC 330 72 A 2468
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for 1967
      • OSD/AE Files: FRC 330 69 A 2243
        • Records of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Atomic Energy)
    • Records of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
      • Central Policy File: FRC 383 86 A 5
        • Top Secret numbered documents for 1961–1983
      • Central Intelligence Agency
        • DCI (McCone) Files
        • Executive Registry Subject Files, Job 0167R
      • Library of Congress, Manuscript Division
        • Paul H. Nitze Papers
  • Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, Austin, Texas
    • Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson
      • National Security File
        • Agency File
        • Country File
        • Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
        • Harold H. Saunders Files
        • Intelligence File
        • Charles E. Johnson Files
        • Meetings and Memoranda Series
        • Memos to the President
        • Name File
        • National Intelligence Estimates
        • National Security Action Memoranda
        • NSC Meetings
        • Rostow Files
        • Subject File
      • Special Files
        • Clifford Papers
        • President’s Daily Diary
        • Records and Transcripts of Telephone Conversations and Meetings
        • Rusk Appointment Books
        • Tom Johnson’s Notes of Meetings
      • White House Confidential File
        • Confidential File
        • Subject File
    • Other Personal Papers
      • Clifton Papers
        • Papers of Major General C.V. Clifton
    • John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, Massachusetts
      • National Security Files
        • William H. Brubeck Series
        • Departments and Agencies Series

Published Sources

  • Day, Dwayne A., “Rashomon in Space: A Short Review of Official Spy Satellite Histories,” Quest, Volume 8, Issue 2, pages 45–53
  • Enthoven, Alain C. and K. Wayne Smith, How Much Is Enough? Shaping the Defense Program, 1961–1969 (New York: Harper & Row, 1971)
  • Hall, R. Cargill, A History of the Military Polar Orbiting Meteorological Satellite Program (Washington, National Reconnaissance Office)
  • ———, “Postwar Strategic Reconnaissance and the Genesis of Corona,” in Dwayne A. Day, John M. Logsdon, and Brian Latell, eds., Eye in the Sky: The Story of the Corona Spy Satellites (Washington, Smithsonian Institution), pages 86–118
  • Halperin, Morton H., “The Decision To Deploy the ABM: Bureaucratic and Domestic Politics in the Johnson Administration,” World Politics, XXV (October 1972), pages 62–95
  • Maechling, Charles, Jr., “Counterinsurgency: The First Ordeal by Fire,” in Michael T. Klare and Peter Kornbluh, eds., Low-Intensity Warfare: Counterinsurgency, Proinsurgency, and Antiterrorism in the Eighties (New York: Pantheon Books, 1987), pages 21–48
  • Perry, Robert L., Management of the National Reconnaissance Program, 1960–1965 (Washington, National Reconnaissance Office, January 1969)
  • Ruffner, Kevin, C., ed., Corona: America’s First Satellite Program (Washington: Central Intelligence Agency, 1995)
  • Sagan, Scott D., “SIOP-62: The Nuclear War Plan Briefing to President Kennedy,” International Security, XII (Summer 1987), pages 22–51
  • Seaborg, Glenn T., Journal of Glenn T. Seaborg, Chairman, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, 1961–1971 (Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, 1989–1992)
  • Statement of Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara Before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Fiscal Year 1969–73 Defense Program and 1969 Defense Budget (Washington, 1969)
  • U.S. Department of State Bulletin, 1964–1969 (Washington)
  • U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968–69 (Washington)
  • U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, The Corona Story (Washington, November 1987)
  • ———, Oral History Program, An Interview With William O. Baker by R. Cargill Hall, 7 May 1996, Murray Hill, New Jersey
  • ———, Oral History Program, An Interview With Robert S. McNamara by R. Cargill Hall, 25 March 1999