Office of the Historian

Sources

Sources for Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, Volume V, Soviet Union March 1985–October 1986

The White House Staff and Office Files at the Reagan Library provide a key source of documentation on high-level decision-making toward the Soviet Union from March 1985 to October 1986. The Executive Secretariat files, a subset of this collection, include the National Security Council (NSC) and National Security Planning Group (NSPG) Meeting Files; National Security Decision Directives (NSDD); the Head of State File; and the USSR Country File. Other relevant Staff and Office File collections include the European and Soviet Affairs Directorate: USSR Files; Director of Soviet Affairs Jack Matlock Files; and files of the President’s Assistants for National Security Affairs Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter. Key collections of other members of the NSC Staff are the files of John Lenczowski, Robert Linhard, Ronald Lehman, and Sven Kraemer, which focus on various aspects of policy development, arms control, and negotiations with the Soviet Union. In some instances, NSC records related to NSDDs and NSC and NSPG meetings have remained in the Institutional Files of the NSC in Washington. The texts of the declassified NSDDs are available on the Reagan Presidential Library website.

The Department of State records most vital for this volume are in the following Executive Secretariat S/S Lot Files: Lot 91D257 Top Secret/Secret Sensitive Memorandum; Lot 92D630 Executive Secretariat Special Caption Documents, 1979–1989; Lot 93D188 Memorandum of Conversations, 1981–1990; and Lot 94D92 NODIS and EXDIS Secretariat Memorandums, 1985. The files of the Policy Planning Staff in Lot 89D149 and Kenneth Dam in Lot 85D308 provide an excellent insight into high-level decision-making in the Department. The Central Foreign Policy File of the Department includes cable traffic between the Embassy in Moscow and Washington, as well as other related cables.

In addition to the paper files cited below, a growing number of documents are available on the Internet. The Office of the Historian maintains a list of these Internet resources on its website and encourages readers to consult that site on a regular basis.

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Unpublished Sources

  • Department of State
    • Central Foreign Policy File
    • Lot Files. These files have been transferred or will be transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland
      • Lot 00D471: EUR/RUS Special Collections—Russia, Political Subject and Chronological Files
      • Lot 03D256: EUR Files, Records of Ambassador Thomas W. Simons, Jr. 1964–1995
      • Lot 2016F0003: Ambassador Arthur Hartman Files
      • Lot 85D308: Executive Secretariat, S/S–I Records, Deputy Secretary Dam’s Official Files
      • Lot 89D149: S/P, Memoranda/Correspondence from the Director of the Policy Planning Staff
      • Lot 90D397: Ambassador Nitze’s Personal Files 1953, 1972–1989
      • Lot 91D231: Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs, Office of Soviet Affairs, 1978–1989
      • Lot 91D257: Executive Secretariat, S/S, Top Secret/Secret Sensitive Memorandum
      • Lot 92D52: Executive Secretariat, S/S, Executive Secretariat Sensitive and Super Sensitive Documents, 1984–1989
      • Lot 92D630: Executive Secretariat, S/S, Executive Secretariat Special Caption Documents, 1979–1989
      • Lot 93D188: Executive Secretariat, S/S Records, Memorandum of Conversations, 1981–1990
      • Lot 93D592: Executive Secretariat, S/S Records, Ambassadors Henry F. Cooper and Max Kampelman, Program Files for the Delegation to the Negotiations on Nuclear and Space Arms (S/DEL)
      • Lot 94D92: Executive Secretariat, S/S Records, 1985 NODIS and EXDIS Secretariat Memorandums, 1985
  • Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California
    • White House Staff and Office Files
      • Files of the Executive Secretariat, National Security Council
        • Agency File
        • Cable File
        • Country File: Europe and Soviet Union
        • Crisis Management Center
        • Head of State File
        • Meeting File
        • National Security Decision Directives (NSDD) File
        • National Security Planning Group (NSPG) File
        • National Security Study Directives (NSSD) File
        • Subject File
        • System II Intelligence Files
        • System IV Intelligence Files
      • Files of the European and Soviet Affairs Directorate, National Security Council
      • Files of the Political Affairs Directorate, National Security Council
      • Files of the Situation Room, White House
      • Frank Carlucci Files
      • Kenneth deGraffenreid Files
      • Donald Fortier Files
      • Sven Kraemer Files
      • Robert Lehman Files
      • John Lenczowski Files
      • Robert Lilac Files
      • Robert Linhard Files
      • Jack Matlock Files
      • Robert McFarlane Files
      • John Poindexter Files
      • Papers of Charles Hill
      • Papers of George Shultz
      • President’s Daily Diary
      • Stephen Sestanovich Files
  • Central Intelligence Agency
    • Office of the Director of Central Intelligence
      • Job 88B00443R: Policy Files (1980–1986)
      • Job 89B00224R: Committees, Task Forces, Boards, and Councils Files
      • Job 91B00805R: Policy Files (1972–1986)
    • Office of Russian and European Analysis
      • Job 87T01145R: Policy & Substantive Files
    • Office of the Deputy Director for Intelligence
      • Job 91B00874R: O/DDI Files (1980–1988)
    • History Staff Files
  • Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
    • Manuscript Division
      • Papers of Caspar W. Weinberger
  • National Security Council
    • National Security Council Institutional Files
  • Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland
    • RG 330, Records of the Department of Defense
      • FRC 330–87–0008: 1985 Official Files (Secret & Below) of the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense

Published Sources

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  • Brinkley, Douglas, ed. The Reagan Diaries, Unabridged, Volume I: January 1981–October 1985. New York: Harper Collins, 2009.
  • Brinkley, Douglas, ed. The Reagan Diaries, Unabridged, Volume II: November 1985–January 1989. New York: Harper Collins, 2009.
  • Current Digest of the Soviet Press.
  • Denver, John. Take Me Home: An Autobiography. New York: Harmony Books, 1994.
  • Dobrynin, Anatoly. In Confidence: Moscow’s Ambassador to Six Cold War Presidents. New York: Crown, 1995.
  • Gates, Robert. From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
  • Gorbachev, Mikhail S. Memoirs. New York: Doubleday, 1995.
  • Matlock, Jack. Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended. New York: Random House, 2004.
  • McFarlane, Robert, and Zofia Smardz. Special Trust. New York: Cadell and Davies, 1984.
  • New York Times.
  • Nitze, Paul. From Hiroshima to Glasnost: At the Center of Decision. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1989.
  • Palazchenko, Pavel. My Years with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze: The Memoir of a Soviet Interpreter. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.
  • Reagan, Ronald. An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990.
  • Savranskaya, Svetlana, and Thomas Blanton, eds. The Last Superpower Summits: Reagan, Gorbachev and Bush. Conversations that Ended the Cold War. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2017.
  • Shultz, George P. Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State. New York: Scribner’s, 1993.
  • Strober and Strober. Reagan: The Man and His Presidency. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
  • United States, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Documents on Disarmament, 1985, 1986. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989, 1991.
  • ______. Department of State. Bulletin, 1985–1986.
  • ______. National Archives and Records Administration. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1983–1988.
  • Washington Post.
  • Weinberger, Caspar. Fighting for Peace: Seven Critical Years at the Pentagon. New York: Warner Books, 1990.