Office of the Historian

Introductory note

Beginning with the year 1950, American Foreign Policy, a companion series to Foreign Relations of the United States, provides systematic coverage of the principal messages, addresses, statements, and reports made in a given period that indicate the scope, goals, and implementation of the foreign policy of the United States. Coverage for the six years beginning in 1950 is given in American Foreign Policy, 1950–1955: Basic Documents (Department of State publication 6446, two volumes, released in 1957), organized as follows:

  • Volume I
    • I. Principles and Objectives of American Foreign Policy
    • II. The United Nations
    • III. Postwar Settlements
    • IV. Armistice Agreements: Near East, Korea, Indo-China
    • V. Basic Security Treaties of the United States
    • VI. European Regional Arrangements
    • VII. Middle Eastern Regional Arrangements
    • VIII. Western Hemisphere Developments
    • IX. Western Europe
  • Volume II
    • X. Germany, Austria, and European Security
    • XI. The Soviet Union
    • XII. Eastern European Communist Regimes and the Baltic States
    • XIII. Near and Middle East, South Asia, and Africa
    • XIV. The Far East and Southeast Asia
    • XV. Korea
    • XVI. Disarmament and the Control of Atomic Energy
    • XVII. Foreign Economic Policies—Trade and Tariffs
    • XVIII. Foreign Aid—Economic, Military, and Technological
    • XIX. International Information and and Educational Exchange Programs
    • XX. Organization and Special Responsibilities of the Department of State and the Foreign Service

Additional materials for 1950 are given in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1950 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1965), and in the Department of State Bulletin (issued weekly).

For detailed information on the organization, personnel, and activities of the Department and the Foreign Service, see the Bulletin and the following serial publications of the Department:

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The Biographic Register.

Foreign Service List.

International Information and Education Exchange Program.

Report to the Congress on the Lend-Lease Operations, Transmitted by the President.

The names of the principal officers of the Department are also listed in the appropriate editions of the Congressional Directory and the United States Government Manual. Information about principal diplomatic agents and Presidential appointees is given in United States Chiefs of Mission, 1778–1973, by Richardson Dougall and Mary Patricia Chapman (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1973), with supplement, 1973–1974.

For information on treaties and agreements, see

Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776–1949. By Charles I. Bevans.

Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS), published since 1946 as a sequel to the Department of State Treaty Series and Treaties in Force.

For information on developments in international law, see

Digest of International Law. By Marjorie M. Whiteman.

For detailed information on these publications as well as on numerous others of a more specialized character, see Publications of the Department of State, October 1, 1929 to January 1, 1953 (Washington, D.C., 1954), and Major Publications of the Department of State: An Annotated Bibliography (Washington, D.C., 1973).

In addition to the extensive documentation provided in this volume and in other volumes of Foreign Relations, as well as in American Foreign Policy, 1950–1955: Basic Documents, there is systematic coverage of American participation in international conferences and organizations in the Bulletin and in the following other publications of the Departmbent of State:

United States Participation in the United Nations. Annual reports by the President to the Congress.

List of International Conferences and Meetings, With Annotations.

Participation of the United States Government in International Conferences, Including the Composition of U.S. Delegations and Summaries of the Proceedings.

International Organizations in Which the United States Participates.

For detailed information on these publications, see the guides listed in the preceding paragraph.