Preface

The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity of the United States Government. The series documents the facts and events that contributed to the formulation of policies and includes evidence of supporting and alternative views to the policy positions ultimately adopted.

The Historian of the Department of State is charged with the responsibility for the preparation of the Foreign Relations series. The staff of the Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, plans, researches, compiles, and edits the volumes in the series. This documentary editing proceeds in full accord with the generally accepted standards of historical scholarship. Official regulations codifying specific standards for the selection and editing of documents for the series were first promulgated by Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg on March 26, 1925. These regulations, with minor modifications, guided the series through 1991.

A new statutory charter for the preparation of the series was established by Public law 102–138, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993, which was signed by President George Bush on October 28, 1991. Section 198 of P.L. 102–138 added a new Title IV to the Department of State’s Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 USC 4351 et seq. ).

The statute requires that the Foreign Relations series be a thorough, accurate, and reliable record of major United States foreign policy decisions and significant United States diplomatic activity. The volumes of the series should include all records needed to provide comprehensive documentation of major foreign policy decisions and actions of the United States Government, including facts that contributed to the formulation of policies and records that provided supporting and alternative views to the policy positions ultimately adopted.

The statute confirms the editing principles established by Secretary Kellogg: the Foreign Relations series is guided by the principles of historical objectivity and accuracy; records should not be altered or deletions made without indicating in the published text that a deletion has been made; the published record should omit no facts that were of major importance in reaching [Facsimile Page IV] a decision; and nothing should be omitted for the purposes of concealing a defect in policy. The statute also requires that the Foreign Relations series be published not more than 30 years after the events recorded. The editors of this microfiche [Typeset Page IV] supplement are convinced that it meets all regulatory, statutory, and scholarly standards of selection and editing.

Structure and Scope of the Foreign Relations Series

This microfiche supplement is part of a subseries of the Foreign Relations series for the years 1958–1960. The subseries presents in 19 volumes and 2 microfiche supplements a documentary record of major foreign policy decisions and actions of the final 3 years of the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This supplement to volume III, National Security Policy; Arms Control and Disarmament, is the last part of the subseries published covering the 1958–1960 triennium.

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 foreign policy decisions and actions of the U.S. Government. It further requires that government agencies, departments, and other entities of the U.S. Government 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. The editors believe that in terms of access this supplement was prepared in accordance with the standards and mandates of the statute, although access to some records was restricted, as noted below.

The editors have had complete access to all the retired records and papers in the Department of State. The Department’s collections of NSC papers and correspondence were of the highest value. Some of these documents are available in the central (decimal) files and lot (office) files deposited at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at College Park, Maryland (Archives II). Over the last several years, all the Department’s indexed central files for these 3 years, as well as several of the lot files, have been permanently transferred to Archives II. The remaining Department lot files covering this triennium are scheduled to be transferred to Archives II in the near future.

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Records of the Central Intelligence Agency and certain intelligence-related files maintained in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the Department of State became available to the Department historians only after this supplement was compiled. Arrangements have been made for Department historians to have access to these records for future volumes.

The major decisions on national security and arms control questions were made by President Eisenhower, usually after recommendations from and discussion in the National Security Council (NSC) and his Committee of Principals, established in 1958 to advise him on disarmament matters. The most important Presidential records are the [Typeset Page V] relevant White House files at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas, to which the editors had complete access. The Eisenhower Library contains, among other important collections, the memoranda of discussion at the NSC meetings, usually prepared by Deputy Executive Secretary S. Everett Gleason, and the memoranda of conference with the President, prepared by the President’s Staff Secretary, Andrew J. Goodpaster.

Records of the National Security Council located at NARA include the numbered NSC papers and related documentation. Because White House and Department of State records contain many significant Department of Defense documents, the editors sought only selected access to the Department of Defense files. The editors also perused the records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the official papers of General Nathan F. Twining, General Thomas D. White, and Admiral Arleigh A. Burke.

The List of Sources (pp. 1–6) lists the files consulted both in government repositories and in private collections for the print volume and the microfiche supplement.

Principles of Document Selection for the Foreign Relations Series

In preparing each volume of the Foreign Relations series, the editors are guided by some general principles for the selection of documents. Each editor, in consultation with the General Editor and other senior editors, determines the particular issues and topics to be documented either in detail, in brief, or in summary. Some general decisions are also made regarding issues that cannot be documented in the volume but will be addressed in a microfiche supplement or in editorial or bibliographical notes.

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The following general selection criteria are used in preparing volumes in the Foreign Relations series. Individual compiler-editors vary these criteria in accordance with the particular issues and the available documentation. The compiler-editors also tend to apply these selection criteria in accordance with their own interpretation of the generally accepted standards of scholarship. In selecting documentation for publication, the editors give priority to unpublished classified records, rather than previously published records (which are accounted for in appropriate bibliographical notes).

Selection Criteria (in general order of priority):

1.

Major foreign affairs commitments made on behalf of the United States to other governments, including those that define or identity the principal foreign affairs interests of the United States;

2.

Major foreign affairs issues, commitments, negotiations, and activities, whether or not major decisions were made, and including dissenting or alternative opinions to the process ultimately adopted;

3.

The decisions, discussions, actions, and considerations of the President, as the official constitutionally responsible for the direction of foreign policy;

4.

The discussions and actions of the National Security Council, the Cabinet, and special Presidential policy groups, including the policy options brought before these bodies or their individual members;

5.

The policy options adopted by or considered by the Secretary of State and the most important actions taken to implement Presidential decisions or policies;

6.

Diplomatic negotiations and conferences, official correspondence, and other exchanges between U.S. representatives and those of other governments that demonstrate the main lines of policy implementation on major issues;

7.

Important elements of information that attended Presidential decisions and policy recommendations of the Secretary of State;

8.

Major foreign affairs decisions, negotiations, and commitments undertaken on behalf of the United States by government officials and representatives in other agencies in the foreign affairs community or other branches of government made without the involvement (or even knowledge) of the White House or the Department of State;

9.

The role of the Congress in the preparation and execution of particular foreign policies or foreign affairs actions;

10.

Economic aspects of foreign policy;

11.

The main policy lines of U.S. military and economic assistance as well as other types of assistance;

12.

The political-military recommendations, decisions, and activities of the military establishment and major regional military commands as they bear upon the formulation or execution of major U.S. foreign policies;

13.

The main policy lines of intelligence activities if they constituted major aspects of U.S. foreign policy toward a nation or region or if they provided key information in the formulation of major U.S. policies;

14.

Diplomatic appointments that reflect major policies or affect policy changes.

Scope and Focus of Documents Researched and Selected for the Microfiche Supplement to Foreign Relations, 1958–1960, Volume III

Most of the research for the print volume and this supplement was completed in 1988, prior to a protracted declassification review. The principles of selection followed by the editors for the print volume are described in the preface of the volume. The print volume may be used without this supplement, but the supplement should be used in conjunction with the print volume.

The documents selected for this microfiche publication by the editors of volume III provide additional details on the major issues [Typeset Page VII] covered, as well as some lengthy documents and attachments which could not be printed because of lack of space, such as the full texts of National Security Council reports, National Intelligence Estimates, and Special National Intelligence Estimates.

Editorial Methodology

The documents in this microfiche supplement are arranged in two sections: national security policy and arms control and disarmament. Within each of these sections, the documents are presented chronologically, according to Washington time or in the order of individual meetings. Incoming telegrams from U.S. Missions are placed according to time of receipt in the Department of State or other receiving agency, rather than the time of transmission; memoranda of conversation are placed according [Facsimile Page VIII] to the time and date of the conversation, rather than the date the memorandum was drafted.

The documents are numbered at the top of the first page of the document. The List of Documents is ordered according to these numbers. The documents are not annotated nor is there any other editorial apparatus. Material not declassified has been blacked out; for each document not declassified, a page has been inserted that shows a title, date, classification, number of pages, and source citation.

The List of Documents, which includes for each document the title, date, participants (for memoranda of conversation), from/to information, classification, number of pages, and source citation, as well as a brief summary, is part of this printed guide and appears on the first two microfiche cards. The printed guide also includes Lists of Sources, Abbreviations, and Persons.

Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation

The Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, established under the Foreign Relations statute, reviews records, advises, and makes recommendations concerning the Foreign Relations series. The Advisory Committee monitors the overall compilation and editorial process of the series and advises on all aspects of the preparation and declassification of the series. Although the Advisory Committee does not attempt to review the contents of individual volumes in the series, it does monitor the overall process and makes recommendations on particular problems that come to its attention.

The Advisory Committee has not reviewed this microfiche supplement.

Declassification Review

The declassification review process for this volume was particularly lengthy, requiring 8 years to complete. It resulted in the withholding [Typeset Page VIII] from publication of about 5 percent of the documentation selected for publication by the editors; 6 documents were denied in full. Documentation withheld from the volume consists largely of certain still classified information pertaining to intelligence and nuclear weapons. The declassified documentation provides an accurate account of the major foreign policy issues and the major policies undertaken by the U.S. Government on national security policy and arms control during this period.

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The Information Response Branch of the Office of IRM Programs and Services, Bureau of Administration, Department of State, conducted the declassification review of the documents published in this volume. The review was conducted in accordance with the standards set forth in Executive Order 12356 on National Security Information, which was superseded by Executive Order 12958 on April 20, 1995, and applicable laws.

Under Executive Order 12356, information that concerns one or more of the following categories, and the disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security, requires classification:

1)

military plans, weapons, or operations;

2)

the vulnerabilities or capabilities of systems, installations, projects, or plans relating to the national security;

3)

foreign government information;

4)

intelligence activities (including special activities), or intelligence sources or methods;

5)

foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States;

6)

scientific, technological, or economic matters relating to national security;

7)

U.S. Government programs for safeguarding nuclear materials or facilities;

8)

cryptology; or

9)

a confidential source.

The principle guiding declassification review is to release all information, subject only to the current requirements of national security and law. Declassification decisions entailed concurrence of the appropriate geographic and functional bureaus in the Department of State, other concerned agencies of the U.S. Government, and the appropriate foreign governments regarding specific documents of those governments.

Acknowledgments

The editors wish to acknowledge the assistance of officials at the National Archives and Records Administration and at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, in particular David Haight, who provided [Typeset Page IX] invaluable help in the collection of documents for this microfiche supplement.

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David W. Mabon and Edward C. Keefer compiled the material presented in this supplement under the supervision of former Editor in Chief John P. Glennen. Dr. Mabon also provided planning and direction. Former General Editor Glenn W. LaFantasie supervised the editing process. Douglas R. Keene prepared the List of Documents, and Rita M. Baker performed the technical editing.