Office of the Historian

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 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 volume was prepared in accordance with the standards and mandates of this statute.

The editor had 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. Certain intelligence-related files maintained in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research became available to the Department historians only after this volume was compiled. Arrangements have been made for Department historians to have full and timely access to these records for future volumes.

The editors of the Foreign Relations series also have full access to the papers of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Eisenhower 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 other federal agencies including the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Department of State historians also have access to records of the Department of Defense, particularly the records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretaries of Defense and their major assistants.

Since 1991, the Central Intelligence Agency has provided expanded access to Department of State historians to high-level intelligence documents from those records in the custody of that Agency. This access is arranged and facilitated by the History Staff of the Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, pursuant to a May 1992 memorandum of understanding. This access arrangement was developed [Page XVIII] in connection with the research of volumes for the 1961-1963 triennium and in order to enlarge the scope of coverage as required by the 1991 law. Department of State and CIA historians continue to work out improved procedural and scholarly aspects of identifying the key portions of the intelligence record.

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

Sources for Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, Volume VIII

All sources for this volume, including a few significant ones that the editor consulted but from which he made no selection, are briefly identified in the list below.

Collections in the Kennedy Library were the preeminent sources for this compilation, but the editor made use of valuable materials in the files of the Department of State, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and its subdivisions, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (including the Chairman’s File), the Papers of Maxwell D. Taylor and Lyman L. Lemnitzer at the National Defense University, the Papers of Arleigh A. Burke at the Naval Historical Center, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas (for the beginning of 1961), and the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas (for the close of 1963).

Among Kennedy Library materials, the single most important collection was the National Security Files (NSF), which represent the office files of McGeorge Bundy. Within it the Department of Defense subsection of the Departments and Agencies Series was especially useful, and the subsections for the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the Central Intelligence Agency were also consulted. The few minutes or memoranda of formal National Security Council meetings are from the Meetings and Memoranda Series of the NSF, as are some of the ancillary materials to the National Security Action Memoranda (NSAMs). The latter are brief memoranda used by the President, or Bundy on his behalf, to issue policy directives or to inform leading officials of decisions taken, either by means of or without the full National Security Council. The Meetings and Memoranda Series also has folders containing papers of key members of the White House Staff: Walt W. Rostow, Carl Kaysen, Robert Komer, Lawrence J. Legere, and Chester V. Clifton. The files of Clifton, who was Military Aide to the President, include the memoranda of most of the President’s meetings with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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Some of these materials are also available in Department of State files. The most valuable Department of State materials were the lot (office) files, as described below. Also consulted and listed below were several relevant files in the Department’s decimal and subject-numeric indexed central files.

Unpublished Sources

  • Department of State
    • Central Files
      • 396.1-PA: International conferences at Paris
      • 711.5: U.S. national defense
      • 711.5611: Atomic weapons in the U.S.
      • DEF 1 US: Defense affairs, U.S. policy, plans, readiness
      • DEF 12: Defense affairs, armaments
    • Lot Files
      • INR/EAP Files: Lot 90 D 110
        • NIEs and SNIEs on East Asia and the Pacific, 1952-1985, maintained by the Bureau of Intelligence and Research
      • INR Historical Files
        • Records of the 5412 Special Group, 1954-1964, maintained by the Bureau of Intelligence and Research
      • INR-NIE Files
        • Files retained by the Bureau of Intelligence and Research containing copies of National Intelligence Estimates and Special National Intelligence Estimates
      • S/P Files: Lot 67 D 548
        • Files of the Policy Planning Staff for 1961-1964
      • S/P Files: Lot 69 D 121
        • Files of the Policy Planning Staff for 1961-1964
      • S/P Files: Lot 70 D 199
        • Files of the Policy Planning Council for 1963-1964
      • S/P-NSC Files: Lot 62 D 1
        • Serial and subject master file of National Security Council documents and correspondence for the years 1948-1961, as maintained by the Policy Planning Staff
      • Special Group (CI) Files: Lot 68 D 451
        • Minutes and memoranda of the Special Group, Counterinsurgency, January 1962-December 1963
      • Special Group (CI) Files: Lot 70 D 258
        • Master file of counterinsurgency plans, including memoranda, airgrams, cables, and correspondence on various countries
      • S/S Files: Lot 66 D 147
        • Records of the Secretary of State’s Staff Meetings, 1961-1964
      • S/S Files: Lot 70 D 328
        • Records of State-JCS meetings, 1959-1963
      • 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 the years 1961-1966
      • S/S-NSC Files: Lot 72 D 316
        • Master file of National Security Action Memoranda (NSAMs), 1961-1968, maintained by the Executive Secretariat
      • S/S-NSC (Miscellaneous) Files: Lot 66 D 95
        • Administrative and miscellaneous National Security Council documentation, including NSC Records of Action, 1947-1963, maintained by the Executive Secretariat
      • Vietnam Working Group File: Lot 66 D 193
        • Files of the Vietnam Working Group, 1960-1962
  • National Archives and Records Administration
    • Record Group 218, Records of the Joint Staff and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
      • JCS Records
  • Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland
    • Record Group 330, Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense
      • OASD/ISA Files:FRC 64 A 2382
        • Decimal files of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs for 1961
      • OASD/ISA Files:FRC 65 B 3501
        • Decimal files of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs for 1962
      • OSD Files: FRC 65 A 2464
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for 1961
      • OSD Files: FRC 65 A 3463
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for 1961
      • OSD Files: FRC 65 A 3464
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for 1961
      • OSD Files: FRC 66 A 3542
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for 1962
      • OSD Files: FRC 66 A 3543
        • Subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for 1962
      • OSD Files: FRC 71 A 3470
        • Files of Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara for 1961-1968
    • Central Intelligence Agency
      • DCI (McCone) Files: Job 80-B01285A
        • Files of Director John A. McCone, 1962-1965
      • Job 79-R0102A, ODDI Registry Files
        • Files containing copies of National Intelligence Estimates and Special National Intelligence Estimates
      • Job 80-B01676R, DCI Executive Registry Files
      • Job 83-00036R, CIA History Staff Files
    • National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.
      • Taylor Papers
        • Papers of General Maxwell D. Taylor, Chief of Staff of the Army, 1955-1959; the President’s Military Representative, 1961-1962; and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1962-1964
      • Lemnitzer Papers
        • Papers of Lyman Lemnitzer, Chief of Staff of the Army, 1959-1960, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1960-1962
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas
    • Office of the Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Records
      • White House Special Files, Records of the Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Robert Cutler, Dillon Anderson, and Gordon Gray), 1952-1961
    • John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts
      • Bromley Smith Papers
      • National Security Files
        • Carl Kaysen Series
        • Chester V. Clifton Series
        • Countries Series
        • Departments and Agencies Series
        • Meetings and Memoranda Series
        • Subjects Series
      • President’s Appointment Books
      • President’s Office Files
      • Roger Hilsman Papers
        • Official papers of Director of Intelligence and Research and then Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, 1961-1964
  • Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas
    • National Security File
      • Agency File
      • Memos to the President
      • National Intelligence Estimates
      • National Security Council Meetings File
      • Subject File
    • Vice Presidential Security File
  • Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.
    • Harriman Papers
      • Special files of W. Averell Harriman, Public Service, Kennedy and Johnson administrations
  • Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C.
    • Burke Papers
      • Papers of Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, Chief of Naval Operations, 1955-1961

Published Sources

  • Government Publications and Documentary Collections
    • Jackson, Henry M., ed. The National Security Council: Jackson Subcommittee Papers on Policy-Making at the Presidential Level (New York: Praeger, 1965)
    • Sagan, Scott. “SIOP-62: The Nuclear War Plan Briefing to President Kennedy,” International Security, 12 (Summer 1987), pages 22-51
    • U.S. Congress, Senate. Executive Sessions of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Together with Joint Sessions with the Senate Armed Services Committee (Historical Series), Volume XIV, Eighty-seventh Congress, Second Session, 1962 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1986)
    • ————. Organizing for National Security: Inquiry of the Subcommittee on National Policy Machinery of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, 3 vols. (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1961)
    • U.S. Department of State. American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1961, 1962, 1963 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office)
    • ————. Department of State Bulletin, 1961, 1962, 1963 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office)
    • U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. Vol. I, Organizing for Exploration (The NASA history series, NASA SP-4218) (n.p.: 1995)
    • U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961, 1962, 1963 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office)
    • ————. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-64 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1965)
  • Memoirs, Diaries, and Histories by Participants
    • Enthoven, Alain, and K. Wayne Smith. How Much Is Enough? Shaping the Defense Program, 1961-1969 (New York: Harper and Row, 1971)
    • Garthoff, Raymond L. Intelligence Assessment and Policymaking: A Decision Point in the Kennedy Administration (Washington: Brookings, 1984)
    • Kaplan, Fred. The Wizards of Armageddon (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983)
    • Maechling, Charles, Jr. “Counterinsurgency: The First Ordeal by Fire,” in Klare, Michael T. and Peter Kornbluh (eds.). Low-Intensity Warfare: Counterinsurgency, and Antiterrorism in the Eighties (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992), pages 21-48
    • Millikan, Max F. and Walt W. Rostow. A Proposal: Key to an Effective Foreign Policy (New York: Harper and Row, 1957)
    • Nitze, Paul H. From Hiroshima to Glasnost: At the Center of Decision: A Memoir (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1989)
    • Poole, Walter S. The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Policy, Vol. VIII: 1961-1964, Parts I-III (Classified study, Historical Division, Joint Secretariat, Joint Chiefs of Staff)
    • Rostow, Walt W. The Diffusion of Power: An Essay in Recent History (New York: Macmillan, 1972)
    • Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965)
    • Smith, Bromley K. Organizational History of the National Security Council During the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations (n.p.: n.p., n.d. [1988])
    • Sorensen, Theodore C. Kennedy (New York: Harper & Row, 1965)
    • Taylor, Maxwell D.Swords and Plowshares: A Memoir (New York: W. W. Norton, 1972)