Office of the Historian

Sources

Sources for the Foreign Relations Series

The 1991 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 also 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.

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 through July 1973 have been permanently transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland (Archives II). Many of the Department’s decentralized office files covering the 1969–1976 period, which 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 Nixon 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. Dr. Henry Kissinger has approved access to his papers at the Library of Congress. The papers are a key source for the Nixon-Ford subseries of Foreign Relations.

Research for this volume was completed through special access to restricted documents at the Nixon Presidential Materials Project, the Library of Congress, and other agencies. While all the material printed in [Page XII] this volume has been declassified, some of it is extracted from still classified documents. In the time since the research for this volume was completed, the Nixon Presidential Materials have been transferred to the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California. The Nixon Presidential Library staff is processing and declassifying many of the documents used in this volume, but they may not be available in their entirety at the time of publication.

Sources for Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, Volume XXII

In preparing this volume, the editors made extensive use of Presidential papers and other White House records in the Nixon Presidential Materials and the Gerald Ford Presidential Library. The presidential papers of the Nixon and Ford administrations are an excellent source of high-level decision-making documentation for U.S.-Panamanian relations from 1973 to 1976. The bulk of the foreign policy records in the Nixon Presidential Materials are in the Country Files and Latin American Central Files. The bulk of the foreign policy records at the Gerald Ford Presidential Library are in the Presidential Country Files for Latin America, as well as the Vice Presidential Papers. At both archives, the Institutional Files (H-Files) contain the records of many important meetings documented in this volume. All of these records provided a glimpse into the evolution of the Treaty negotiations from the point of view of the White House.

The records of the Department of State are another important source. The Department’s central files contain cable traffic concerning the progress of the negotiations regarding the Panama Canal Treaties, including summaries drafted by the negotiators. Important documents can also be found in the Department’s lot files, particularly within the correspondence of Ellsworth Bunker (78D300), which provide an impeccably-organized collection of records, including memoranda of conversation, private notes, and papers outlining strategies regarding approaches to Congress, the Department of Defense, and the Panamanians. Another valuable lot file contains the transcripts of Secretary Kissinger’s staff meetings (78D443), in which top-ranking Department of State officials expressed candid views about Bunker, Torrijos, and the negotiations as a whole.

Research for this volume also involved examining records from the Department of Defense. The records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense delineate DOD’s changing attitude toward the negotiations. The records of the Panama Canal Company, located at Archives II in Record Group 185, contain a series of cables from the Governor of the Panama Canal Zone. Records at the Central Intelligence Agency, especially within the Executive Registry files, include a number of valuable intelligence reports about Torrijos, the negotiations, and the bombings in the Canal Zone.

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Researchers should also consult the memoirs of William J. Jorden, former NSC staffer and Ambassador to Panama, for an overview of negotiations, though there are a number of inconsistencies between Jorden’s account and the documentation, especially in regard to State-Defense negotiations in 1975.

Almost 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.

Unpublished Sources

  • Department of State
    • Central Foreign Policy File.See National Archives and Record Administration below.
    • Lot Files. For other lot files already transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland, Record Group 59, see National Archives and Records Administration below.
      • Lot 81F1, American Embassy, Panama, Panama Canal Treaty Negotiation Files
      • Lot 80F162, U.S.-Panama Relations: General, 1976
      • Lot 91D371, Country/Subject Files—Special Collections—Luigi Einaudi’s Country Files
      • Lot 92D281, Inter-American Country Files
      • Lot 06D379, Intelligence Research Reports
    • National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
      • Record Group 59, Files of the Department of State
        • Central Foreign Policy File
        • Lot Files
          • RG 59, Files of the Department of State
            • Lot 75D414, Panama
            • Lot 75D457, Panama Treaties
            • Lot 76D110, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Subject and Country Files, 1969–75
            • Lot 77D14, Treaties
            • Lot 77D149, S/S Principal Memos
            • Lot 78D300, Ambassador Bunker’s Correspondence
            • Lot 78D443, Transcripts of Secretary of State Kissinger’s Staff Meetings, 1973–1977
            • Lot 82D208, Transition Books Carter Administration 1976
          • RG 185, Records of the Panama Canal
            • Negotiating and Planning Records for 1977
            • Subject Files of the 1979 Panama Canal Treaty Planning Group
          • RG 218, Records of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
            • Papers of George Brown
  • Nixon Presidential Materials Project, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland (now at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Yorba Linda, California)
    • National Security Council Files
      • Country Files
      • Unfiled Material
    • National Security Council Institutional Files (H-Files)
      • Under Secretaries Committee Memorandum Files
      • National Security Decision Memoranda
  • Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan
    • John O. Marsh Files
    • National Security Council Institutional Files (H-Files)
      • Meeting Minutes, Senior Review Group
      • National Security Council Meeting Files
    • National Security Adviser
      • Latin American Affairs Staff Files
      • Memoranda of Conversation
      • National Security Study Memoranda and National Security Decision Memoranda
      • Presidential Country Files for Latin America
    • Presidential Handwriting File
    • Staff Secretary’s Office
    • Vice Presidential Papers
    • White House Central Files
  • Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, Georgia
    • 1976 Presidential Campaign Issues Office
  • Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland
    • Record Group 330, Records of the Department of Defense
      • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330–77–0043
        • Official Subject—Files of Staff Assistant ISA (Files incl. eval. sheet, contract, 1728, 419’s; etc)
      • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330–77–0054
        • 1974 General Files
      • OSD Files: FRC 330–78–0001
        • 1973 Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistants to both.
      • OSD Files: FRC 330–78–0011
        • 1974 Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistants to both.
      • OSD Files: FRC 330–78–0058
        • 1975 Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistants to both.
      • OSD Files: FRC 330–79–0049
        • 1976 Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistants to both.
      • OSD Files: FRC 330–80–0044
        • Assistant General Counsel-1948-(International Affairs) 1979
      • USD/P Files: FRC 330–87–0068
        • IA Region Files 1974–1979
  • Central Intelligence Agency, Langley, Virginia
    • Directorate of Intelligence, Office of Central Intelligence
      • Job 79R01012A
    • Office of the Director of Central Intelligence
      • Job 79M00467A
      • Job 79R01012S
      • Job 80M01048A
      • Job 80M01066A
      • Job 90M01243R
  • Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.
    • Henry Kissinger Papers
    • Sol M. Linowitz Papers

Published Sources

  • Jorden, William J. Panama Odyssey. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984.
  • United Nations. Yearbook of the United Nations, 1975, Volume 29, New York: Department of Public Information, 1978.
  • United States Department of State. Bulletin, 1973–1973.
  • United States National Archives and Records Administration. Public Papers of the President of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1965.
  • United States National Archives and Records Administration. Public Papers of the President of the United States: Richard Nixon, 1970. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.
  • United States National Archives and Records Administration. Public Papers of the President of the United States: Gerald Ford, 1976. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976.
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