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 of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant U.S. diplomatic activity. It 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 (or lot) 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 have full access to the papers of President Nixon and White House foreign policy records, including tape recordings of conversations with key U.S. and foreign officials. Presidential papers maintained and preserved at the Presidential libraries and the Nixon Presidential Materials Project housed at the National Archives and Records Administration 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.

Research for this volume was completed through special access to restricted documents at the Nixon Presidential Materials Project, the Library of Congress, and other U.S. Government agencies. Although all the material printed in Foreign Relations volumes have been declassified, [Page XIV] some of it is extracted from still-classified documents. The Nixon Presidential Materials 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, 1969–1972, Volume XXXII, Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, January 1969–October 1972

In compiling this volume, the editor relied heavily on the Nixon Presidential Materials Project housed at the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland (Archives II). The collection of most value within the Nixon materials is the National Security Council Institutional Files (H-Files), a collection within the National Security Council (NSC) Files. The National Security Council Institutional Files (H-Files) contain the minutes of the meetings of the NSC and its various subgroups, such as the Senior Review Group, which reviewed major foreign policy decisions, and the Verification Panel, created in July 1969 specifically to deliberate SALT issues. In addition to the minutes of these meetings, the memoranda, studies, and correspondence prepared in advance of, and in response to the meetings, provide the skeleton of this volume. Most crucial were the National Security Study Memoranda (NSSMs) and National Security Decision Memoranda (NSDMs). Given page constraints, the full minutes of many of the Verification Panel meetings could not be included; instead, the summary of conclusions are printed. All of the aforementioned records are in the National Security Council Institutional Files (H-Files), which are part of the NSC Files but are not to be confused with the NSC Institutional Matters File.

The editor also made extensive use of other Collections within the NSC Files at the Nixon Presidential Materials Project. A full list of relevant files is provided below, but among the most valuable are the SALT files, which contain memoranda generated by the NSC staff and various executive agencies charged with handling SALT-related questions, as well as telegrams sent to and from the SALT delegation in Vienna and Geneva. The ABM–MIRV files document the Nixon administration’s decision to pursue an anti-ballistic missile defense system amidst congressional controversy, and the issue of multiple independently targeted warhead capability (MIRV). The Backchannel Files provide a comprehensive record of exchanges between the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs Henry Kissinger and the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Gerard Smith. The Agency and Subject files include messages between the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the White House, as well as documents touching on all aspects of SALT. Other useful records within the NSC Files include the Trips File, containing memoranda of Kissinger’s conversations with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, and the Haig Chronological File, which includes [Page XV] telegrams sent from Moscow during Kissinger’s secret trip in April 1972 and telephone conversation transcripts between Kissinger and Haig.

Nixon presidential recordings, housed in the Nixon Presidential Materials Project, are used extensively in this compilation.

The records of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, housed at the Washington National Record Center, provides a unique documentary perspective on SALT. In particular, the Director and Deputy Director files of Gerard Smith and Philip Farley, as well as the Chronological File are used here. Although these two files are used most extensively, a host of additional ACDA records were consulted and are listed below.

The Department of State, the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were strong bureaucratic players in the SALT deliberations but were not the key voices. Many of these records were therefore of secondary importance for the preparation of this volume. The Central File of the Department of State contains records of discussions between the United States and Soviet SALT delegations and a list is provided below. The records of Chairmen of the Joint Chief of Staff, General Earle Wheeler and Admiral Thomas Moorer, located in the National Archives, Record Group 218, Records of the JCS, provide valuable documentation on the military’s involvement in the preparation of the Nixon administration’s SALT position and on verification issues. The Melvin Laird Papers at the Gerald Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan contain select copies of Department of Defense papers and correspondence with other government agencies. Laird kept copious SALT records and his papers are rich source for this volume. The records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs at the Washington National Records Center contain the original copies of the SALT documents found in the Laird papers, as well as many other SALT-related materials. The Central Intelligence Agency records are valuable for intelligence on Soviet policy generally, but the CIA collections most relevant for this volume—the DCI Helms and DCI Executive Registry files—contain primarily duplicate memoranda and papers found in other collections, especially the NSC Files in the Nixon Presidential Materials Project and the ADCA records. The editor found the National Intelligence Council (NIC) Files productive for national intelligence estimates and special estimates.

The Eliot Richardson Papers contain a handful of documents relating to the ABM–MIRV controversy of the spring of 1969. The Henry A. Kissinger Papers in the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress largely replicate documentation found in other collections, especially the NSC files already declassified in the Nixon Presidential Materials. Copies of the most important source—the Kissinger Telephone [Page XVI] Conversations Transcripts—have been deposited at the Nixon Presidential Materials Project at the National Archives.

The following list of unpublished and published sources identifies files and collections used in the preparation of this volume. The declassification and transfer to the National Archives of Department of State records is underway and some of these collections and files are available for public review at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. The declassification review of other records is proceeding in accordance with the provisions of Executive Orders 12958 and 13142, under which all records over 25 years, except files series exemptions requested by agencies and approved by the President.

Unpublished Sources

Department of State
- Central Files. See National Archives and Records 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
  - INR/IL Historical Files
    - Files of the Office of Intelligence Coordination, containing records from the 1940s through the 1980s, maintained by the Office of Intelligence Liaison, Bureau of Intelligence and Research
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
- Record Group 59, Records of the Department of State
  - Central Files
    - DEF 1 US, U.S. defense affairs, policy, plans, readiness
    - DEF 1 US–USSR, U.S.–USSR defense affairs, policy, plans, readiness
    - POL 1 US–USSR, U.S.–USSR political affairs and relations
    - POL 1 US, U.S. political affairs and relations, general policy
- Record Group 218, Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
  - Records of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Moorer
  - Records of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Wheeler
- Nixon Presidential Materials Project
  - National Security Council Files
    - ABM MIRV
    - Agency Files
    - Backchannel Files
    - Country Files, Europe
    - Haig Chronological File
    - Haig Special File
    - Kissinger Office Files
    - Name Files
    - NSC Secretariat, Unfiled Materials
    - President’s Daily Briefings
    - President/HAK Memoranda of Conversation
    - Staff Files
    - SALT
    - Subject Files
  - National Security Council Institutional Files (H-Files)
    - National Security Council Meetings
    - National Security Council Minutes
    - Senior Review Group Meetings
    - Senior Review Group Minutes
    - Verification Panel Meetings
    - Verification Panel Minutes
    - Study Memoranda (National Security Study Memoranda)
    - Policy Papers (National Security Decision Memoranda)
  - White House Central Files
    - Staff Members and Office Files: President’s Daily Diary
  - White House Tapes
Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
- See Washington National Records Center at Suitland, Maryland
Central Intelligence Agency
- DCI Files: Job 80–BO1285A, files of Directors of Central Intelligence John McCone and Richard Helms
- DCI Executive Registry: Jobs 80B01086A, 80M00165A, 80M01048A 80R01284A, 80R01580R, 86B00269R, executive files of the Director of Central Intelligence
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.
- Papers of Henry Kissinger
  - Chronological File
  - Geopolitical File
  - Memoranda of Conversations
  - Memoranda to the President
  - National Security Council Meetings
  - Senior Review Group Meetings
  - Telephone Records
- Elliot Richardson Papers
Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland
- RG 330, Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense
  - OSD Files: FRC 330–75–0089 FRC 330–75–0103
    - Top secret and secret subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Under Secretary of Defense and their assistants, 1969
  - OSD Files: FRC 330–76–0067 and FRC 330–76–0076
    - Top secret and secret subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Under Secretary of Defense and their assistants, 1970
  - OSD Files: FRC 330–76–0207 and FRC 330–76–0197
    - Top secret and secret subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Under Secretary of Defense and their assistants, 1971
  - OSD Files: FRC 330–77–0095 and FRC 330–77–0094
    - Top secret and secret subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Under Secretary of Defense and their assistants, 1972
- RG 383, Records of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
  - FRC 383–98–003, Office of the Director, Subject Files, 1969–1977
  - FRC 383–97–010, Office of the Director, Smith/Farley Chronological Files, 1962–1977
  - FRC 383–97–031, Office of the Director, Executive Director Subject Files, 1962–1969
  - FRC 383–97–054, Office of the Director, Congressional Correspondence, 1969–1971
  - FRC 383–98–004, Office of the Director, Executive Director Subject Files, December 1969-December 1970
  - FRC 383–98–005, Office of the Director, Executive Director Subject Files, 1971
  - FRC 383–98–009, Office of the Director, Executive Director Subject Files, 1970
  - FRC 383–98–016, Office of the Director, Executive Director Subject Files, 1972
  - FRC 383–98–060, Office of the Director, Gerard Smith’s Files, 1969–1972
  - FRC 383–98–096, Office of the Director, Farley Subject Files, 1969–1973
  - FRC 383–98–162, ACDA Central Depository of TS, 1955–1983

Published Sources

Documentary Collections
- Allen, John, Jr., John Carver, and Tom Elmore, editors. Tracking the Dragon: National Intelligence Estimates on China During the Era of Mao, 1948–1976. Washington, D.C.: Executive Office of the President, Central Intelligence Agency, Office of the Director, National Intelligence Council, 2004.
- Current Digest of the Soviet Press, 1969–1972.
- U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Documents on Disarmament, 1969–1972. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
- U.S. Department of State, Department of State Bulletin, 1969–1972.
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M. Nixon, 1969–1972. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969–1972.
- U.S. Treaties.
- Congressional Quarterly
- Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Volume 8.
Memoirs
- Haig, Alexander M., Jr. Inner Circles: How America Changed the World, A Memoir. New York: Warner Books, 1992
- Halderman, H.R. The Haldeman Diaries, Inside the Nixon White House: The Complete Multimedia Edition. Santa Monica, CA: Sony Electronic Publishing Co., 1994.
- Helms, Richard, with William Hood, A Look Over My Shoulder (New York: Random House, 2003).
- Kissinger, Henry. White House Years. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1979.
- Nixon, Richard M., RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978.
- Smith, Gerard. Disarming Diplomat: The Memoirs of Ambassador Gerard C. Smith, Arms Control Negotiator. New York: Madison Books, 1996
- __________. Doubletalk: The Story of SALT I. New York: Doubleday, 1980.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXXII, SALT I, 1969–1972

Sources