Office of the Historian

Sources

The Presidential papers of the Nixon and Ford administrations are the best source of high-level decision-making documentation for U.S. relations with Western Europe from 1973 to 1976. At the Nixon Library, a number of collections from the National Security Council (NSC) files are relevant to research on U.S.-West European relations. A number of NSC collections proved particularly helpful: Agency Files (especially on NATO); Backchannel Messages; Country Files, Europe; Henry A. Kissinger Office Files (especially the Country Files, Europe, General series, as well as the HAK Trip Files); Presidential Correspondence; Presidential/HAK Memcons; and Subject Files (especially on the Year of Europe). The NSC Institutional Files (H-Files) contain records on high-level meetings, requests for studies, and Presidential decisions, and provided crucial documentation on the National Security Study Memoranda and National Security Decision Memoranda published in this volume. The White House Special Files, Staff Member & Office Files, President’s Office Files, Memoranda for the President, yielded memoranda of conversation for Nixon’s May 1973 meetings with West German Chancellor Willy Brandt in Washington and French President Georges Pompidou and Icelandic President Kristjan Eldjarn in Reykjavik. The White House Tapes offered, as did the transcripts of Kissinger’s telephone conversations, a unique window into the thinking of Nixon and Kissinger.

The National Security Council material at the Ford Library is organized into collections similar to those found at the Nixon Library. Within the Ford Library’s National Security Adviser Files, a number of collections are essential for understanding U.S.-West European relations: Kissinger-Scowcroft West Wing Office Files (which also contains material on the Nixon administration); Memoranda of Conversation (which too contains material from the Nixon administration); NSC Europe, Canada, and Ocean Affairs Staff Files; Presidential Agency Files (particularly on NATO); and Presidential Country Files for Europe and Canada. Like its counterpart at the Nixon Library, the NSC Institutional Files (H-Files) collection at the Ford Library is critical to documenting the National Security Study Memoranda and National Security Decision Memoranda on Western Europe issued during this period.

At the National Archives and Records Administration facility at College Park, Maryland, the Department of State Central Files, 1970–1973, contains useful material on U.S. relations with the Federal [Page XIV] Republic of Germany, Iceland, and the United Kingdom, while the Central Foreign Policy Files covering the period from 1973 onwards yielded important telegrams and memoranda of conversation. Two Department of State lot files proved to be a particularly rich source of documentation for this volume: Records of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 1973–1977, and Records of the Office of the Counselor, Helmut C. Sonnenfeldt, 1955–1977. Other useful lot files include Transcripts of Secretary of State Kissinger’s Staff Meetings, 1973–1977, and Policy Planning Staff, Director’s Files (Winston Lord), 1969–1977.

Although largely duplicative of material found in other repositories, the Kissinger Papers at the Library of Congress do contain some material not found elsewhere. At the Department of Defense, the Official Records of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the files of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs contained useful documents on NATO and on U.S. defense relations with Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany, Iceland, and the United Kingdom. Finally, both the records of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Intelligence Files housed at the National Security Council yielded important documentation for this volume.

Unpublished Sources

  • National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
    • RG 56, Records of the Department of Treasury
      • Records of Secretary of the Treasury George Shultz
      • General Subject Files of Paul Volcker, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs
    • RG 59, Records of the Department of State
      • Central Files, 1970–1973
        • DEF 1 EUR W: defense policy, plans, readiness, Western Europe
        • DEF 1 NATO: defense policy, plans, readiness, NATO
        • DEF 4 EUR: collective defense pacts and alliances, Europe
        • DEF 4 NATO: collective defense pacts & alliances, NATO
        • DEF 6 NATO: armed forces, NATO
        • DEF 6–12 NATO: exercises & maneuvers, NATO
        • DEF 12 NATO: armaments, NATO
        • DEF 13 FR: logistical matters, France
        • DEF FR: defense affairs, France
        • DEF FR–US: defense affairs, France-US
        • POL 1 FR–US: general policy, France-US
        • POL 1 GER W–US: general policy, FRG–US
        • POL 1 PORT–US: general policy, Portugal-US
        • POL 2 GER W: general reports and statistics, FRG
        • POL 7 GER W: visits, meetings, FRG
        • POL 7 ICE: visits, meetings, Iceland
        • POL 7 SP: visits, meetings, Spain
        • POL 7 UK: visits, meetings, UK
        • POL 12–1 ICE: political parties, policy, plans, ideology, Iceland
        • POL 12–3 GER W: political parties meetings, FRG
        • POL 14 FR: elections, France
        • POL 15 SP: government, Spain
        • POL 15 UK: government, UK
        • POL 15–1 FR: heads of state, executive branch, France
        • POL 15–1 PORT: heads of state, executive branch, Portugal
        • POL 15–1 SP: heads of state, executive branch, Spain
        • POL 15–2 FR: legislature, France
        • POL 17 FR–US: diplomatic/consular representation, France-US
        • POL 17 GER W–US: diplomatic/consular representation, FRG–US
        • POL 17 SP–US: diplomatic/consular representation, Spain-US
        • POL 23–9 UK: rebellion, coups, UK
        • POL 27–14 VIET: truce, ceasefire, armistice, Vietnam
        • POL 33–4 ICE: territorial waters, Iceland
        • POL 33–4 ICE–UK: territorial waters, Iceland-UK
        • POL CAN–US: political affairs & relations, Canada-US
        • POL EUR–US: political affairs & relations, Europe-US
        • POL EUR E–EUR W: political affairs & relations, East/West Europe
        • POL EUR W: political affairs & relations, Western Europe
        • POL FR–US: political affairs & relations, France-US
        • POL GER: political affairs & relations, Germany
        • POL GER E–GER W: political affairs & relations, GDR/FRG
        • POL GER W–US: political affairs & relations, FRG–US
        • POL ICE–US: political affairs & relations, Iceland-US
        • POL SP–US: political affairs & relations, Spain-US
        • POL UK: political affairs & relations, UK
        • POL UK–US: political affairs & relations, UK–US
      • Top Secret Files, 1970–1973
      • Central Foreign Policy Files, 1973–
      • Lot Files
        • S/P Files, Entry 5207 (Lots 77 D 112 and 77 D 114)
        • Policy Planning Staff, Director’s Files (Winston Lord), 1969–1977
        • S/S Files, Entry 5177 (Lot 78 D 443)
        • Transcripts of Secretary of State Kissinger’s Staff Meetings, 1973–1977
        • S/S Files, Entry 5339 (Lot 81 D 286)
        • Records of the Office of the Counselor, Helmut C. Sonnenfeldt, 1955–1977
        • S/S Files, Entry 5403
        • Records of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 1973–1977
        • S/S Files, Entry 5439 (Lot 73 D 443)
        • Office Files of William Rogers, 1969–1973
    • RG 429, Records of Organizations in the Executive Office of the President
      • Records of the Council on International Economic Policy
        • Records of Executive Committee Meetings
        • Records of Senior Review Group Meetings
        • Study Memoranda
  • Nixon Presidential Materials Project
    • Kissinger Telephone Conversation Transcripts
    • NSC Files
      • Agency Files
      • Alexander Haig Chronological Files
      • Backchannel Messages
      • Country Files, Europe
      • Institutional Materials
      • Name Files
      • NSC Unfiled Material
      • Presidential Correspondence
      • Presidential/HAK Memcons
      • Richard M. Nixon Cables/Contingency Plans
      • Subject Files
      • VIP Visits
    • NSC Files, Henry A. Kissinger Office Files
      • Agency and Congressional Files
      • Country Files, Europe, General
      • Country Files, Middle East, President’s Visit to the Azores
      • HAK Administrative and Staff Files
      • HAK Trip Files
    • NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files)
      • Intelligence Files
      • Meeting Files, Senior Review Group Meetings
      • Minutes of Meetings, NSC Meeting Minutes
      • Minutes of Meetings, Senior Review Group
      • Miscellaneous Institutional Files of the Nixon Administration
      • Policy Papers, National Security Decision Memorandums
      • Records of the Staff Secretary
      • Study Memorandums, National Security Study Memorandums
      • Under Secretaries Committee Memorandum Files
    • White House Central Files
      • President’s Daily Diary
    • White House Special Files, Staff Member & Office Files
      • President’s Personal File
        • Memoranda from the President
        • Name/Subject File
      • President’s Office Files
        • Memoranda for the President
        • President’s Handwriting
    • White House Tapes
  • Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan
    • L. William Seidman Files
      • Economic Policy Board Subject Files
      • Seidman Subject File
      • Foreign Trips Files
    • National Security Adviser Files
      • Institutional Files, NSC “NS” Originals File
      • Kissinger-Scowcroft West Wing Office Files
      • Memoranda of Conversation
      • National Security Decision Memoranda and National Security Study Memoranda
      • NSC Europe, Canada, and Ocean Affairs Staff Files
      • NSC International Economic Affairs Staff Files
      • NSC Meeting Minutes
      • NSC Planning and Coordination Staff Files
      • Outside the System Chronological Files
      • Presidential Agency Files
      • Presidential Country Files for Europe and Canada
      • Presidential Name File
      • Presidential Subject File
      • Scowcroft Daily Work Files
      • Trip Briefing Books and Cables of President Ford
    • National Security Council Institutional/Historical Records (H-Files)
    • President’s Daily Diary
    • President’s Handwriting File
    • U.S. Council of Economic Advisors Records
      • Alan Greenspan Files
        • Federal Agency Correspondence
  • Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
    • Papers of Henry A. Kissinger
      • Geopolitical File
      • Record of Schedule
      • Subject File
  • Central Intelligence Agency, Virginia
    • Office of the Director of Central Intelligence
      • Job 79M00467A
      • Job 80M01048A
    • Office of the Deputy Director for Intelligence
      • Job 78B02822A
    • Directorate of Intelligence Files
      • Job 79T00863A
      • Job 85T00353R
    • History Staff Files
  • Washington National Record Center, Suitland, Maryland
    • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330–76–117
      • Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Subject Decimal Files, Secret, 1973
    • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330–77–0054
      • Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Subject Decimal Files, Secret, 1974
    • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330–78–0038
      • Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Subject Decimal Files, Secret, 1974–1975
    • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330–79–0037
      • Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Subject Decimal Files, Secret, 1976
    • OSD Files: FRC 330–78–0001
      • Official Records of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, Secret, 1973
    • OSD Files: FRC 330–78–0010
      • Official Records of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, Top Secret, 1974
    • OSD Files: FRC 330–78–0011
      • Official Records of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, Secret, 1974
    • OSD Files: FRC 330–78–0058
      • Official Records of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, Secret, 1975
    • OSD Files: FRC 330–78–0059
      • Official Records of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, Top Secret, 1975
    • OSD Files: FRC 330–79–0049
      • Official Records of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, Secret, 1976
    • OSD Files: FRC 330–79–0050
      • Official Records of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, Top Secret, 1976
  • National Security Council, Washington, D.C.
    • Ford Intelligence Files
      • 40 Committee Meetings, Minutes/Approvals, 1975 GRF
      • 40 Committee/OAG Meetings, Minutes/Approvals, 1976 GRF
      • Portugal—GRF

Published Sources

  • U.S. Department of State, Bulletin, 1973–1976.
  • U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M. Nixon, 1971, 1972, 1973 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1972, 1974, 1975).
  • U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Gerald R. Ford, 1974, 1975, 1976–1977 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1975, 1977, 1979).