Overview

This volume documents the intellectual foundations of the Jimmy Carter administration’s foreign policy. Unlike other volumes in the Carter subseries, the documentation seeks to illustrate the collective mindset of Carter administration officials on foreign policy issues in the broadest sense. Rather than the formulation of individual foreign policy decisions or diplomatic exchanges, the compilation takes as its canvas the entire record of the Carter administration. The volume also covers the immediate pre-presidential period, from Jimmy Carter’s December 1974 announcement that he would campaign for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination to the transition between the Gerald Ford and Carter administrations.

Specifically, the volume documents the ways in which the Carter administration sought to implement a foreign policy that marked a significant departure from the previous administrations, one characterized by an emphasis on issues such as human rights. The volume draws upon the published record of speeches, press releases, press conferences and briefings, interviews, and Congressional testimony to document policy positions and the assumptions of administration officials on the foreign policy process. The documentation presented in this volume, drawn from public and archival sources, chronicles the perspectives of not only President Carter but also Vice President Walter Mondale, President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs Zbigniew Brzezinski, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, and other prominent policy makers.