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. U.S. foreign policy agencies and departments—the Department of State, National Security Council, Department of Defense, Central Intelligence Agency, and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library—have complied fully with this law and provided complete access to their relevant records.

Research for Foreign Relations volumes is undertaken through special access to restricted documents at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, and other agencies. While all the material printed in this volume has been declassified, some of it is extracted from still-classified documents. The staff of the Jimmy Carter Library 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, 1977–1980, Volume VI

The files at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, in Atlanta, Georgia, are the single most important source of documentation for those interested in U.S.-Soviet relations during the Carter administration. Foreign policy research in the Carter Presidential Library centers on two collections: National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, and National Security Affairs, Staff Material. In addition, Marshall Shulman’s lot file at the Department of State offers a nearly complete record of U.S.-Soviet relations during the Carter administration, and should be consulted by anyone who is researching the U.S.–U.S.S.R. bilateral relationship. Additionally, the Country files in the Brzezinski Material and the Brzezinksi Donated Material provided important documentation.

The editor also had access to the Carter Intelligence Files at the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Department of Defense. The files of the Central Intelligence Agency, particularly the NIC Registry of NIE, SNIE and NIAM files, were essential [Page XII] for intelligence reports and assessments on which the Carter administration based its policy decisions.

The editor made considerable use of materials already compiled for other volumes in the Foreign Relations series, including those of the Middle East, China, Afghanistan, Poland, SALT, and Western Europe. Readers interested in these subjects should consult the relevant volumes for further information on the specific sources used in research.

The following list identifies the particular files and collections used in the preparation of this volume. The declassification and transfer to the National Archives of the Department of State records is in process, and some of these records are already available for public review at the National Archives.

Unpublished Sources

  • Department of State
    • Lot Files . These files have been transferred or will be transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland.
    • Files of the Bureau of European Affairs, Office of Soviet Union Affairs, Lot 91D231
    • Office of the Secretariat Staff, Cyrus R. Vance, Secretary of State—1977–1980, Lot 84D241
    • Office of the Secretariat Staff, Special Adviser to the Secretary (S/MS) on Soviet Affairs Marshall Shulman—Jan 21, 77–Jan 19, 81, Lot 81D109
    • Office of the Secretary, Personal Files of Secretary Cyrus R. Vance, Lot 80D135
    • Office of Soviet Union Affairs, Dissidents and Political Prisoner Subject Files, 1974–1988, Lot 91D273
  • National Archives and Record Administration, College Park, Maryland
    • Record Group 59, Records of the Department of State
      • Central Foreign Policy File
  • Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, Georgia
    • Brzezinski Donated Material
    • National Security Affairs
      • Brzezinski Material
        • Brzezinski Office File
        • Cables File
        • General Odom File
        • Name File
        • President’s Correspondence with Foreign Leaders File
        • Subject File
        • Trip Files
        • VIP Visit File
      • Staff Material
        • Office File
        • Staff Secretary Files
        • Europe, USSR, and East/West
        • Global Issues
        • International Economics
        • Defense/Security Files
    • National Security Council Files
      • National Security Council Meetings
      • Presidential Decisions
      • Presidential Review Memoranda
    • Plains File
  • Central Intelligence Agency
    • DCI Executive Registry Files
      • Job 83T00237R
    • NIC Registry of NIE and SNIE Files
      • Job 79R01012A
  • National Security Council
    • Carter Intelligence Files
      • Subject Files

Published Sources

  • Brzezinski, Zbigniew. Power and Principle: Memoirs of the National Security Adviser, 1977–1981. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1983.
  • Carter, Jimmy. Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President. New York: Bantam Books, 1982.
  • Congressional Quarterly. Congress and the Nation, 1977–1980, vol. V. Washington: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1981.
  • Current Digest of the Soviet Press
  • Dobrynin, Anatoly. In Confidence: Moscow’s Ambassador to America’s Six Cold War Presidents (1962–1986). New York: Times Books, 1995.
  • Keesing’s Contemporary Archives, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981. London: Longman, 1977-1981.
  • The New York Times
  • United Nations. Yearbook of the United Nations, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980. New York: United Nations Office of Public Information, 1981.
  • United States. Department of State. Bulletin, 1977–1980.
  • United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, 1977–1980. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1977–1982.
  • Vance, Cyrus. Hard Choices: Critical Years in America’s Foreign Policy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983.