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 XX

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. foreign policy toward Eastern Europe during the Carter administration. Foreign policy research in the Carter Library centers around two collections: National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, and National Security Affairs, Staff Material. Additionally, the Country files in the Brzezinski Donated Material provided important documentation.

The most important collections at the Carter Library were the Brement Subject File in the Europe, USSR, and East-West Collection of the National Security Affairs, Staff Material holdings, as well as the Brzezinski Office File, and the National Security Council Institutional Files. The administration’s policy toward the Radios (RFE/RL and VOA) was detailed extensively in Paul Henze’s files (the Horn/Special Collection), as were numerous intelligence related matters regarding the covert action program directed at Eastern Europe. These files were sup [Page XVI] plemented by the Carter Administration Intelligence Files at the National Security Council.

The editor also had access to files at the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Council. The files of the Central Intelligence Agency, particularly the National Intelligence Council Registry of National Intelligence Estimates, Special National Intelligence Estimates, and National Intelligence Analytical Memoranda files, were essential for intelligence reports and assessments on which the Carter administration based its policy decisions.

In addition to the paper files cited below, a growing number of documents are available on the Internet. The Office of the Historian maintains a list of these Internet resources on its website and encourages readers to consult that site on a regular basis.

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, Washington D.C.
    • Lot Files. These files have been transferred or will be transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland.
    • INR/IL Historical Files
    • Bureau of European Affairs
      • Office of Eastern European Affairs, Bulgaria Desk, Personal Files of Retired Ambassador to Bulgaria, Raymond L. Garthoff, 1960–1980, Lot 80D218
      • Office of Eastern Europe and Yugoslavia Affairs, Hungarian Holy Crown—Crown Follow-up 1979 and Prior Years 1945–1980, Lot 85D389
      • Office of European Security and Political Affairs, Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) 1973–80, Lot 89D288
    • Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs
      • 1979—Human Rights and Country Files, Lot 82D103
      • 1980—Human Rights and Country Files, Lot 82D177
      • Chron and Official Records of the Assistant Secretary for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Lot 85D366
    • Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Office of Analysis for the Commonwealth and Eastern Europe
      • Office Subject Files, 1967–1985, Lot 92D404
      • Office Subject Files, 1965–1980, Lot 92D412
      • Office Subject Files, 1958–1978, Lot 92D468
      • Office Subject Files, 1953–1983, Lot 93D401
    • Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for European Affairs
      • Country Files, 1940–1986, Lot 89D336
    • Office of the Secretariat Staff
      • Cyrus R. Vance, Secretary of State—1977–1980, Lot 84D241
      • Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Under Secretary of State for Management (1967–1984), Lot 84D204
      • Mr. Matthew Nimetz, Counselor of the Department of State, Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science, and Technology, January 1977 thru December 1980, Lot 81D85
      • Ambassador at Large and Special Representative of the President for Nonproliferation Matters (S/AS), Gerard C. Smith, 1977–1980, Lot 81D287
      • Official Working Papers, S/P Director Anthony Lake, 1977–Jan 1981, Lot 82D298
      • Records of the Office of the Deputy Secretary, Warren Christopher, Lot 81D113
      • S/S Memoranda for 1979, Lot 81D117
    • Office of the Under Secretary for Security Assistance, Science, and Technology
      • Chron Files, Speeches, and Papers of Lucy W. Benson (1979) and Matthew Nimetz (1980), Lot 81D321
    • National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
      • Record Group 59, Files of the Department of State
        • Central Foreign Policy File
    • Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, Georgia
      • Brzezinski Donated Material
      • National Security Affairs
      • Brzezinski Material
        • President’s Daily Report File
        • President’s CIA Daily Brief File
        • President’s Correspondence with Foreign Leaders File
        • Trip Files
        • VIP Visit File
        • Subject File
        • Name File
        • General Odom File
        • Brzezinski Office File
        • Cables File
      • Staff Material
        • Office File
        • Staff Secretary File
        • Europe, USSR, and East/West
        • Global Issues
        • Horn-Special
        • International Economics
        • Defense/Security Files
      • National Security Council
        • Institutional Files
      • Plains File
    • National Security Council, Washington D.C.
      • Carter Administration Intelligence Files
        • Subject Files
    • Central Intelligence Agency, Langley, Virginia
      • Office of the Director of Central Intelligence
        • Job 05S00620R
        • Job 80M01542R, Executive Registry Subject Files (1978)
        • Job 81B00112R, Subject Files
      • Office of Support Services, Directorate of Intelligence
        • Job 80T00634A, Production Case Files (1978)
        • Job 82T00150R, Production Case 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.
  • _______. White House Diary. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2010.
  • Cold War International History Project Bulletin, Issues 10–13. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center.
  • Congressional Quarterly. Congress and the Nation, 1977–1980, vol. V. Washington: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1981.
  • Current Digest of the Soviet Press.
  • Chicago Tribune.
  • Fingar, C. Thomas, ed. Yugoslavia: From “National Communism” to National Collapse, U.S. Intelligence Community Estimative Products on Yugoslavia. Washington: Government Printing Office, 2006.
  • Garthoff, Raymond L. A Journey Through the Cold War: A Memoir of Containment and Coexistence. Washington: Brookings Institution, 2004.
  • Kaiser, Phillip M. Journeying Far and Wide: A Political and Diplomatic Memoir. New York: Scribner, 1993.
  • Kalugin, Oleg. Spymaster: My Thirty-two Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West. London: Smith Gryphon, 1994.
  • Keesing’s Contemporary Archives, 1977–1981. London: Longman, 1977–1981.
  • Mastny, Vojtech and Malcolm Byrne, eds. A Cardboard Castle? An Inside History of the Warsaw Pact, 1955–1991. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2006.
  • Newsom, David D., Witness to a Changing World, Washington: New Academia, 2008.
  • The New York Times.
  • Paczkowski, Andrezej and Malcolm Byrne. From Solidarity to Martial Law: The Polish Crisis of 1980–1981. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2007.
  • United Nations. Yearbook of the United Nations, 1977–1980. New York: United Nations Office of Public Information, 1978–1981.
  • United States. Department of State. Bulletin, 1977–1980.
  • ________. National Archives and Records Administration. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, 1977–1980. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978–1981.
  • Vance, Cyrus. Hard Choices: Critical Years in America’s Foreign Policy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983.
  • The Washington Post.
  • Weiser, Benjamin. A Secret Life: A Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country. New York: Public Affairs, 2004.