Selection and Editorial Policies

Principles of Document Selection for the Foreign Relations Series

In preparing each volume of the Foreign Relations series, the editors are guided by some general principles for the selection of documents. Each editor, in consultation with the General Editor and other senior editors, determines the particular issues and topics to be documented either in detail, in brief, or in summary. Some general decisions are also made regarding issues that cannot be documented in the volume but will be addressed in bibliographical notes.

The following general selection criteria are used in preparing volumes in the Foreign Relations series. Individual compiler-editors vary these criteria in accordance with the particular issues and the available documentation. The compiler-editors also tend to apply these selection criteria in accordance with their own interpretation of the generally accepted standards of scholarship. In selecting documentation for publication, the editors give priority to unpublished classified records, rather than previously published records (which are accounted for in appropriate bibliographical notes).

Selection Criteria (in general order of priority):

1.

Major foreign affairs commitments made on behalf of the United States to other governments, including those that define or identify the principal foreign affairs interests of the United States;

2.

Major foreign affairs issues, commitments, negotiations, and activities, whether or not major decisions were made, and including dissenting or alternative opinions to the process ultimately adopted;

3.

The decisions, discussions, actions, and considerations of the President, as the official constitutionally responsible for the direction of foreign policy;

4.

The discussions and actions of the National Security Council, the Cabinet, and special Presidential policy groups, including the policy options brought before these bodies or their individual members;

5.

The policy options adopted by or considered by the Secretary of State and the most important actions taken to implement Presidential decisions or policies;

6.

Diplomatic negotiations and conferences, official correspondence, and other exchanges between U.S. representatives and those of other governments that demonstrate the main lines of policy implementation on major issues;

7.

Important information that attended Presidential decisions and policy recommendations of the Secretary of State;

8.

Major foreign affairs decisions, negotiations, and commitments undertaken on behalf of the United States by government officials and representatives in other agencies in the foreign affairs community or other branches of government made without the involvement (or even knowledge) of the White House or the Department of State;

9.

The role of the Congress in the preparation and execution of particular foreign policies or foreign affairs actions;

10.

Economic aspects of foreign policy;

11.

The main policy lines of intelligence activities if they constituted major aspects of U.S. foreign policy toward a nation or region or if they provided key information in the formulation of major U.S. policies;

12.

The main policy lines of U.S. military and economic assistance as well as other types of assistance;

13.

The political-military recommendations, decisions, and activities of the military establishment and major regional military commands as they bear upon the formulation or execution of major U.S. foreign policies;

14.

Diplomatic appointments that reflect major policies or affect policy changes.

Scope and Focus of Documents Researched and Selected for Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, Volume XVII

The documentation in this volume highlights U.S. policy toward Eastern Europe, particularly the U.S. response to the crisis created by the August 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Prior to the invasion, U.S. policy in the region had been characterized by an ongoing effort to loosen ties between the Soviet Union and its Communist satellites through the use of limited economic assistance. This policy of “Bridge Building” to Eastern Europe through selective use of U.S. economic power was only partially successful. President Johnson faced serious opposition from within Congress to this initiative. In addition, Eastern European Communist regimes, while eager to obtain U.S. aid, wanted few conditions attached to its utilization and aimed to use outside assist-ance to consolidate their political control. The rise of a Communist reform movement in Czechoslovakia, while welcomed by the United States, offered U.S. diplomacy little practical assistance in carrying out this policy. The Communist reformers were fundamentally hostile to the United States. As a result the Johnson administration was an interested observer as the Czech and Soviet states confronted each other. After the Soviet invasion of August 1968, the United States feared further Soviet military moves and actively sought to provide support to bolster the independence of Austria, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Finland.

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Responsibility for policy formulation and advice to the President on these issues was shared between the National Security Council and the Department of State. In addition to papers from President Johnson’s White House, documents were selected from among the records of these agencies, together with intelligence estimates prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency and interdepartmental planning group papers, in order to provide broad coverage of basic political and economic policy formulation in Washington. Embassy reporting was also included to provide the context of the policy debate in Washington and document major interchanges with foreign leaders.

Editorial Methodology

The documents are presented in chapters, arranged chronologically according to Washington time or, in the case of conferences, in the order of individual meetings. Incoming telegrams from U.S. Missions are placed according to time of receipt in the Department of State or other receiving agency, rather than the time of transmission; memoranda of conversation are placed according to the time and date of the conversation, rather than the date the memorandum was drafted.

Editorial treatment of the documents published in the Foreign Relations series follows Office style guidelines, supplemented by guidance from the General Editor and the chief technical editor. The source text is reproduced as exactly as possible, including marginalia or other notations, which are described in the footnotes. Texts are transcribed and printed according to accepted conventions for the publication of historical documents in the limitations of modern typography. A heading has been supplied by the editors for each document included in the volume. Spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are retained as found in the source text, except that obvious typographical errors are silently corrected. Other mistakes and omissions in the source text are corrected by bracketed insertions: a correction is set in italic type; an addition in roman type. Words or phrases underlined in the source text are printed in italics. Abbreviations and contractions are preserved as found in the source text, and a list of abbreviations is included in the front matter of each volume.

Bracketed insertions are also used to indicate omitted text that deals with an unrelated subject (in roman type) or that remains classified after declassification review (in italic type). The amount of material not declassified has been noted by indicating the number of lines or pages of source text that were omitted. Entire documents withheld for security reasons have been accounted for and are listed by headings, source notes, and number of pages not declassified in their chronological place. The amount of material omitted from this volume because it was unrelated [Page XIV] to the subject of the volume, however, has not been delineated. Brackets that appear in the source text are so identified by footnotes.

The first footnote to each document indicates the document’s source, original classification, distribution, and drafting information. This footnote also provides the background of important documents and policies and indicates if the President or his major policy advisers read the document. Every effort has been made to determine if a document has been previously published, and this information has been included in the source footnote.

Editorial notes and additional annotation summarize pertinent material not printed in the volume, indicate the location of additional documentary sources, provide references to important related documents printed in other volumes, describe key events, and provide summaries of and citations to public statements that supplement and elucidate the printed documents. Information derived from memoirs and other first-hand accounts have been used when appropriate to supplement or explicate the official record.