Office of the Historian

Sources

Sources for the Foreign Relations Series

The Foreign Relations statute requires that the published record in the Foreign Relations series include all records needed to provide comprehensive documentation of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant U.S. diplomatic activity. It further 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 historians by providing full and complete access to records pertinent to foreign policy decisions and actions and by providing copies of selected records. Most of the sources consulted in the preparation of this volume have been declassified and are available for review at the National Archives and Records Administration.

The editors of the Foreign Relations series have complete access to all the retired records and papers of the Department of State: the central files of the Department; the special decentralized files (“lot files”) of the Department at the bureau, office, and division levels; the files of the Department’s Executive Secretariat, which contain the records of international conferences and high-level official visits, correspondence with foreign leaders by the President and Secretary of State, and memoranda of conversations between the President and Secretary of State and foreign officials; and the files of overseas diplomatic posts. The Department’s indexed central files through December 1975 have been permanently transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland (Archives II). Most of the Department’s decentralized office (or “lot”) files covering the 1969–1976 period, which the National Archives deems worthy of permanent retention, have been transferred or are in the process of being transferred from the Department’s custody to Archives II.

The editors of the Foreign Relations series also have full access to the papers of Presidents Nixon and Ford, and other White House foreign policy records. Presidential papers maintained and preserved at the Presidential libraries and the Nixon Presidential Materials Project at Archives II include some of the most significant foreign affairs-related documentation from the Department of State and other Federal agencies including the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dr. Henry Kissinger has approved access to his papers at the Library of Congress. These papers are an important source for the Nixon-Ford sub-series of Foreign Relations.

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Research for this volume involved special access to restricted documents at the Nixon Presidential Materials Project, the Ford Library, the Library of Congress, and other agencies. While all the material printed in this volume has been declassified, some of it is extracted from still classified documents. The staffs of the Nixon Presidential Materials Project and the Ford Library are processing and declassifying many of the documents examined for this volume, but they may not be available in their entirety at the time of publication.

The presidential papers of the Nixon and Ford administrations are the best source of high-level decision making documentation for China during the 1973–1976 period. At the Nixon Presidential Materials Project, located at the National Archives and Records Administration II, in College Park, Maryland, several collections from the National Security Council Files are relevant to research on Sino-American relations. Among these, the Country Files are particularly helpful because they provide the NSC staff’s perspective on the day-to-day ebb and flow of the relationship. The Files for the President are intermittently useful. More significant for Sino-American relations are the Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, which were Kissinger’s working files. The Institutional Files (H-Files) contain records on high-level meetings, requests for studies, and presidential decisions. The Presidential/HAK Memcons files, also part of the NSC collection, consist of memoranda of conversation between foreign officials and Nixon or Kissinger. The Subject Files are divided into categories, many of them dealing with economic issues. Overall, these NSC files are extremely valuable for assessing NSC staff recommendations and presidential policy towards China. Also useful for tracking the President’s daily schedule is the President’s Daily Diary from the White House Central Files. The Subject Files of the White House Special Files, the White House Tapes (which ended in July 1973), and the Henry Kissinger Telephone Conversations have scattered valuable material. Some additional useful documents are contained in the Unfiled Material of the NSC Files, a chronological file of documents that was still being processed when President Nixon left office in August 1974. High-level correspondence between President Nixon and foreign heads of state are contained in the Presidential Correspondence files.

Material at the Ford Library is organized into categories similar to those at the Nixon Presidential Materials Project. The National Security Adviser file contains a number of sub-files that are useful when considering U.S. relations with China and Taiwan: the Kissinger Reports, Kissinger-Scowcroft West Wing Office Files, Memoranda of Conversations, National Security Adviser Memcons, National Security Decision Memoranda and Study Memoranda, NSC Staff for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, Presidential Correspondence with Foreign Leaders, Presidential Country Files, Trip Briefing books and Cables for President Ford. The President’s Daily Diary is an invaluable resource for [Page XIII] following the President’s daily work schedule. The Ford Library has separate NSC Institutional (H-Files), which are not part of the National Security Adviser collection. They contain the same system of minutes and related documents for NSC and Senior Review Group meetings as is found in the Nixon Presidential Materials. Also found in the NSC Institutional Files are the valuable Policy Paper files containing National Security Study Memoranda (NSSMs), National Security Decision Memoranda (NSDMs), and related documents.

The Kissinger Papers at the Library of Congress are valuable, although the preponderance consists of duplicate material found also in the Nixon Presidential Materials Project and the Ford Library. The best documents for Sino-American relations in the Kissinger Papers can be found in the Memoranda of Conversation, Chronological Files, Presidential Files, and Geopolitical Files.

After September 1973, Henry Kissinger became Secretary of State and the records of the Department of State take on a new prominence in the making of China policy. The same year, the Department began using the electronic State Archiving System (SAS). Historical documents from this system have been transferred to the National Archives and are part of the on-line Access to Archival Database (AAD). Some of the most tightly held telegrams are not on the electronic system, but rather on microfilm reels. Because the SAS system was in its initial stages in 1973, it is incomplete. Therefore, despite the creation of the SAS, the subject-numeric central files contain useful material for 1973. The records of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing (Lot 80F64) partially compensate for this gap in the SAS. A number of Department of State lot files are also of special value: the records of Henry Kissinger (E5403), containing many of his memoranda of conversation; the Transcripts of Henry Kissinger’s Staff Meetings with his principal officers at the Department of State (E5177); the files of Winston Lord, the Director of the Policy Planning Staff (E5027, Lot 77D114); the papers of William H. Gleysteen (Lot 89D436); Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s Telephone Conversation (Department of State, Electronic Reading Room, Transcripts of Kissinger Telephone Conversations); and lot files covering relations with the Republic of China (E5412, Lots 76D441 and 77D255).

Some final collections of special note in documenting U.S. relations with China from 1973 until 1976 are the files of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense. Of particular interest in the former are the Executive Registry Files, the official files of the Director of Central Intelligence. In the latter, valuable documents are found in the country files (separate files for the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China) of Record Group 330, Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense and his Assistants, and among the Records of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, described in the list below.

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Unpublished Sources

  • Department of State
    • Central Files. See National Archives and Records Administration below.
      • Secretary of State Henry Kissinger Telephone Conversations (Telcons), Electronic Reading Room, Kissinger telephone conversations
    • Lot Files. For other lot files already transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland, Record Group 59, see National Archives and Records Administration below.
      • EAP Files: Lot 89D436, China Files/Papers of William H. Gleysteen
      • INR/IL Files
      • Post Files: Lot 80F64, American Embassy (Beijing) Files
  • National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
    • Record Group 59, Records of the Department of State
      • Top Secret Subject-Number Indexed Central Files [25 boxes]
      • Central Files, 1970–1973
        • AID (US) CHINAT, ROC, U.S. economic aid to the ROC
        • DEF CHICOM, military affairs, PRC
        • DEF CHINAT, military affairs, ROC
        • DEF 1 CHINAT, defense policy, plans, readiness, ROC
        • DEF 1 CHINAT-US, defense policy, plans, readiness, ROC-U.S.
        • DEF 6 CHINAT, armed forces, ROC
        • DEF 15 CHINAT, bases and installations, ROC
        • DEF 15 CHINAT-US, bases and installations, ROC-U.S.
        • DEF 15–3 CHINAT-US, status of forces, ROC-U.S.
        • DEF 19 US-CHINAT, U.S. military assistance to the ROC
        • DEF 19–8 US-CHINAT, U.S. provision of military equipment and supplies to the ROC
        • E CHICOM general economic affairs, PRC
        • E CHINAT, general economic affairs, ROC
        • FN CHICOM financial affairs, PRC
        • FN CHINAT, financial affairs, ROC
        • FT CHICOM-US, question of trade with the PRC
        • FT CHICOM-1 US, general policy on the question of trade with the PRC
        • INCO TEXTILES CHINAT, industries and commodities, textiles, ROC
        • POL CHICOM, political developments, PRC
        • POL 1 CHICOM, U.S. general policy toward the PRC
        • POL CHINAT, political developments, ROC
        • POL 2 CHINAT, general reports and statistics, ROC
        • POL CHINAT-US, political affairs and relations, ROC and the United States
        • POL 1 CHINAT-US, U.S. general policy toward the ROC
        • POL 17 US-CHICOM, U.S. diplomatic and consular representation in the PRC
      • Central Foreign Policy Files, 1973–1976
        • Part of the on-line Access to Archive Databases (http://aad.archives.gov): Electronic Telegrams, P-Reel Index, P-Reel microfilm
      • Lot Files
        • Policy Planning Staff (S/P), Director’s Files (Winston Lord) 1969–1977, E5027 [formerly Lot 77D114]
        • Transcripts of Secretary of State Kissinger’s Staff Meetings, E5177 [formerly Lot 78D433]
        • E5412, (Lot 76D441) Files on East Asia/Republic of China
        • Subject Files of the Office of ROC Affairs, 1951–75, E5412 [formerly Lots 76D441 and 77D255]
  • Nixon Presidential Materials Project
    • National Security Council Files
      • Country Files
      • Files for the President
      • Henry A. Kissinger Office Files
      • Presidential/HAK Memoranda of conversation
      • Subject Files
      • Unfiled Materials
    • NSC Institutional Files (H-Files)
      • Policy Papers: National Security Decision Memoranda (NSDMs), National Security Study Memoranda (NSSMs)
    • White House Central Files
      • President’s Daily Diary
    • White House Special Files
      • Subject Files
    • White House Tapes
    • Henry Kissinger Telephone Conversations, January to September 1973
  • Gerald Ford Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan
    • National Security Adviser
      • Kissinger Reports
      • Kissinger-Scowcroft West Wing Office Files
      • Memoranda of Conversations
      • National Security Adviser Memcons
      • NSC Institutional Files (H-Files)
      • NSC Staff for East Asia and Pacific Affairs
      • Policy Papers: National Security Decision Memoranda (NSDMs), National Security
      • Study Memoranda (NSSMs)
      • Presidential Correspondence with Foreign Leaders
      • Presidential Country Files
      • Trip Briefing Books and Cables for President Ford
    • President’s Daily Diary
  • Central Intelligence Agency
    • Executive Registry: Executive Files of the Director of Central Intelligence
      • Job 80M01048A
      • Job 79M00467A
  • Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland
    • Record Group 330, Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense
      • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330–76-117
        • Secret Records of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, 1973
      • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330–77-0063
        • Top Secret Records of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, 1974
      • OSD Files: FRC 330–78-0001
        • Secret Records of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1973
      • OSD Files: FRC 330–78-0010
        • Top Secret Records of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1974
      • OSD Files: FRC 330–78-0059
        • Top Secret Records of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1975
      • OSD Files: FRC 330–79-0049
        • Secret Records of the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1976
  • Library of Congress, Washington, DC
    • Manuscript Division Kissinger Papers
  • Published Sources
    • Burr, Bill, ed., The Kissinger Transcripts: The Top-Secret Talks with Beijing & Moscow (New York: The New Press, 1999)
    • Haldeman, H.R., The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the White House (New York: G.P. Putnam Sons, 1994)
    • ———The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House, the Complete Multimedia Edition (Santa Monica, CA: Sony Electronic Publishing, 1994)
    • Kissinger, Henry, Years of Upheaval (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1982)
    • ———Years of Renewal (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999)
    • Lilley, James with Jeffrey Lilley, China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage, and Diplomacy in Asia (New York: Public Affairs, 2004)
    • National Intelligence Council, Tracking the Dragon: National Intelligence Estimates on China During the Era of Mao, 1948–1976 (National Intelligence Council, October 2004)
    • Nixon, Richard M., RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978)
    • U.S. Department of State. Bulletin, 1973–1976.
    • U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Papers of the Presidents, Richard Nixon, 1969–1974 (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970–1975)
    • U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Papers of the Presidents, Gerald R. Ford, 1974–1977 (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1975–1978)