Office of the Historian

Note on 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 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. Many 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. All the Department’s indexed central files through July 1973 have been permanently transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, Maryland (Archives II). Many 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 President Nixon and other White House foreign policy records, including tape recordings of conversations with key U.S. and foreign officials. 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. Access to the Nixon White House tape recordings is governed by the terms of the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act (P.L. 93–526; 88 Stat. 1695) and an access agreement with the Office of Presidential Libraries of the National Archives and Records Administration and the Nixon estate. In February 1971 President Nixon initiated a voice activated taping system in the Oval Office of the White House and, subsequently, in the President’s Office in the Executive Office Building, Camp David, the Cabinet Room, and White House and Camp David telephones. The audiotapes include conversations of President Nixon with his Assistant for National Security Affairs Henry Kissinger, other White House aides, Secretary of State Rogers, other Cabinet officers, members of Congress, and key foreign officials. The clarity of the voices on the tape recordings is often very poor, but the editors make every effort to verify the accuracy of the conversations. Readers are urged to consult the recordings for an appreciation of those aspects of the discussions that cannot be fully captured in a transcription, such as the speakers’ inflections and emphases that may convey nuances of meaning, as well as the larger context of the discussion.

Research for this volume was completed through special access to restricted documents at the Nixon Presidential Materials Project. While all the material printed in this volume has been declassified, some of it is extracted from still-classified documents. The Nixon Presidential Materials Staff 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, 1969–1972, Volume E–2

President Nixon usually opted not to concentrate on arms control issues, instead delegating policy direction and implementation to the Department of State and other relevant executive agencies, departments, and advisers. Nevertheless, White House involvement in the decision-making process and policy formulation certainly occurred, as in the cases of the problem of Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW) and the ratification of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Consequently, while the files of the Department of State provide the best source for arms control, the records of the Nixon Presidential Materials, at Archives II, constitute another key foundation. Moreover, documents concerning topics covered in this volume are located in diffuse and diverse files that do not correspond to the usual country or topical types of files cited in most other Foreign Relations volumes for the Nixon-Ford subseries.

U.S. policy on arms control and disarmament during the years 1969–1972 as reflected in Nixon Presidential Materials, reveals that U.S. policy was shaped by a number of pressing domestic and international concerns that fell under the general category of arms control, including the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Comprehensive Test Ban (CTB), Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW), prohibitions on the production of fissionable material, and seabed arms control. Documents on these topics are often found in the Subject Files of the Nixon NSC Files. The most significant body of documents that cover negotiations between the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on NPT ratification measures is found in the Nixon Presidential Materials, National Security Council (NSC) Files, Subject Files, Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Conference (ENDC) and Non-Proliferation Treaty. An additional excellent source that documents these negotiations are the Institutional Files (H-Files), which contain records of high-level meetings, requests for studies, and presidential decisions, including the complete set of National Security Study Memoranda (NSSM), National Security Decision Memoranda (NSDM), and related studies and papers. A small selection of relevant foreign policy records within the Nixon Presidential Materials is in the National Security Council Files, Country Files, Europe-USSR.

The volume also draws heavily from the Department of State Central Files. Along with the President, Secretary of State Rogers had meetings with premiers, chancellors, foreign ministers, and other high-level leaders of the FRG and the Soviet Union. DEF 18–6 and DEF 18–3 shed light on discussions on control and issues of NPT ratification, while POL 33–5 and POL 33–6 cover proposals for treaties relevant to the seabed. AE 13 IAEA provides insight on the problematic issues of safeguards and verification of the sharing of nuclear technology for civilian needs.

Supplementary documentation on arms control and disarmament in the context of U.S. security interests are found primarily in the office files of the Secretary of Defense, and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Department of Defense (DOD). Disarmament is filed in the Department of Defense decimal system under 388.3 in the files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense cited below. Records from the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) are also useful in this regard, and reveal alternative approaches to biological and chemical weapons that deviate from those endorsed by the DOD. Researchers should also consult the Diary and Journal of ACDA Chairman Glenn T. Seaborg at the Department of Energy for Seaborg’s extensive contemporary view of the arms control process.

Unpublished Sources

  • Department of State
    • Central Files. See National Archives and Records Administration below.
    • 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.
  • National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
    • Record Group 59, Records of the Department of State
      • Central Files
      • AE 3 EURATOM, atomic energy, organizations and conferences relating to the IAEA
      • AE 6 US, Peaceful uses of U.S. atomic energy
      • AE 13 EURATOM, safeguards relating to EURATOM
      • AE IAEA, safeguards relating to IAEA
      • DEF 18, defense affairs, arms control and disarmament
      • DEF 18–3, defense affairs, arms control and disarmament, organizations and conferences
      • DEF 18–4, defense affairs, arms control and disarmament, agreements and treaties
      • DEF 18–6, defense affairs, arms control and disarmament, control measures
      • DEF 18–3 SWITZ (GE), defense affairs, arms control and disarmament, organizations and conferences relating to Geneva, Switzerland
      • DEF 18–8 US, defense affairs, arms control and disarmament, testing and detection relating to the United States
      • DEF 18–8 USSR, defense affairs, arms control and disarmament, testing and detection relating to the USSR
      • DEF 18–9 LA, defense affairs, arms control and disarmament, demilitarized and nuclear free zones relating to Latin America
      • POL US–USSR, political affairs and relations between the United States and the Soviet Union
      • POL 27–10 UN, military operations, chemical and germ warfare relating to the UN
      • POL 27–10 VIET S, military operations, chemical and germ warfare relating to Vietnam
      • POL 33–5, waters, boundaries, continental shelf
      • POL 33–6, waters, boundaries, high seas
    • Lot Files
      • S/S National Security Council Files: Entry No. 5002 (formerly S/S–I Lot Files: 73 D 288)
        General files related to NSC matters for 1969–1972
  • Nixon Presidential Materials Project
    • Nixon Security Council Files
      • Agency Files
      • Backchannel Files
      • Country Files: Europe, USSR
      • Files for the President, China Materials
      • Kissinger Office Files: Country Files, Europe, USSR
      • HAK Trip Files
      • Name Files
      • Presidential Correspondence
      • President’s Trip Files
      • Subject Files: Chemical, Biological Warfare, Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Conference, HAK/Richardson Meetings, Non-Proliferation Treaty, NSDMs and NSSMs, Seabeds
    • National Security Council Institutional Files (H-Files)
      • National Security Council Meetings
      • National Security Decision Memoranda
      • National Security Study Memoranda
      • Review Group/Senior Review Group Minutes
      • Review Group/Senior Review Group Meetings
      • Verification Panel Meetings
    • White House Special Files: President’s Office Files and Memoranda for the President
    • White House Tapes
  • Central Intelligence Agency
    • Executive Registry Files, DCI Files 1969, Job 80–B01086A
  • Gerald Ford Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan
    • Melvin Laird Papers
  • Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland
    • RG 330, Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense
      • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330–72–6309
        Secret subject decimal files of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, 1969
      • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330–74–0083
        Secret subject decimal files of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, 1971
      • OSD Files: FRC 330–75–0089 and FRC 330–75–0103
        Secret and top secret subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Assistant Secretary of Defense, and their assistants, 1969
      • OASD/ISA Files: FRC 330–75–0155
        Top secret subject decimal files of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, 1972
      • OSD Files: FRC 330–76–0197
        Secret and top secret subject decimal files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Assistant Secretary of Defense, and their assistants, 1971
      • OSD Files: FRC 330–76–0028
        Minutes of Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird’s morning staff meetings, 1969–1973
    • RG 383, Records of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
      • ACDA/D Files: FRC 383–97–0010
        Files of Director Gerard C. Smith, 1962–1977
      • ACDA/D Files: FRC 383–98–0004
        Files of the former Executive Director Office, 1969–1970
      • ACDA/D Files: FRC 383–98–0005
        Files of the Former Executive Director Office, 1971
      • ACDA/DD Files: FRC 383–98–0096
        Files of Deputy Director J. Philip Farley, 1969–1973
      • ACDA/Files: FRC 383–98–0162
        ACDA Central Depository of Top Secret Documents, 1955–1983
  • Library of Congress
    • Manuscript Division
      • Papers of Henry A. Kissinger
        • Chronological File
        • Geopolitical File
        • Memoranda of Conversations
        • Memoranda to the President
        • National Security Council Meetings
        • Senior Review Group Meetings
        • Telephone Records: Telephone Conversations
  • U.S. Department of Energy
    • Records of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
    • Glenn T. Seaborg Diary

Published Sources

  • Documentary Collections
    • U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Documents on Disarmament, 1969, 1971, 1972, (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office)
    • U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973)
  • Memoirs, Autobiographies, Diaries, and Histories
    • Seaborg, Glenn T. Journal of Glenn T. Seaborg, Pub–625, Volumes 18–24, Appendix, and Press Clippings (Berkeley: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, 1989–1992)