Scope and Content Note
Part I
Part I of the papers of Carl Andrew Spaatz (1891-1974) covers the years 1910-1953, with most of the material dated between 1942 and 1948. The material consists chiefly of correspondence, cables, and reports along with diaries, research notes, typescripts of articles and speeches by Spaatz, material collected by him for reference use, flight records, Spaatz's 201 (personnel) file, and assorted memorabilia. The papers in Part I are organized in ten series as Diary and Notebooks; Cables; Subject File; Chief of Staff File; Speech, Article, and Book File; Miscellany; United States Strategic Air Forces File; Eighth Air Force File; Classified; and Oversize.
Papers in Part I prior to 1941 consist primarily of the "diary," Spaatz's term for an assemblage of documents with added commentary. Though devoid of biographical data, Spaatz's diary became a repository during the war years for personal and official correspondence. Diary entries are interspersed with the correspondence. It appears that Spaatz began dictating diary entries in order to record decisions made at conferences, observations made during field inspections, reflections on operational problems, and comments on the course of the air war in general. After Spaatz's appointment in 1946 as commanding general of the Army Air Forces, responsibility for the maintenance of his papers shifted from his personal aide to an administrative assistant in his office. The effect of this change was that only a skeletal diary for subsequent years was maintained.
The voluminous material deemed neither personal nor significant enough for inclusion in the war diary comprises most of the remainder of Part I of the collection. Among these papers is a series of redline cables, redline being the circuit set up to provide private, high-level communication among senior Army Air Force officers in Europe and in the Mediterranean. The Subject File comprises the largest series, consisting of special reports, surveys, charts, and other items arranged by subject. Much of the material duplicates records in the Air Force Archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. Some material in the Subject File overlaps or complements material in other files. Cross references have been included in this finding aid to illustrate relationships between different files.
Spaatz's tenure as commanding general, Army Air Forces, and chief of staff of the United States Air Force is well documented in the Chief of Staff File. This series of Spaatz's papers constitutes what is, in effect, the working office files of the Air Force Chief of Staff.
Speeches and articles written by Spaatz from 1946 to 1948 are included in the Speech, Article and Book File, usually in typescript form. Prior to 1946, Spaatz's speeches and articles are included in the diary. Among these works are pamphlets written in the 1920s on pursuit aviation. Between 1946 and 1948, Spaatz's speeches and articles were maintained in three notebooks. The remainder of the series consists of drafts, outlines and research notes for the Spaatz report, a book-length work entitled Air Power in Peace and War, and a copy of the "Coffin report" entitled The Contribution of Air Power to the Defeat of Germany.
A small Miscellany series completes the personal papers in Part I. Among the papers in this file are financial records, Spaatz's 201 or personnel file, correspondence and reports, incomplete diaries, papers relating to Air Force officers such as Hugh Johnston Knerr, C. J. Moore, and Nathan Twining, and printed matter inscribed to Spaatz.
The collection also contains a sizeable body of documents of the United States Strategic Air Forces (USSTAF). The bulk of this material consists of papers of Bruce C. Hopper and the USSTAF Historical Section. When he learned of Spaatz's intention to place his papers in the Library of Congress, Hopper volunteered to turn his own files over to the Library. The Historical Section files include a section journal, the historian's journal, correspondence, historical studies, histories of various Army Air Force organizations, research material, and correspondence and studies by the USSTAF's German historians' project headed by Herhudt Von Rhoden.
Another group of papers in the collection includes correspondence files of Ira C. Eaker which have been placed in the Eighth Air Force File. They consist for the most part of Eaker's correspondence as commanding general of the Eighth Air Force and a substantial number of reports either to or from Eaker. This file was compiled by the Historical Section of USSTAF when a history of the Eighth Air Force was contemplated. There is also a separate collection of Ira C. Eaker's papers in the Manuscript Division.
Prominent correspondents in Part I include Henry Harley Arnold, Omar Nelson Bradley, Jacqueline Cochran, Ira C. Eaker, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Hugh Johnston Knerr, Frank P. Lahm, Curtis E. LeMay, Robert A. Lovett, Ted Mack, George C. Marshall, William Mitchell, Robert Porter Patterson, Alexander P. Seversky, John W. Snyder, Henry L. Stimson, Nathan F. Twining, Hoyt Sanford Vandenberg, Jack Warner, and Thomas D. White.
Part II
Part II of the Spaatz Papers ranges from 1915 to 1981 but most of the material is dated 1948-1963 and concerns Spaatz's activities after his retirement from the Air Force in 1948. Part II is organized in three series: Retirement File, Miscellany, and Oversize. Spaatz retired from active duty in order to be able to advocate his views on the development of air power. The Retirement File documents his affiliation with military and civic organizations, his consultancies and task force commissions, writing projects and speaking engagements, associates and friends, and business, social, and sporting interests.
The Miscellany series includes family and biographical material, a few World War II documents, and a file of writings and speeches that parallels material in the Speech, Article, and Book File in Part I of the collection. Noteworthy among the World War II documents are plans for two principal operations, “Torch” in North Africa (1942) and “Overlord” in Normandy (1944).
Prominent correspondents in Part II include Frederick L. Anderson, Eleanor Pool Arnold (Mrs. Henry Harley Arnold), Leo Cherne, Ira C. Eaker, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Curtis E. LeMay, Richard M. Nixon, Elwood R. Quesada, Stuart Symington, and Harry S. Truman.