Scope and Content Note
The papers of William Anthony Kirsopp Lake (1939- ) span the years 1916-2003, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1963-1997. The collection centers primarily on Lake's role as senior foreign policy advisor to the presidential campaign of Bill Clinton in 1991-1992 and his activities as assistant to the president for national security affairs during Clinton's first administration. The papers also contain material related to Lake's foreign service career in the 1960s and 1970s and his teaching post at Amherst and Mount Holyoke colleges in the 1980s. The collection is organized in the following series: Department of State, Mount Holyoke College, Clinton Administration, Speeches and Writings, Miscellany, Classified, and Top Secret.
The Department of State series contains material from Lake's personal files documenting his foreign service career commencing with his first post in Vietnam in 1962. Noteworthy material relates to a lawsuit Lake brought against administration officials for a wiretap placed on his home in 1970-1971 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Lake advanced rapidly in the foreign service and was appointed special assistant to national security advisor Henry Kissinger in 1969. Disagreements with the Nixon administration's policy in the Vietnam conflict, however, led to his resignation from the foreign service in 1970 in protest of the United States invasion of Cambodia. Citing national security concerns, the administration electronically monitored Lake and others. When later apprised of these actions, Lake sued and eventually won. The lawsuit files include correspondence, copies of surveillance logs and summary letters, legal proceedings, and clippings. The series also includes material relating to his initial postings in Vietnam in 1962-1965 and his return to the foreign service as director of policy planning in the State Department for President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981.
The Mount Holyoke College series represents Lake's tenure as Five College Professor in International Relations, a position he held after leaving the Carter administration and the foreign service in 1981. Correspondence and clippings primarily reflect Lake's academic activities including student recommendations, comments on scholarly works and Democratic Party politics, foreign policy advice for the presidential campaign of Walter F. Mondale in 1984, invitations, and personal letters.
The Clinton Administration series contains personal files relating to Lake's work as senior foreign policy advisor for the Clinton election campaign in 1992, assistant to the president for national security affairs, and his nomination to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Notable are the correspondence, analyses, position papers, and press releases comprising the campaign file and tracing the development of foreign policy positions, campaign strategies, and speeches. Arranged as received by topic, the file includes material pertaining to Africa, Bosnia and Hercegovina, China, the Democratic party, economic policy, Haiti, Iraq, and Israel. Correspondents and analysts include Les Aspin, C. Fred Bergsten, Richard C. Bush, Michael Clough, Stuart Eizenstat, Richard C. Holbrooke, Penn Kemble, Sol M. Linowitz, Richard Schifter, Gary Sick, and Nancy Soderberg.
The National Security Council file documents Lake's service as assistant to the president for national security affairs, commonly referred to as national security adviser, from 1993 to 1997. Correspondence is chiefly personal in nature. Letters exchanged with the media, foreign policy experts, diplomats, the Defense Department, politicians, foreign service personnel, business leaders, and friends include thank-you notes, invitations, introductions, requests for appearances and interviews, forwarded speeches and articles, and occasional notes and advice on national security issues. Lake's personal notes and jottings are a key part of the subject file. His daily notes span his entire tenure and include brief comments and impressions from meetings with the president, administration officials, foreign heads of state and their representatives, staff, and the media. Noteworthy topics include Bosnia and Hercegovina, Haiti, and Iraq. The subject file also includes financial and legal records, press interviews, clippings, photographs, and travel files. Lake's nomination in December 1996 to head the Central Intelligence Agency is documented by his testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, correspondence, press reports, and other material pertaining to his career. He withdrew his name from consideration in March 1997. Correspondence and reports record Lake's work as special envoy for the Clinton administration in the Ethiopia and Eritrea border dispute and in Haiti in 1998-2000.
The Speeches and Writings File contains copies of Lake's articles, speeches, reviews, and related material commencing in 1971. The books file includes correspondence, production records, reviews, several detailed proposals and outlines, and items related to publishing companies. Press interviews with Lake as national security adviser are filed with the National Security Council files. The Miscellany series includes appointment books, certificates, family papers, passports, and photographs.