Scope and Content Note
The papers of Ray Steiner Cline (1918-1996) span the years 1945-1994, with the bulk of the items concentrated during the period 1970-1994. Cline was a high-ranking United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1961 and the Bay of Pigs operation that followed and a vocal supporter of continued diplomatic relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan during the late 1970s. He founded, co-founded, or was associated with several organizations promoting increased American interest in the Far East. He also served as an intelligence adviser to presidential candidate George Bush and to the Ronald Reagan presidential transition team.
Part I
Part I of the Cline Papers consists of four series: an Office File , Organizations File , Conferences and Meetings File , and Writings File . The Office File includes calendars, interviews, press references to Cline, and testimony before congressional hearings and judicial proceedings regarding the proposed reorganization of American intelligence activities and intelligence-gathering effectiveness in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Organizations File consists of material created or accumulated by Cline while associated with various academic or policy institutions and organizations. By far the bulk of the file concerns the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) of Georgetown University, but included as well are papers relating to organizations such as the Coalition for Asian Peace and Security and the World Strategy Network.
The Conferences and Meetings File contains addresses, briefings, lectures, papers, and speeches prepared or delivered by Cline. Writings include manuscripts and published copies of articles, stories, and papers not specifically associated with a conference or meeting. Among the topics treated are the agencies, countries, events, and personalities, particularly American, Chinese, Korean, and Soviet, involved in intelligence and national security activities during the 1970s and 1980s.
Prominent among Cline's correspondents are George Bush, whose letters may be found in both George Bush and Ronald Reagan subject files among the CSIS materials, Chinese nationalist general and Hong Kong publisher Ho Shai-lai, Ernest W. Lefever, Clare Boothe Luce, Constantine Christopher Menges, Chiang Ching-kuo, president of the Republic of China, and Arthur M. Schlesinger (1917-2007), with whom Cline exchanged letters discussing their differences concerning the Cuban missile crisis.
Part II
Files in Part II are extensions of the four series in Part I and are arranged and described accordingly. Of note in the Organizations File is a copy of a memorandum dated 1945 by Cline regarding the wartime history of the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA.