Scope and Content Note
The papers of Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski (1928-2017) span the years 1798-2017, with the bulk of the material dating from 1952 to 2017. They focus on Brzezinski's professional life and public service in the field of foreign policy, including his tenure as President Jimmy Carter's national security advisor from 1977 to 1981. The papers are arranged in four parts described below. The collection is in English, with Polish, Russian, French, Chinese, and other foreign languages.
Part I
Part I of the Brzezinski Papers spans the years 1941-2002, with the bulk of material dating from 1952 to 2002. Five decades of Brzezinski's professional life are covered in Part I, including his activities as national security advisor. The preponderance of material, however, relates to Brzezinski's career prior to joining the Carter White House in January 1977. Part I is arranged in nine series: General Correspondence, Carter Administration, Speeches and Events, Writings, Subject File, Classified, Top Secret, Sensitive Compartmented Information, and Oversize.
The General Correspondence file consists of letters sent and received by Brzezinski from 1952 until 1977 and covers his career at Harvard University, Columbia University, the Department of State, and the Trilateral Commission. Correspondents include academic colleagues, political figures, government officials, business leaders, journalists, and students from around the world. Frequent correspondents include Jerzy Giedroyc, William E. Griffith, Hubert H. Humphrey, Henry Kissinger, Jan Nowak, and Henry Owen.
The Carter Administration series begins with material related to Brzezinski's service as principal foreign policy advisor to Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign and continues through his service as assistant to the president for national security affairs. The files are grouped in sections on the 1976 campaign, the transitional period prior to Carter's inauguration, and the National Security Council (NSC). Campaign files include internal memoranda from Brzezinski to Carter on foreign policy issues, correspondence with foreign policy advisors who prepared briefing papers, Brzezinski's work on speeches and policy papers, briefing books for presidential debates, and press clippings. Transition files contain congratulatory correspondence, letters from job seekers, memoranda, and press clippings.
Since most of the files relating to Brzezinski's work with the National Security Council are located at the Jimmy Carter Library in Atlanta, Georgia, material contained in the National Security Council section of Brzezinski's own papers consists mainly of personal correspondence and press files. Press files contain media coverage of Brzezinski and transcripts of interviews with Carter and Brzezinski. These files reflect the work of Jerrold L. Schecter and Alfred Friendly (1938- ), who served as NSC press spokesman from 1977 to 1980 and 1980 to 1981 respectively. Additional press clippings for this period can be found in personal press files contained in the Subject File . Information about Brzezinski's service as national security adviser is also recorded in the appointment books in the Subject File.
The Speeches and Events file documents Brzezinski's speaking engagements, attendance at conferences and meetings relating to international affairs, trips throughout the world, and other activities prior to his appointment to the Carter administration. During speaking engagements, Brzezinski usually spoke from brief notes, although texts of speeches were occasionally prepared after the event. Speech notes and texts are placed at the front of files relating to an engagement. Topics of Brzezinski's lectures included United States-Soviet relations, Sino-Soviet relations, the Communist states of Eastern Europe, the dynamics of the Cold War, the trilateral relationship, and America's role in world affairs. Other material in these files includes correspondence, notes on meetings and impressions of countries visited, and conference papers.
The series devoted to Brzezinski's writings contains articles, book reviews, book files, columns he wrote for Newsweek International and the Japanese newspapers Nihon Keizai Shimbun and Nikkei Shimbun, and his McGill University master's thesis entitled “Russo-Soviet Nationalism.” The book files comprise the largest section of the series and focus on books written prior to 1977, especially The Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict. Article and speech files contain a few of Brzezinski's writings from later years relating to international affairs in the post-Cold War world.
The Subject File highlights Brzezinski's public policy activities and issues of concern to him. Included are files pertaining to his pursuits in the years following the Carter Administration. The “Trips and Conversations with Heads of State” file focuses on Brzezinski's travels, mostly to former and current communist countries, from 1989 to 2002, to attend conferences and meet with heads of state and other government officials. In the 1990s Brzezinski served as an unofficial envoy of the Clinton administration at meetings in China focusing on political conditions, human rights, trade status, and diplomatic relations. He also met with leaders in the former Soviet states looking to the United States for assistance and support. Included in this material are trip diaries, memoranda, notes on meetings, correspondence, background information, press clippings, and photographs. Files on the Ukraine are the most extensive and provide an account of Brzezinski's work as head of the American-Ukrainian Advisory Committee. Also dating from the post-Carter Administration period are copies of correspondence with American presidents and other heads of state. Letters between Brzezinski and George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Richard M. Nixon contain substantive discussion of foreign policy issues.
Other material in the Subject File pertains to Brzezinski's service as a foreign policy advisor to presidential candidates and details his analysis of issues and strategies for Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968, several Democratic candidates in 1972, and George Bush in 1988. Together with the campaign files in the Carter Administration series, this material highlights three decades of United States foreign policy priorities and concerns. Trilateral Commission files focus on Brzezinski's work with this group of business, academic, and political leaders formed to promote cooperation between North America, Western Europe, and Japan. The subject file entitled “Reactions to Brzezinski” consists of commentary on his opinions and writings in the foreign press and journals. Much of this material is in Russian. Press files, appointment books, and curriculum vitae also include information related to topics appearing throughout the collection.
Part II
Part II spans the years 1798-2009, with the bulk of material dating from 1960 to 2007. Part II focuses largely on Brzezinski's role as national security advisor and on his professional life following the Carter presidency, with a small amount of material pertaining to his pre-White House career. Also featured are family papers that chronicle the diplomatic career of Tadeusz Brzezinski, Brzezinski's father. Part II follows the arrangement of Part I and is organized in eleven series: General Correspondence ; Carter Administration ; Speeches, Testimony, and Travel ; Writings ; Subject File ; Family Papers ; Restricted ; Classified ; Top Secret ; and Oversize .
The General Correspondence series contains letters sent and received by Brzezinski between 1981 and 2005. Correspondence for the year 1984 is missing from the series. Brzezinski's correspondence reflects the range of his activities and associations during this period and includes exchanges with former and current United States government officials, foreign statesmen, diplomats, scholars, journalists, editors, publishers, directors of organizations and foundations, business executives, former students, family, and friends. Letters from prominent correspondents are interspersed throughout this and other series. Included in the collection are letters from Kenneth L. Adelman, Madeleine Korbel Albright, Richard V. Allen, Les Aspin, Samuel R. Berger, C. Fred Bergsten, Harold Brown (1927- ), George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Warren Christopher, Richard C. Holbrooke, Samuel P. Huntington, Henry Kissinger, Anthony Lake, Richard M. Nixon, David Rockefeller, William Safire, Brent Scowcroft, George Pratt Shultz, Margaret Thatcher, and Cyrus R. Vance.
The Carter Administration series chronicles Brzezinski's activities as national security advisor. Included are files documenting United States relations with China, Europe, Iran, the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, and the Soviet Union during the Carter presidency. The files contain memoranda and notes on conversations and meetings, excerpts from Brzezinski's journal, memoranda and notes exchanged between Brzezinski and Carter, copies of presidential letters to foreign heads of state, and transcribed excerpts from memoranda and reports by administration officials. Among the topics discussed are the Iranian hostage crisis, normalization of relations with China, Middle East peace negotiations, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II. Material dated after the end of the Carter administration consists of correspondence with former White House colleagues and notes and other material written or assembled by Brzezinski while writing his memoirs, Power and Principle. Other files from Brzezinski's tenure as national security advisor include an activities file that lists meetings, telephone calls, and White House visitors; copies of the president's schedule annotated by Brzezinski; press files containing briefings, clippings, and interviews; speeches delivered by Brzezinski; travel authorizations and vouchers; personal correspondence for the year 1977; financial disclosure forms and lists of gifts received; files detailing National Security Council staff composition and organization; and legal files concerning the investigation into Billy Carter's relationship with the Libyan government. A small but significant file supplements material in Part I on Brzezinski's role as foreign policy advisor to Carter's presidential campaign and transition team.
The Speeches, Testimony, and Travel series encompasses Brzezinski's congressional testimony, domestic and foreign speaking engagements, and foreign travel from 1981 to 2008. During this period, Brzezinski testified frequently before congressional committees on foreign policy and national security matters, spoke often before American audiences, and traveled extensively to western and eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and its post-dissolution component parts, East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Canada, and South America. Correspondence, trip reports, memoranda of conversations, itineraries and arrangements, programs, publicity, interviews, photographs, and news clippings document many of these events. Brzezinski's speeches consist of notes and outlines, typed transcripts prepared by event sponsors, occasional advance copies made available at the time of the event, and published texts. They are located in folders labeled “speeches and remarks” under domestic speaking engagements and in the foreign travel files. The series also includes a file of Brzezinski's early speeches from 1962 to 1976. Speeches delivered as national security advisor are located in the Carter Administration series. Some published speeches are filed among articles in the Writings series.
The Writings series consists of articles, books, introductions, forewords, and a column written by Brzezinski for a Japanese newspaper. Located in the article file are major works featured in Foreign Affairs and other journals, op-ed pieces, published speeches, and letters to editors. A book file contains reviews of most of Brzezinski's books. More complete files composed of correspondence, material relating to foreign-language editions, publicity files, reviews, articles, and interviews are available for a number of his books, including Power and Principle: Memoirs of the National Security Adviser (1983), Game Plan: A Geostrategic Framework for the Conduct of the U.S.-Soviet Contest (1986), Grand Failure: The Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century (1989), and Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives (1997). Correspondence filed with Brzezinski's writings includes letters from prominent public figures and the general public in addition to exchanges with publishers and editors.
The bulk of the Subject File series pertains to Brzezinski's professional life following his departure from the White House in 1981. The series documents his teaching at Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University, his long association with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and his participation in and involvement with numerous commissions and organizations, among them AmeriCares, Balkan Action Council, Chemical Warfare Review Commission, Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy, Council on Foreign Relations, CSIS's American-Ukranian Advisory Committee, Freedom House, Jamestown Foundation, National Endowment for Democracy, and Trilateral Commission. Topical files chronicle Brzezinski's activities relating to Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Kosovo, the Middle East, Soviet Union, and Ukraine, and his support for the enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A file regarding the War on Terrorism and Iraq War includes correspondence between Brzezinski and administration officials, statements by him, and notes from meetings. Brzezinski's involvement with his native Poland is well documented in the series. Of particular note are files concerning Brzezinski's work in behalf of the Polish-American Enterprise Fund, support for a Brzezinski presidential candidacy in Poland, and his role in facilitating a meeting between Polish officials and Colonel Ryszard Jerzy Kukliński, a Polish military officer who was helpful to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Featured in the Subject File is a presidential correspondence file consisting of letters between Brzezinski and United States presidents as well as foreign heads of state and public officials in Eastern Europe, former Soviet republics, and elsewhere. A large memoranda of conversations file details conversations and meetings between Brzezinski and United States officials and world leaders, among them Madeleine Korbel Albright, Yasir Arafat, Samuel R. Berger, George Bush, Deng Xiaoping, Mikhail Gorbachev, Richard M. Nixon, Condoleezza Rice, Brent Scowcroft, George Pratt Shultz, and Lech Wałęsa. Other memoranda of conversations can be found in this series under the topics to which they relate and in the Speeches, Testimony, and Travel series.
Other material located in the Subject File includes appointment calendars dated 1977-2003, oral history interviews, a large press file of clippings and interviews, a telephone message file, and honors and awards. A small amount of material concerns Brzezinski's professional activities before joining the Carter White House. Included is material relating to his academic careers at Harvard and Columbia universities and his membership on the Department of State's Policy Planning Staff. Testimonial and commendation letters, memorabilia, and a file labeled “reactions to Brzezinski,” composed largely of news clippings, trace the spread of his influence and reputation nationally and internationally prior to 1977.
The Family Papers series documents the diplomatic career of Tadeusz Brzezinski, Zbigniew Brzezinski's father. Included is correspondence relating to his Polish consular service in Lille, France (1921-1931), Leipzig, Germany (1931-1935), Kharkiv, Soviet Union (1936-1937), and Montreal, Canada (1938-1945). Material dated after Tadeusz Brzezinski's arrival in Montreal is more extensive and documents his wartime service as consul-general and his leadership in Polish-Canadian affairs. Brzezinski and his wife, Leonia, remained in Canada until their respective deaths in 1990 and 1985. Tadeusz Brzezinski's papers also contain autobiographical writings, academic and military records, and honors and awards. Featured as well in the series is an album presented by W. Jaruzelski to Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1985 containing original letters and documents written by or about Tadeusz Brzezinski and other members of the Brzezinski family that had been acquired by the Polish communist secret police. Other material in the series includes correspondence and writings by Leonia Brzezinska; a watercolor sketch by Zbigniew Brzezinski's grandfather Kazimierz Brzezinski; World War II letters and journal by Jerzy Zylinski, Zbigniew Brzezinski's stepbrother; and correspondence, notes, and copies of documents relating to the Brzezinski and Roman family histories and genealogies. The bulk of the Family Papers is in Polish.
Part III
Part III of the Brzezinski papers spans the years 1866-2012 with the bulk of the material dating from 1957 to 2011. This installment complements papers received in Parts I and II. The majority of the files in Part III relates to Brzezinski’s professional activities after his service as national security adviser in the Carter administration, and they also contain files relating to the Carter Administration and a few family papers. Part III is organized into the following series: Correspondence , Carter Administration , Speeches and Testimony , Writings , Subject File , Travel , Family Papers , Classified .
The Correspondence series chronicles Brzezinski’s activities and interests primarily between 2005 and 2011 and include incoming and outgoing correspondence with former and current United States government officials, foreign statesmen, diplomats, scholars, journalists, directors of organizations and foundations, business executives, and friends. Correspondents include Madeline Korbel Albright, Howard H. Baker (1924-2014), Joseph R. Biden, Jimmy Carter, Chuck Hagel, John Hamre, Richard Lugar, William E. Odom, Nancy Pelosi, Jody Powell, and George Pratt Schultz, Robert S. Strauss, Desmond Tutu, and Lech Walęsa.
The Carter Administration series consists mainly of weekly reports, photocopied from the Jimmy Carter Library, that Brzezinski made to President Jimmy Carter while Brzezinski served as national security advisor. Also included in the series is material chronicling Brzezinski’s meeting with Deng Xiaoping in 1978 about the normalization of relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China and files relating to Carter’s presidential campaigns.
The Speeches and Testimony series pertains to Brzezinski’s speeches and congressional testimony chiefly about foreign policy and national security matters. Topics include the Middle East, United States and European relations, the War on Terrorism and Iraq War. A few speeches are also filed in the Travel series.
The Writings are comprised mainly of journal and magazine articles, op-ed pieces, letters to editors, and files documenting Brzezinski’s collective articles for the Global Viewpoint, a Los Angles Times syndicate. Most of the book files supplement previous material received in Parts I and II. Also included in the Writings is a draft of Brzezinski’s unpublished book, “Global Populism and American Policy.”
The Subject File relates primarily to Brzezinski’s professional endeavors after leaving the Carter administration in 1981. The files document his work with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Trilateral Commission, the Polish-American Enterprise Fund, the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, and his service with other organizations, foundations, and committees. Topical files treated are Chechnya, Poland, and the War on Terrorism and Iraq War. Also included in the Subject File are a file of memoranda of conversations documenting Brzezinski’s meetings and conversations with United States officials and international leaders pertaining to Chechnya, Ukraine, China, North Korea, the Middle East, the European Union, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Subject File also includes appointment books, calendars, press correspondence, and a large file of interviews.
The Travel series consists chiefly of correspondence and memoranda about travel arrangements, travel itineraries and schedules, notes and background material. The bulk of the travel pertains to domestic engagements but also chronicled are Brzezinski’s trips to Poland and other countries in eastern Europe. Included in this series are two folders relating to Brzezinski’s trip to the Soviet Union in the fall of 1989. During that trip he was the lead spokesman for United States and Soviet Union discussions about Central European problems.
The Family Papers are comprised mainly of condolence letters pertaining to the deaths of Brzezinski’s parents. This series also includes a small amount of family correspondence and genealogical material.
Part IV
Part IV of the Brzezinski Papers spans the years 1935-2017, with the bulk of the material dating from 1943 to 2017. This segment complements papers received in Parts I, II, and III. The majority of the files in Part IV relates to Brzezinski’s professional activities as a university educator, prior to appointment as Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor, and his activities from the 2000s to his death in 2017. Part IV is organized into the following series: Correspondence, Speeches and Testimony, Teaching File, Writings, Subject File, Restricted, and Oversize.
The Correspondence series chronicles Brzezinski’s activities and interests primarily between 2013 and 2017 and includes incoming and outgoing correspondence with former and current foreign dignitaries, diplomats, scholars, journalists, directors of organizations and foundations, business executives, friends, and parents. This series also includes correspondence with various foreign government and former United States government officials, to set up meetings and include memoranda detailing meeting discussions. Earlier correspondence within this series includes letters with Polish friends who were part of the Polish government-in-exile in Canada during World War II and with friends in Poland after the war. Notable correspondents include Jimmy Carter, John Hamre, and John F. Kennedy.
The Speeches and Testimony series pertains to Brzezinski’s speeches and congressional testimony primarily about foreign policy and national security matters. Topics from the 1950s to 1980s include United States policies regarding the Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact countries, and the Vietnam War. Speeches and congressional testimony include post-Cold War Russia, Eastern European countries, China, and the Middle East.
The Teaching File focuses primarily on his professorship at Columbia University and includes lecture notes, course materials for Brzezinski’s Dynamics of Soviet Politics, Comparative Communism, and his Communist Party of the Soviet Union classes, and a research project exploring Japanese foreign policy. The content of his Yale University visiting professorship files include research and teaching notes and correspondence appointing him to his position.
The Writings series is comprised mainly of journal and magazine articles, op-ed pieces, and letters to editors. The book material is primarily related to his book Strategic Visions, including publicity material and reviews. This series supplements material in Parts I, II, and III.
The Subject File covers a wide range of time periods during Brzezinski’s life, including his notes and writings while he was a student at private schools in Canada to when he was a postgraduate student at Harvard University. This series also includes memoranda and research materials from when he was a member of the Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff in the 1960s. This series also documents his foreign policy interests dating from the mid-2000s until 2017, including topics on China, Russia and Ukraine.