Scope and Content Note
Part I of the papers of Henry A. Kissinger (1923-2023) spans the years 1957-1982, although the bulk of the items coincide with Kissinger's government service under Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford from 1969 to 1977. The collection consists of personal papers and non-record copies of official government documents which Kissinger worked on or reviewed as assistant to the president for national security affairs, 1969-1975, and as secretary of state, 1973-1977. The originals of the copies of government documents in the papers have been retained by the originating government agencies for eventual transfer to the National Archives and Records Administration and constitute part of the official records of those agencies. Typewritten transcripts of Kissinger's telephone conversations form the largest portion of his personal papers, which also include personal correspondence, notes and drafts for articles and speeches, appointment books and records of schedule, telephone log sheets, and assorted printed matter. Eighty-one unclassified audiotapes filed at the end of the collection are largely recordings of background briefings and press conferences conducted by Kissinger during his trips to the Middle East.
The main body of Part I of the Kissinger Papers consists of copies of classified government documents. Series containing a majority of classified records are identified as "classified material" though they include some unclassified items. In accordance with security regulations, documents carrying security classifications higher than confidential or secret have been separated from the larger group of classified items, replaced by cross-reference sheets, and arranged in series organized by classification category. The cross-reference sheets cite the original series and folders from which the items were removed, and the material is organized in the same sequence as the original series arrangement. Items bearing these special classifications are located at the end of the collection and include top secret material, sensitive compartmented information, restricted data, formerly restricted data, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization documents. Series containing a preponderance of unclassified items organized as unclassified files include telephone records, speeches and writings, and miscellany. Classified documents from these files have been removed and placed in separate "classified" series directly following the unclassified portion.
Kissinger served during a period in international relations dominated by the Vietnam conflict, and as a negotiator and foreign policy strategist, he sought to reshape the geopolitical landscape. His papers contain primary research material which documents not only Kissinger's statecraft but also the bureaucratic apparatus responsible for the analysis, formulation, and implementation of foreign policy. The documents represent agency-generated records as well as diplomatic exchanges between United States government officials and foreign dignitaries and include memoranda, correspondence, telegrams, cables, memoranda of conversations, reports, messages, minutes of meetings, policy and issue papers, transcripts, talking points, testimonies and statements, background briefings, charts, and miscellaneous attachments. Full sets of agenda, background, and briefing books collated in preparation for the many meetings and negotiating sessions which Kissinger conducted and in which he was a participant, both at home and abroad, can be found in the collection, in addition to volumes of reports and memoranda of conversations assembled as a record of events.
The Chronological File served as Kissinger's office file and contains memoranda, correspondence, and government exchanges routinely accumulated during the course of his government service. Memoranda to President Richard M. Nixon are organized in a separate series. These two series, together with those containing cables and memoranda of conversations , files of the National Security Council and Department of State , and the Geopolitical File and Subject File , are the records of Kissinger's government career. They outline the course of American international relations during Kissinger's tenure as chief foreign affairs adviser to Presidents Nixon and Ford and indicate the tactics and strategies he employed while pursuing his foreign policy objectives. In addition to documenting a broad range of international crises and events, the papers also reveal the development of several dominant themes in Kissinger's foreign policy initiatives. These include the quest for a conclusion to the Vietnam conflict, rapprochement with China and the creation of a triangular global balance between East and West, the reduction of American-Soviet tensions through support of arms control talks and the corresponding process of detente, and the search for peace in the Middle East by promoting the transformation of geostrategic alliances.
The Geopolitical File includes information regarding United States relations with specific countries or regions. Among the records located in this series are files documenting the Vietnam peace negotiations, papers concerning Kissinger's July 1971 trip to China, documents detailing the negotiations and subsequent agreements associated with the signing of the strategic arms limitation treaty, chronological and meeting files related to Anatoliy Fedorovich Dobrynin and Andrei Andreevich Gromyko, and material relating to the October 1973 Middle East war as well as to Kissinger's peace efforts in the Middle East, specifically the round of negotiating sessions collectively referred to as shuttle diplomacy, with which he became identified.
Since the records in the Geopolitical File were largely arranged as originally labeled, some degree of overlap exists within the organization of the files. Geographical areas, as well as the countries comprising the areas, are listed separately, and both file headings should be consulted. Since multiple copies of specific records exist throughout the collection, copies of individual documents from one series may also be filed in other series as well.
Shortly following Kissinger's appointment as national security adviser, he directed an assistant to monitor his telephone calls and prepare summary accounts of his conversations. During the course of his government service, this practice was further expanded and refined, resulting in verbatim typescripts transcribed from both secretarial shorthand notes and recorded tapes. Transcripts of these telephone conversations chronicle both incoming and outgoing telephone calls and record Kissinger's conversations with Presidents Nixon and Ford, foreign ministers and ambassadors, domestic and foreign government officials, members of Congress, business and civic leaders, journalists, cabinet members, political leaders, staff members, and personal friends. The conversations explore a wide variety of foreign policy, political, and personal issues and include Kissinger's own candid observations.