New collections
The Kissinger Telephone Conversations: A Verbatim Record of U.S. Diplomacy, 1969-1977
(Kissinger Telephone Conversations)
Some sample audio files are available for this collection. To listen to the files, choose from the links below:
"The National Security Archive's set of Henry Kissinger 'telcons' is an extraordinary collection of primary source materials on one of the most important periods in recent international relations. Along with the Archive's previous set of Kissinger 'memcons,' it allows students to research and explore the complex diplomacy of Henry Kissinger, the most celebrated American diplomat of our time. In these records, students can see the development of America's policies toward almost every part of the globe -- a unique teaching resource, carefully indexed and thoroughly accessible."
-- Thomas Schwartz, Professor of History, Vanderbilt University
Without the efforts of the National Security Archive, the transcripts of Henry A. Kissinger's telephone conversations (telcons), a key source of information on the highest level of government policymaking during the Nixon and Ford administrations, would still be under lock and key in his collection of papers at the Library of Congress. With the National Security Archive's latest compilation, Kissinger's telcons will be available in a comprehensively-indexed and abstracted form for the first time. When he served as national security adviser (1969-1975) and secretary of state (1973-1977), Henry Kissinger routinely had White House (and later State Department) staffers prepare verbatim transcripts of his telephone conversations with senior U.S. officials, journalists, and others. Designed in part to help Kissinger follow up on decisions and keep track of what he had said to reporters, the transcripts were a closely-held secret at the National Security Council and the State Department. Nevertheless, their existence became known by the close of Kissinger's tenure in government, and reporters began to file Freedom of Information Act requests for their release. A 1980 Supreme Court decision initially prevented their disclosure. Not until 2001, when the National Security Archive, with the help of Mayer, Brown & Platt (now Mayer, Brown, Rowe, & Maw) applied legal pressure on the State Department and the National Archives, did Kissinger agree to hand over copies of the telcons. In May 2004, the National Archives made them available to the public for the first time.
Comprising over 12,000 telcons, this collection documents Kissinger's conversations with top officials in the Nixon and Ford administrations, including President Richard Nixon; Defense Secretaries Melvin Laird, Elliot Richardson, and James Schlesinger; Secretary of State William P. Rogers; Ambassador to the U.N. George H.W. Bush; and White House Counselor Donald Rumsfeld; along with noted journalists, ambassadors, and business leaders with close White House ties. Wide-ranging topics discussed in the telcons include détente with Moscow, military actions during the Vietnam War and the negotiations that led to its end, Middle East peace talks, the 1970 crisis in Jordan, U.S. relations with Europe and with Japan, rapprochement with China, the Cyprus crisis (1974-), and the unfolding Watergate affair. When combined with the Archive's previous electronic publication of Kissinger's memoranda of conversation -- The Kissinger Transcripts: A Verbatim Record of U.S. Diplomacy, 1969-1977 -- users of the Digital National Security Archive will have access to comprehensive records of Kissinger's talks with myriad U.S. officials and world leaders. Like the Archive's earlier publication, the Kissinger telcons will be comprehensively and expertly indexed, providing users with have easy access to the information they seek.
Praise for the Archive's previous publication of Kissinger material:
"Henry Kissinger's memos of conversation are an amazing, fascinating, and absolutely indispensable resource for understanding his years in power. No history of the Vietnam War, the China opening, the negotiations with Moscow, or the Middle East would be complete without studying these documents."
--Walter Isaacson, author of Kissinger: A Biography
