Chapter one focuses on the Nixon administration's handling of national security policy. Distracted by the unfolding Watergate scandal, neither Nixon nor Kissinger took as active an interest in this area as they had during Nixon's first term in office. The President nevertheless began his second term by outlining-- in meetings with Elliot L. Richardson, Secretary of Defense from January to May 1973; the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Department of State and administration officials; and various lawmakers--his views on the ...
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Chapter one focuses on the Nixon administration's handling of national security policy. Distracted by the unfolding Watergate scandal, neither Nixon nor Kissinger took as active an interest in this area as they had during Nixon's first term in office. The President nevertheless began his second term by outlining-- in meetings with Elliot L. Richardson, Secretary of Defense from January to May 1973; the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Department of State and administration officials; and various lawmakers--his views on the importance of maintaining a strong defense -posture, primarily to provide him with bargaining chips in arms control negotiations with Soviet premier Leonid I. Brezhnev. As the documents indicate, the Nixon administration reached a number of major decisions, including ones to overhaul U.S. Asian and nuclear strategies, the latter moving from massive retaliation toward limited nuclear employment options, as specified in National Security Decision Memorandum 242, January 17, 1974. The second and third chapters examine national security policy under the Ford administration, whose activities in this area accelerated during the presidential election year of 1976. The United States' defense posture relative to that of the Soviet Union became a resonant issue during President Ford's quest for the Republican presidential nomination against former California Governor Ronald Reagan, his closest competitor, who charged that the administration had allowed the nation to slip behind while focusing on detente. As the documents show, Ford adopted a tough public stance on defense, declaring that, under his watch, "the United States will never become second to anybody, period," and submitting increased defense budgets to Congress. Once Ford secured the nomination, his administration initiated major studies of the nation's civil defense posture and its overall military strategy. To handle such defense issues, the administration created the Defense Review Panel (DRP), a National Security Council subcommittee chaired by Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense from November 1975 until January 1977. The DRP was a reconstituted version of the Defense Program Review Committee, which had become moribund after being highly involved in national security matters throughout the first Nixon administration and into early 1973. Just before leaving office in January 1977, the Ford administration reached several important policy decisions, including one regarding naval shipbuilding, a topic under review since early 1973. Also, on January 20--the day of incoming President Jimmy Carter's inauguration--President Ford signed National Security Decision Memorandum 348, the first major overhaul of U.S. defense policy and military posture since 1969. The fourth chapter deals with a closely related topic: the U.S. intelligence community's estimation of Soviet and, to a lesser extent, Chinese military capabilities. Since the mid-1960s, the Soviet Union had greatly increased its capabilities, narrowing the once-large strategic gap between it and the United States. A decade later, Soviet capabilities had increased to the point that the question became whether Moscow sought strategic parity or superiority relative to the United States. As the documents show, a debate raged within both the Nixon and Ford administrations regarding Soviet intentions, the accepted assessment of which would go a long way toward determining the appropriate U.S. defense posture. The CIA's National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) 11-318-74, November 14, 1974, reiterated earlier estimates that the Soviets probably sought no less than equality with the United States plus "some degree of strategic advantage," if possible. Critics charged that the CIA's estimates, including NIE 11-318-74, consistently underestimated Soviet capabilities and misinterpreted Soviet intentions. According to the documents, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) led the charge, rec
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Very good. Xl, 835, [1] pages. Footnotes. No dust jacket present. Contents include About the Series, Preface, Sources, Abbreviations and Terms, Persons. Foundations of Foreign Policy, and Index. The purpose of this volume is to document the intellectual foundations of the foreign policy of the Carter administration. This volume explores the collective mindset of Carter administration officials on foreign policy issues rather than documenting significant foreign policy decisions or diplomatic exchanges. The compilation takes as its canvas the entire record of the Carter administration. Therefore, the documents selected are necessarily a sampling chosen to illustrate policy perspectives and themes rather than a thorough record of a bilateral relationship or of a major issue. Similar to Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, Volume I, Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969-1972 and Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, Volume XXXVIII, Part I, Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1973-1976, this volume draws upon the published record of speeches, press releases, press conferences and briefings, interviews, and testimony before Congressional committees to document policy positions and the assumptions of administration officials on the foreign policy process. The documentation in this volume chronicles the perspectives of not only Carter but also Vice President Walter Mondale, President's Assistant for National Security Affairs Zbigniew Brzezinski, Secretaries of State Cyrus Vance and Edmund Muskie, Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and others. The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity of the U.S. Government. The Historian of the Department of State is charged with the responsibility for the preparation of the Foreign Relations series. The staff of the Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, under the direction of the General Editor of the Foreign Relations series, plans, researches, compiles, and edits the volumes in the series. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg first promulgated official regulations codifying specific standards for the selection and editing of documents for the series on March 26, 1925. These regulations, with minor modifications, guided the series through 1991. Public Law 102-138, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, established a new statutory charter for the preparation of the series which was signed by President George H. W. Bush on October 28, 1991. Section 198 of P.L. 102-138 added a new Title IV to the Department of State's Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 4351, et seq.). The statute requires that the Foreign Relations series be a thorough, accurate, and reliable record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant U.S. diplomatic activity. The volumes of the series should include all records needed to provide comprehensive documentation of major foreign policy decisions and actions of the U.S. Government. The statute also confirms the editing principles established by Secretary Kellogg: the Foreign Relations series is guided by the principles of historical objectivity and accuracy; records should not be altered or deletions made without indicating in the published text that a deletion has been made; the published record should omit no facts that were of major importance in reaching a decision; and nothing should be omitted for the purposes of concealing a defect in policy. The statute also requires that the Foreign Relations series be published not more than 30 years after the events recorded. The editors are convinced that this volume meets all regulatory, statutory, and scholarly standards of selection and editing. The editors of the Foreign Relations series have complete access to all the retired records and papers of the Department of State: the central files of the Department; the special decentralized...
