Public Statements by the Secretaries of Defense, 1947-1981 are microfilmed copies of official statements, press releases, speeches, announcements and memoranda released by successive US Secretaries of Defense, 1947-1981. Compiled by the US Department of Defense at the Pentagon, Washington, DC, the material reflects US government national security concerns during the height of the Cold War. Arranged chronologically, the series includes statement before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan), 1948; statement before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives on aid to Greece and Turkey, 1948; memoranda relating to Civil Defense Planning, 1948; statement on biological warfare potentialities, 1949; statements relating to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1949-1981; remarks at the unveiling of the memorial to British FM Sir John (Greer) Dill, 1950; testimony relating to the military situation in the Far East and the Balkans; statements relating to the Mutual Security Pact, 1952 and the Mutual Security Program, 1953; statement regarding the deployment of nuclear weapons for air defence, 1957; statement before the Senate Committee on Armed Services relating to satellite and missile programs, 1958; testimony regarding the Foreign Assistance Act, 1962; press conferences relating to the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962; joint statements with Gen Maxwell Davenport Taylor, Chairman, US Joint Chiefs of Staff, relating to the situation in the Republic of Vietnam, 1963; press conference regarding Gulf of Tonkin 'incident', 1964; statement regarding the appointment of Gen William Childs Westmoreland as Commander, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, 1964; press releases relating to the increased commitment of US ground troops to Vietnam, 1966; testimony regarding US operations in Cambodia, 1970; press conferences relating to US-Soviet Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) tests, 1970; statements regarding US arms sales to Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, 1974; statements regarding the fall of Saigon, Republic of Vietnam, to the North Vietnamese Army, Apr 1975; testimony relating to nuclear technology, including the Minuteman II nuclear missile, 1976; statements regarding Stealth technology and its application, 1980.

Memos of the Special Assistant for National Security Affairs: McGeorge Bundy to President Johnson, 1963-1966 are microfilmed copies of declassified memoranda relating primarily to American foreign policy, 1963-1966. The papers include Bundy's comments on the Alliance for Progress; atomic energy; the Atlantic Nuclear Force; European security; relations with the People's Republic of China; foreign assistance; the Vietnam War; the International Monetary Fund; the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO); the Test Ban Treaty; and the United Nations. Reels include specific mention of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 29 Nov 1963; meetings with former President Dwight David Eisenhower, 9 Dec 1963; visit by French President Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle; interview with First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, 5 Mar 1964; the French split with NATO; press attacks on Latin American policy, 25 Mar 1964; National Security Council meeting relating to Indochina, 15 May 1964, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports relating to the Cuban assassination of alleged agents, 3 Jun 1964; the civil crisis in the Congo, 1964; meeting with John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M Warburg Professor of Economics, Harvard University, 15 Jul 1964; reports from the US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam, Maxwell Taylor, 1964; statement on the Gulf of Tonkin Decision, 15 Aug 1964; correspondence with Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie relating to economic aid to Congo, 20 Aug 1964; the escalation of the Gulf of Tonkin 'incident', 18 Sep-6 Oct 1964; United Kingdom Arms Purchase Program, 26 Oct 1964; correspondence with British Prime Minister Rt Hon (James) Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx; meeting with UN Secretary General U Thant concerning North Vietnamese aggression at the Gulf of Tonkin, 5 Aug 1964; meetings with CIA Director John McCone, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk; the revolt in the Dominican Republic, 1965; the Warren Commission Report, 7 Jul 1965; and the Kashmir Crisis, 1965

The John F Kennedy National Security Files, 1961-1963, reproduces in microfilm memoranda, cables, intelligence projections, telegrams, conversations, correspondence and special studies relating specifically to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Central Europe, Asia and the Pacific and Western Europe. The collection provides documents maintained and organised by NSC adviser McGeorge Bundy and his staff of 'New Frontiersmen' and relate to foreign policy and national security issues including US attempts to achieve a state of détente with the Soviet Union, 1961-1963; US political, ideological and psychological perceptions of the First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, 1961-1963; the development of nuclear weapons technology and the massive build-up of nuclear deterrent forces, 1961-1963; the expansion and modernisation of US conventional forces to permit a 'flexible response' to Third World threats, 1961-1963; the establishment of guerrilla warfare programmes, 1961-1963; increased US economic and technical aid to the Third World under the Alliance for Progress; the Berlin Crisis and the resultant construction of the Berlin Wall, Aug 1961; statements issued by Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric relating to American nuclear second strike capabilities, 1961; the Cuban Missile Crisis and its aftermath, 1962; Kennedy's promotion of the 'Grand Design', increased economic and military trade with Europe; US reactions to growing West European scepticism of US nuclear deterrence; the increased US political and military commitment to Vietnam, including mention of the South Vietnamese military coup d'état which overthrew President, Ngo Dinh Diem, 1 Nov 1963.

The Papers of John Foster Dulles and of Christian A Herter, 1953-1961 are microfilmed copies of minutes of telephone conversations, memoranda, reports, and correspondence between Dulles and Herter as US Secretary of State and Under Secretary of State respectively (1953-1959), and Herter as US Secretary of State (1959-1961), and White House staff members, Vice President Richard Milhous Nixon, Central Intelligence Agency Director Allen Welsh Dulles, members of the US Senate and House of Representatives, US armed forces personnel and US political lobbyists. Material included in the collection relates to the International Information Agency re-organisation, 1953; the Panama Canal Treaty, 1953; the Republic of China Mutual Defense Treaty, 1953; Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy and his quest for communist infiltrators in the US, 1953; the cease-fire in Korea and Prisoner of War exchanges, 1953; the coronation of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, 1953; Far Eastern and Asian policy; the treason trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, 1953; the Federal Bureau of Investigation clearance of African-Americans for government posts; the depreciating civil situation on Indochina; atomic agreements with Great Britain; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); the India/Kashmir Crisis, 1954; deteriorating Arab-Israeli relations, 1954-56; the US intervention into Guatemala, 1954; the French defeat in Indochina, 1954; the European Common Market; visit of Rt Hon Sir Anthony Eden to the US; the Suez Crisis, 1956; the Soviet invasion of Hungary, 1956; NATO and nuclear weapons; US stance on French and British colonialism; the testing of US satellite 'Vanguard' and the subsequent space race with the Soviet Union, 1957; the Mutual Security Program; American troops in Lebanon as part of a UN force, 1958; Vice President Richard Milhous Nixon and the political defence of US foreign policy. Correspondents include President Dwight David Eisenhower; Gen Juan Domingo Peron, president of Argentina; Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy; Rt Hon Sir Winston (Leonard Spencer) Churchill; Marshal Josip Broz (Tito), Prime Minister of Yugoslavia; Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India; Dr Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany; Gen Douglas MacArthur; Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr; Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of the Republic of Egypt; Special Assistant to the President Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller; Gen Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle, President of France; Rt Hon (Maurice) Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of Great Britain; Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, President of the Republic of China; Hussein ibn Talal, King of Jordan; Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson; Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and Chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers; David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel; Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of Cuba.