A Note on Sources

What made these Kissinger transcripts available are the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other federal statutes and regulations requiring declassification and release of historical documentation. Nothing in The Kissinger Transcripts is drawn from Henry Kissinger’s papers held by the Library of Congress. Although they are the most comprehensive set of official records on Nixon-Ford-Kissinger national security policy, Kissinger deposited them at the Library of Congress in 1977 only under the condition that they would not be available to the public for twenty five years or five years after his death, whichever came later. While the most comprehensive set of Henry Kissinger’s papers are unavailable, copies of Kissinger transcripts, reports to the President, and the like are held at various government repositories, including the National Archives (which holds Nixon-Kissinger National Security Files), the Gerald Ford Library, the State Department, and the National Security Council. The Archive’s targeted FOIA requests to the State Department, declassification requests to the Nixon Presidential Materials Project and the Gerald Ford Library, and dogged research at the National Archives are the source of the materials in The Kissinger Transcripts.