Introduction

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 United States Government.

The Historian of the Dept. 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, plans, researches, compiles, and edits the volumes in the series. Official regulations codifying specific standards for the selection and editing of documents for the series have changed little from the time they were first promulgated in 1925.

The guiding principle for declassification of documents for inclusion in the series is to release all information, subject only to the current requirements of national security as embodied in law and regulation.

Content:

• Diplomatic correspondence
• Instructions to and dispatches from American diplomatic missions
• Official communications between the Dept. of State and foreign diplomatic posts in Washington
• Military and economic documents
• Presidential papers
• Internal memoranda
• Policy recommendations
• Planning and briefing papers
• Records of international conferences
• Minutes of meetings
• Negotiating histories of treaties and agreements
• Intelligence summaries
• Variety of other materials illustrating American foreign policy and international relations
• In recent years, the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974 has required review of presidential audio tapes under the authority of the National Archives and Records Administration.

The timeline is currently 30 years between the events and series publication. See the Department of State website for more information. 

Arrangement

The set is arranged by date and, for most volumes issued in the 20th Century, by issues addressed by the sitting President. All individual volumes contain an index and are shelved at (Gov. Pubs. Dept. JX233 .A3).  Three cumulative indexes are also available:

1. General Index to the Published Volumes of the Diplomatic Correspondence and Foreign Relations of the United States, 1861-1899.

2. Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States General Index, 1900-1918.

3. The Cumulated Index to the U.S. Department of State Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1939-1945.

Note: These cumulative indexes are shelved by date within the series.

The University of Wisconsin has provided full-text digital access, though incomplete, for 1961-1960.

Foreign Relations of the United States: Paris Peace Conference

The official American records of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 are published in a separate set shelved at (Gov. Pubs. D 642 .U6) and are arranged in three parts.

Volumes I and II deal with preparations for the Conference and the period between the signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918 and the first meeting of the Council of Ten on January 12, 1919.

Volumes III through X contain minutes of activities including the Plenary Sessions of the Conference, meetings of the representatives of the Powers with Special Interests, of the governing bodies of the Conference, and American Commissioners Plenipotentiary and documents relating to the composition, organization, and activities of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace.

Volume XI to end contain minutes and reports, documents of the negotiations, and documents concerning the negotiation of the other treaties produced by the Paris Conference and documents bearing on economic aspects of the work of the Conference.

Other Volumes in the FRUS Series

With volumes devoted to each conference location, American-British military strategy was the primary topic of discussion between Roosevelt/Truman and Churchill in the war against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Important political subjects were also discussed sometimes with representatives of other countries.

Conferences at Cairo and Tehran , 1943 (Gov. Pubs. D734 .A1 C64 1961)
Conferences at Malta and Yalta , 1945 (Gov. Pubs. D734 .A1 C65 1955)
Conferences at Washington, 1941-1942 and Casablanca, 1943 (Gov. Pubs. D734 .A1 C66 1968)
Conferences at Washington and Quebec, 1943 (Gov. Pubs. D734 .A1 C67 1970)
Conferences at Berlin (Potsdam), 1945 (Gov. Pubs. D734 .P6 1945)
Conferences at Quebec, 1944 (Gov. Pubs. D734 .Q4 1944)

"An extensive selection from the large body of correespondence" of Robert Lansing, Secretary of State during World War I, is represented in separate volumes.

The Lansing Papers, 1914-1920 (Gov. Pubs. JX233 .A53)

A special diplomatic papaers series was created " covering the relations of the United States with China for the years 1942 to 1949, inclusive." The UI Libraries does not hold the entire series.

China, 1942 (Gov. Pubs. JX233 .C6 C5 1942)
China, 1943 (Gov. Pubs. JX233 .C6 C5 1943)

Papers relating to the Russian revolution have been collected in a special series. Volume One deals wilth "Political Affairs and Diplomatic Relations"; Volume Two, "Disintegration and Foreign Intervention,"; Volume Three "Economic Relations." (Gov. Pubs. JX233 .R8 R8 1918). Separate volumes for 1919 (Gov. Pubs. JX233 .R8 R8 1919) and relations with the Soviet Union from 1933 to 1939 (Gov. Pubs. JX233 .A6 R93) complement the original three volumes.

Revised, M. Mason
August 2007