Author Description

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. This volume is part of a subseries of volumes of the Foreign Relations series that documents the most important issues in the foreign policy of Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford. This specific volume documents the foundations of U.S. foreign policy, 1973-1976. Documentation on Nixon's first administration can be found in volume I, Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969-1972. The purpose of this volume is to document the intellectual foundations of the foreign policy of the second Nixon and Ford administrations. The documentation explores the collective mindset of Nixon and Ford 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 second Nixon and Ford administrations. 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. 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 editors of the volume sought to present a representative selection of documents chosen to elucidate the primary intellectual themes that ran through and influenced both Nixon and Ford's foreign policy: a continued belief in interdependence and cooperation in relation to energy and economic issues, an emphasis upon de ́tente, and the primacy of the executive branch