SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

Primarily National Security Council memoranda and Department of State telegrams concerning United States policy and relations with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Subjects include the Organization of American States (OAS), the Panama Canal treaty negotiations, trade, foreign aid, civil aviation, human rights, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s trips to Latin America, and Cuba’s changing role in the region.

QUANTITY
2.4 linear feet (ca. 4,800 pages)

DONOR
Gerald R. Ford (accession number 77-118)

ACCESS
Open. The collection is administered under the terms the donor's deed of gift, a copy of which is available on request, and National Archives and Records Administration general restrictions (36 CFR 1256).

COPYRIGHT
Gerald Ford donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain.

Prepared by Geir Gundersen, October 2001
[s:\bin\findaid\nsc\presidential country files for latin america.doc]

Provenance of the National Security Adviser Files

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Stephen Low

December 2, 1927 - Born, Cincinnati, Ohio

1946-47 - U.S. Army, Medical Corps

1950 - BA, Yale University

1951 - MA, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

1956 - Ph.D., Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

1956-57 - Intelligence Research Officer (Far East), Department of State

1957-59 - Economic-Labor Officer, Kampala, Uganda

1959-1960 - Labor Trainee, Foreign Service Institute

1960-1964 - Labor Officer, then Chief of Political Section, Dakar, Senegal

1964-1965 - Officer in Charge of Guinea-Mali Affairs, Department of State

1965-67 - Special Assistant to the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs

1967-68 - National War College

1968-71 - Counselor for Political Affairs, Brasilia, Brazil

1971-74 - Director of Brazil Affairs, Department of State

1974-76 - National Security Council, Senior Staff Member for Latin American Affairs

1976-79 - United States Ambassador to Zambia

1979-81 - United States Ambassador to Nigeria

1982-87 - Director, Foreign Service Institute, Department of State

1987-92 - Director, Bologna (Italy) Center, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

1992-97 - President, Association of Diplomatic Studies and Teaching

INTRODUCTION

The Presidential Country Files for Latin America is one of many subcollections that comprise the National Security Adviser Files.

During the Ford administration, the National Security Council (NSC) advised the President about domestic, foreign and military policies in relation to United States national security. It considered policies on matters of common interest to the departments and agencies of the Government concerned with the national security; and made recommendations to the President after discussing the alternatives on major issues requiring executive decision.

Within this context, the NSC Office of Latin American Affairs assisted in the formulation and coordination of United States policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean. The office had a wide range of responsibilities on political, economic, intelligence and security matters of importance to the United States government in the region. It also played an important role in coordinating federal agency participation within the interdepartmental environment of Latin American policy formulation.

Stephen Low, a career Foreign Service Officer on detail from the Department of State, served as Senior Staff Member in charge of the Office of Latin American Affairs from August 1974 to June 1976. Following Mr. Low’s departure to become United States Ambassador to Zambia, David Lazar assumed the responsibilities of Senior Staff Member until the end of the administration. Mary Brownell assisted Low and Lazar.

Scope and Content of the Materials
The Presidential Country Files for Latin America contain substantive materials on United States policy and relations in Latin America on a bilateral and multilateral level. Materials on the Caribbean are minimal, both in terms of substance and quantity. The bulk of the collection is arranged by country name, with separate sequences for NSC documents and State Department telegrams, but materials are also filed under the general headings of the Organization of American States (OAS) and Latin America.

The NSC documents consist mostly of high-level finished products, especially memoranda, created by the Senior Staff Member and addressed to the Assistant or the Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, or created on their behalf and addressed to the President. These materials were processed through the NSC Secretariat and later forwarded to a secure document storage area operated by NSC staff in the West Wing of the White House. Aside from the State Department telegrams, the files contain only a minimum of the supporting materials received from other agencies and used in formulating the finished products. The supporting materials are primarily located in the unprocessed (October 2001) collection “NSC Latin America Staff: Files.”

Related Materials (October 2001)
Related materials on Latin America are located in the processed segments of other National Security Adviser Files collections. These materials will continue to grow as Library staff members make progress in opening materials through systematic review and mandatory declassification review. Additional materials are located in the White House Central Files Subject File, Presidential Handwriting File, Arthur Burns Papers, William E. Simon Microfiche of Papers, and numerous White House staff files. PRESNET search reports listing all open materials on a specific country or topic are available upon request.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Country File, 1974-77.  (Boxes 1‑6, 2.4 linear feet)
Memoranda, telegrams, correspondence, biographies, and briefing books on US bilateral relations with Latin American and Caribbean countries, in particular Mexico, Cuba, Chile, Brazil, Panama, and Venezuela. Illustrative topics include the Panama Canal treaty negotiations, United States military assistance to Chile, human rights in Chile, Venezuelan oil, the war on drugs in Colombia, Mexican President Lopez Portillo’s visit to the United States, questionable corporate payments in Honduras, Peruvian seizures of US fishing boats, and Cuban civil aviation overflights of the United States.

Materials on multilateral relations focus on the Organization of American States and its meetings and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s trips to Latin America. There is information on the normalization of relations between individual Latin American countries and Cuba, the regional logistics behind Cuban activities in Angola, the impact of the 1974 Trade Act on the region, Brazil’s atomic energy agreement with West Germany, and the territorial conflict between Chile and Peru.

Arranged alphabetically by country except for some regional holdings at the beginning.

CONTAINER LIST

Box 1 - Country File

• Organization of American States (1)-(4)
• Organization of American States - Bilateral Briefing Book (1)-(3)
• Organization of American States - Biographic Briefing Book (1)-(4)
• Organization of American States - General Assembly Briefing Book (1)-(3)

Box 2 - Country File

• Latin America - General (1)-(4)
• Latin America - General - SOUTHCOM
• Latin America - General - State Department Telegrams
• Argentina
• Argentina - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Bahamas
• Bahamas - State Department Telegrams
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Barbados
• Bolivia
• Bolivia - State Department Telegrams
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
• Brazil (1)-(2)
• Brazil - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS

Box 3 - Country File

• Brazil - State Department Telegrams
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS (1)-(2)
• Chile (1)-(3)
• Chile - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Colombia
• Colombia - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Costa Rica - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Cuba (1)-(6)

Box 4 - Country File

• Cuba (7)-(9)
• Dominican Republic
• Dominican Republic - State Department Telegrams
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Ecuador
• Ecuador - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• El Salvador - State Department Telegrams
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Grenada
• Guatemala
• Guatemala - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Guyana
• Guyana - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Haiti [Folder received empty]
• Honduras
• Honduras - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Jamaica
• Jamaica - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS

Box 5 - Country File

• Mexico (1)-(6)
• Mexico - Lopez Portillo Visit (1)-(3)
• Mexico - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Nicaragua
• Nicaragua - State Department Telegrams
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS

Box 6 - Country File

• Panama (1)-(3)
• Panama - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Paraguay
• Paraguay - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS [Folder received empty]
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Peru (1)-(2)
• Peru - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Puerto Rico
• Surinam
• Surinam - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
• Trinidad and Tobago (1)-(2)
• Trinidad and Tobago - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Uruguay
• Uruguay - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS
  To SECSTATE - NODIS
• Venezuela (1)-(2)
• Venezuela - State Department Telegrams
  From SECSTATE - EXDIS
  From SECSTATE - NODIS
  To SECSTATE - EXDIS (1)-(2)
  To SECSTATE - NODIS (1)-(3)