Series Part VI, I: Correspondence, 1961-1963

Series

Call Number: MS 628, Series Part VI, I

Scope and Contents

The Correspondence series is divided into five subseries:

1) General Correspondence

2) White House Correspondence

3) State Department Correspondence

4) Correspondence with Officials of Other Executive Departments

5) Position Papers and Memoranda

1) General Correspondence: all Bowles' correspondence except that with officials of the White House, State Department, or other executive departments. Correspondence with members of Congress, members of the press, heads of foreign governments, publishers, Connecticut friends, Indian friends, various organizations, state governors, any members of the judiciary, and family members as well as any constituent or fan mail may be found in the section. Although the quantity of correspondence is great, with a few exceptions, the quality of this correspondence with persons outside the government reflects Bowles' almost total absorption in the immediate pressures of his office. Bowles' letters are often routine and the subseries abounds with carbon copies of virtual form letters sent by aides. The correspondence is arranged in alphabetical order. Correspondence with well-known individuals or organizations has been placed in separate folders, each of which is listed in this register. The routine correspondence has been sorted into general alphabetical folders which preceed the individual folders in the arrangement.

2) White House Correspondence: an alphabetical arrangement of all Bowles' correspondence with persons at the White House, including President Kennedy, his advisors, aides and press secretary. Correspondence of members of the Cabinet (found in subseries 4) is not included in White House correspondence, although the correspondence of the Vice-President and members of the Bureau of the Budget is.

3) State Department Correspondence: correspondence with all State Department officials including the Secretary of State, Assistant Secretaries, bureau chiefs, ambassadors, Bowles' office staff and lower echelons. The subseries is arranged as follows:

A selection of selected correspondence comes first. This section is arranged by name of correspondent and includes such important names as Dean Rusk, Adlai Stevenson, and John Kenneth Galbraith.

Following is a section of correspondence with ambassadors and other officers and personnel in the various U.S. Embassies and Missions around the world. This correspondence is arranged alphabetically by name of country; in most instances correspondence with an ambassador is filed under the name of the country of his assignment.

Next is the correspondence with the members of Bowles' office staff. Bowles encouraged and solicited ideas and suggestions from his staff, hence this correspondence is an important part of his papers. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by name of the staff member. (For an outline of the organization of the staff when Bowles was Kennedy's Special Representative, consult the Andrew Rice correspondence in this section, 1961 December 19.) Schedules, itineraries, lists, travel vouchers, appointment books, and Bowles' notes on his daily activities are at the end of this section. The daily crisis notes and office notes are an interesting record of calls made and people seen, and include occasional jottings on an important meeting such as the notes made during the Bay of Pigs crisis.

At the end of the subseries is a small section of correspondence with lesser known personnel in the State Department in Washington. This correspondence has been arranged chronologically.

4) Correspondence with Officials in Other Executive Agencies and Departments: correspondence with Cabinet members and their staffs as well as officials in agencies such as the Peace Corps, U.S. Information Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically with correspondence with well-known persons in individual folders and that with less-well known persons in general folders.

5) Memoranda and Position Papers: the memoranda that Bowles sent the President, Secretary of State and other government officials. These memoranda are important position papers on subjects ranging from economic assistance and the Alliance for Progress to U.S. policies in the Far East. They represent a major collection of Bowles' foreign policy proposals and ideas over his period as Under Secretary and as the President's Special Representative. Occasionally a list of persons to whom the memorandum was sent is filed along with it. The memoranda are arranged in chronological order.

Dates

1961-1963

Physical Description

(45 boxes)

Conditions Governing Access

From the Collection: Boxes 220-223, which contain constituent correspondence, are restricted until 2035 Jan 1.

The transcript of the oral history interview with Douglas Bennet, Jr. in Box 399b is closed until the deed of gift is secured from Bennet.

Box 408, which contains restricted personal and financial papers is closed until 2025 Jan 1.

Box 409, which contains audio tapes of oral history interviews with Bowles's associates, is not open to researchers.

Original audiotapes, videotapes, and motion picture films, as well as preservation and duplicating masters, may not be played. Researchers must consult use copies, or pay for the creation of a use copy, retained by the repository, if none exist.