Cables exchanged between Brent Scowcroft and National Security Council and White House staff members while he was traveling with the President. Files contain White House Situation Room reports and memoranda concerning the ongoing work of the NSC. Subject content relates to a wide variety of foreign policy and national security matters including Lebanon, the Korean tree incident, the Middle East, and Africa. The collection also includes material relating to the 1976 presidential campaign.
Series Description and Container List
Container List
Collection Overview
Scope and Content Note
The "Trip Cables of Brent Scowcroft" is one of many sub-collections that comprise the National Security Adviser Files. The provenance of the Ford National Security Adviser Files and an explanation of the designations “Presidential” and “Institutional” are provided in Appendix A.
These files are for trips on which National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft accompanied the President and consist entirely of cables transmitted to and from Brent Scowcroft through the White House Situation Room. A “SCOTO” folder is available for three trips, but the major portion of the collection consists of “TOSCO” folders. The cables transmit White House Situation Room reports, summaries of daily newspaper reporting and editorial comment, memoranda concerning the ongoing work of the National Security Council, and options papers requiring a decision by Scowcroft. Information is available on a wide range of issues concerning foreign policy and national security, including the Middle East, oil prices, the crisis in Lebanon, Southern Africa, foreign aid, and the defense budget. August 1976 trip files contain a considerable amount of material concerning the Korean tree incident.
Files for two of the trips contain material relating to the presidential campaign. Materials concerning the Republican National Convention and the foreign policy plank of the party platform are in folders for the August 1976 trip to Kansas City/Vail. The files for the October 1976 trip to San Francisco/Los Angeles contain material relating to the campaign in general and especially to the foreign policy debate.
In many cases only the transmittal cover sheets are available in the folders. Researchers may find some of the actual transmissions in White House Situation Room collections “Noon and Evening Notes” and “Brent Scowcroft’s Morning Newspaper Summaries.”
Related Materials (March 2011)
“Trip Briefing Books and Cables of President Ford” and “Trip Briefing Books and Cables of Henry Kissinger” are closely related collections. Related materials are also available in many other collections, especially those received from the office of the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. Researchers can locate relevant materials via PRESNET search reports, which are provided upon request. New information is entered into the PRESNET database as collections become available for research. Researchers are encouraged to consult the Ford Library website for announcements of collections openings and to view online collections and documents.
Details
2.5 linear feet (ca. 3,000 pages)
Gerald R. Ford (accession number 77-118)
Access
Open, but some materials continue to be national security classified and restricted. Access is governed by the donor’s deed of gift, a copy of which is available on request, and National Archives and Records Administration regulations (36 CFR 1256).
Copyright
Gerald R. 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.
Processed by
Helmi Raaska, March 2011