Daily reports from each section of the National Security Council staff summarizing important foreign affairs/national security developments, afternoon summaries produced by the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and the Evening Notes compiled by White House Situation Room duty officers. The Situation Room collected these reports and forwarded them to National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft. They cover most major world events from the last seven months of the Ford administration, but not in great detail.
Series Description and Container List
Container List
Collection Overview
Scope and Content Note
The White House Situation Room: Evening Reports from the NSC Staff 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.
Beginning on June 11, 1976, the National Security Council (NSC) instituted a new reporting system to keep National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft aware of important national security and foreign affairs developments. The reason for the start of this new reporting system is not readily apparent from the files. Each section of the NSC staff (geographic areas, planning staff, program analysis staff, etc.) was asked to create an evening report summarizing major developments in their area of expertise. The report for a given NSC section was usually only a page or two in length and contained single paragraph summaries for just a few items. The staff usually ended the paragraph on a specific event or issue with a citation to the cable or report from which they drew the summary.
NSC staff members submitted these reports to the White House Situation Room. The Situation Room staff put together a package containing all of these staff reports along with an afternoon summary from the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (usually several pages in length) and the Evening Notes on international developments compiled by Situation Room duty officers. They submitted the entire package to National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft.
The reports do not provide a great amount of detail on any given issue or event, but do touch on most important foreign relations and national security developments from the last seven months of the Ford administration. In addition to U.S. relations with individual countries, they cover such issues as arms control, Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions (MBFR), arms transfers, and the defense budget.
Related Materials (January 2011)
The Ford Library holds several other collections received from the Situation Room:
- Former President Nixon’s Intelligence Briefings
- Logs of Presidential Activities and World Events
- Noon and Evening Notes
- Presidential Daily Briefings
- Scowcroft’s Morning Newspaper Summaries
Details
1.2 linear feet (ca. 2,400 pages)
Access
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.