NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR. STAFF ASSISTANT PETER W. RODMAN FILES, (1970) 1974-77

The Staff Assistant Peter W. Rodman Files is one of many subcollections that comprise the National Security Adviser Files.

Peter Rodman served as a staff assistant to National Security Advisers Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft from 1969 to 1977. His duties ranged from the routine (drafting farewell and thank you letters for Kissinger and Scowcroft) to the important (creating memoranda of conversations for high-level foreign affairs discussions).

Rodman shared an office on the ground floor of the White House West Wing with other assistants to the National Security Adviser, including Robert McFarlane and John Matheny. He often traveled with Kissinger and Scowcroft, took notes on their meetings with foreign officials, and produced memoranda of conversations for the meetings. When not traveling, he assisted Kissinger and Scowcroft by conducting research, drafting talking points and speeches, and writing responses to their mail.

The Rodman collection is small; the subject file is fragmentary. Most memoranda of conversations of foreign policy discussions are filed in other NSC collections. This collection, however, does contain several important documents. Included are a handwritten memorandum of conversation of discussions of the Middle East peace process between Henry Kissinger and President Asad of Syria on August 23, 1975 as well as the maps drawn up during Kissinger's discussions with leaders of Israel and Egypt that led to the Sinai Agreement in September 1975.

The chronological file contains some substantive documents, including memoranda to Kissinger and Scowcroft, draft talking points for meetings, and suggestions and draft language for presidential speeches. Among the topics covered here are the Middle East, Cyprus, and Japan. There is correspondence relating to the retirement of General A.J. Goodpaster, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, who was replaced by General Alexander Haig, former Chief-of-Staff to Presidents Nixon and Ford. Also included is a copy of a letter written in 1822 by Prince Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian diplomat who dominated the Congress of Vienna. The original letter was a gift to Henry Kissinger from an admiring citizen. The remainder of this file consists of Rodman's routine correspondence or concerns the handling of routine correspondence for Kissinger or Scowcroft.

Related Materials (June 2004)
Memoranda of conversations created by Rodman appear in the Kissinger-Scowcroft Office File and the Kissinger Reports on USSR, China, and Middle East Discussions.