Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers

The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity of the United States Government.


This volume is part of a subseries of volumes of the Foreign Relations
series that documents the most important issues in the foreign
policy of Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford. This specific
volume documents the foundations of U.S. foreign policy, 1973-1976.
Documentation on Nixon's first administration can be found in volume
I, Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969-1972.

The purpose of this volume is to document the intellectual foundations
of the foreign policy of the second Nixon and Ford administrations.
The documentation explores the collective mindset of Nixon and
Ford administration officials on foreign policy issues rather than documenting
significant foreign policy decisions or diplomatic exchanges.
The compilation takes as its canvas the entire record of the second
Nixon and Ford administrations. Therefore, the documents selected are
necessarily a sampling chosen to illustrate policy perspectives and
themes, rather than a thorough record of a bilateral relationship or of a
major issue. This volume draws upon the published record of speeches,
press releases, press conferences and briefings, interviews, and testimony
before Congressional committees to document policy positions
and the assumptions of administration officials on the foreign policy
process. The editors of the volume sought to present a representative
selection of documents chosen to elucidate the primary intellectual
themes that ran through and influenced both Nixon and Ford's foreign
policy: a continued belief in interdependence and cooperation in relation
to energy and economic issues, an emphasis upon de ́tente, and the
primacy of the executive branch in the formulation and conduct of foreign
policy.