Zbigniew Brzezinski papers (primary record), 1798-2009

Part I relates to Brzezinski's service as foreign policy advisor to Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign, assistant to the president for national security affairs, and official with the National Security Council. Documents his career at Columbia University, Harvard University, Trilateral Commission, and U.S. Department of State; work with the American-Ukrainian Advisory Committee; service as a foreign policy advisor to presidential candidates including Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968, several Democratic candidates in 1972, and George Bush in 1988; and his travels to China and former Soviet states as unofficial envoy of the Bill Clinton administration. Subjects include U.S.-Soviet relations; Sino-Soviet relations; East European communist states; Cold War and post-Cold War era; trilateral relationship between Japan, North America, and Western Europe; and role of the U.S. in world affairs. Drafts of Brzezinski's writings include his book, The Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict (1960). Correspondents include George Bush, Bill Clinton, Jerzy Giedroyc, William E. Griffith, Hubert H. Humphrey, Pope John Paul II, Henry Kissinger, Richard M. Nixon, Jan Nowak, and Henry Owen.

Part II primarily concerns Brzezinski's years as national security advisor in the Jimmy Carter administration and his professional career following the Carter presidency. Documents his foreign travel during the Carter administration; teaching at Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University; association with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and other commissions and organizations including AmeriCares, Balkan Action Council, Chemical Warfare Review Commission, Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy, Council on Foreign Relations, American-Ukranian Advisory Committee, Freedom House, Jamestown Foundation, National Endowment for Democracy, and Trilateral Commission. Also documents Brzezinski's work in behalf of the Polish-American Enterprise Fund and support for a Brzezinski presidential candidacy in Poland. Also includes Brzezinski and Roman family papers relating chiefly to Brzezinski's father and Polish diplomat, Tadeusz Brzezinski, and to his service primarily as consul-general in Canada and his leadership in Polish-Canadian affairs.

Part II subjects include U.S. relations with Azerbaijan, Chechnya, China, Europe, Iran, Kosovo, the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, Soviet Union, and Ukraine; and Brzezinski's support for the enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Topics include the Iranian hostage crisis; normalization of relations with China; Middle East peace negotiations; the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II; the Iraq War; the War on Terrorism; the National Security Council; and Billy Carter's relationship with the Libyan government.

Part II includes memoranda of conversations with individuals such as Madeleine Korbel Albright, Yasir Arafat, Samuel R. Berger, George Bush, Deng Xiaoping, Mikhail Gorbachev, Richard M. Nixon, Condoleezza Rice, Brent Scowcroft, George Pratt Shultz, and Lech Walęsa. Correspondents include Kenneth L. Adelman, Madeleine Korbel Albright, Richard V. Allen, Les Aspin, Samuel R. Berger, C. Fred Bergsten, Harold Brown, George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Warren Christopher, Richard C. Holbrooke, Samuel P. Huntington, Henry Kissinger, Anthony Lake, Richard M. Nixon, David Rockefeller, William Safire, Brent Scowcroft, George Pratt Shultz, Margaret Thatcher, and Cyrus R. Vance.  Read more...