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. The Historian of the Department of State is charged with the responsibility for the preparation of the "Foreign Relations "series. The staff of the Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, under the direction of the General Editor of the "Foreign Relations "series, plans, researches, compiles, and edits the volumes in the series. Secretary of State Frank B Kellogg first promulgated official regulations codifying specific standards for the selection and editing of documents for the series on March 26, 1925. These regulations, with minor modifications, guided the series through 1991
This volume is part of a "Foreign Relations" subseries that documents the most important issues in the foreign policy of Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford. The volume has been divided into two parts: Part One, published in 2012, documents the intellectual foundations of the foreign policy of the second Nixon and Ford administrations and should be read in conjunction with this release; Part Two, this specific volume, covers the organization and management of the foreign policy process as well as the development of U.S. information policy, public diplomacy, and cultural affairs during the 1973 1976 period. The volume documents not only the ways in which the end of the Vietnam War, the scandal over Watergate, the emergence of greater congressional assertiveness in foreign affairs, and the August 1974 resignation of President Nixon all affected the organization of U.S. foreign policymaking institutions, but also the impact of broader changes within U.S. society, most notably the changing roles of women and minorities, and the proliferation of transnational, global issues as agents of organizational change. On the volume s coverage of public diplomacy, the Stanton Panel Report of 1975 figures prominently, as it examined the range of activity in this function including Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, the Voice of America, USIA, and the Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the issues of governance in such a complex multi-agency endeavor. The structure and activity of the Intelligence Community formed another major organizational focus for policymakers in this period, and is also covered in this volume. Most notably, the volume documents the Ford administration s response to the controversial December 1974 Family Jewels revelations about Intelligence Community activities and the series of congressional investigations they prompted, as well as the institutional reforms which the administration implemented in 1976."
