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July 2, 1957

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy in the Senate, Washington, D.C., July 2, 1957

On July 2, 1957, US senator John F. Kennedy made his perhaps best-known senatorial speech—on Algeria.

Home to about 8 million Muslims, 1.2 million European settlers, and 130,000 Jews, it was from October 1954 embroiled in what France dubbed “events”—domestic events, to be precise. Virtually all settlers and most metropolitan French saw Algeria as an indivisible part of France. Algeria had been integrated into metropolitan administrative structures in 1847, towards the end of a structurally if not intentionally genocidal pacification campaign; Algeria’s population dropped by half between 1830, when France invaded, and the early 1870s. Eighty years and many political turns later (see e.g. Messali Hadj’s 1927 speech in this collection), in 1954, the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) launched a war for independence. Kennedy did not quite see eye to eye with the FLN.

As Kennedy's speech shows, he did not want France entirely out of North Africa. However, he had criticized French action already in early 1950s Indochina. And in 1957 he met with Abdelkader Chanderli (1915-1993), an unaccredited representative of the FLN at the United Nations in New York and in Washington, DC, and a linchpin of the FLN’s successful international offensive described in Matthew Connelly’s A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria’s Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era (2002). Thus, Kennedy supported the FLN’s demand for independence, which explains its very positive reaction to his speech.

And thus, unlike the 1952-1960 Republican administration of Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) that officially backed the views of NATO ally France and kept delivering arms, the Democratic senator diagnosed a “war” by “Western imperialism” that, together with if different from “Soviet imperialism,” is “the great enemy of … the most powerful single force in the world today: ... man's eternal desire to be free and independent.” (In fact, Kennedy’s speech on the Algerian example of Western imperialism was the first of two, the second concerning the Polish example of Sovietimperialism. On another, domestic note, to support African Algeria’s independence was an attempt to woe civil-rights-movement-era African Americans without enraging white voters.) To be sure, Kennedy saw France as an ally, too. But France’s war was tainting Washington too much, which helped Moscow. In Kennedy’s eyes, to support the US Cold War against the Soviet Union meant granting Algeria independence. The official French line was the exact opposite: only continued French presence in Algeria could keep Moscow and its Egyptian puppet, President Gamal Abdel Nasser, from controlling the Mediterranean and encroaching on Africa.

1968

Politburo of the CPSU CC, 'On the Draft Model Agreement of Non-Nuclear States with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] in Accordance with the NPT'

This document references the draft model agreement of non-nuclear weapons states, instructing both the Soviet MFA and the Ministry of Medium Machine Building (which supervised the Soviet nuclear industry) to conduct negotiations with the US to solidify this agreement. After negotiating with the Americans, they are instructed to make sure that the project is approved by the IAEA Board of Governors and inform socialist UN member states and the GDR about the Soviet position on the NPT.

June 1968

CPSU CC Decree, 'Regarding the Signing of the NPT'

The CPSU CC outlines the details and logistics of the NPT's signing in Moscow. Along with nominating a reception hall and authorizing Gromyko to sign the treaty, this decree focuses on the publication of an official memorandum suggesting urgent measures to end the arms race.

February 9, 1968

Decisions of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU for 9-12 February 1968, '11. On Our Steps in connection with the Accident of the American Bomber with Nuclear Weapons on Board and the Radioactive Contamination of the Environment...'

An outline of next steps the Politburo plans to take in response to the 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash.

November 25, 1989

National Intelligence Daily for Saturday, 25 November 1989

The CIA’s National Intelligence Daily for 25 Nov 1989 describes the latest developments in Czechoslovakia, Lebanon, East Germany, Western Europe, the Soviet Union, South Africa, El Salvador, Uruguay, India, and NATO-Warsaw Pact.

August 24, 1991

National Intelligence Daily for Saturday, 24 August 1991

The CIA’s National Intelligence Daily for 24 August 1991 describes the latest developments in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Cambodia, Lebanon, France, El Salvador, South Africa, China and Iran.

February 26, 1989

Memorandum of Conversation: President Bush's Meeting with General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Zhao Ziyang of the People's Republic of China, February 26, 1989, 4:00 p.m. - 5:40 p.m.

George H.W. Bush and Zhao Ziyang discuss Sino-American relations and China's reform and opening, in addition to the situations in Korea, India, Pakistan, and the Soviet Union.

October 29, 1971

Report by KGB Chairman Andropov on Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty

A report from KGB Chairman Andropov to the Central Committee of the CPSU assessing the status of Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe in their “transition” period and measures that might be taken to weaken them. It alleges that RFE and RL are planning subversive actions against the USSR at the Munich Olympics. It credits the Soviet bloc intelligence services with increasing the problems of the Radios. The document indicates timely KGB knowledge of internal RL documents such as the March 15, 1971 revision of the Radio Liberty Policy Manual.

September 15, 1958

Report to Central Committee on Press Conference about 'Provocative and Subversive Activities of American Radio Stations'

Description of a 1958 press conference in Moscow organized by the State Committee on Cultural Relations, with KGB assistance, to discredit Western broadcasts to the USSR and Eastern Europe. The press conference drew on the presence of alleged former employees of the radio stations.

March 1, 1977

CC CPSU Draft of a Report for the Press in Connection with J. Carter's Reception of Bukovsky

The CC CPSU drafted a report to present to the press on President Jimmy Carter's reception of Bukovsky, who was expelled from the Soviet Union as a criminal offender.

Pagination