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Council on Foreign Relations Digital Sound Recordings
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Council on Foreign Relations (the Council) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and national membership organization dedicated to promoting improved understanding of international affairs and to contributing ideas to United States foreign policy. The Council has had a large impact in the development of twentieth century United States foreign policy. Its membership has historically been drawn from those in business, government and academia recognized as the nation's opinion leaders in international relations; membership is by invitation only. The Council's basic constituency is its members, but it also reaches out to a wider audience through its publications, Committees on Foreign Relations, Corporate Program, and media efforts, so as to contribute to the national dialogue on foreign policy.
The Studies Department spearheads the Council on Foreign Relation's efforts to promote informed discussion on issues shaping the international agenda and defines the Council's function as a foreign policy research organization. This "think tank" has played a vital role in the Council since its incorporation in the 1920s. The department includes a large number of scholars and research associates who engage each other, Council members, and non-affiliated individuals in research on topics and regions related to United States foreign policy, which historically have included topics such as international trade, arms control, and economic development, and regions such as the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, and Latin America, to name a few. The Studies program produces articles, books, policy reports and papers to disseminate the research undertaken by staff and members.
For a fuller history on the Council on Foreign Relations, see the finding aid for the Council on Foreign Relations Records located at http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/gb19f5814 , Peter Grose's Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921-1996 , located at http://www.cfr.org/about/history/cfr/ and Michael Wala's The Council on Foreign Relations and American Foreign Policy in the Early Cold War (Providence: Berghahn Books, 1994).
The digital sound recordings of the Council on Foreign Relations were transfered from original reel to reel tapes of Council meetings. Transcripts of meetings were created until 1963; from 1964 through 1970, there is no record of what was said at any events mounted by the Meetings Department at the Council unless the event was "on the record" and the speaker issued written text. The Council's records contain a small number of tapes from the early 1970s. The only record of the intellectual content of the Meetings Program after 1964 is these surviving tape recordings of the opening presentations of speakers, and occassionally a question and answer section. In 1978, the Council began to tape selected meetings for use by members who were unable to attend important meetings. At the end of each fiscal year, the Council president, Director of Meetings, and Director of Programs would assist the Director of Special Programs is selecting a portion of the year's taped meetings to be sent to the archives. Usually those selected were heads of state, foreign ministers, United States Cabinet members and other distinguished visitors. No programs held at the Washington, D.C. office of the Council were ever recorded.
Until the transfer was completed in April 2006, the meeting audio was inaccessible to researchers due to preservation concerns about tape handling and playing.
Portions of the recordings may have poor audio quality; the recordings often begin and end abruptly, and rarely feature the question and answer section of the meeting.
Information in the Organizational History section was gathered from material within the Council's records (notably historical information from the Administration Series and Annual Reports from the Publications Series), as well as the Council on Foreign Relations' website, www.cfr.org. Of special interest are the annual reports, located at http://www.cfr.org/about/annual_report/ and Peter Grouse's Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921-1996, located at http://www.cfr.org/about/history/cfr/.
This material forms part of the Council on Foreign Relations Records, call number MC104, held at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library. See other "Other Finding Aid Section for more information.
The Mudd Manuscript Library does not anticipate receiving any further sound recordings from the Council on Foreign Relations, but will continue to digitize and make available its holdings of Council audio recordings as resources permit.
The Mudd Manuscript Library also maintains WAV format preservation master copies of each file.
The original reel-to-reel tapes containing the Council's programs are held at the Mudd Manuscript Library as part of the Council on Foreign Relations Records, Series 13: Sound Recordings, 1953-1989.
The collection was deposited at the Library in 1998. Title and custody of the collection were formally transferred to Princeton in 2002. Small transfers of more recent records occur annually.
The Council on Foreign Relations Digital Sound Recordings form part of the The Council on Foreign Relations Records (collection MC104). A Finding Aid for the entire collection is available online: Council on Foreign Relations Records Finding Aid.
The records of the Council on Foreign Relations Meetings Department are described in a finding aid, which includes a list of speakers at meetings held from 1924-1992: Council on Foreign Relations Meetings Records Finding Aid.
The Studies Department Records of the Council on Foreign Relations are described in a separate finding aid: Council on Foreign Relations Studies Department Finding Aid.
The Council on Foreign Relations Sound Recordings are available to researchers in mp3 format. Users must have access to some form of mp3 player, such as Quicktime, Windows Media Player, or Winamp. Preservation master copies were made in WAV format, but are not available online.
This collection was processed by Jennifer Cole in June 2006. Finding aid written by Jennifer Cole in September 2006.
Since 1921, the Council has archived materials relating to its organization, study groups, meetings, and special events. The Council Library and Archives staff reviews records to discard administrative material not conforming to its general retention policy. Items deemed private or inappropriate for transfer are retained by the Council. Based on a memos dated 10 September 1984, 15 October 1984, and 19 December 1986 from Council records, Council administration routinely "purged" their collection of general meeting tapes, selecting only a few to go to the Council library and archives department.
People
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Public Policy Papers
- Finding Aid Author
- Jennifer Cole
- Finding Aid Date
- 2006
- Sponsor
- This project was undertaken with the generous support of Ron Brown '72, Margaret Cannella '73, Francis J. Carey, Frank Carlucci, C.W. Carson, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cox, William J. Crowe, Russell DaSilva, Charles Ganoe, R. Scott Greathead, Dr. Roger Kanet, Melanie Kirkpatrick, Linda and Morton Janklow, Michael S. Mathews, Bradford Mills, Edward Morse, Joseph Nye, Dr. Gerald Pollack, Harold Saunders, Anne-Marie Slaughter, John Treat, and Ezra Zilkha, as well as the John Foster and Janet Avery Dulles Fund.
- Access Restrictions
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All Council on Foreign Relations records are closed for 25 years after the date of their creation.
- Use Restrictions
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Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. For quotations that are fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. For those few instances beyond fair use, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold the copyright and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from the Mudd Library to move forward with their use.
As a condition of use of the historical records of the Council on Foreign Relations, researchers must agree that they will not directly or indirectly attribute to any living person any assertion of fact or opinion based upon any Council record, or upon any unpublished record held by the Council, without first obtaining from such person his or her written consent thereto.
Collection Inventory
No arrangement action taken or arrangement information not recorded at the time of processing.
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Audio cut off abruptly.
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Speech in German. Audio ends abruptly.
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Verbatim reading of text of Markezini's speech by unnamed narrator.
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First few seconds of the meeting are missing.
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After the introduction there are 8 minutes of blank tape.
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14 seconds of dead air before program begins. Recording ends after 15 minutes with overdubbed announcement that remainder of speech not recorded because "the loudspeaker system failed."
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12-13 seconds dead air before program begins.
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Speech in German.
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Long dropout and then long period of ambience after introduction, before speech begins. Program ends before question and answer session.
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Tape ends abruptly.
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Program contains an initial introduction which is cut off; the second introduction fits with the rest of the meeting.
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Introduction is cut off.
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Speech in French.
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Speech focuses on Cambodia.
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Brief unrelated snippet of audio precedes actual program by 25 seconds. Level of Dillon speech relatively low. Ends abruptly. Portions of this recording may have poor audio quality.
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Tape begins with disconnected snippets of audio, possibly from earlier recording. Question and answer session levels at end of tape low but intelligible. Program ends abruptly.
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Speech in French.
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Most of the session is blank.
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Several snippets of audio and dead air precede main audio.
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Speech in German.
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Speech in German.
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Program ends after 54 minutes, 30 seconds; restarted after 1 minute, 50 seconds.
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Audio begins abruptly.
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Recording of roundtable discussion for broadcast on NPR radio.
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Long drop out after 2:57 for 3:30.
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Tape ends abruptly at beginning of question and answer session.
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Tape ends at beginning of question and answer session.
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Tape ends at beginning of question and answer session.
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Drop out at 26:42 for about 30 seconds.
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Audio begins abruptly.
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No introduction of speaker. Brief dropout at 13:55. Tape ends at beginning of question and answer session, with a quick blip of sound following program cut off.
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Speech in German
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Drop out after 44:37.
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Drop out at 29:00
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After a drop out at the end of first segment there is a short section which sounds like the end of another session.
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Level drops at times making the audio hard to understand.
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26 seconds of blank space at 28:18.
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Speaker off-mic on purpose; drop out at 29:24 for 12 seconds.
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Drop out at 25:10 for 1 minute, 10 seconds.
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Drop out after 22:32 for 56 seconds.
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Drop out after 27:36 for 2 minutes. The end of a different program can be heard after the conclusion of the Vessey meeting.
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Side one ends abruptly, side two begins abruptly, ends at beginning of question and answer session.
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Side one ends abruptly, side two begins abruptly, ends at beginning of question and answer session.
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Portions of the speech are in Chinese.
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Drop out at 28:03 for 48 seconds.
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Drop out at 24:18 for 20 seconds.
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Drop out at 40:49.
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Portions of this session are not in English.
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Drop-out at 29 minute, for 43 seconds.
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After 39:30, the audio is from a separate meeting.
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After 21:50, the audio is from a separate meeting.
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Very poor recording.
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Drop-out at 24:20 for 3:02; another drop-out at 39:31 for 3:47.
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The beginning of the program records the introduction of the new president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Peter Tarnoff. The majority of the program is Tariq Aziz.
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Several false starts before program begins. Recording interrupted at 28:38 before question and answer session, resumed at closing remarks.
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Drop out at 21:43 for 1:18.
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Latin music after 12:21.
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spoken in Korean with consecutive translation; program cut off at end.
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Drop out at 1:02:51 for 20 seconds.
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Contains question and answer session.
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Recorded over previous program. This program ends during question and answer session at 34:16 and audio switches back to unidentified speaker ("Manfred"). Recording ends at question and answer session of older recording.
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