Thomas J. Schoenbaum Collection of Dean Rusk Files, 1961-1969
119 boxes, 51 linear feet

Administrative Information

- Access Restrictions
- User Restrictions
- Processing Notes
- Copyright Information
- Preferred Citation

Biographical Note

Scope and Content

Home

Organization and Arrangement

Related Collections

- In Russell Library
- In other repositories

Series Descriptions

Access Points

Folder List

Dean Rusk

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Access Restrictions:

User Restrictions: Library acts as “fair use” reproduction agent.

Processing Notes: Documents copied from the National Archives and some presidential libraries are included in Series IV.

Copyright Information: Before material from collections at the Richard B. Russell Library may be quoted in print, or otherwise reproduced, in whole or in part, in any publication, permission must be obtained from (1) the owner of the physical property, and (2) the holder of the copyright. It is the particular responsibility of the researcher to obtain both sets of permission. Persons wishing to quote from materials in the Russell Library collection should consult the Director. Reproduction of any item must contain a complete citation to the original.

Preferred Citation: Thomas J> Schoenbaum Collection of Dean Rusk Files, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, The University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Georgia.

Back to Top

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL NOTE:

Dean Rusk was born on February 9, 1909 in Cherokee County, Georgia. He attended Lee Street Elementary and Boys' High School in Atlanta, Georgia. Rusk obtained an A.B. degree from Davidson College, North Carolina in 1931, and a B.S. (Rhodes Scholar) and M.A. in 1933 and 1934 from St. John's, Oxford, England. He returned to the United States to become Associate Professor of Government and Dean of Faculty at Mills College, Oakland, California, from 1934 to 1940 and studied law at the University of California, Berkeley, class of 1940.

Rusk served in the United States Army from 1940 to 1946 in the China-Burma-India theater. At first he served with the Third Infantry Division, then later with the Military Intelligence Service. Rusk was released from duty with the rank of colonel.

After his military career ended, Rusk joined the Department of State from 1947 to 1952, as Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs and for Far Eastern Affairs. From 1952 to 1960 he was president of the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Rusk to the office of Secretary of State. He remained in this position until 1969, through the administrations of Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Rusk was in office during the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion, when East Germany began constructing the Berlin Wall, and as the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was also Secretary of State during the height of the Vietnam Conflict.

In 1970, Rusk came to the University of Georgia's School of Law as the Samuel H. Sibley Professor of International Law, and he later established the Dean Rusk Center for International and Comparative Law. Rusk served the University of Georgia until his death on December 20, 1994.

Rusk married Virginia Foisle in June, 1937. They had three children together, David Patrick, Richard Geary and Margaret Elizabeth. In 1990, As I Saw It , the book he co-authored with his son, Richard, was published.

Thomas J. Schoenbaum currently serves a Professor of International Studies at the International Christian University in Japan. He has taught at the law schools of the University of North Carolina, Tulane University, and the University of Georgia. At Tulane he served as associate dean and at Georgia he was executive director of the Dean Rusk Center of International and Comparative Law. He has practiced law extensively as special counsel for several law firms and has litigated corporate, environmental, and admiralty cases in the federal courts. Professor Schoenbaum has received six Fulbright awards and has held teaching posts in many countries, including Germany, Belgium, the UK, South Africa, Austria, Russia, and Japan. He has served as visiting fellow at St. John's College, Oxford and as principal fellow of the Lauterpacht Research Centre of International Law at Cambridge. Professor Schoenbaum specializes in international commercial and environmental law. He is the author of many articles and books, including The World Trade Organization: Law, Policy and Practice (2003), Admiralty and Maritime Law (3d ed. 2001), and Environmental Policy Law (2002). He is currently working on new books in the areas of international environmental law and international business transactions. (Courtesy of the George Washington University Law School website, 2007)

Back to Top

SCOPE AND CONTENT:

The portion of the Dean Rusk Collection called the "Thomas J. Schoenbaum Files" consists of research materials collected for use by Dr. Schoenbaum in writing a book on Dean Rusk. They deal mainly with Mr. Rusk's service as a Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, 1961-1969. Documents originating in the office of the secretary of state during those years are located in the Kennedy and Johnson presidential libraries, the National Archives, and the Department of State files. Copies of selected documents were made and brought together by Dr. Schoenbaum's research assistant, Ms. Savanna Jackson. The papers were arranged according to their intended usage, and that arrangement has been retained. Headings from government files as used in the presidential libraries have been kept. Guides to the Kennedy and Johnson libraries are included.

Documents from the presidential libraries and National Archives, speeches of Dean Rusk, State Department bulletins and correspondence, although copies of the originals, are treated as primary sources. Selected secondary sources, made up of printed materials not easily available elsewhere, provide additional information on Mr. Rusk's career and the times.

Back to Top

ORGANIZATION AND ARRANGEMENT

The papers are divided into five series. Series I, "Personal/Family", pertains to childhood and school days, including some family letters and references to military service. Mr. Rusk's 75th birthday celebration, held at the Department of State, is documented here. The other four series deal with Mr. Rusk's years of public service. Some original photographs were originally located inBox 3 but have been moved to the Photo File for preservation. Portions of Dr. Schoenbaum's manuscript are included in the last three boxes. Box 119 contains the transcript of an interview with Mr. Rusk by Richard Holbrooke and Brian van DeMark on Israel, Robert Lovett, and Vietnam.

Back to Top

RELATED COLLECTIONS IN THIS REPOSITORY:

Dean Rusk Personal Papers
Richard B. Russell, Jr. Collection
William Tapley Bennett, Jr. Collection
Martin Hillenbrand Papers

Back to Top

RELATED COLLECTIONS IN OTHER REPOSITORIES:

Dean Rusk Oral Histories, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, Austin, Texas
Dean Rusk Personal Papers, John F. Kennedy Library, National Archives and Records Administration, Boston, Massachusetts
Dean Rusk Papers, Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York
Dean Rusk Files, Department of State, Washington, DC

Back to Top

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS:

I. Personal/Family
3 boxes, 1.5 linear feet
This series contains biographical information obtained from family letters, interviews with friends and associates, and the press. There is overlap between the first two boxes. Letters written by Dean Rusk to his family are mixed with news clippings. There are letters from Davidson College, Oxford University, and World War II military service. Box 3 represents the celebration of Dean Rusk's 75th birthday (1984) at the Department of State, given by Secretary Schultz and co-sponsored by Georgetown University and the Southern Center for International Studies.

II. Speeches and Writings, 1947-1986 (with gaps)
1 Box, .5 linear foot
Copied from various sources. Arranged in chronological order (approximate) earliest date first. Each speech or writing is in a separate folder, labeled with title and date. Some interviews published in news magazines are included as well as Congressional Committee hearings, letters sent, and addresses delivered orally.

III. Appointment Books, Secretary of State, 1961-1969
8 boxes, 4 linear feet
The daily schedule sheets during Mr. Rusk's tenure as secretary of state. Arranged chronologically, each month in a folder. Copied from the Johnson Presidential Library.

In contrast to the arrangement of the daily appointment sheets, the schedules for overseas trips were filed latest date first. Each folder contains a year's schedules.

Recreated calendar: A page for each month gives information from the daily appointment book and overseas schedules. Compiled for quick perusal, a loose-leaf binder was used. In the front pocket are copies of New York Times front page (reduced size) announcing significant events of the period, ten dates, 1961-1969.

IV. Documents Copied from National Archives and Other Libraries.
35 boxes, 17.5 linear feet
Sub-series A deals with Dean Rusk's participation in affairs of state as undersecretary, 1948-1951; Sub-series B, research information on both Kennedy and Johnson Presidential Libraries; Sub-series C, materials from the Kennedy Library pertaining to the Department of State and Secretary Rusk; Sub-series D, the Johnson Library.

Some distinctive items: a note from Dean Rusk to archivists, historians, and scholars concerning practices of communication between the secretary of state and the president, Box 15A, Folder 21; a printed summary guide to the Kennedy Library, 15B; a description of holdings of the Johnson Library by finding aids, Box 15A, #14; a finding aid to the appointment file; a card file of public statements by Dean Rusk as recorded by the Johnson Library, 15B.

Sub-series titles and folder headings were taken from headings in the summary guide, Kennedy Library, and from the Johnson Library description of holdings. Oral history interviews are with presidential aides and other persons influential in the Kennedy administration, named alphabetically on the box lists. They are open to research unless otherwise noted. Restrictive notations are on individual transcripts.

V. Printed Sources
69 boxes, 34.5 linear feet
This series consists of selected secondary source materials which are not readily available elsewhere: example, excerpts from Foreign Relations of the United States, also the Department of State Newsletter.

Of the 69 boxes in the series, 45 are loose-leaf binders filled with copies of newspaper and magazine articles, the majority from New York Times.

The congressional testimonies of Dean Rusk extend over the years, 1951-1969.
Bibliographies and indexes for locating research are located in this series.

VI. Manuscript, Waging Peace and War
1 box, .5 linear foot
This box contains portions of the Schoenbaum manuscript.

Addendum
2 boxes, 1 linear foot

Certain documents from Department of State files, requested by Dr. Schoenbaum under the Freedom of Information Act, were declassified and released in 1988, and received by Russell Library via the Rusk Center after the Schoenbaum Files were processed and shelved.

The documents consist of speeches, interviews, meetings, and handwritten notes by Dean Rusk while he was Secretary of State, 1961-1969. They have been placed in folders and labeled according to the box numbers where they were housed at the Records Service Center. The two boxes are located at the end of the Schoenbaum Files.

Back to Top

ACCESS POINTS

Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973.
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972.
Rusk, Dean, 1909-1994.
Rusk family.
United States. Dept. of State.
United States. President (1961-1963 : Kennedy)
United States. President (1963-1969 : Johnson)
United States. President (1945-1953 : Truman)
Vietnam War, 1961-1975.
Korean War, 1950-1953.
Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962.
United States --Foreign relations --Vietnam.
Vietnam --Foreign relations --United States.
United States --Foreign relations --Cuba.
Cuba --Foreign relations --United States.
Manuscript.

Back to Top

FOLDER LIST

Not available at this time. Please contact Russell Library for more information.

Back to Top