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September 1, 1979

Cable from the Foreign Ministry, 'Notice on Vice President Mondale's Visit to China'

A summary of Walter Mondale's meetings with Chinese officials, including Deng Xiaoping and Hua Guofeng. Topics of conversation included bilateral relations and the situation in Indochina.

June 28, 1974

Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Notice [Zhongfa] (1979) No. 19: Notice on the Talks between Chairman Mao and Edward Heath

A summary of a conversation between Mao Zedong and Edward Heath. Topics covered include the Watergate scandal, European security, bilateral relations between the PRC and the UK, and the foreign policy of the Soviet Union.

December 3, 1956

Middle East (Situation): Debated in the Commons Chamber, Monday, 3 December 1956

In July 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) nationalized the Suez Canal Company, surprising the world. The government of France, in whose capital of Paris the company was headquartered, and the British government, the company’s plurality shareholder, sought to reverse nationalization in court, but failed—even though they clad their case in the language not of imperial self-interest but, rather, of international public interest. The time in which such language was somewhat acceptable, even at home, was passing, and the Suez Crisis played a big part in this final act.

At the same time, the two governments early on after the canal nationalization decided to remove Nasser by force, for re-compensation was not their central concern. France believed Nasser was enabling the FLN, which in 1954 had started Algeria’s War for Independence, and Britain wanted some say in the canal, which had for decades been its worldwide empire’s “swing-door,” as a member of parliament, Anthony Eden (1897-1977), called it in 1929. In August 1956 France began discussing a joint operation with Israel, which wanted Nasser gone, too, and the Red Sea opened for Israel-bound ships. In early October the two were joined by Britain. On the 29th, Israel invaded the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. On the 30th, France and Britain gave Israel and Egypt a 12-hour ultimatum to cease hostilities, or they would intervene—and Anglo-French forces bombed Egyptian forces from the 31st and on November 5-6 occupied the canal’s northern tip. Although a power play, “Operation Musketeer,” like the court case, could not be an open imperial move anymore, then, and did not present itself to the world as such. No matter: especially in colonies and postcolonial countries, people were outraged.

More problematically for France and Britain, Washington was incredulous. This Middle Eastern affair triggered the worst crisis of the 1950s between America’s rising international empire and Europe’s descending empires, and indeed clarified and accelerated that descent. President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) fumed that Prime Ministers Anthony Eden and Guy Mollet (1905-1977) had disregarded his administration’s opposition to military action. Worse, they had deceived him about their intentions. And worst, their attack on Egypt undermined the supreme US tenet: Soviet containment. The Americans were by association tainted by their NATO allies’ imperialist move while the Soviets looked good—on November 5 they offered Egypt troops and threatened to nuke London, Paris, and Tel Aviv—and that although they had just repressed an uprising in Hungary.

On the very day of the ultimatum, October 30, Eisenhower washed his hands of that move on live US television, and the US mission at the UN organized a cease-fire resolution vote in the Security Council. France and Britain vetoed it. Although sharing its European allies’ emotions about Nasser, the US administration withheld critical oil and monetary supplies from them to bring them to heel and withdraw from Egypt—after which, it promised, they would be warmly welcomed back. It ceased most bilateral communications and froze almost all everyday social interactions with its two allies, even cancelling a scheduled visit by Eden. And it badgered its allies at the UN, supporting an Afro-Asian resolution that on November 24 called Israel, Britain, and France to withdraw forthwith. On December 3, the British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd took the floor in the House of Commons.

July 28, 1982

Excerpts of Talks between Leading Comrades and Foreign Guests (No. 7)

A Chinese Communist Party digest of commentaries about Chinese foreign affairs and domestic politics made by Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang, Deng Xiaoping, Zhang Wenjin, and Huang Hua to various foreign officials from the United States, the Philippines, and other countries.

November 1968

Radio Liberty Policy Manual: Annex: Ukrainian Broadcasts

Radio Liberty outlines its approach to broadcasts in Ukraine, emphasizing the importance of providing alternative perspectives to Ukrainians. 

May 26, 1961

Interim Guidance: Kennedy-Khrushchev Meeting, June 3-4, 1961

Radio Liberty outlines how they will report on on the 1961 Kennedy-Krushchev meeting. They emphasize avoiding false optimism and highlighting the differing opinions on key issues. 

June 7, 1960

Memorandum of Conversation with Comrade Mao Zedong in Hangzhou (7 June 1960)

Mao Zedong converses with Lira Belishova, Haxhi Lleshi, and Vasil Nathanaili. Mao shares his views on the United States, Japan, and Chiang Kai-shek’s Taiwan. Mao also asks about Albania, its relations with neighboring countries such as Yugoslavia, Italy, and Turkey, and its foreign policy more generally.

November 10, 1999

Memorandum, FBI National Security Branch to All Field Offices, 'Information on Surveys Conducted by the Russians for Sabotage and Infiltration in the U.S. during the 1950s and 1960s'

An FBI memo written in the wake of a "60 Minutes" segment regarding The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB.

April 14, 1969

Record of Furui-Zhou Enlai Meeting

Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and Japanese Diet member Furui Yoshimi discuss bilateral relations between China and Japan. Zhou is critical of both the Soviet Union and the United States. The two sides pay particular attention to Japan's relations with Taiwan.

September 4, 1969

Record of Meeting between Minister Aichi and Premier Kosygin

Japanese Foreign Minister Aichi and Soviet Premier Kosygin discuss bilateral relations, disputed territories, the legacies of World War II, China, and the NPT.

Pagination