DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER LIBRARY ABILENE, KANSAS SMITH, GERARD C.: Papers, 1951-96 Accessions 96-12, 96-12/1, 96-12/2, 97-9 Processed by: TB Date Completed: November 2000 The papers of Gerard C. Smith were deposited in the Eisenhower Library by his son John Thomas Smith II in 1995 and 1996. Linear feet of shelf space occupied: 26 Approximate number of pages: 51,200 Approximate number of items: 20,000 An instrument of gift for these papers was signed by John Thomas Smith II in December 1996. Literary rights in the unpublished writings of Gerard C. Smith in this collection and in all other collections of papers received by the United States are retained by John Thomas Smith II until his death, and thereafter pass to the public. Under terms of the instrument of gift the following classes of documents are withheld from research use: 1. Papers which constitute an invasion of personal privacy of a living person. 2. Papers which are required to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and are properly classified. SERIES DESCRIPTION Box No. Series and Subseries 1-16 I. Correspondence. 1951-93. 15½ boxes Gerard Smith’s routine social correspondence with his family, friends and the general public. Arranged in two subseries, one chronological and one alphabetical. 1-7 A. Chronological Correspondence. 6½ boxes. Incoming and outgoing social correspondence for the period 1951-65 and 1967- Feb. 1968. Electrostatic copies of outgoing letters for the period 1985-87 and 1989-90. 7-16 B. Alphabetical Correspondence. 9 boxes. Incoming and outgoing social correspondence, arranged alphabetically in three time-periods, 1968-69, 1986 and 1987-93. There is very little material for 1987. 16-32 II. Subject. 1956-96. 15½ boxes Correspondence and reports on organizations and subjects with which Smith was involved. Also includes condolence letters received by Smith’s family after his death. Most of the material is dated 1981-93. 32-41 III. Statements. 1957-93. 9½ boxes. Articles, speeches and Congressional testimony by Smith, mostly regarding non- proliferation and nuclear testing matters. Arranged chronologically. 41-49 IV. Reference Material. 1951-96. 8 boxes. Articles, reports, Congressional publications and printed material collected by Smith, mostly regarding non-proliferation and disarmament matters. Arranged alphabetically by title or subject. 49-54 V. Memoirs. 1991-94. 5½ boxes. Correspondence and drafts regarding Smith’s efforts to compile his memoirs, published posthumously as Disarming Diplomat: The Memoirs of Ambassador Gerard C. Smith, Arms Control Negotiator. Also includes declassified copies of documents he acquired from various archives relating to his government work. 55 VI. Carter Administration Notes. 1979-80. 1 box. Notes from Smith to his staff regarding various non-proliferation issues. Arranged chronologically. 56-64 VII. Diaries and Notebooks. 1953-93. 9 boxes. Diaries and pages from loose-leaf notebooks compiled by Smith. Chronology May 4, 1914 Born in New York City 1938 Graduated from Yale Law School 1938-1941 Lawyer in New York City Aug. 9, 1941 Married Bernice Latrobe Maguire 1941-1945 Procurement officer, Department of the Navy, Washington, DC 1945-1950 Lawyer in New York City 1950-1954 Special Assistant to Atomic Energy Commissioner Thomas E. Murray 1954-1957 Special Assistant for Atomic Energy Affairs, Department of State 1957-1961 Assistant Secretary of State for Policy Planning 1962-1964 Consultant to Department of State 1964-1969 Publisher, Interplay Magazine 1969-1973 Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency 1973-1977 Chairman of North American delegation, Trilateral Commission 1977-1980 Ambassador at Large and President’s Special Representative for Non-Proliferation Matters 1981-1989 Chairman and President, Consultants International Group July 4, 1994 Died in Easton, Maryland SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE Gerard Coad Smith, diplomat and expert on atomic energy, disarmament and non-proliferation matters, was born in 1914 in New York City. His father, John Thomas Smith, was a lawyer who served as general counsel of General Motors Corporation for many years. Gerard Smith attended Yale Law School and became a practicing attorney in New York City. During World War II he served as a procurement officer for the Department of the Navy in Washington, DC. In 1950 he returned to government service as a special assistant to Thomas E. Murray, a member of the Atomic Energy Commission. Smith became an expert in the international aspects of the use of nuclear energy and helped brief the members of the AEC on President Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace proposal in 1953. In 1954 Smith transferred to the Department of State and became a special assistant for atomic energy matters to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. He continued to work on the international aspects of atomic energy and followed the disarmament negotiations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union which were being handled by Harold Stassen. In 1957 Smith was promoted to Assistant Secretary of State for Policy Planning, and became director of the policy planning staff. In this position he was responsible for developing policy on a wide range of international matters, much of which related to sensitive areas of east-west relations such as Berlin. Smith returned to private life in 1961. He served as a consultant to a number of organizations and started his own magazine, Interplay, which promoted an internationalist viewpoint. During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations he also served as a special consultant to the Department of State on the Multilateral Force (MLF), an unsuccessful proposal to develop a military force in Western Europe. At the start of the Nixon administration Smith was appointed director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA). He led the U.S. negotiating team during the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) with the Soviet Union which resulted in the Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty of 1972. In 1973, following completion of the treaty, Smith again resigned from the government. David Rockefeller recruited him to help develop the Trilateral Commission, an organization which encouraged Japanese businessmen to become more active in American and European affairs. Smith served as chairman of the North American delegation to the Commission. In this position he became acquainted with Jimmy Carter, the governor of Georgia, who was also active in the Commission. In 1977, after Carter became president, he invited Smith to serve as a special presidential representative for non-proliferation matters. Smith traveled to a number of underdeveloped countries, including India, Pakistan, Brazil and South Africa, in an effort to discourage the countries from developing nuclear weapons. He also worked with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to insure that spent nuclear fuel was not diverted to weapons. Smith resigned from the government for the last time in 1980. He organized a private consulting firm, the Consultants International Group, which specialized in advising companies on international investments. He also retained an interest in disarmament and was active in educational and lobbying organizations such as the Arms Control Association and the Washington Council on Non-Proliferation. He strongly opposed President Reagan’s proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI; popularly known as “Star Wars”) which he felt violated the 1972 ABM Treaty. Starting in 1991 Smith began to compile his memoirs. He dictated anecdotes covering various aspects of his government career, and obtained declassified documents from a number of archives. He was assisted by two historians, Allen Greb and Robert Wampler, who were specialists in international nuclear studies. Smith died in 1994 before completing his memoirs. After his death his son gathered together the files Smith had collected and donated them to the Eisenhower Library. Smith’s papers are very fragmentary and do not provide a complete account of his career. There are no files from his early life or his service in World War II. Most of the material dates from the 1980s and pertains to his opposition to the policies of the Reagan administration. Smith appears to have left all of his diplomatic files at the State Department. A list of his files at the State Department is in box 30 under the heading “Smith Papers at State Department.” A few files relating to his service as Assistant Secretary of State (1957-1961) are in the Gerard Smith Series of the John Foster Dulles papers. The collection has been divided into seven series. The first series consists of Smith’s general correspondence files. The correspondence is largely social in nature and contains a number of gaps. There is very little material from the 1950s and nothing from the 1970s and early 1980s. The second series is a subject file containing information on various organizations and subjects in which Smith was interested. Most of the material is from the 1980s and early 1990s. However, there are a few significant files from earlier years. These include information on his work as ACDA director, a file of important correspondence relating to the MLF proposal, and files on his foreign trips during the Carter administration. The third series consists of copies of Smith’s speeches, Congressional testimony and newspaper and magazine articles, arranged in chronological order. The fourth series contains reference material such as Congressional publications, newspaper clippings and magazine articles, which Smith collected. Most of the material is from the 1980s and pertains to his opposition to the Strategic Defense Initiative. The fifth series contains material on Smith’s memoirs, published posthumously as Disarming Diplomat: The Memoirs of Ambassador Gerard C. Smith, Arms Control Negotiator, including drafts of portions of the book, copies of newspaper articles and declassified documents, and dictated anecdotes by Smith regarding his government career. The sixth series consists of a special file of memos Smith sent to his aides while serving as President Carter’s special representative for non-proliferation matters.