November 23, 1999

Civilian Records
Archives II, Room 2600
National Archives at College Park
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001

Dear Sirs:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act as amended (5 U.S.C. 552). This request has two parts.

First, I would like to request copies of any and all State Department documents recording meetings and conversations between high American and French officials during the period when Georges Pompidou was president of France (1969-1974). By 'high American officials,' I have in mind: the assistant secretary of state for European affairs, the Under Secretary of State, the Secretary or State, the Secretary of Defense, the U.S. ambassador to France, the President of the United States and the president's Nationai Security Advisor. By "high French officials," I have in mind the president of France, the prime minister, the foreign and defense ministers, the secretary-general of the French foreign ministry, and bureau chiefs and directors at that ministry. For the purposes of this part of the request, I would be sufficient if you went through the relevant parts of the State Department central files for this period (POL FR-US) and the State Department's Conference Files, both in RG 59. I am only interested in material that is currently still classified, and thus not available in the parts of these collections already open for research at the National Archives.

Second, I would like to see copies of all policy memoranda bearing on relations between the United States and France in this period in the files of the part of the State Department responsible for State Department participation in the work of the National Security Council, whether those memoranda were produced by State Department officials or not.

In all these cases, I would also like to request file or archival references for all the documents you release. I would also greatly appreciate it if you could let me know the FOIA request number this request is being assigned so I will be able to track it in the future.

I am prepared to pay reasonable costs for locating the requested documents and reproducing them. The amended Act does provide, however, that you must reduce or waive fees if it "is in the public interest because furnishing the information can be considered as primarily benefitting the public." This request, I believe, falls in this category, since I am engaged in a scholarly, non-commercial study dealing with some basic issues of American foreign and military policy--a work which will, when it comes out, have clear policy relevance. I therefore ask you to waive any fees. If you rule otherwise, and if the fees exceed $200, I request permission to review the records which are responsive to this request and to select those which I want copied. In fact, it may be simpler for me to come to Washington, once these materials are made available, and read the documents which have been declassified, selecting for reproduction only those which I really need, without your having to go to the expense and trouble of xeroxing a great mass of material first.

My telephone number is (215) 898-8477; my email address is cram@sas.upenn.edu.

Sincerely yours,

Marc Trachtenberg
Professor of History