K. Ross Toole Archives
The Mike Mansfield Papers: Series Notes
Series IV: House: Foreign Affairs, 1930-1949 (12.5 linear ft.)
This series contains material relating to both the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Mansfield's own interest in foreign matters. Material in the series concentrates on the years 1947 to 1949. The country files in the series encompass a broad range of subjects relevant to individual nations. There are copies of foreign affairs bills from the House and the Senate. Loans and other foreign aid provide much of the material in individual folders. Letters in the country files include correspondence between Mansfield and various ambassadors and State Department officials. Letters from companies and constituents with strong interests in specific countries are also well-represented in these files. Other letters are from government organizations including the War Department, the State Department, the Army, and the Marine Corps. There are reports from government agencies on specific foreign relations challenges like the Panama Canal. United Nations reports also appear in the series, and congressional hearings and committee reports accompany legislation. There are notes in Mansfield's hand from committee hearings. Items from the Congressional Record pertaining to specific countries are also included in folders for individual countries. Proposals for large quantities of foreign aid spending elicited the most vehement responses. A given spending measure typically drew letters of both criticism and praise; many Montanans expressed displeasure with Congress' willingness to spend money overseas when domestic problems persisted. Foreign nationals and American expatriates also wrote Mansfield to support or decry a particular policy or proposal. Country files also contain newspaper clippings, magazine articles, American and international publications, and press releases.
This series also contains information on specific political issues like the demobilization of troops in China, Burma, and India following World War II. These folders contain many of the same types of materials as the country files. In addition, there are presidential press releases, citizen petitions, telegrams, and photographs. There are also folders with information and documents concerning Mansfield's official trips abroad. This series chronicles the beginning of Mansfield's career-long involvement in foreign policy and provides insight into the constituent opinions and congressional concerns about foreign affairs during and after World War II.
The folders are divided by individual country, by issues like demobilization, and by Mansfield's official trips abroad. The organization of the series is unclear; there is no apparent chronological or alphabetical order to the boxes and folders. Often a similar subject like the United Fruit Company in Central America appears in several folders under different titles; in this case, both Central America and Costa Rica. The boxes and folders do not specify time periods and often skip all over the globe and through a number of years.
See a sample document from this series: Mansfield's 1930 notes on a National Geographic article on China, showing his early interest in Asian affairs.
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Last Updated: 07 June 2002.