The State Department Diplomatic Post Records consist of correspondence and reports from American diplomats stationed around the world. Diplomatic post records are those kept at the embassies or legations rather than those kept in Washington. Diplomatic post records contain the incoming messages from Washington, retained copies of outgoing dispatches, locally gathered information, and background material on decision making. The following countries or cities are represented in this module: Japan; Cuba; El Salvador; Honduras; Nicaragua; Iran; Iraq; Beirut; Jerusalem; Aden; Lebanon; Russia and the Soviet Union.
Content Types: administrative papers, consular reports, correspondence, inventories of consular property, notes to and from host governments, original signed instructions and copies of dispatches, passport records, personnel records, press clippings, telegrams, treaties, and more.
Subjects: commerce and trade, Beirut, Cuba, diplomacy, El Salvador, espionage, foreign affairs, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Middle East, Nicaragua, Palestine, the Russian Revolution, Sino-Japanese War, Soviet Union, Stalin, U.S. military occupations, World War I, World War II
Key Word Search Examples: Augusto Sandino, British Policy in Palestine, Fulgencio Batista, General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, General Tiburcio Carias Andino, oil, Platt Amendment, Sumner Welles, Zionism
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Central America, 1930-1945: Cuba, Part 1: 1930-1939
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Central America, 1930-1945: Cuba, Part 1:1930-1939contains significant source material on political, economic, and social conditions in Cuba during the years of the Great Depression. The collection examines government instability and power struggles, as well as the Sumner Welles mission of 1933 and related diplomatic issues, along with the first administration of Fulgencio Batista.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Central America, 1930-1945: Cuba, Part 2: 1940-1945
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Central America, 1930-1945: Cuba, Part 2: 1940-1945contains significant materials on political, economic, and social conditions in Cuba during the 1940-1944 presidency of Fulgencio Batista, as well as during the World War II years.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Central America, 1930-1945: El Salvador
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Central America, 1930-1945: El Salvador contains a large amount of significant source material on political, economic, and social conditions in El Salvador during the years 1930-1945. Collection documents focus on the regime of General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, including his suppression and genocide of opposition and ethnic groups, suspension of civil liberties, and limited agrarian and labor reforms before his overthrow in 1944.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Central America, 1930-1945: Honduras
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Central America, 1930-1945: Honduras contains a large amount of significant source material on political, economic, and social conditions in Honduras during the years 1930-1945. Collection documents focus on the rule of General Tiburcio Carias Andino, who gained the presidency in 1932 after years of unrest and assumed progressively dictatorial powers. There is also a substantial body of material on the supporting--and sometimes dominating--role of large banana companies in the Honduran government and society throughout this period.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Central America, 1930-1945: Nicaragua
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Central America, 1930-1945: Nicaragua contains significant material on political, economic, and social conditions in Nicaragua during the years 1930-1945, a period which covers World War II, the latter years of revolutionary leader Augusto Sandino's revolt against U.S. military occupation, and the administrations of Juan Bautista Sacasa and Anastasio Somoza.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Japan: Part 1, 1914-1918
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Japan: Part 1, 1914-1918contains significant materials on Japan during the years of World War I, including foreign affairs and trade, as well as the country's internal political and economic affairs. Areas of special interest include Japan's role as an ally of the Triple Entente of Great Britain, Russia, and France; German-Japanese conflict in the war, especially the naval campaigns; and Japan's seizure of German possessions in the Pacific area. The documents are from U.S. consulates, listening posts, and embassies in Japan as well as areas near Japan in China and Russia.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Japan: Part 2, 1919-1929
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Japan: Part 2, 1919-1929contains a large amount of significant material on the internal political and economic affairs of Japan, as well as on the country's foreign affairs, trade, and commercial relations.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Japan: Part 3, Section A, 1930-1935
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Japan: Part 3, Section A, 1930-1935contains a large amount of significant material on the internal political and economic affairs of Japan, as well as on the country's foreign affairs, trade, and the early stages of the Sino-Japanese War, including the invasion of Manchuria and the bombing and occupation of Shanghai. The documents are from U.S. consulates, listening posts, and embassies in Japan as well as areas near Japan in China and Russia: Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Nanking, Peking, Harbin, and Vladivostok.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Japan: Part 3, Section B, 1936-1941
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Japan: Part 3, Section B, 1936-1941contains a large amount of significant material on the internal affairs of Japan as well as on the country's foreign affairs, trade, international organizations, the Sino-Japanese War, and the progressive worsening of relations with the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union during Japan's increasingly militaristic period that led up to the War in the Pacific. The collection additionally contains valuable material on the formation of Japan's alliances with Germany and Italy.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1925-1941: Aden
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1925-1941: Aden contains materials on political, economic, and social conditions, as well as U.S. activities, in the Arabian Peninsula during the period 1925 through 1941. Although the title indicates Aden as the subject, the majority of the documents in the collection focus on events in neighboring Arabia (Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932).
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1925-1941: Beirut
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1925-1941: Beirut contains a large amount of material on political, social, and economic conditions in the Lebanese capital during the period 1925 through 1941.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1925-1941: Iran
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1925-1941: Iran contains significant material on political conditions, social and economic developments, and foreign relations in Iran from the assumption of the title of Shah by Reza Khan in 1925 to the invasion and occupation of Iran by Great Britain and the Soviet Union in August and September 1941. The invasion is generally considered to have been motivated by the Allied Powers' desire to maintain access to Iranian oil fields in order to supply the Soviet army in World War II.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1925-1941: Iraq
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1925-1941: Iraq contains significant source material on Iraq during the period of persistent turmoil from 1925 through 1941. Among other important subjects, the collection documents cast light on the termination of the British mandate in 1932, establishment of the Iraqi parliament, granting of the first oil concessions to a consortium of oil companies, turbulent series of military coups between 1936 and 1941, and defeat of Rashid Ali al Ghailani's pro-Axis government by the British in 1941, which assured the Allied Powers of oil supplies from Iraq during World War II.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1925-1941: Jerusalem
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1925-1941: Jerusalem contains significant material on political, social, and economic conditions in Jerusalem during a period of years in which Palestine was under the British mandate that began in April 1923 and lasted until 1948. The extensive reporting from the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem is of particular value for students of Palestine and Israel. Although part of a larger series of diplomatic post records covering the Middle East during 1925-1941, this collection only extends to 1935.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1942-1944: Iran
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1942-1944: Iran contains a significant body of material on political, economic, and social conditions and U.S. activities in Iran during World War II, especially during the period following the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in August 1941 and the subsequent military occupation by these countries.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1942-1944: Iraq
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1942-1944: Iraq contains significant source materials on Iraq in a three-year period during World War II. The collection provides information on a wide variety of topics on Iraq's internal affairs, encompassing government, the economy, and social conditions, as well as on the country's foreign relations, trade, and military affairs.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1942-1944: Lebanon
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Middle East, 1942-1944: Lebanon contains significant material on political, economic, and social conditions in Lebanon in the aftermath of the 1941 conflict between Vichy French and British and Free French forces, and the subsequent overthrow of the French mandate and the establishment of an independent Lebanon.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Russia and the Soviet Union: Part 1, Russia: From Czar to Commissars, 1914-1918
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Russia and the Soviet Union: Part 1, Russia: From Czar to Commissars, 1914-1918contains significant material on political, economic, and social affairs and foreign relations in Russia during the last years of Czarist rule, World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the opening period of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and the Russian Civil War.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Russia and the Soviet Union: Part 2, The Soviet Union, Section A: 1919-1924
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Russia and the Soviet Union: Part 2, The Soviet Union, Section A: 1919-1924contains significant material on political, economic, and social affairs and foreign relations during the early years of the Soviet Union. The collection covers the time period of the middle and later phases of the Russian Civil War and the establishment of the Soviet Union in December 1922, as well as the beginning of Josef Stalin's rise to power after Vladimir Lenin's death in January 1924.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Russia and the Soviet Union: Part 2, The Soviet Union, Section B: 1925-1935
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Russia and the Soviet Union: Part 2, The Soviet Union, Section B: 1925-1935contains significant material on political, economic, and social affairs and foreign relations during the early years of the Soviet Union.
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Russia and the Soviet Union: Part 3, The Soviet Union: 1934-1941
Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records, Russia and the Soviet Union: Part 3, The Soviet Union: 1934-1941 contains significant material on political, economic, and social affairs and foreign relations from 1934 up to (but not including) the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, and covering the years of Stalin's Great Purge during the years 1934-1940.
