Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum

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National Security Council Meeting Minutes

View Minutes of NSC Meetings

The Ford Library has released the formerly "Top Secret" minutes to 32 of the 39 meetings of the National Security Council during the Ford administration, August 1974 - January 1977. No minutes have been located for five meetings, but agendas or other briefing material may be available. The minutes of two meetings (and one part of another) remain closed in their entirety pending review by agencies.

The releases were made under the Library's mandatory declassification review program after review by NSC staff. Many minutes contain passages that remain restricted, but these are generally brief in relation to the whole.

A list of meeting dates and topics is posted at this website. Links from that page allow you to view all of the open minutes.

Prominent discussants in the transcript-like minutes include: President Ford, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Secretaries of Defense James Schlesinger and Donald Rumsfeld, Directors of Central Intelligence William Colby and George Bush, National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, and Joint Chiefs chairmen Admiral James Holloway and General George Brown.

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