The preparation of this history was a collaborative effort in the best sense. Upon receiving the White House tasking for this project, the Department's Executive Secretariat assigned the Office of the Historian in the Bureau of Public Affairs as the coordinating office. Richard Boucher, the Bureau's Assistant Secretary, sent a memorandum to all the Department principal officers asking them to cooperate fully and to designate office or bureau contacts for the history. The Historian's Office held an organizational meeting with the contacts at which the participants accepted a schedule for the preparation of outlines, draft submissions, and final chapters. All agreed that the history would be unclassified and would include documents to supplement the narrative text. Altogether nearly 40 bureaus and offices submitted drafts of their goals, activities, and accomplishments. Some of the bureau and office contacts wrote the drafts for their unit, but more often they wrote some text and coordinated the writing and organization undertaken by other colleagues.
The history is a compilation of those submissions; accordingly some chapters focus on management and organization change, while others discuss policy initiatives, their implementation, and bureau accomplishments. If time had permitted, this history would have provided more balanced coverage and be a more finished, analytical product. The historian-editors have tried, despite the short time-frame, to present a readable, accurate, and informative history of the Department over the past 8 years that will be useful to researchers visiting the Clinton Presidential Library for many years. The history also has several appendices and a documentary annex.
In the Historian's Office, Acting Historian David Patterson, Chief of Special Projects Paul Claussen, and Chief of the Asia and Americas Division Edward Keefer worked directly with the office and bureau contacts during all phases of the project. They reviewed the outlines and draft narratives, monitored deadlines, assured completion and clearance of the texts, and helped in the selection and assembling of documents for the annex. Susan Holly, Louise Crane, and Sidney Ploss also reviewed drafts of several chapters. Evan Duncan prepared the chronology; in cooperation with the Department's Office of Protocol and the Office of the Under Secretary for Management, he also revised and expanded the other appendices. Rita Baker and Vicki Futscher edited the entire manuscript and the document list. Linda Guimarin provided indispensable technical support during all phases of the project.
A final phase of the project was a high-level review by six senior officers in the Department of State, who made valuable comments on both style and substance.
January 12, 2001
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