For Immediate Release: July 23, 2004
Further information: Ann Scanlon (617) 514-1662
Boston, MA – Researchers, libraries, members of the press, and members of the public are notified that the Papers of McGeorge Bundy, covering the period from 1940 to the time of his death, including his years of service as National Security Adviser to President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1966, have been donated to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library by Mary L. Bundy and her family.
The Papers of McGeorge Bundy consist of early writings and speeches, correspondence, notes, and other materials on U.S. foreign policy and the control of atomic weapons, and background materials for his book Danger and Survival. As National Security Adviser to both President Kennedy and President Johnson, McGeorge Bundy played a crucial role in major foreign policy and defense decisions in the 1960s, including the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War.
Of particular note, the collection includes Mr. Bundy’s notes, fragments of text written about key incidents, and other materials for a book about the Vietnam War, which he was writing at the time of his death. In his draft introduction to the book, he wrote: “This book…is an inquiry into where and how the American government went wrong in Vietnam….I had a part in a great failure. I made mistakes of perception, recommendation and execution. If I have learned anything I should share it.” Mr. Bundy died before his book was completed. The Bundy family has donated the Papers of McGeorge Bundy to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston as an important resource for the understanding of the Vietnam War era by serious scholars.
A native of Boston, McGeorge Bundy was a childhood friend of John F. Kennedy when both attended the Dexter School in Brookline, Massachusetts. A graduate of Yale University, Mr. Bundy served in the Army during World War II. Following the war, he was an analyst for the Council on Foreign Relations and later taught at Harvard University. In 1953, Mr. Bundy was named Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Harvard. Bundy served the Kennedy and Johnson administrations as National Security Advisor from 1961 to 1966. In 1966, he became President of the Ford Foundation. Later, he taught at New York University and was a scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Corporation until his death in 1996.
The Library's Archives includes 48 million pages of documents from the collections of 340 individuals, organizations, or government agencies; oral history interviews with 1,300 people; and more than 30,000 books. The Audiovisual Archives administers collections of more than 200,000 still photographs, 7,550,000 feet of motion picture film, 1,200 hours of video recordings, over 7,000 hours of audio recordings and 500 original editorial cartoons.
The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum is a presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and supported, in part, by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization. The Kennedy Library and the Kennedy Library Foundation seek to promote, through educational and community programs, a greater appreciation and understanding of American politics, history, and culture, the process of governing and the importance of public service.