International Affairs, 1957-1979

This series contains correspondence, reports, and clippings that document the activities of George Meany and the Office of the President in the area of international affairs. It spans the years 1957 to 1979, but mostly covers the years 1961-1977. The correspondence in this series is between the President's office and international labor leaders, labor organizations in other countries, foreign labor officials attached to embassies in the United States, American labor leaders, and U.S. government officials. Some of the reports found in this series were received by the Office of the President and detail labor union activities in other countries or provide summaries of interntional labor organizations' meetings, while other reports were prepared by the AFL-CIO as communications to the leaders of various international labor organizations about the federation's views on U.S. foreign policy regarding labor issues.

The series provides information on the following topics: international associations [such as International Confederaton of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), International Labor Office (ILO), American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), and the Canadian American Committee]; individual labor leaders (Jay Lovestone (AFL-CIO's International Affairs Department director from 1963 to 1974) and Ernest Lee (AFL-CIO International Affairs Department assistant director form 1962-1971 and director from 1972 to 1981); and the federation's views on U.S. foreign policy, especially on communism. A few items are in other languages; some have translations, others do not.

Correspondence with certain key labor and governmnent officials appear: Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Hubert Humphrey, Helmut Kohl, George McGovern, Daniel Moynihan, A. Philip Randolph, and Walter Reuther.