JOSEPH E. JOHNSON PAPERS
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
The Joseph E. Johnson Papers document the career of a State Department and United Nations official (1906-1990), who was later the longtime president of the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace. Johnson’s family donated these papers to the Hoover Library in 1994.
Joseph Esrey Johnson was born on April 30, 1906 in Longdale, Virginia, and grew up in Scarsdale, New York. Johnson studied at Harvard University, where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorla degrees. His first teaching position was as a professor of history at Bowdoin College in 1934 and 1935. From there he moved on to Williams College in Massachusetts in 1936, where he was an assistant professor of history until 1947, and a full professor from 1947-1950.
During the years from 1943-1947, however, Johnson was on leave from Williams College, and served in a variety of positions with the State Department and United Nations. Initially Johnson was appointed chief of the international affairs division in the State Department. While in this post, he played a role in the creation of the United Nations, attending both the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944 as well as the San Francisco Conference in 1945. Johnson later served as an adviser to the U.S. delegation at the first U.N. General Assembly at Lake Success, New York in 1946, and assisted the U.S. representative to the Security Council, which met in London.
Johnson returned to Williams College in 1947, yet his time in academia proved to be short-lived. In 1950 he was appointed to be a trustee, and then president, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he was able to apply his growing expertise in the field of brokering peaceful solutions to international disputes.
Although he served as a consultant at numerous international conferences, and was an alternate U.S. delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1969, he is perhaps best remembered for his role on the U.N. Conciliation Commission for Palestine in 1961. As part of the commission Johnson was named a special envoy, and traveled throughout the Middle East, meeting with various governments in search of a means of providing Palestinian refugees with a homeland of their own. Johnson’s final report recommended that refugees who were forced out of their homes by the 1948 war be allowed to return to their former homes in Israel. However, neither side accepted Johnson’s proposals.
In 1971 Johnson became president emeritus of the Carnegie Endowment. He died in Lynchburg, Virginia on October 24, 1990.
The Joseph E. Johnson Papers consist of approximately 4 linear feet of material arranged into the following series:
· Personal Series (1 box): Includes diaries of a 1959 African trip and a 1967 Vietnam trip, records of other travels, honorary degree awards, photographs of dinners and committees. The correspondence in this series is from 1940 to 1982, and contains Johnson’s thought about the Jewish-Palestine conflict, international affairs and U.S. politics in general, and the United Nations.
· Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (one box, 1951-78): Contains reports to Congress on finances and personnel, information on trips to Africa, Vietnam and the Middle East, U.S.-Soviet relations and the problem of the Palestinian refugees from 1948 to 1970.
· United Nations (one box, 1945-87): Contains information on the Ralph Bunche project, the Conciliation Committee for Palestine, Dean Rusk’s paper on the Middle-East, and members of the U.S. Delegation from 1969 to 1977.
· Speeches (four boxes, 1946-83): Contains Johnson’s ideas on helping to build new states in the changing dynamics in Europe and Africa; the American public and the United Nations; discrimination in the U.S. government; disarmament; overseas reaction to U.S. foreign policy; foreign policy and the search for peace; improving the United Nations; American imperialism; problems of security in 1946; and Senate Hearings report on the United Nations and World Peace.
· The Name and Subject series are arranged alphabetically by topic or name, and includes papers on various topics related to international affairs, interviews with Johnson, and correspondence with Henry Kissinger.
Additional collections of papers from Joseph Johnson were donated to Columbia University, which also contains the records of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as an oral history with Johnson conducted as part of a project to document the Carnegie Endowment in 1968. There is also an oral history interview on record in the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri.
Box and Folder Inventory
Box Contents
1
Personal Series
Correspondence
1940-50
1960-1969
1970-179
1980-89
1971-82, Re. E. Barrett Book
African Diary, 1959
Bowdoin College, Honorary Degree, 1967
Far East Trip Itinerary, 1969
Interviews, 1971, 1978
Long Island University, Honorary Degree, 1969
Miscellaneous, 1959-80
Photographs, 1950-70
2
Princeton University, 1972-73
Retirement, 1971-72
Travel, 1958-77
Vietnam Diary, 1967
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Series, 1951-1978
Africa, United States Policy Towards, 1960
African Trip, 1959
Appointment of Joseph Johnson as President, 1950
Cessation of Nuclear Testing, 1960
Conference on Pacem in Terris, 1964
General Papers, 1971-78
Giffen, S. F., 1951-54
Martin, Georges-Henri, 1970-71
Middle East Commission Trip, 1974
Miscellaneous, 1985-90
Peace and Peacekeeping, Notes, 1950-53
Radio Interviews, 1953
Report on Disarmament to State Department, 1953
South Africa, Apartheid, 1965
Statement to Senate Finance Committee, 1969
Statement to Special Committee to Investigate Tax Exempt Foundations, 1954
Tashkent and Samarkand Trip, 1961
3
Testimony Before House Sub-Committee, 1970
Travels, 1963-70
Vietnam, 1967
United States – Soviet Relations, (Dartmouth Conference), 1960-61
United Nations Series
Bunche, Ralph J., 1957-80
Chinese Representation, 1971
Conciliation Commission for Palestine, 1961-63
Draft Charter Approval, 1945
General Papers
1971-81
1982-87
Hammarskjold, Dag, 1976
Middle East, Dean Rusk Paper, 1954
Palestine Refugees in Middle East
1948-63
4
1964-70
Recognition of New Governments, 1950
Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), 1969
United States Delegation, 1969-77
Writings and Speeches Series
Lists, 1949-71
1946
1947
1948-49
1950
5
1951
1952-53
1954
1955, January –May
1955, June- December
6
1956-57
1958-59
1960
1961
April 7, 1961
7
1962-63
1963-64, “Arab vs. Israeli, Challenge for Americans” Given to American Assembly
1964-65
1966-69
1970-72
1974-75
1979, “Unofficial Diplomats”
1983, “Peace in the Middle East”
8
Name and Subject Series
Austin, Granville, Book Prospectus, 1986
Bailey, Sydney, “New Light on Abstentions in the United Nations,” 1974
Baldwin, Hanson W., Introduction to “The Price of Power,” Undated
Challenger, Richard D., “Crisis in the Establishment: Alger Hiss, John Foster
Clark, Kenneth B., Black-Jewish Relations, 1979
Conflict Resolution, Lebanon, 1971-84
Ditchley Park Conference on the Middle East, 1973
Foreign Affairs, Newspaper Clippings, 1989-90
Hughes, Thomas, L., “Liberals, Populists, and Foreign Policy,” Undated
International Institute for Strategic Studies
Buchan, Alastair, 1976
1980-82
International Labor Conference, Descrimination, 1957
“Jewish Observer and Mid East Review,” 1962
Kissinger, Henry, 1972-82
Magill, Robert N., 1970-79
Middle East Water Supply, 1967
Peacekeeping and International Organization Task Force, 1968
President’s Advisory Panel on Bangladesh Relief Assistance, 1971-72
Special Senate Committee on Policy Towards Outer Space, 1958
9
Sussex University Institute for the Study of International Organization, 1972
Thompson, Kenneth W., University of Virginia, 1978-79
United Nations Association, 1977
United States-Union of Soviet Socialists Republics Conference
Crimea Meeting, 1961
Dartmouth Meeting, 1961
University Consortium for Peace Studies, 1971-75
World Peace Foundation, 1979-82