Collection inventory

Overview of the Collection
Creator:	Lindsay, Richard Clark.
Title:	Richard Clark Lindsay Papers
Inclusive Dates:	1929-1961
Quantity:	7.5 linear ft.
Abstract:	American military officer, commander of Allied Air Forces Southern Europe (NATO). Collection includes correspondence (1941-1960); memoranda (1942-1960); photographs; financial material; minutes, reports, and other material pertaining to the Council on Foreign Relations (1954-1957) and the U.S. Air Force (1942-1960); articles; interviews; notebooks (1951-1959); and speeches (1946-1961). Correspondents incude Laurence S. Kuter, Thomas S. Power, George E. Stratemeyer, Hoyt Vandenberg, Albert C. Wedemeyer, and Thomas D. White.
Language:	English
Repository:	Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center

Biographical History

Lt. General Richard Clark Lindsay (1905-1990) was an American military officer whose career culminated with the position of commander of Allied Air Forces Southern Europe (NATO).

A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Lindsay enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1928. Between 1929 and 1940 he served with several air squadrons (91st Observation, 9th Bomber, 88th Observation, 97th Observation) and advanced to captain. In 1941 he joined the War Department General Staff and subsequently served in several capacities during the war, including directing the Twentieth Air Force's B-29 operations against Japan. In November of 1947 he was promoted to general, and after the war he served as deputy director for strategic plans in the Office of the Joint Chief of Staff and as chairman of the Joint Strategic Plans committee. In 1951 he was assigned as the standing group liaison officer to the council deputies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and was involved in air force recruit training as commander of the 3560th Air Force Indoctrination Wing at Sampson Air Force Base, N.Y. In 1957 he was appointed commander of Allied Air Forces Southern Europe (NATO), a position he held until his retirement in 1960.

Lt. General Lindsay's awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, and the Order of the British Empire (Honourary Commander).

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

Note: In the following description, individuals are given the highest rank held during their career, which may not reflect the rank they held during the time represented in this collection.

The Richard Clark Lindsay Papers consists of communications, memorabilia, financial records and organizational records.

Communications contains correspondence -- personal, business and official -- along with official memoranda and military orders. Personal letters relate to family and friends. Business correspondence pertain to his management of the Leslie E. Lindsay Trust Fund, the development of his own stock portfolio, and insurance purchases. Official correspondence relates to his activities as an Air Force officer and deal with topics such as personnel, protocol, public relations, and command responsibilities. Among the correspondents are officials, corporate executives, and fellow officers. The latter include General Carl Spaatz, General Curtis LeMay, General Thomas Dresser White, General Thomas S. Powers, Lieut. General George Stratmeyer, General Hoyt Vandenberg, General Laurence Kuter, General Lauris Norstad, and Lieut. General Patrick Timberlake. Among his civilian correspondence, a number of letters from Henry Kissinger deal with the question of the uses of air power and other matters pertinent to his association with General Lindsay as fellow members of the Council on Foreign Relations. There is also a memo on Kissinger's book, Force and Diplomacy in the Nuclear Period.

Memorabilia contains photographs, biographical information, clippings, and a copy of General Lindsay's will.

Financial records relate to both General Lindsay's personal finances and his responsbilities as manager of the Leslie E. Lindsay Trust. Subjects covered include investments, stock transactions, insurance, taxes, and personal expenditures.

Organizational records make up the bulk of the collection. This material is subdivided into that dealing with General Lindsay's work as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and that dealing with his Air Force duties.

Council on Foreign Relations material includes reports, studies, and notes recording meeting and conference details and reactions to particular reports.

Air Force material includes subject files and writings; these files were kept in their original state and contain correspondence, memoranda, printed material charts, drafts of writings, photographs and statistical tables. An index of office files provides detailed information on the contents of most folders.

Subject files include the conduct of World War II in the Pacific, plans for the invasion and occupation of Japan, strategic planning, military aid to American allies, and the standardization of policies. Items of interest include a report by Lindsay compiled on a visit to areas of strategic importance in the Pacific, and his notes on a private conference during which General MacArthur spoke of his distrust of current naval strategy and his unwillingness to subordinate himself to naval authority.

Writings consist of articles, books and speeches in various stages of completion as well as notebooks, diaries, interviews and a few miscellaneous writings by others. Items of interest in this series include an unbound diary of Lindsay's 1943 visit to the Pacific theatre and a number of notebooks with original series designations in which he kept notes of important meetings. The speech files contain drafts and other material related to speeches and briefings given by General Lindsay. Subjects represented include the coordination of efforts between the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the possibility of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, unrestricted warfare, and general concepts of air power.

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Arrangement of the Collection

All series are arranged alphabetically by type or topic with the exception of Communications, which is subdivided by type and arranged chronologically.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Subject Headings

Persons

Corporate Bodies

Subjects

Places

Genres and Forms

Occupations

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Richard Clark Lindsay Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Richard Clark Lindsay, 1964.

Finding Aid Information

Created by: =
Date: 15 Feb 1994
Revision history: 3 May 2010- converted to EAD (MRC); 12 Dec 2012 - added oversize box number (MBD)

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Inventory

	Communications
		Correspondence
Box 1			Jan 1941 - Jun 1949 (6 folders)
Box 2			Jul 1949 - Dec 1952 (6 folders)
Box 3			Jan 1953 - Jun 1957 (7 folders)
Box 4			Jul 1957 - Dec 1960 (5 folders)
		Memoranda
Box 4			Undated
Box 4			1942-1945
Box 5			1946-1960 (6 folders)
		Orders
Box 5			1929-1960

	Memorabilia
Box 6		Biographical data 1929-1954
Box 6		Clippings circa 1960
Box 6		Invitations and announcements
Box 6		25th reunion of the Air Corps Advanced Flying School 1954
Box 6		Photographs circa 1943-1958
Box 6		Will 1950

	Financial records
Box 6		Miscellaneous
Box 6		Insurance 1943-1951
Box 6		Inventory of estate 1948-1949
		Leslie E. Lindsay Trust
Box 6			Assets and expenses 1947-1950
Box 6			Laura Baker School 1949
Box 6			Legal 1945-1950
Box 6			Taxes 1946-1950
Box 6		Stocks and bonds
Box 6		Cash statements, American Trust Company 1949-1950
Box 6		Sales and purchases 1949
Box 6		Taxes 1946-1950
Box 6		Temporary duty reimbursements 1957-1959
Box 7		Trip expenses 1957-1960
		Villa Apicella, residence
Box 6- 7			Bills 1945-1950
Box 7			Receipts 1945-1950

	Organization records
		Council on Foreign Relations
Box 7			Miscellaneous 1955-1956 - includes lists of participants
Box 7			Notes 1955-1956
Box 7			Proposals, outlines and studies 1954-1955
Box 7			Reports by Richard Lindsay 1955-1957
Box 7			Special reports 1954-1956 - printed material (2 folders)
		U.S. Air Force
			Miscellaneous
Box 7				[General] 1952-1959
Box 7				George Washington University Manpower Management Training Program 1953 - notes
Box 7				Minutes of staff meetings 1946-1947
Box 8				Pilot individual flight records 1945-1960
Box 8				Visits to bases 1954-1957
Box 8			Index of office files
			Subject files
Box 8				Miscellaneous 1943-1953 (3 folders)
Box 9				Miscellaneous 1942-1954 (4 folders)
Box 10				Miscellaneous 1943-1948 (4 folders)

	Writings
		Articles
Box 10			On Brigadier General James Anderson 1947
Box 10			"How will the world find peace?" 1959
Box 10			"Military potential of NATO" circa 1956 - galley proofs
		Books
Box 10			It was the Last Shooting War circa 1960
Box 11			Sampson Air Force Base Management Development Plan 1953
		Interviews
Box 11			Various 1953-1959
		Journals
Box 11			Pacific trip 1943
		Notebooks
Box 11			Series A-E 1951 (5 volumes)
Box 12			Series I-XI 1952-1959 (11 volumes)
		Speeches
			Miscellaneous speeches
Box 13				[untitled] 1953-1958
Box 13				Fragments and notes
Box 13				Commencement addresses 1948-1958
Box 13				Holidays 1951-1953
Box 13				National War College 1961
Box 13				Sampson Air Force Base 1958-1959 - television speech
Box 13				Students' Conference on National Affairs 1956
Box 13				Veterans' organizations 1946-1948
			Speech files
Box 13				[untitled] 1946-1950 (4 folders)
Box 14				[untitled] 1951-1955 (5 folders)
Box 15				[untitled] 1955-1959 (5 folders)
			Visual aids
Oversize 1				Presentation transparencies (Nos. 1-7) (30 Mar 1960)
		Miscellany
Box 15			Article on limiting nuclear war
Box 15			Article on NATO 1952 - printed material
Box 15			Article, "A plan for combatting communism throughout the world" 1954
Box 15			Book synopsis, A Forward Strategy for American
Box 15			Fact sheet, "A brief history of Airsouth"
Box 15			Report, "Malta-Yalta: Army Air Force Observations" by Laurence Kuter 1952

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