Jones, Joseph M. Papers

Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, 1946-1948

The papers of Joseph M. Jones primarily document his service as the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. His papers include correspondence, speech drafts, speeches, newspaper clippings, and other printed materials.

Size: 2 linear feet, 7 linear inches (about 4,800 pages)
Access: Open.
Copyright: Clarissa Leonard gave to the U.S. government her copyrights in this material and in any other material received by the U.S. government and maintained in a depository administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. Documents created by U.S. government officials in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Jerry N. Hess (1962); David Clark, Jim Armistead (2011).

The papers of Joseph M. Jones consist of documents primarily relating to his career as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from 1946 to 1948. The collection consists of a single series, arranged alphabetically, and contains correspondence, speeches and speech drafts, newspaper clippings and other printed materials, and unpublished manuscripts.

The collection contains correspondence between Jones and President Truman, family correspondence, and correspondence with such persons as Dean Acheson, Averell Harriman, Mary Lasker, David Lloyd, Adlai Stevenson, and Stuart Symington. Some of the correspondence pertains to Jones's book about the development of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, The Fifteen Weeks (1955). The collection also includes memorandums relating to Jones's work in the State Department, and letters concerning his work for Harriman and Lasker during the 1950s and early 1960s.

The printed materials in the collection mostly relate to Jones's career in government. Some of the articles were written by Jones for such publications as Harper's and Fortune magazines. There are also unpublished manuscripts in the collection. Both his published and unpublished writings pertain to such subjects as the reconstruction of Europe following World War II, aid to Turkey, the Truman Doctrine, the League of Nations, and the United Nations. Most of the newspaper clippings in the collection pertain to the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.

Speeches and speech drafts make up a significant part of the collection. Jones worked with other officials in drafting the "Truman Doctrine" speech of March 12, 1947. The collection includes a number of drafts of that speech, as well as copies of other speeches relating to the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, some of which Jones also helped write.

Related collections at the Truman Library include the papers of Clark Clifford, George Elsey, and David Lloyd.