About

Clements speaking at podium to dedicate the George C. Marshall corridor in the Pentagon, April 20, 1976. e_clef_20046.

William P. Clements, Jr. believed in the value of history to guide decision-makers in the field of national security. In order to honor this legacy, his family and friends established the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas-Austin. Sponsored by the Clements Center, the Clements National Security Papers Project aims to provide an extensive digital library of archival documents that will serve as a notable resource for those wishing to study American foreign and defense policy in the 1970s.

Clements served as Deputy and Acting Secretary of Defense during the Nixon and Ford years. The Clements Papers will serve to highlight the difficult decisions made during this important and often tumultuous time in history.

The Clements Center staff invested thousands of hours to collect, analyze and digitize thousands of papers related to Clements’ time at the Pentagon. These papers, which include memos, transcripts of conversations, and reports on a wide range of national security issues, will serve as tools to enrich the historical record for students and researchers around the world.

The Clements Center researchers gathered papers from the Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush Presidential Archives, as well as the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the Legislative Archives in order to create the Clements National Security Papers digital archive. The Clements Center worked with the Briscoe Center for American History to design and implement this website to allow access to these valuable materials without the need to travel to multiple repositories.

Always free of charge, the Clements National Security Papers is available because of the generous support of Mr. and Mrs. Peter O’Donnell, Jr.