Jack and Rebecca Matlock Papers, 1930s-2017 and undated

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Collection is open for research. Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Viewing copies available; contact Research Services to coordinate access to viewing/use copies.
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Summary

Creator:
Matlock, Jack F.
Abstract:
Jack Faust Matlock was US Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987-1991. This collection includes materials from him and his wife, photographer Rebecca Matlock, dating largely from the 1940s through the mid-2010s. The bulk of items relates to their work for the US Foreign Service; they were officially stationed in Washington, Moscow, Prague, Accra, Dar es Salaam, and Zanzibar and traveled extensively throughout the world. Jack Matlock was a key figure in the Ronald Reagan administration and participated in almost every US-USSR summit from the 1970s until his retirement in 1991. Also present in the collection are diaries, writings, memoranda, reports, clippings, interviews, photographs, event files, audiovisual materials, and other documents regarding the Matlocks' career, travels, interests, family life, and scholarship.
Extent:
210 Linear Feet
Language:
Materials in English, Russian, Czech, and other languages.
Collection ID:
RL.11082

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains diaries, calendars, interviews, recordings, photographs, memoranda, clippings, writings, memorabilia, and other documents spanning the lives of Jack F. Matlock and Rebecca B. Matlock. The Matlocks spent 35 years in the US Foreign Service, with posts in Washington, Accra, Vienna, Germany, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Moscow, and Prague. Their collection documents their government work as well as their family life, travels, and interactions with US and Soviet officials and citizens.

Materials have been sorted into series: Diaries, Foreign Service, Consecutive Files, Writings, Academia, Events, Subjects/Organizations/Names, and Personal Files. Each series is detailed below.

Biographical / historical:

Historical Note

Chronology
Date Event
1928
Rebecca Burrum born, Manchester, Tennessee
1929 Oct. 1
Jack Matlock born, Greensboro, NC
1949
Jack Matlock marries Rebecca Burrum while they are undergraduates at Duke University
1950
Matlocks graduate with BAs from Duke University
1952
Jack Matlock graduates with MA from Columbia University
1953-1956
JM taught Russian literature and language at Dartmouth College
1956-1958
JM entered Foreign Service; worked as Research Analyst in Soviet Affairs, Washington DC.
1958-1960
Vice Consul and Third Secretary, American Embassy, Vienna
1960-1961
Language and training in Soviet affairs at US Army Advanced Russian Institute, Oberammergau, Federal Republic of Germany
1961-1963
Vice Consul and then Second Secretary, American Embassy, Moscow
1963-1966
Second Secretary, the First Secretary (Political Officer), American Embassy, Accra, Ghana
1967-1969
Consul and Principal Officer, Zanzibar
1969-1970
Deputy Chief of Mission, American Embassy, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
1970-1971
Member of Senior Seminar on Foreign Policy, Dept. of State, Washington DC
1971-1974
Director of the Office of Soviet Union Affairs, Dept. of State, Washington DC
1974-1978
Deputy Chief of Mission, American Embassy, Moscow
1978-1979
Diplomat-in-Residence and visiting professor of political science, Vanderbilt University
1979-1980
Deputy Director, Foreign Service Institute, Dept. of State
1981 Jan.-Sept.
Charge d'Affaires ad interim, American Embassy, Moscow
1981-1983
Ambassador to Czechoslovakia
1983-1986
Special Assistant to the President, Senior Director of European and Soviet Affairs on the National Security Council
1987-1991 Aug.
Ambassador to the USSR, Moscow
1991 Aug.-Sept.
Consultant, American Broadcasting Company (ABC)
1991-1993
Senior Research Scholar, Harriman Institute, Columbia University
1995
JM published Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union
1996-2001
George F. Kennan Professor, Institute for Advanced Study
2004
JM published Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended
2004
RM published At Spaso House: People and Meetings: Notes of the wife of an American ambassador (in Russian)
Acquisition information:
The Jack and Rebecca Matlock Papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift from 2016 to 2017.
Processing information:

Processed by Meghan Lyon, Craig Breaden, Jasmine Alexander-Greene, Laurin Penland, and Alice Poffinberger.

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2016-0210, 2017-0174, 2018-0030.

Arrangement:

Grouped into series: Diaries, Foreign Service, Consecutive Files, Writings, Academia, Subjects, Personal, and Events. Audiovisual Materials are in a separate series but topically overlap with other series in the collection.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Viewing copies available; contact Research Services to coordinate access to viewing/use copies.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Jack and Rebecca Matlock Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.