Seeking meaning of abbreviations in FRUS

Question

I've been doing research work about foreign relations of the United States, and I am confused about some abbreviations of some organizations. For example, in the book section &ldquo;Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954, Vol. XIV, China and Japan, Part 1,&#8221; I found an organization with the abbreviation &ldquo;FE/PC&#8221;, which I cannot find in any of the abbreviation tables. All I see is that FE means Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs, and PC means &ldquo;participating countries&#8221;, but it doesn't make sense when they are put together. And I searched the information about Mr. Eckvall and Mr. Hussey - the data showed Mr. Eckvall was an officer of the Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs, but there was nothing about Mr. Hussey. I would be appreciative if I could get some information about what FE/PC meant in Department of State in 1952-1954.

Zachary Dabbs · Answer

Dear Yuan Zhu,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

According to the Department of State Office of the Historian, as defined in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, National Security Affairs, Volume II, Part 2, FE/P is the office code for the Public Affairs Adviser, Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs, Department of State. In Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, China and Japan, Volume XIV, Part 1, FE stands for Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs, Department of State and PC stands for participating country or patrol vessel, submarine chaser. For more information about these abbreviations or office codes, please contact the Office of the Historian via email at history@state.gov.

In addition, certain Department of State telephone directories for 1965-1979 are available online. The earliest one we located is dated 1955. That directory lists the Public Affairs Advisor but not its office code or a definition for FE/PC. We also reviewed the Official Congressional Directory for the 82nd Congress, 2nd Session, available via HeinOnline.org, as well as the U.S. Government Manual for 1952/1953 and 1953/1954 and the Official Register of the United States for 1951-1954, which are available online via the U.S. Government Printing Office. These sources indicate the Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs included the Office of Chinese Affairs, Office of Northeast Asian Affairs, and the Office of Philippine and South Asian Affairs in 1952 but, unfortunately, do not provide office codes. Lastly, we checked the "Biographic Register of the Department of State" for 1951, and the supplements to that volume, as well as 1954, but were not able to find a “Mr. Eckvall'' or a “Mr. Hussey'' assigned to the Bureau in 1952.

You may be interested in finding similar online resources courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration Archives Library Information Center website.

We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your research!