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Carlton Raymond Savage (1897-1990) was born near Salem, Oregon on December 28, 1897. In 1916 he graduated from Salem High School, after which he served in the U.S. Army during WWI. In 1921 he graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science degree, having served his senior year as student body president.
Upon graduation he became principal of the Glendale, Oregon high school. He left that position in 1922 to become the business manager of the Oregon State Normal School at Monmouth (now Western Oregon University). In 1927 Savage received his master's in international law and diplomacy from George Washington University.
Immediately after receiving his master's degree, Savage entered the State Department and worked there continuously until his retirement, serving under multiple secretaries of state. In 1936 he became an aide to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, assisting in the formulation of U.S. foreign policy, with particular attention to the issues of neutrality and belligerency prior to America's entrance into WWII.
Savage was the primary author of several publications issued by the State Department including Policy of the U.S. Toward Maritime Commerce in War (1934) and Peace and War: U.S. Foreign Policy, 1931-1941 (1943). The latter title became a national bestseller and was eventually translated into several languages.
In 1945 Savage served on the staff of the American delegation at the conference in San Francisco which established the United Nations. On May 5, 1947, Savage was appointed executive secretary of the newly created Policy Planning Council within the Department of State. The council was given the responsibility to articulate comprehensive proposals designed to ensure the achievement of the American foreign policy objectives during the postwar era and to present appropriate recommendations to the secretary of state and the under-secretary of state.
Savage received a Superior Service award in 1958 and retired in 1962. He continued to make his services available to the Policy Planning Council as a consultant after the date. Savage died at the age of 93 in Bethesda, Maryland on 1990.
The collection contains correspondence, speeches, a personal journal, political biographical files, State Department's Policy Planning Council and United Nations subject files, reviews and publicity for State Department publications by Savage, a volume of hearings before the House Judiciary Subcommittee concerning a declaration of war, and photographs.
Correspondence is organized by date, 1927-1983, and consists mainly of letters to and from Savage regarding his assignments in the State Department. Correspondents include Albert Gore, Sr., Wayne L. Morse, Nelson Rockefeller, and Sargent Shriver. Speeches written by Savage are also included.
Savage's personal journal, 1936-1937, details his work within the State Department. It is predominantly handwritten and includes accounts of daily conferences, meetings, and decisions concerning the Spanish Civil War and the process of making decisions pertaining to secret treaties and the U.S. stance toward neutrality.
Biographical and political information files include speeches, career information, clippings and press releases on President Franklin Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, and Senators Charles McNary and Mark Hatfield.
The State Department's Policy Planning Council files contain alphabetized subject files on cold war issues, an essay on the League of Nations, the Hull-Dewey Dulles agreement, objectives, renunciation of war, letters to the editor by Savage, and the publications Policy of the U.S. Toward Maritime Commerce in War (1934) and Peace and War: U.S. Foreign Policy, 1931-1941 (1943).
Also included in the collection are files of photocopied articles organized by publisher and date (1930-1969), and volumes titled, Hearings before House Judiciary Subcommittee-Declaration of War (1935), and U.N. - The First Fifteen Years (1960).