These Valeriani Papers reflect his professional activity as a news broadcaster specializing in foreign affairs. The collection is a particularly interesting and useful resource for the researcher interested in Henry Kissinger and his Middle Eastern diplomacy. In addition, the collection supplements the numerous collections of other NBC News correspondents held at the Wisconsin Historical Society. The documentation is most complete for the years 1973 through 1977, the period during which Valeriani covered the State Department. Coverage is not as complete for the earlier years, nor does the collection afford a particularly personal view of Valeriani's career.
The collection came to the Historical Society in 1983 in great disorder and was organized in the Archives as subject files, news scripts, and research material and manuscript drafts relating to Valeriani's book on Kissinger, Travels with Henry.
SUBJECT FILES consist of miscellaneous material arranged alphabetically by general topic or form. The series consists largely of expenditure statements which detail Valeriani's day-to-day activities from 1963 to 1983. Although these are routine financial records, they were retained because of the unusually detailed and complete narrative documentation they provide, documentation not afforded by any other similar collection held by the Historical Society. Also included in the subject files are articles, interviews and speech drafts including a transcript of an interview with Paul Newman; financial records, clippings, and correspondence on “Henry the K,” the racehorse in which a group of reporters from Kissinger's entourage invested; miscellany including biographical material, lists, and notes (presumably by Newsweek correspondent Bruce van Voorst) on Kissinger trips; music and lyrics of a song on Kissinger by Valeriani; and travel material arranged by country, including information sheets, schedules, and “pool” reports.
Also listed here is a 15-minute tape recording made on December 21, 1976, at the State Department Correspondents Association party honoring Kissinger's departure from office. It features Valeriani's introductory remarks and a brief speech by Kissinger.
NEWS SCRIPTS are arranged into two categories: general topics and Henry Kissinger. The former are arranged chronologically, but in keeping with the original order of the collection, the scripts pertaining primarily to Kissinger are arranged by country or region. These scripts were used for research on Travels with Henry, and the order reflects the format of the book. Many of the general scripts were undated or only partially dated, but wherever feasible they were assigned a rough date by their topic or context. These scripts reflect Valeriani's work on Emphasis, NBC Nightly News, Today, and various other news programs. Also included here is the transcript of a 1982 NBC Reports special: Whatever Happened to El Salvador.
TRAVELS WITH HENRY consists of research material, manuscript drafts, and other documentation related to the production of Valeriani's book. The arrangement of this section reflects the sequence in which the book was written. The research materials consist largely of notes arranged into geographical and general files. The notes include anecdotes; transcripts of interviews with Kissinger, State Department staff, and other journalists; informal synopses of contacts with the secretary; and handwritten reporter's notes. The transcripts are particularly interesting for the off-the-record information which they contain which is not easily accessible elsewhere. Also included is correspondence to and from heads of state and other journalists written in an effort to discover additional anecdotes, exchanges with the Freedom of Information staff at the Bureau of Public Affairs, and communications regarding book production and promotion. Printouts of State Department cable traffic pertaining to Kissinger, obtained by Valeriani through the Freedom of Information Act, are also included here, as are schedules, itineraries, and passenger lists of Kissinger trips and news scripts by others journalists (notably Bruce van Voorst) used in researching the book. The manuscript drafts include several chapters cut from the final version of the book. A copy of the published volume is available in the Historical Society Library.
