Correspondence, memoranda, speeches and writings, congressional testimony, printed matter, and other papers relating primarily to Clark M. Clifford's personal and professional life including his role as an adviser and counsel to the Democratic administrations of Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter; his service as U.S. secretary of defense (1968-1969); and his career as a lawyer in Washington, D.C.

Subjects include the relationship between business and government, politics, national security, international relations, law, presidential elections and transitions, the Truman Doctrine, the National Security Act, the Vietnam war, Clifford's mission to Cyprus in 1977, his involvement with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, and his role as personal lawyer for John F. Kennedy.

Correspondents include Dean Acheson, Joseph Alsop, Clinton Presba Anderson, George W. Ball, Birch Bayh, Edmund G. Brown, Hillyard Brown, McGeorge Bundy, William P. Bundy, Jimmy Carter, Tom C. Clark, Barnum L. Colton, Donald C. Cook, James Cooke, Justin Whitlock Dart, Joseph Edward Davies, Thomas F. Eagleton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Leonard K. Firestone, J. William Fulbright, Grace Halsell, W. Averell Harriman, William D. Hassett, Hubert H. Humphrey, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, John Shively Knight, Melvin R. Laird, Bert Lance, John H. Lashly, Paul W. Lashly, Charles McC. Mathias, David G. McCullough, George S. McGovern, Mary McGrory, Edward P. Morgan, Edmund S. Muskie, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Paul Aldermandt Porter, Elwood R. Quesada, W. W. Rostow, James H. Rowe, Dean Rusk, George A. Smathers, Bess Wallace Truman, Harry S. Truman, James Jeremiah Wadsworth, Thomas J. Watson, and Edward Bennett Williams.