{"value"=>"<p>The Institute of International Labor Research (IILR) was founded by Thomas and his colleagues in 1957 to oppose dictatorship and to promote democratic institutions in third world nations. Eventually its activities were focused on Latin America and the Caribbean. The papers document four of the Institute's initiatives in particular: support for the left-wing Costa Rican newspaper Combate; the establishment of the Interamerican Institute for Political Education (CIDAP), also in Costa Rica; the development of the Interamerican Institute for Economic and Social Studies, which supported the government of Juan Bosch in the Dominican Republic; and the operation of the Center for Social Documentation and Research in Mexico City, which acted as the IILR's publishing house.</p> <p>File II: H: 1 contains correspondence sent to Thomas (the chairman) by the IILR staff, much of it from the organization's secretary and manager of operations, Sacha Volman. Enclosed with much of the correspondence are minutes of board meetings, reports, press clippings, and lists of courses, faculty and students at CIDAP. Enclosures that have become separated from cover letters are filed at the end of the correspondence for each year. The file also includes correspondence between the IILR and such financial backers and advisors as the J. M. Kaplan Fund, the Free Europe Committee, and Theodore 0. Prounis Associates. Also, there are copies of Thomas' letters to Volman and others on Institute policy and Latin American affairs, and those that he wrote soliciting support for the IILR from important figures such as Richard Nixon, William O. Douglas, and J. William Fulbright. Of particular interest, in the light of charges that the J. M. Kaplan Fund acted as a conduit for CIA money, is Thomas' 1963 correspondence with Kaplan, as well as copies of Kaplan's letters to Juan Bosch, the U. S. Department of State, and Special Assistant to the President Ralph Dungan.</p> <p>The subseries also includes numerous reports, clippings from the Spanish and English language press on Institute and Latin American affairs, and a collection of essays published by the Institute.</p>"}