ADST is the sole American private organization principally committed to the collection of documents about recent U.S. diplomatic history.

ADST programs include: Retired U.S. Foreign Service officer Charles "Stu" Kennedy started the oral history project after listening to several eulogies given at ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick's 1983 funeral, as he became concerned that the historically valuable personal recollections of U.S. diplomats might be lost forever if not recorded.

[5][6][7] Along with Victor Wolf Jr., who also worked on the early stages of the project, Kennedy recognized the need for outside help to produce the oral histories, along with volunteers and interviewers.

[7] In 1986, Stephen Low and Richard Parker founded the ADS (Association for Diplomatic Studies) to aid education at the Foreign Service Institute.

ADST interviews American diplomats after departure from government service about their career experiences and professional insights and assessments of leaders, successful and unsuccessful policies, and foreign conflicts.

[10] The oral history collection is referenced by scholars, authors, and media, including The Washington Post, The Atlantic, C-SPAN, RealClearPolitics, and others.

These include ambassadors, attachés, consuls, USIA and USAID officers, Foreign Service Nationals, spouses, and workers at the Departments of Agriculture, Treasury, and Commerce.

Examples of notable interviewees include Julia Child, Prudence Bushnell, John D. Negroponte, Harriet Elam-Thomas, Thomas Reeve Pickering, Shirley Temple Black, and A. Elizabeth Jones.

[9][7] In order to reflect the diversity of the Foreign Service, ADST has compiled a collection of oral histories of African American and Latino diplomats.

Oral histories have been used as source material for several books, such as John Pomfret's The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present, Derek Leebaert's Grand Improvisation: America Confronts the British Superpower, 1945–1957, Timothy Weiner's Legacy of Ashes, and Margaret MacMillan's Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World.

[19] Other ADST resources include the video series "Tales of American Diplomacy", podcasts, and over 1,000 articles highlighting "Moments in U.S.