The US, refusing to recognise the annexation and occupation of the Baltic States, did not break diplomatic relations with them after 1940. Legations, consulates general and / or consulates of these countries continued to operate in Washington, New York and Chicago. Acting together, the Baltic diplomats were organized and united; they maintained regular contact with the US Department of State. The relations of the four countries were businesslike and friendly.

In June 1940 Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were occupied by the Soviet Union. However, some foreign countries did not recognize this occupation of the Baltic States and did not sever diplomatic relations with their representatives in those countries. In this way legations and / or consulates of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia continued operating in the United States, the Holy See, Great Britain, Australia, and several (other) democratic states. For more than 50 years these diplomats stood in guard of their countries’ statehood, and for them this period may be described as an extended Cold War. Both they and their contemporaries wrote about the situation of the Baltic States within the framework of international law. Interest in this unusual episode in international diplomatic history did not cease after 1991 when the Baltic countries had accomplished their liberation from the Soviets. Another historiographical position concerning the fate of Baltic diplomats involves increased attention to the transition period friom 1989 to 1991 when the diplomats of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia returned to the jurisdiction of their state institutions, envoys and consuls became ambassadors, and they continued rendering diplomatic services. But these two dominant historiographical positions do not reveal an overall picture of the ways Baltic diplomats cooperated with each other and maintained mutual relations (extending from joint consultations over common document preparation to mutual moral and financial assistance). These details may be filled in by occasional texts in the Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, and English languages as well as the personal archives kept by Baltic diplomats and now safeguarded in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and the United States.