The Oliver North File

The Oliver North File:

His Diaries, E-Mail, and Memos on
the Kerry Report, Contras and Drugs.

Link to electronic briefing book (outside THF network).

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The 1956 Hungarian Revolution

The 1956 Hungarian Revolution

From The National Security Archive, George Washington University.

Press release:

"There is no publication, in any language, that would even approach the thoroughness, reliability, and novelty of this monumental work …. [I]t will change forever our views of what happened in Hungary between 1953- 1963." - István Deák, Columbia University

The National Security Archive announces the publication of a new volume of top-level documentation from the former Warsaw Pact and the West that provides important new information and insights into one of the darkest moments of the Cold War.

Taken from the former Soviet Union, Hungary and the United States, as well as from other East European and Western archives, these materials - many of which were previously unavailable to an English-speaking audience - provide a comprehensive picture of the decision-making on all sides of the Hungarian events of October-November 1956. Highlights include:

• U.S. attitudes toward the use of violence in Eastern Europe. Newly declassified portions of top-level U.S. policy documents and National Security Council minutes show that senior officials were prepared to consider the resort to violence in Eastern Europe in furtherance of U.S. interests.

• The role of Radio Free Europe (RFE). Internal RFE documents confirm that the Radio overstepped its bounds in encouraging Hungarian hopes of imminent Western assistance.

• The Suez crisis. Notes of Kremlin and White House discussions indicate the possible impact of the late October 1956 attack on Suez on the Soviet decision to intervene with overwhelming force in Hungary in early November.

• The character and fate of Imre Nagy. Hungarian and Soviet documents provide a more complex portrait of reform Communist Prime Minister Imre Nagy, whom the U.S. saw as a Soviet disciple but who went further than any other leader in the socialist camp other than Tito in asserting independence from the USSR. Other records give previously unknown details on the discussions between various leaders over whether to try and execute Nagy.
  

• The two faces of János Kádár. Hungary's long-time Communist leader has always been something of an enigma. Notes of Kremlin and Warsaw Pact meetings as well as internal Hungarian records add important insights into his attempts both to assert freedom of action vis-à-vis Moscow and to crack down brutally on internal dissent, especially against Nagy and his circle.

• Kremlin vacillations. Taken together, the materials in this volume offer an extraordinary picture of the thinking of Soviet leaders, their indecisiveness in the face of the Hungarian crisis and the reasons underlying their eventual decision to crush the revolution."

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Science, Technology and the CIA: From Satellites to Psychics

Science, Technology and the CIA: From Satellites to Psychics

Jeffrey T. Richelson, Editor

From The National Security Archive, George WashingtonUniversity.

"Mention of the Central Intelligence Agency generally elicits visions of espionage and covert action operations. It may also produce images of the multitude of finished intelligence products the agency turns out – from the tightly controlled President’s Daily Brief, available only to the president and a select circle of advisers, to a number of less restricted intelligence assessments. The CIA’s role in the application of science and technology to the art of intelligence is far less appreciated. Even an 800-page history of the agency, published in 1986, John Ranelagh’s The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA, included only a few references to the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology. However, the exploitation of science and technology has been a significant element of the CIA’s activities, almost since its creation. In 1962, it resulted in the creation of the Deputy Directorate of Research, which was succeeded in 1963 by the Deputy Directorate for Science and Technology (renamed the Directorate of Science and Technology in 1965)...[read more]"

Link to electronic briefing book (outside THF network).


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The Pentagon's Spies: Defense HUMINT

Defense HUMINT: The Pentagon's Spies

From The National Security Archives, George Washington University.

"A key part of the Central Intelligence Agency’s mission, since its creation in 1947, has been the conduct of human intelligence operations – which have included the recruitment of foreign nationals to conduct espionage as well the debriefing of defectors and other individuals with access to information of value. The primary focus of such HUMINT operations has been strategic – the collection of information relevant to national policymakers.
...

The documents that make up this briefing book provide a window into the creation, evolution and (in some cases) abolition of a number of military service/DoD human intelligence organizations, the product of their activities, and the controversies that have occurred over the last several decades."

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U.S. Satellite Imagery, 1960-1999

U.S. Satellite Imagery, 1960-1999

A short illustrated history by Jeffrey T. Richelson from The National Security Archive, George Washington University.

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The Secret CIA History of the Iran Coup

The Secret CIA History of the Iran Coup:

From The National Security Archive, George Washington University.

"This extremely important document is one of the last major pieces of the puzzle explaining American and British roles in the August 1953 coup against Iranian Premier Mohammad Mossadeq. Written in March 1954 by Donald Wilber, one of the operation’s chief planners, the 200-page document is essentially an after-action report, apparently based in part on agency cable traffic and Wilber’s interviews with agents who had been on the ground in Iran as the operation lurched to its conclusion." 

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Operation Desert Storm

Operation Desert Storm

From The National Security Archive, George Washington University.

"During the early morning hours (Baghdad time) of January 17, 1991, the United States and its allies initiated Operation Desert Storm in accord with United Nations resolutions and U.S. government policy directives that authorized the use of force to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait.  The National Security Archive ihas placed a collection of declassified and unclassified documents concerning Desert Storm on its web site.  The documents primarily focus on the intelligence, space support, Scud-hunting, and stealth (F-117A) elements of the conflict.

These documents provide information on:

possible Iraqi actions, including the attempted destruction of Kuwaiti oil fields, which a secret Presidential directive stipulated would lead the U.S. to seek and replace Saddam Hussein

lessons learned from the attempts to find and destroy Iraqi Scud missiles

the role of a variety of space systems, including the Defense Support Program launch detection satellites, in support of the ground and air wars

the debriefing of Iraqi emigres and defectors in support of targeting

how China's People's Liberation Army has responded to the lessons of Desert Storm."

 Link to electronic briefing book (outside THF network).

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The George Washington Forum on American Ideas, Politics & Institutions

The George Washington Forum on American Ideas, Politics & Institutions

Department of History, Ohio University

"The George Washington Forum aims to bolster the teaching of America’s foundational principles in their Western intellectual, political, and institutional contexts. It is founded on the idea that students facing an increasingly globalized world need to understand what particularly characterizes and distinguishes the nation in which they live and the civilization from which it emerged. As such, the Washington Forum aims to help students become enlightened citizens in a liberal democracy whose roots run deep in Western civilization but whose ideals and interests transcend the West.

During the 2009–10 academic year, The Washington Forum will host a major conference on Making Democracy: Violence, Politics and the American Founding (22–23 April 2010). Plenary speakers will include Andrew Cayton, Peter Onuf, David Hendrickson, Patrick Griffin, and T.H. Breen. The Forum will also host public lectures during the year by Patrick Deneen, Jack P. Greene, and Paul Halliday."

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The Gulf of Tonkin Incident

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident:

Flawed Intelligence and the Decision for War in Vietnam

From John Prados & The National Security Archive, George Washington University.

"President Johnson and top U.S. officials chose to believe that North Vietnam had just attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, even though the highly classified signals intercepts they cited to each other actually described a naval clash two days earlier (a battle prompted by covert U.S. attacks on North Vietnam), according to the declassified intercepts, Johnson White House tapes, and related documents posted today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

Compiled by Archive senior fellow and Vietnam expert John Prados, today's 40th anniversary electronic briefing book includes Dr. Prados's detailed analysis of the intercepts - only declassified in 2003 - together with audio files and transcripts of the key Tonkin Gulf conversations between President Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. The latter are excerpted from Dr. Prados's book, The White House Tapes (New York: The New Press, 2003). The posting also contains photographs and charts from the Tonkin Gulf incident courtesy of the U.S. Naval Historical Center, a detailed documentary chronology compiled by the State Department's Office of the Historian for the Foreign Relations of the United States series, a CIA Special National Intelligence Estimate on possible North Vietnamese responses to U.S. actions from May 1964 (just declassified in June 2004), and links to previous and upcoming Archive publications on Vietnam."

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Fighting the War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973

Fighting the War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973:

From The National Security ARchive, George Washington University.


 "Previously secret U.S. Air Force official histories of the Vietnam war published by the National Security Archive disclose for the first time that Central Intelligence Agency contract employees had a direct role in combat air attacks when they flew Laotian government aircraft on strike missions and that the Air Force actively considered nuclear weapons options during the 1959 Laos crisis.
The newly declassified histories, which were released through Freedom of Information Act litigation by the National Security Archive with the law firm James & Hoffman, include the Air Force's detailed official history of the war in northern Laos, written during the 1990s but hidden in classified form for years. Also declassified were Air Force historical studies on specific years of the Vietnam War, documenting in great detail the Air Force's role in planning and implementing the air war in North and South Vietnam. Among other significant disclosures in these histories are:

• Air Force interest in nuclear options during at least two flash points in the Southeast Asian conflict: Laos in 1959 and in 1968 during the battle of Khe Sanh.
• CIA operational commitments for the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion hampered the Agency's ability to carry out Kennedy administration policy in Laos.
• CIA proprietary Air America directed search and rescue missions in Laos in addition to its role in combat operations.
• The U.S. ambassador in Laos served as the field commander of the so-called "secret war" there, a role that has been largely undocumented."

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The CIA's Vietnam Histories

The CIA's Vietnam Histories:

From John Prados & The National Security Archive, George Washington University.

"The Central Intelligence Agency participated in every aspect of the wars in Indochina, political and military, according to newly declassified CIA histories. The six volumes of formerly secret histories (the Agency's belated response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by National Security Archive senior fellow John Prados) document CIA activities in South and North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in unprecedented detail. The histories contain a great deal of new material and shed light on aspects of the CIA's work that were not well known or were poorly understood."

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Death of Che Guevara: Declassified

Death of Che Guevara:

The Death of Che Guevara: Declassified by Peter Kornbluh, from The National Security Archive, George Washington University.

"On October 9th, 1967, Ernesto "Che" Guevara was put to death by Bolivian soldiers, trained, equipped and guided by U.S. Green Beret and CIA operatives. His execution remains a historic and controversial event; and thirty years later, the circumstances of his guerrilla foray into Bolivia, his capture, killing, and burial are still the subject of intense public interest and discussion around the world. As part of the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Che Guevara, the National Security Archive's Cuba Documentation Project is posting a selection of key CIA, State Department, and Pentagon documentation relating to Guevara and his death. This electronic documents book is compiled from declassified records obtained by the National Security Archive, and by authors of two new books on Guevara: Jorge Castañeda's Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara (Knopf), and Henry Butterfield Ryan's The Fall of Che Guevara (Oxford University Press). The selected documents, presented in order of the events they depict, provide only a partial picture of U.S. intelligence and military assessments, reports and extensive operations to track and "destroy" Che Guevara's guerrillas in Bolivia; thousands of CIA and military records on Guevara remain classified. But they do offer significant and valuable information on the high-level U.S. interest in tracking his revolutionary activities, and U.S. and Bolivian actions leading up to his death." Link to electronic briefing book (outside THF network).

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Kennedy & Castro: The Secret History

Kennedy & Castro: The Secret History:

"Kennedy Sought Dialogue with Cuba but the initiative with Castro was aborted by the assassination.'

From The National Security Archives, George Washington University.

Link to electronic briefing book (outside THF network).

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The Nuclear Vault: Resources from the Nuclear Weapons Documentation Project

The Nuclear Vault: Resources from the Nuclear Weapons Documentation Project:

From The National Security Archive, George Washington University.

"The "Nuclear Vault" includes all previous and forthcoming Archive Electronic Briefing Books on nuclear weapons policy, cross-referenced with an index. It also includes newly-declassified documents that may be of interest to novices and experts alike.

For students of the field, the "Nuclear Vault" includes reading lists and other bibliographic information on key documents and significant contributions to the nuclear history and policy literature. The "Vault" will also provide links to valuable Web sites in the field, as well as occasional compilations of photos. The National Security Archive hopes that this material will help interested students and others to better their understanding of the grave problems raised by the nuclear age and its history."

Link to The Nuclear Vault (outside THF network).

A note on The National Security Archive:

"An independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Archive also serves as a repository of government records on a wide range of topics pertaining to the national security, foreign, intelligence, and economic policies of the United States. The Archive won the 1999 George Polk Award, one of U.S. journalism's most prestigious prizes, for--in the words of the citation--"piercing the self-serving veils of government secrecy, guiding journalists in the search for the truth and informing us all."

The Archive obtains its materials through a variety of methods, including the Freedom of Information act, Mandatory Declassification Review, presidential paper collections, congressional records, and court testimony. Archive staff members systematically track U.S. government agencies and federal records repositories for documents that either have never been released before, or that help to shed light on the decision-making process of the U.S. government and provide the historical context underlying those decisions.

The Archive regularly publishes portions of its collections on microfiche, the World Wide Web, CD-ROM, and in books. The Washington Journalism Review called these publications, collectively totaling more than 500,000 pages, "a state-of-the-art index to history." The Archive's World Wide Web site, www.nsarchive.org, has won numerous awards, including USA Today's "Hot Site" designation.

As a part of its mission to broaden access to the historical record, the Archive is also a leading advocate and user of the Freedom of Information Act. Precedent-setting Archive lawsuits have brought into the public domain new materials on the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Iran-Contra Affair, and other issues that have changed the way scholars interpret those events. The Archive spearheaded the groundbreaking legal effort to preserve millions of pages of White House e-mail records that were created during the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations.

The Archive's mission of guaranteeing the public's right to know extends to other countries outside the United States. The organization is currently involved in efforts to sponsor freedom of information legislation in the nations of Central Europe, Central and South America and elsewhere, and is committed to finding ways to provide technical and other services that will allow archives and libraries overseas to introduce appropriate records management systems into their respective institutions.

The Archive's $2.5 million yearly budget comes from publication revenues, contributions from individuals and grants from foundations such as the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Open Society Institute. As a matter of policy, the Archive seeks no U.S. government funding."

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