For roughly a month, we have access to the Digital National Security Archive (DNSA), a database containing over 500,000 pages of declassified documents gathered through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The DNSA contains a range of policy documents including presidential memos, meeting notes, briefing papers, White House communications, email, letters, and other secret material detailing U.S.foreign and military policy since 1945. The original documents have been digitized and indexed to allow item and page-level searching.

Memorandum to John F. Kenndy, July 21, 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library. National Security File. Box 318.

 

Afghan rebel operating a Soviet-designed anti-aircraft gun, either supplied by the CIA or captured from Soviet or Afghan government forces. Photograph by James Rupert, copyright James Rupert and National Security Archive.

Among the collections available through the DNSA are the The Berlin Crisis, 1958-1962China and the United States: From Hostility to Engagement, 1960–1998, and Afghanistan: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1973–1990. Other collections are listed here.

View other trials currently available or visit the DNSA directly.  Please send comments to Rebekah Irwin (rirwin@middlebury.edu), or contact your LIS liaison.