Subject Guide
Declassified Information
- U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new windowSearchable collection of over 70,000 scanned declassified U.S. documents from the 1940s to the 2000s taken from presidential libraries, the CIA, the FBI and other agencies. Covers the Cold War, Vietnam, the civil rights movement and other events.
- Digital National Security ArchiveOver 35,000 declassified documents used in foreign policy decision-making by the U.S. government. Includes some photographs. These documents have been gathered since 1985 through the use of the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive.
- CREST (CIA Records Search Tool) - CIA Declassified Documents DatabaseCIA database of declassified documents came online this week. It contains a rolling 25-year embargo of “nonexempt historically valuable records”. See this article for more information
- Foreign Relations of the US - S 1.1:Selected volumes of FRUS (1861-1958/1960) have been digitized by the University of Wisconsin.
- Foreign Affairs of the US - State DepartmentA growing collection. Coverage of selected material extends up through Nixon-Ford Administration.
- Foreign Affairs of the US - S 1.1:FRUS began in 1861 and consists of sensitive correspondence, other documents of the State Department, and other materials affecting the foreign relations of the U.S. Materials are not released for publication until 25 years after they were originally produced. Prior to 1861 similar materials were printed in the Annual Report of the Secretary of State which can be found in the Serial Set, and indexed in Lexis/Nexis Congressional. See also digital versions of FRUS:
- Guide to Declassifed Information - UC, BoulderExcellent resource for identifying declassified information.
- Proquest (formerly Lexis Nexis) CongressionalProquest Congressional includes FRUS, but also many "unpublished" hearings which were released only later due to sensitive information contained in them.
- National Security ArchiveDeclassified U.S. documents.
- Top Secret America - from the Washington PostWashington Post articles and a database tracking government agencies and private contracting firms which do top secret work.