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Digital National Security Archive

Documenting the making of U.S. foreign and national security policy

 

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Latest Publications

 

The President's Daily Brief: Nixon, Ford, and the CIA, 1969-1977

The second in our series on the PDBs, this compilation reproduces the CIA’s highest-level briefings for both the Nixon and Ford presidencies.  Covering a critical period in the Cold War, it provides insights into détente with the Soviet Union, the breakthrough with China, the Arab-Israel conflict, and other world-changing events of the day.

Hostage crisis

U.S. Policy toward Iran: From the Revolution to the Nuclear Accord, 1978-2015

Published in December 2019 during the 40th anniversary year of the overthrow of the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran and onset of the hostage crisis in 1979, this collection traces all facets of a highly unusual global relationship from its darkest periods to the landmark signing of the controversial nuclear accord in 2015.  

REDOX plant

U.S. Nuclear Nonproliferation 2, Part I: From Atoms for Peace to the NPT, 1954-1968

Covering nuclear nonproliferation policy during a formative period, this set (published in July 2019) documents the creation of the major institutions and agreements that make up the international nonproliferation system; U.S. concerns about emerging nuclear weapons states; and efforts to monitor nuclear activities in China, France, India, Israel, and elsewhere.

 

Upcoming Collection in 2020

 

Donald Rumsfeld’s Snowflakes, Part I: The Pentagon and U.S. Foreign Policy, 2001-2003

The product of a National Security Archive Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, this collection is the first of a two-part series that will publish every existing “snowflake” memo Donald Rumsfeld circulated during his tenure as Secretary of Defense to President George W. Bush – over 59,000 pages in all.  (Part I will appear in late 2020, Part 2 will follow in Spring 2021.)  These unvarnished internal memos offer an extraordinary schematic of U.S. defense and national security policy from a tumultuous period, as well as insights into one of the Bush administration’s more memorable characters.

 

For publication in 2021-2023

 

  • Donald Rumsfeld's Snowflakes, Part II: The Pentagon and U.S. Foreign Policy, 2004-2007
  • Targeting Iraq, Part II: Occupation, Surge, and ISIS, 2004-2017
  • MKUltra: CIA Mind Control Experiments, 1953-1973
  • Environmental Diplomacy: U.S. Policy and Climate Change, 1981-2017
  • CIA Covert Operations, Part IV: From Truman to Eisenhower, 1945-1961
  • The Afghanistan War and the United States, 1998-2017