National Security Archive
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The Climate Intelligence Assessment the Government Doesn’t Want You to See
2008 Assessment Could Fill Critical Gaps in Most Recent 2021 Intelligence Estimate “There’s no secret stuff in here… Just good analysts working with publicly available information and applying good methodological tradecraft” Continue reading
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The Kissinger Telcons: The Story Behind the Story
ADVISED THAT TELCONS WERE “PERSONAL PAPERS,” KISSINGER EXPECTED TO KEEP THEM WHEN HE LEFT OFFICE LIKELIHOOD OF BAD PUBLICITY AND LAWSUITS CHANGED HIS MIND STATE DEPARTMENT LAWYER: “THESE RECORDS ARE NOT SUBJECT TO THE FOIA” Continue reading
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Anatoly S. Chernyaev Diary, 1983
Washington D.C., May 25, 2023 – The National Security Archive today marks what would have been Anatoly Sergeyevich Chernyaev’s 102nd birthday with the publication for the first time in English of his Diary for 1983. At the time, Chernyaev was deputy director of the International Department of the Central Committee responsible for the International Communist… Continue reading
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Henry Kissinger’s Documented Legacy
A DECLASSIFIED DOSSIER ON HAK’S CONTROVERSIAL HISTORICAL LEGACY, ON HIS 100TH BIRTHDAY KISSINGER’S 8 YEARS IN POWER CHANGED CHILE, CAMBODIA, EAST TIMOR, ANGOLA, AND MUCH OF THE WORLD, FOR THE WORSE Continue reading
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The Cuban Missile Crisis @ 60 Getting to Know the Cubans: Part 2
Washington, D.C., November 3, 2022 – As Cuban-Soviet ties grew stronger from late 1960 through early 1961, the Cubans repeatedly asked for military assistance and security guarantees from the Soviets and expressed growing concern about the threat of a U.S. intervention, according to Russian archival documents published today by the National Security Archive. The Cubans… Continue reading
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The Cuban Missile Crisis @ 60 The Most Dangerous Day
Washington, D.C., October 27, 2022 – The most dangerous 24 hours of the Cuban Missile Crisis came on Saturday, October 27, 1962, 60 years ago today, as the U.S. moved closer to attacking Cuba and nuclear-armed flashpoints erupted over Siberia, at the quarantine line, and in Cuba itself—a rapid escalation that convinced both John Kennedy and… Continue reading
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The Cuban Missile Crisis @ 60 Briefing NATO Allies
Washington, D.C., October 21, 2022 – President John F. Kennedy made unilateral decisions to impose a naval blockade and approve other military moves, but winning the support of European allies remained central to U.S. policy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, according to declassified records of briefings delivered to NATO leaders shortly before Kennedy announced the… Continue reading
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Getting to Know the Cubans: Khrushchev Meets the Castro Brothers
Washington, D.C., October 14, 2022 – Today the National Security Archive publishes for the first time in any language a translation of the first meeting between Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro on July 18, 1960. The newly available transcript helps explain Khrushchev’s 1962 determination that defending Cuba from U.S. intervention would… Continue reading
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Australian Spies Aided and Abetted CIA in Chile
Washington, D.C., September 10, 2021 – At the behest of the CIA, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) established a “station” in Santiago in 1971 and conducted clandestine spy operations to directly support U.S. intervention in Chile, according to declassified Australian records made public for the first time by the National Security Archive on the 48th anniversary of… Continue reading
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Afghanistan 20/20: The 20-Year War in 20 Documents
Washington, D.C., August 19, 2021 – The U.S. government under four presidents misled the American people for nearly two decades about progress in Afghanistan, while hiding the inconvenient facts about ongoing failures inside confidential channels, according to declassified documents published today by the National Security Archive. Continue reading
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Israeli Attack on Iraq’s Osirak 1981: Setback or Impetus for Nuclear Weapons?
Washington, D.C., June 7, 2021—Israel’s 1981 strike against the Osirak nuclear reactor at Tuwaitha – which took place 40 years ago today – apparently caught the Reagan administration completely by surprise despite warnings by CIA analysts and U.S. diplomats going back to 1979 that Israel might attack the facility. Continue reading
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The Chernyaev Centennial
100th Birthday of Anatoly Sergeyevich marked with latest translated excerpt of his “irreplaceable” diary — the year 1981 ARCHITECT OF “NEW THINKING,” CHAMPION OF GLASNOST, PROLIFIC HISTORIAN, HERO OF THE END OF THE COLD WAR, KEY SOURCE FOR SCHOLARS Continue reading
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“Questionable Activities”: CIA Assassination Plot Targeted Raul Castro
16 April 2021 — National Security Archive As Castro retires on 60th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs, National Security Archive posts declassified, top secret CIA cables, reports from 1960 Agency officials willing to pay over $10,000 for ‘fatal accident’ Washington D.C., April 16, 2021 – In the earliest known CIA assassination plot against leaders of the Continue reading
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Crises, Alerts, and DEFCONS, 1961-1976 – Part II
Washington, D.C., April 8, 2021 – The United States and its European allies disagreed over the advisability of using nuclear weapons to signal resolve and deter war if a serious crisis with Moscow over West Berlin broke out, according to a review of declassified records posted today by the nongovernmental National Security Archive. Continue reading
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The Clinton White House and Climate Change, Part II: Engaging the Oval Office
Washington, D.C., April 5, 2021 – President Bill Clinton’s climate policy faced some of its biggest challenges from two very different quarters – China and the Congress – according to a collection of recently declassified internal papers posted today by the nongovernmental National Security Archive. Continue reading
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Gorbachev’s Greatest Hits
Washington, D.C., March 2, 2021 – The first and only president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, is turning 90 years old today in Moscow. On the occasion of his anniversary, the National Security Archive has compiled a collection of postings called “Gorbachev’s Greatest Hits.” These documents help illuminate the story of the end of… Continue reading
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Allende and Chile: ‘Bring Him Down’
3 November 2020 — Origin: National Security Archive Salvador Allende’s Historic Inauguration 50 Years Later Declassified White House Records Show How Nixon-Kissinger Set Strategy of Destabilization—And Why Washington D.C., November 3, 2020 — Several days after Salvador Allende’s history-changing November 3, 1970, inauguration, Richard Nixon convened his National Security Council for a formal meeting on what policy Continue reading
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Putin, Clinton, and Presidential Transitions
2 November 2020 — National Security Archive Highest-level memcons and cables document Putin’s rise to power Clinton Library declassifications plus Archive lawsuit open verbatim Clinton-Putin and Clinton-Yeltsin conversations U.S. emphasis on importance of transfer of power by ballot box gives way to merely endorsing peaceful transition as Yeltsin resigns and anoints Putin in 1999 Continue reading
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New Light in a Dark Corner: Evidence on the Diem Coup in South Vietnam, November 1963
1 November 2020 — National Security Archive JFK Was More Inclined toward Regime Change than Earlier Believed Newly Released JFK Tape and President’s Intelligence Checklists Fill in Gaps in Record South Vietnamese Leader’s Notes Published for First Time, Written Hours Before Assassination Continue reading
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The CIA and Chile: Anatomy of an Assassination
Fifty years ago today, armed thugs intercepted and mortally wounded the Chilean army commander-in-chief, General René Schneider, as he drove to the Ministry of Defense in Santiago, Chile. The next day, CIA Director Richard Helms convened his top aides to review the covert coup operations that had led to the attack. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 