Cold War Digital Library

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Bay of Pigs
Bay of Pigs : 40 Years After
An International Conference, Havana, Cuba - March 22-24, 2001
Includes: Index of Declassified Cuban Documents ; Chronology ; CIA Oral History Transcripts
From The National Security Archive, The George Washington University

Bay of Pigs Reports
"This two volume 400 plus page document consists of (Volume I) the CIA Inspector General's (IG) report on the CIA's ill fated April 1961 attempt to implement national policy by overthrowing the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba by means of a covert paramilitary operation, otherwise known as the Bay of Pigs, and (Volume II), a commentary on the IG report written by the Directorate of Plans (DP), now known as the Directorate of Operations (DO). These two volumes are a rare side-by-side compilation of high-level government self-evaluation of its own performance in an historic and controversial event."
Electronic Document Release Center, Central Intelligence Agency

The Ultrasensitive Bay of Pigs:
Newly Released Portions of Taylor Commission Report Provide Critical New Details on Operation Zapata.
Edited by Peter Kornbluh ; Assisted by: Rafael Cohen, Michael Evans and Catherine Nielsen.
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 29 ; May 3, 2000

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Castro Speech Database
"...is a database containing the full text of English translations of speeches, interviews, and press conferences by Fidel Castro, based upon the records of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), a U.S. government agency responsible for monitoring broadcast and print media in countries throughout the world. These records are in the public domain."
"It is not to be construed that this database contains all statements, speeches, and interviews made by Fidel Castro."
Latin American Network Information Center, University of Texas

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

• Center for the Studies of Intelligence - (dead link)
  • Publications - (dead link)
• Electronic Document Release Center
  • Bay of Pigs Reports
    "This two volume 400 plus page document consists of (Volume I) the CIA Inspector General's (IG) report on the CIA's ill fated April 1961 attempt to implement national policy by overthrowing the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba by means of a covert paramilitary operation, otherwise known as the Bay of Pigs, and (Volume II), a commentary on the IG report written by the Directorate of Plans (DP), now known as the Directorate of Operations (DO). These two volumes are a rare side-by-side compilation of high-level government self-evaluation of its own performance in an historic and controversial event."
  • Historical Review Program - The Princeton Collection
    "Analytic reports on the former Soviet Union, produced by CIAís Directorate of Intelligence during 1951-1991, that were declassified and released for use at a 9-10 March 2001 conference at Princeton University. These documents were transferred to NARA under Accession #NN3-263-01-00."

Cold War International History Project
Seeks to disseminate new information and perspectives on Cold War history emerging from previously inaccessible sources on 'the other side' (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars) - Includes virtual documents library, discussion group and back issues of the CWIHP Bulletin. Requires free and easily obtainable password.

Federation of American Scientists

• Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (1972)
  Includes: Chronology ; Texts ; Documents ; News.

Georgetown University - National Security Archive

• Electronic Surveillance: From the Cold War to Al-Qaeda
  Wiretap Debate Deja Vu: Documents show Ford White House embraced wiretap law instead of claiming "inherent" Presidential authority in 1976 despite objections from Rumsfeld, G.H.W. Bush, Kissinger. Web posting includes Justice report on criminal liability for 1970s warrantless wiretapping, 1990s directives on US surveillance."
• How Many and Where Were the Nukes?
  What the U.S. Government No Longer Wants Your Know about Nuclear Weapons During the Cold War. Update October 2006: Cold War Missile Numbers "De-re-classified"
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 197.
  Edited by William Burr, August 2006. Updated October 2006.
• The Diary of Anatoly Chernyaev
  Former Top Soviet Adviser's Journal Chronicles Final Year of the Cold War
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 192, May 2006.
• The Nixon Administration, The SIOP, and the Search for Limited Nuclear Options, 1969-1974
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 173
  By William Burr, November 2005.
• Secret Understandings on the Use of Nuclear Weapons, 1950-1974
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 159, July 2005
• National Intelligence Estimates of the Nuclear Proliferation Problem: The First Ten Years, 1957-1967
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 155, June 2005.
  Edited by William Burr.
• The Creation of SIOP-62: More Evidence on the Origins of Overkill
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 130
  Edited by William Burr, July 2004.
• The Kissinger Telcons: The Dobrynin File
  "Happy Birthday" Henry Kissinger
  "This selection of documents focuses on one of the most important groups of documents in the newly released Kissinger telcons--the record of high-level diplomacy with the chief representative of the number one adversary, Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin."
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 123, May 2004.
  Edited by Dr. Svetlana Savranskaya.
• Prisoner Abuse: Patterns From the Past
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 122, May 2004.
  "CIA interrogation manuals written in the 1960s and 1980s described 'coercive techniques' such as those used to mistreat detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, according to the declassified documents posted today by the National Security Archive."
  • Secret 1992 Report
    Written by then Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney.
• Nixon's Nuclear Ploy: The Vietnam Negotiations and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test, October 1969 (December 2002)
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 81
  Edited by William Burr and Jeffrey Kimball
  "...discloses for the first time one of the Nixon administration's most secret military operations."
• U.S. Propaganda in the Middle East - The Early Cold War Version (December 2002)
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 78
  "The documents collected here describe an earlier program to expand and revitalize American propaganda directed at the Middle East, and the methods that were utilized, including graphic displays, manipulation of the news, books, movies, cartoons, activities directed at schools and universities, and exchange programs."
• The 1956 Hungarian Revolution: A History in Documents
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 76
  Edited by Malcolm Byrne, November 4, 2002
  "...is the first attempt to put together a major collection of these new materials, in addition to the significant number of items that appear here for the first time in any language, in a single volume. In all, the book consists of 120 documents and totals 598 pages."
• The Submarines of October
  U.S. and Soviet Naval Encounters During the Cuban Missile Crisis
  National Security Archive Briefing Book No. 75
  William Burr and Thomas S. Blanton, Editors, October 31, 2002
  "The documents that follow, culled mostly from the U.S. Navy's operational archives, show how U.S. destroyers and patrol aircraft pursued Soviet submarines during the crisis and after it had subsided, in November."
• The U-2, OXCART, and the SR-71
  U.S. Aerial Espionage in the Cold War and Beyond
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 74
  Jeffrey T. Richelson, Editor, October 16, 2002
  "...a comprehensive documentary history of U.S. aerial espionage in the Cold War and beyond. This publication comes 40 years to the day after CIA analysts briefed President John F. Kennedy on what is probably the most famous overhead reconnaissance photograph of all time...includes 50 declassified documents from the CIA, the White House, the Department of Defense and other agencies..."
• First Strike Options and the Berlin Crisis, September 1961
  "New Documents from The Kennedy Administration"
  National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 56, William Burr, Editor (September 25, 2001).
• First Documented Evidence that U.S. Presidents Predelegated Nuclear Weapons Release Authority to the Military
  "The documents show that President Eisenhower approved "predelegation" instructions in late 1959 so that top commanders would have the authority to make a rapid nuclear response if a Soviet attack on Washington killed national command authorities, such as the President."
• Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
  Good introduction and chronology of events
  National Security Archive, George Washington University
• Operation Mongoose-Propaganda Balloon Operations Plan, 10 Oct., 1962
  CIA mission to undermine Fidel Castro
• The Pentagon's Spies
  Documents Detail Histories of Once Secret Spy Unites
  A National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book - Defense HUMINT
  "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."
  Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson, The National Security Archive, George Washington University
• The Real Thirteen Days:
  The Hidden History of the Cuban Missile Crises
  On this informative multimedia site from the NSA you can "Read the Documents," "Hear the Voices," "See the Photographs," and "Learn the Lessons."
• State Department 9 June 1975 MemCon, Cuba Policy on Henry Kissinger's Attempted DÈtente with Castro

How the Cold War Worked
From What Uncle Sam Really Wants, 1993.
By Noam Chomsky

[Korean War] American RadioWorks - Korea: The Unfinished War
"To fully grasp the ongoing tensions between the United States and North Korea, it is important to understand the war that ended fifty years ago this summer. John Biewen and Stephen Smith of American RadioWorks examine the often-overlooked war that helped define global politics and American life for the second half of the 20th century."
Sections include: Radio Documentary (listen to the hour-long documentary or read the full transcript) ; Oral History Archive ; The Cold War Turns Hot ; Reporter's Notebooks ; The Armed Forces Integrate ; What the Experts Say ; Maps ; Links.

Learning Curve - The Cold War
"The exhibition uses an extensive range of original source material including documents (shown in original format), photographs, posters and video, to encourage investigation of the Cold War. Constructed around a set of themes, each with case studies, this is a unique opportunity to work with raw primary material on the Cold War. The flexibility of the design allows casual visitors as well as students to enjoy accessing the inner workings of the Cold War."
From the British National Archives

The MAD Panic
The FBI Bufiles of MAD Magazine.
"All of the FBI records were obtained under the Freedom of Information-Privacy Acts (FOIPA). A total of 239 pages were obtained, this included copies of two complete MAD magazines."
Sections include: FBI Bufile Information ; Al Feldstein Interview ; All 36 Bufiles ; Draft Dodger Club ; J. Edgar Hoover Spoofs ; Extortion Attempts ; Other References ; Is MAD Communistic or Subversive?
By Edward Norris

[McCarthy] - Closed-Door McCarthy Transcripts Released (May 5, 2003)

• Senate Government Affairs Committee Prints, 107th Congress
  S. Prt. 107-84 -- Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations (McCarthy Hearings 1953-54)
• National Public Radio (NPR) - All Things Considered [audio or text] (May 5, 2003)
  Documents Shed Light on "Executive Sessions"
  "...talks with Donald Ritchie, Asssoicate [sic] Senate Historian, about the release of some 9,000 pages of previously sealed transcripts of McCarthy's closed-door interrogations from 1953 to 1954. It is the largest disclosure of documents related to the McCarthy investigation, and offers a new look at what went on behind closed doors of some 160 executive sessions."
  Includes testimony by Langston Hughes and Aaron Copland.

Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact (PHP)
"The PHP is jointly conducted by the Center for Security Studies and Conflict Research in Zurich, the National Security Archive in Washington D.C., and the Institute of Military Studies in Vienna. It cooperates with the Cold War International History Project of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and a growing number of associated institutions...In response to the progressing declassification of NATO documents and the growing availability of documents from the archives of the former Soviet bloc, the Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact (PHP) seeks to collect, analyze, and interpret these premier sources for the study of contemporary international history."

• The 1965 Warsaw Pact War Game Exercise - (dead link) (Hungarian with English translation)
  Released 29 November 2001
  "European Cities Targeted for Nuclear Destruction: Hungarian Documents on the Soviet Bloc War Plans, 1956-1971"

PBS - Frontline - Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? (November 2003)
"An Investigative Biography of the Man at the Center of the Political Crime of the 20th Century."
Sections include: Oswald: Myth Mystery, and Meaning ; Twenty-Four Years ; Interviews ; Conspiracy: Cases For and Against ; Glimpses of A Life ; Links & Readings ; Teacher's Guide.
Watch the full program online.

Solzhenitsyn at Harvard: The Address, Twelve Early Responses, Six Later Reflections - (dead link) [.pdf]
Online edition of this 1980 book by the Ethics and Public Policy Center

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