Testimonials
“[The Chronology is] the most comprehensive, authoritative, objective and useful summary of the Iran-Contra affair available. It makes the pieces fall into place and brings the individual players into focus.”
- Bob Woodward, The Washington Post (1987)
“The work of the National Security Archive has helped prevent this issue from being swept under the rug. The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History is a history we must not forget.”
- James Ridgeway, Village Voice (1993)
“The fiercely independent National Security Archive ... has rendered yeoman service in the pursuit of historical truth.”
- A.G. Noorani, Frontline (India)
“The Archive’s help and support allowed me to make The Nature of the Game more than just another thriller. The Archive’s work in revealing truth behind government and political spin is vital for our global culture.”
- James Grady, author (2011)
"The National Security Archive plays a vital role in the field of nuclear weapons policy research. Through the vigorous use of the Freedom of Information Act and through monitoring new releases at the National Archives, its analysts seek the declassification and dissemination of some of the most important secrets in the nuclear weapons field. These findings gain wide exposure on the Archive’s extraordinary 'Nuclear Vault', its site for the electronic briefing books and other document collections that are so valuable to scholars of nuclear policy, military history, and foreign policy."
- Robert S. Norris, Natural Resources Defense Council
“[T]he world’s largest nongovernmental library of declassified documents.”
- Los Angeles Times (2001)
“I am happy that the cooperation between the National Security Archive in Washington and the Czech foundation ‘Prague Spring 1968’ has resulted in this voluminous collection of documents, which, I hope, will lead readers to a closer understanding of the dramatic events that the then-Czechoslovakia lived through three decades ago.”
- Václav Havel, President of the Czech Republic, on the volume The Prague Spring ’68 (1994)
“I am especially grateful for the work of the National Security Archive ... [It] is a national treasure.”
- Eric Schlosser, author
“There are lessons for handling Iran's nuclear program in the declassified CIA self-analysis of its misreading of the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's reaction to U.N. inspections of his weapons-of-mass-destruction program. Equally interesting in the report is how Hussein misjudged the capability of international inspectors and the responses — sanctions and then military action — that would come from the United States and its allies. Are these errors that Iran may be making? The 16-page report, first disclosed 13 days ago by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, concludes with some findings relevant to the Iran situation.”
- Walter Pincus, The Washington Post (2012)
“A remarkable book about a remarkable scandal that shook American politics more than a quarter century ago. Byrne's riveting account is not only good history and an exciting tale of espionage and White House intrigue; it is a warning about the excesses of secrecy and partisanship in American foreign policy. It offers a rewarding look backward with lessons for looking forward.”
- Bruce Riedel, former intelligence officer and author (2014)
“Over the years the archive has found that declassifying documents may alter the course of history as well as illuminate it. A database on the Guatemalan military, assembled from declassified U.S. documents, wound up helping the truth commission examining human rights abuses in Guatemala to pursue its investigations despite resistance from Guatemalan authorities.”
- David Anderson, “Open Secrets,” Ford Foundation Report (2000)
“For that matter, you will learn more about who wins and who loses in the real business of politics, which is governance, from the public interest truth-tellers of Washington than you will from an established press tethered to official sources. The Government Accountability Project, POGO, the Sunlight Foundation, Citizens Against Government Waste, Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Center for Responsive Politics, the National Security Archive, CREW, the Center for Public Integrity, just to name a few – and from whistleblowers of all sorts who never went to journalism school, never flashed a press pass, and never attended a gridiron dinner.”
- Bill Moyers, InTheseTimes.com (2008)
“Among the world’s document buffs – a small but tenacious tribe of journalists, researchers and historians – the archive is legendary for its prolific and skillful practice of the art of the FOIA request. ‘They craft the best FOIA requests around,’ says [Daniel] Metcalfe, the archive’s former adversary [at the Justice Department], who is now a law professor at American University. ‘If anybody does it better, I haven’t seen it.’”
- Peter Carlson, The Washington Post, (2008)
“[A] stream of insights into past American policy, spiced with depictions of White House officials in poses they would never adopt for a formal portrait.”
- The New York Times, review of White House E-Mail: The Top Secret Computer Messages the Reagan-Bush White House Tried to Destroy (1995)
“LeoGrande and Kornbluh’s exhaustive and masterful diplomatic history will stand as the most authoritative account of U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations during the five decades of Cuban President Fidel Castro’s rule – at least until scholars gain better access to Cuban archives and officials.”
- Richard Feinberg, review of Back Channel To Cuba in Foreign Affairs (2014)