Briefing Books

“Briefing Books” are one-stop resources covering a full range of topics in U.S. foreign policy. Containing from 5 to 100+ documents, each briefing book features an introductory essay, individual document descriptions, related photo or video content, plus links for further reading.
SRAM
New Declassifications on Nuclear Weapons Safety and Security
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., November 18, 2022 - A top safety official at a U.S.
Che Guevara on Cuban Banknote
The Cuban Missile Crisis @ 60
Getting to Know the Cubans: Part Two
| Briefing Book
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…
One of the U.S. Jupiter missiles in Turkey that Kennedy secretly traded for the removal of Soviet missiles in Cuba.
The Cuban Missile Crisis @ 60
The Cuban Missile Crisis Cover-Up
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., October 28, 2022 - Sixty years ago today, the most dangerous days of the Cuban Missile Crisis came to an end—and the cover-up of the deal that would end the crisis began. President…
October 27, 1962: Cuban anti-aircraft gunners open fire on low-level reconnaissance planes over San Cristobal site no. 1 (a Soviet SA-2 missile shoots down Maj. Rudolf Anderson’s U-2 on this day).
The Cuban Missile Crisis @ 60
The Most Dangerous Day
| Briefing Book
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.
Cuban anti aircraft guns target US planes Oct 27
The Cuban Missile Crisis @ 60
Nuclear Crisis Lasted 59 Days, Not Just 13
| Briefing Book, | Special Exhibit
The Cuban Missile Crisis actually lasted 59 days, not the fabled "13 days" so familiar from books and Hollywood. Soviet nuclear warheads arrived in Cuba on October 4, 1962, and did not leave until…
President Kennedy with his close friend British Ambassador David Ormsby-Gore
The Cuban Missile Crisis @ 60
Briefing NATO Allies
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., October 21, 2022 - President John F. Kennedy made unilateral decisions to blockade Cuba and approve other military moves, but winning the support of European allies remained central…
Stevenson and J.Kennedy
The Cuban Missile Crisis @ 60
How John F. Kennedy Sacrificed His Most Consequential Crisis Advisor
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., October 17, 2022 - In a secret “eyes only” memorandum for John F. Kennedy, written 60 years ago today at the outset of the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.N.
collage Raul Fidel Castro and Khrushchev
Getting to Know the Cubans: Khrushchev Meets the Castro Brothers
| Briefing Book
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…
Submarine B-59
The Underwater Cuban Missile Crisis at 60
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., October 3, 2022 - Sixty years ago, on October 1, 1962, four Soviet Foxtrot-class diesel submarines, each of which carried one nuclear-armed torpedo, left their base in the Kola Bay…
Echeverria
Echeverría’s Legacy of “Co-opt and Control”
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., September 30, 2022 - To mark this year’s anniversary of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, the National Security Archive today posted an essential collection of ten key U.S.
Kitchen Debate
The Moscow Signals Declassified:
​​​​​​​Irradiating Richard Nixon
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C. September 22, 2022 - The Soviets exposed then Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, to ionizing radiation during his famous visit to Moscow in July 1959, according to…
From left to right: Dobrynin, Gromyko, Rusk, Thompson.
The Moscow Signals Declassified
Microwave Diplomacy, 1967-1977
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., September 15, 2022 - On December 9, 1975, as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger prepared to travel to Moscow for arms control talks, he placed an urgent phone call to Soviet…
Project Bazarre
The Moscow Signals Declassified
Microwave Mysteries: Projects PANDORA and BIZARRE
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., September 13, 2022 - On the 5th anniversary of the CIA’s September 13, 2017, decision to pull its agents out of Cuba, after several operatives were stricken with what has become…
for the President only
The Coup in Chile: What Did Nixon Know and When Did He Know it?
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., September 12, 2022 - One day after the violent, U.S.-backed, coup d’état in Chile, the overthrow of Salvador Allende was the very first item in President Richard Nixon’s September 12…
Gorbachev thinking
In Memoriam: Mikhail Gorbachev 1931-2022
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., August 30, 2022 –  The National Security Archive mourns the passing today of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, 1931-2022, first and last president of the Soviet Union, who ended the…
Colombia troops on patrol
"A Bloody, Expensive and Prolonged Coercive Effort"
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., 24 August 2022 - As the U.S.
Atomic Bomb Damage In Nagasaki, Japan
77th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings: Revisiting the Record
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., August 8, 2022 – After years of research and planning, U.S.
President Harry S. Truman at his desk in the Oval Office signing H.R. 5632, the National Security Act Amendments of 1949, August 10, 1949
The National Security Act Turns 75
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., July 26, 2022 – 75 years ago, President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act into law, marking a major restructuring of the U.S. government’s military and intelligence…
Atomic bomb destruction, Nagasaki, August 10, 1945
Long-Classified U.S. Estimates of Nuclear War Casualties During the Cold War Regularly Underestimated Deaths and Destruction
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., July 14, 2022 – For decades starting in the late 1940s, influential internal U.S.
The Embrace of Truth
“There is Future if There is Truth”: Colombia’s Truth Commission Launches Final Report
| Briefing Book
Bogotá, 28 June 2022 - Today, Colombia’s Truth Commission wraps up three-and-a-half years of work with the launch of its report on the causes and consequences of Colombia’s conflict.