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.
![Michael Townley](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-11/michael-townley-in-car.jpg?itok=2TV8eFUT)
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., November 22, 2023 - “[I]f there has been sufficient reason to open this envelope, I accuse the government of Chile of my death,” wrote DINA agent Michael Townley in March 1978, as…
![Adviser Zbigniew Brezinski, President Jimmy Carter, and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-10/zbigniew_brzezinski_jimmy_carter_and_cyrus_vance_-_nara_-_175908.jpg?itok=XIbi97kK)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., October 26, 2023 - In early August 1977, Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev wrote to President Jimmy Carter to inform him that the Soviet Union had detected a nuclear…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/thumbnails/image/wx1080.jpg?itok=cLtwtHmo)
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., October 4, 2023 – Thirty years ago in Moscow, Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered tanks and airborne troops to shell and storm the “White House,” the Russian Parliament (Supreme…
![Barnes and Barnes house plague collage](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-10/barneshouseplaque-collage.jpg?h=c0cb1e4f&itok=tHb8UoY9)
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., October 3, 2023 – As a diplomatic gesture to mark the 35th anniversary of the October 5, 1988, Chilean plebiscite that forced General Augusto Pinochet from power, the U.S.
![cover image](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-09/cover-image.jpg?itok=2-s5m4eq)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., September 26, 2023 - Nine years ago today, 43 Mexican college students were violently abducted and disappeared by police and drug traffickers in the town of Iguala, Guerrero.
![Secretary of State George Shultz (left), President Reagan (center) and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-09/1-hi_0.jpg?h=6916dd52&itok=Q_335awH)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., September 21, 2023 – The Reagan administration rejected an international agreement on humanitarian laws of war—Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions—due to…
![A Colombian Army cavalry regiment uses an EE-9 Cascavel armored car to breach and enter the Palace of Justice building](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-09/PoJ-main_image.jpg?itok=hm8HJR_F)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., September 19, 2023 – Colombian President Gustavo Petro should comply with the 2014 sentence of the Inter-American Human Rights Court (IACHR) and ask U.S. President Joe Biden to…
![El Ojo que Llora. The monument to commemorate the victims killed during the internal conflict of Peru](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-08/memorial_el_ojo_que_llora_panoramica_1.jpg?h=53309055&itok=4sLsizmp)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., August 28, 2023 – On the 20th anniversary of the Peruvian truth commission’s final report, the National Security Archive posts a core collection of declassified U.S.
![PDB Sep 11 Chile side-by-side](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-08/sep11-side-by-side-2a.jpg?itok=sGz_PdCM)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., August, 25, 2023 - On the morning of the U.S.-backed military coup in Chile, the CIA briefed President Nixon that Chilean military officers were “determined to restore…
![Lenin in the presidium of the First Congress of the Communist International in the Kremlin, Left to right, H Eberlein, Lenin and F Platten, Moscow, 2–6 March 1919.](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-08/Lenin%20in%20the%20presidium.jpg?itok=CU_TsyOd)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., August 11, 2023 – Recently unearthed documents from the Romanian national archives shed new light on the Comintern, the Soviet-led international organization that from 1919-1943 was…
![book cover](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-08/book-cover_0.jpg?itok=gjxunhCq)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., August 8, 2023 - As the commander in chief of the Chilean army, Gen.
![Atomic Bomb Damage In Nagasaki, Japan](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2024-01/nagasaki.jpg?itok=9hcL2ChG)
| Briefing Book
A newly declassified memorandum from the weeks after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki confirmed early reports of fatal radiation disease even as Manhattan Project director General Leslie…
![Air Force One readies for departure from Andrews Air Force Base for Waco, Texas, 10 April 2008. Military Aide Lt. Colonel Gina Humble carries the Football](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-07/11_1.jpg?itok=I0jYs_N1)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., July 18, 2023 – A set of highly secret emergency action plans kept inside the closely guarded “Football” that traveled with the President at all times and that would give the…
![The Folkets Hus Building (center) in Stockholm, Sweden](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-07/Banner1.jpg?itok=jkjO0_gN)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., July 6, 2023 – As the world’s wealthiest countries continue to avoid making serious financial commitments to developing states on the front lines of the climate crisis, declassified…
![Yeltsin and Clinton. Vancouver summit.](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-02/yeltsin-clinton-summit.jpg?h=504d74af&itok=yAQ_o4qj)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., June 5, 2023 – Declassified highest-level records from the first six months of the Clinton administration’s relations with the Russian Federation in 1993 reveal a remarkable array…
![Henry Kissinger](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-05/henry_kissinger_0.png?itok=Bxy8gWF-)
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., May 25, 2023 - As Henry Alfred Kissinger (HAK) reaches 100 years of age, his centennial is generating global coverage of his legacy as a leading statesman, master diplomat, and…
![A.S. Chernyaev's Central Committee's pass to the Central Stadium, 1983](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-05/gorbi0009.jpg?h=534b93c5&itok=QW8qSxcF)
| Briefing Book
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…
![Jupiter, Deactivation, Missile Site](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-04/5_pot_pie_i_photo_1_rg_342b_bx_1049.jpg?itok=OVc5dIoT)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., April 20, 2023 - Sixty years ago, during April 1963, the U.S.