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.
![Page one of the report Escuela Normal Rural “Raúl Isidros Burgos,” produced by the 35th Military Zone’s “Internal Order Analysis Group” in August 2006](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-03/cover.jpg?itok=CGICf1A9)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., March 10, 2023 - Years before 43 young men from the Ayotzinapa teachers’ college were attacked and forcibly disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, the Mexican military had the school…
![Z Devision](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-02/z_devision.jpg?itok=-KjeqIDR)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., December 16, 2013 – The Soviet Union assisted the United States in its effort to curb South Africa's nuclear program in August 1977 when Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev…
![SOLAR SUNRISE: 25 Years Older, but 25 Years Wiser?](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-02/picture1_copy.jpg?itok=AAu6cE8x)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., February 28, 2023 - In February 1998, 25 years ago this month, the United States suffered a series of cyber intrusions known as SOLAR SUNRISE that then-Deputy Secretary of Defense…
![Jupiter Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) at Cigli air base in Turkey, 1963](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-02/turkish-jupiter-1963.jpg?h=7bc3e9bb&itok=ZnbFOkbY)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., February 16, 2023 - Harvard professor and future Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger discussed the U.S.
![Clinton and Yeltsin 1993](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-02/clinton-yeltsin-c.jpg?itok=WgA0_N3M)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., February 7, 2023 – With the Cold War coming to an end and the Soviet Union dissolving, President Bill Clinton was determined not to miss a historic opportunity to help Russia…
![President Bush and Soviet President Yeltsin announce the end of the cold war during a press conference at Camp David. -- February 01, 1992](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2023-01/yeltsin-bush-camp-david-1992.jpg?h=34684af3&itok=4cB7HcYR)
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., January 30, 2023 – The George H.W.
![Castro and Khrushchev](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-12/Castro%20and%20Khrushchev.png?h=dc1cd0b0&itok=3fvt-z7y)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., December 13, 2022 - In the immediate aftermath of the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev met with the Czechoslovakian Communist Party leader,…
![The Canada-India Utility Services (CIRUS) research reactor](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-12/cirus.jpg?itok=XhnXMvzC)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., December 9, 2022 – Canadian inspectors visiting the Canada-Indian Reactor (CIR) at Trombay during June 1968 were “unsettled” by data suggesting that India was heading toward the “…
![SRAM](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-11/w-69-1.jpg?itok=cw6GqWit)
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., November 18, 2022 - A top safety official at a U.S.
![Che Guevara on Cuban Banknote](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-11/che-guevara-money-banknote_0.jpg?itok=vRMODXy4)
| 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.](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-10/Jupiter.jpg?itok=NF3fGl76)
| 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.…
![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).](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-10/cmc034.jpg?itok=4dExOXBG)
| 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](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-10/CMC034-400.jpg?itok=y-h05GfE)
| 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](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-10/1961-10-26_og_and_jfi_jfkwhp-kn-c19266.jpg?itok=1KVUFikd)
| 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](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-10/jfk-stevenson.jpg?itok=O_UL1jm-)
| 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](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-10/fidel-raul-nikita-collage.jpg?itok=pnFouQ8y)
| 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](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-10/asw1.jpg?itok=YYWDzZy7)
| 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](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-09/cover1.jpg?itok=tIBa6QAr)
| 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](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-09/kitchen-debate.jpg?itok=aD29sgvE)
| 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.](/sites/default/files/styles/nsarchive_square_thumbnail/public/2022-09/june_67_photo.jpg?itok=sy8ovkwA)
| 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…