30+ Years of Freedom of Information Action

About this Project

Since the founding of the National Security Archive, nuclear crises, nuclear proliferation, and the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. policy have been central to its FOIA requesting. The overwhelming importance of the problem of nuclear weapons has posed an existential threat since the early years of the Cold War and has made this an essential focus.

Blog Posts

The Fifty-Year Rule: Its Use and Misuse

Aug 15, 2017

Additional Documents to The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II

Aug 7, 2017

Nixon’s Nuclear Specter Receives Award from the U.S. Military History Group

Jun 21, 2017

Nuclear Intelligence via Three Martinis

May 30, 2017

CIA Tries to Roll Back History of Eisenhower’s Rollback Doctrine

May 4, 2017

Key Readings

The literature of scholarly articles and books on U.S. nuclear policy is not as copious as the primary sources, but abundant enough. Determining which books on any given subject are most valuable and illuminating is a matter of subjective judgment, shaped by experience, including education, research, and other reading. The following list of articles and books is not meant to be comprehensive, but only to highlight those secondary sources that the editor finds especially worthwhile.

Key Reading >>

The Nuclear Vault

Featured Posting

U.S. Presidents and the Nuclear Taboo

Washington, D.C., November 30, 2017 – U.S.

Nov 30, 2017

Previous Postings

Engaging North Korea: Evidence from the Bush I Administration

Nov 8, 2017

60th Anniversary of the International Atomic Energy Agency

Oct 26, 2017

"Clean" Nukes and the Ecology of Nuclear War

Aug 30, 2017

Japan Plutonium Overhang Origins and Dangers Debated by U.S. Officials

Jun 8, 2017

Stopping Korea from Going Nuclear, Part II

Apr 12, 2017

Stopping Korea from Going Nuclear, Part I

Mar 22, 2017

Top Air Force Official Told JCS in 1971: “We Could Lose Two Hundred Million People [in a Nuclear War] and Still Have More Than We Had at the Time of the Civil War”

Feb 15, 2017

Reagan's Nuclear War Briefing Declassified

Dec 22, 2016

President’s Daily Brief Spotlighted Soviet Missile and Space Programs in 1960s and 1970s

Dec 20, 2016

In the Media

What the U.S. Government Really Thought of Israel’s Apparent 1979 Nuclear Test

Politico Magazine

Dec 8, 2016

Secret nukes: US mulled storing atomic weapons in unwitting Iceland, declassified docs reveal

Aug 18, 2016

Underwater Atomic Blast Contaminated Test Ships Making Them “Radioactive Stoves” in 1946

History News Network

Jul 22, 2016

Tropic Fallout: a look back at the Bikini nuclear tests, 70 years later

Ars Technica

Jul 5, 2016

Declassified U.S. cables reveal lead-up to Hiroshima A-bomb decision

The Japan Times

May 24, 2016

Thank You

The National Security Archive thanks the New-Land Foundation for the funding that supported creation of the Nuclear Vault. Special appreciation goes to the Prospect Hill Foundation for the funding that has kept up the pressure on the U.S. government to declassify the record of nuclear weapons policy, however embarrassing it may be. General support to the Archive from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has been essential for the long-term success of this project in getting nuclear weapons policy documents declassified. The Carnegie Corporation of New York also provides vital funding for opening the record of U.S. nuclear policies, especially in relation to the former Soviet Union and Russia today. Other supporters who deserve our thanks include the Ploughshares Fund, the late lamented W. Alton Jones Foundation, the John Merck Fund, and the hundreds of university librarians who subscribe to the Digital National Security Archive by ProQuest.

30+ Years of Freedom of Information Action

The Nuclear Vault

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Key Readings

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The Nuclear Vault

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The Nuclear Vault

The Nuclear Vault

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