#  U.S Government Cold War-related sites 

 



 ##  

  expand\_more  

 
  

 

   ![National Archives and Records Administration logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum10041/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-04/National%20Archives%20and%20Records%20Administration%20logo.jpg?itok=Q4wq2hw5) 

 

[**National Archives and Records Administration**](http://www.nara.gov/)  
NARA is an independent federal agency that helps preserve our nation's history by overseeing the management of all federal records. It seeks to ensure ready access to the essential evidence that documents the rights of American citizens, the actions of federal officials, and the national experience. A special NARA page on [Cold War-related records](https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/cold-war) is also available.

   ![US State Department's Office of the Historian logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum10041/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-04/US%20State%20Department%27s%20Office%20of%20the%20Historian%20logo.jpg?itok=piuCo7gb) 

 

[**US State Department's Office of the Historian**](http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/)  
The Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, is headed by William Slany. The Historian's Office publishes the official documentary history of U.S. foreign policy and provides historical research and advice for the Department of State.

 [Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS Volume) ](http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/)

   ![Presidential Libraries logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum10041/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-04/Presidential%20Libraries%20logo.jpg?itok=IlFBBAEk) 

 

[**Presidential Libraries**](http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/)  
The Presidential Library system is made up of ten Presidential Libraries and one Presidential Project. These nationwide facilities are overseen by the Office of Presidential Libraries within theNational Archives and Records Administration, located in Washington, D.C. These are not traditional libraries, but rather repositories for preserving and making available the papers, records, and other historical materials of Presidents since Herbert Hoover. Each Presidential library contains a museum and provides an active series of public programs.

   ![The United States Intelligence Community logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum10041/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-04/The%20United%20States%20Intelligence%20Community%20logo.jpg?itok=4ya1WW9t) 

 

[**The United States Intelligence Community**](http://www.intelligence.gov/)  
The Intelligence Community is a group of 13 government agencies and organizations that carry out the intelligence activities of the United States Government. The site also contains links to Community members with sites on the internet.

   ![Central Intelligence Agency logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum10041/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-04/Central%20Intelligence%20Agency%20logo.jpg?itok=cSYQ2XkQ) 

 

[**Central Intelligence Agency**](https://www.cia.gov/index.html)  
The Central Intelligence Agency's main home page is an effort to provide insight and information to the public about the Agency and its mission.  
  [Recently-Released CIA Documents](http://www.foia.cia.gov/)  
 [The Family Jewels Documents](https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/collection/family-jewels)  
 [Caesar-Polo-Esau Documents](https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/collection/caesar-polo-and-esau-papers)  
 [CIA Activities in Chile](https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/chile/)  
 This report by the CIA was released in response to Section 311 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000, the so-called "Hinchey Amendment." It attempts to address specific questions about CIA involvement in Chile during the period 1963-1973.   
 [Center for the Study of Intelligence](https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence)  
 The Center for the Study of Intelligence conducts research on intelligence; publishes classified and unclassified editions of the Studies in Intelligence journal as well as books, monographs and a quarterly newsletter; hosts conferences and symposia; manages the systematic declassification review of historically valuable CIA records; coordinates a number of academic outreach programs

[**Library of Congress European Reading Room**](http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/european/)  
In 1996 the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Library of Congress (LC) inaugurated a program to microfilm military records and inventories in former Soviet-bloc countries primarily from World War II and the early Cold War years. Projects are now underway at three institutions: the Central Military Archive (Centralne Archiwum Wojskowe) outside Warsaw, the National Defense Ministry Archives (Archivele Militarie ale Ministerului Apararii Nationale) in Bucharest, and the War History Archives (Hadtortenelmi Leveltar) in Budapest. Similar projects with the Slovak Military History Institute in Bratislava and the Russian Central Naval Archive at Gatchina near St. Petersburg are being considered.

   ![U.S. Army Center of Military History logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum10041/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-04/U.S.%20Army%20Center%20of%20Military%20History%20logo.jpg?itok=D3s2X2pR) 

 

[**U.S. Army Center of Military History**](https://history.army.mil/index.html)  
The Center of Military History (CMH) is responsible for the appropriate use of history throughout the U.S. Army. Traditionally, this mission meant that the Center recorded the official history of the Army in both peace and war, while advising the Army Staff on relevant historical matters. In recent times, CMH has produced detailed series on the Army's role in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and is beginning a series on the U.S. Army in the Cold War. These works, supplemented by hundreds of smaller monographs and other volumes on a wide range of military subjects of interest to the Army, have made the Center of Military History one of the major publishers of military history in the world

[**United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency**](http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/acda/)  
The mission of the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency is to strengthen the national security of the United States by formulating, advocating, negotiating, implementing and verifiying effective arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament policies, strategies, and agreements. In so doing, ACDA ensures that arms control is fully integrated into the development and conduct of United States national security policy.

   ![Library of Congress Soviet Archives Exhibit logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum10041/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-04/Library%20of%20Congress%20Soviet%20Archives%20Exhibit%20logo.jpg?itok=tTyc4-br) 

 

[**Library of Congress Soviet Archives Exhibit**](http://sunsite.unc.edu/expo/soviet.exhibit/entrance.html)  
The SOVIET ARCHIVE EXHIBIT is the first public display of the hitherto highly secret internal record of Soviet Communist rule. The willingness of the new Russian Archival Committee under Pikhoia to cooperate in preparing this exhibit with the Library of Congress dramatizes the break that a newly democratic Russia is attempting to make with the entire Soviet past. This exhibit illustrates both the domestic and the foreign policy of Soviet rule.

   ![National Security Agency logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum10041/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-04/National%20Security%20Agency%20logo.jpg?itok=XH0fLcNG) 

 

[**National Security Agency**](https://www.nsa.gov/)  
 [VENONA](https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/venona/)  
 In July 1995 the Intelligence Community ended a 50-year silence regarding one of cryptology's most splendid successes - the VENONA Project. VENONA was the codename used for the U.S. Signals Intelligence effort to collect and decrypt the text of Soviet KGB and GRU messages from the 1940's. These messages provided extraordinary insight into Soviet attempts to infiltrate the highest levels of the United States Goverment. NSA has declassified over 3,000 messages related to VENONA.  
 [Cuban Missile Crisis](https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/cuban-missile-crisis/1960.shtml)  
 The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was one of the turning points of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. At that time the two superpowers came close to war, possibly with nuclear weapons; after it, both countries began to seek ways to adjust to each other, in particular, to prevent the use of nuclear weapons. The events of the Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrated the maturity of the U.S. intelligence community, especially in its ability to collect and analyze information. The crucial roles of human intelligence (HUMINT) and photographic intelligence (PHOTINT) in the Cuban Missile Crisis have been known from the beginning. Documents declassified and released in 1998 now reveal that signals intelligence (SIGINT) also played an exceedingly important part in managing the crisis.

   ![The US State Department Electronic Reading Room logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum10041/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-04/The%20US%20State%20Department%20Electronic%20Reading%20Room%20logo.jpg?itok=QWG4Y12F) 

 

[**The US State Department Electronic Reading Room**](http://foia.state.gov/)  
The State Department's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Electronic Reading Room features frequently-requested declassified documents, points of reference for State Department records and information access, and other helpful links to sites with State Department materials

[**The Vietnam War Declassification Project**](https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/exhibits/vietnam/vietnam.asp)  
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon, the staff of the Gerald R. Ford Library reviewed for possible declassification nearly 40,000 pages of National Security Adviser files.

[**The Hanssen Affidavit**](http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/fbi.pdf)   
The FBI "Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint, Arrest Warrant, and Search Warrants" in the investigation of Russian counterspy Robert Hanssen.

   ![OSTI OpenNet logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum10041/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-04/OSTI%20OpenNet%20logo.jpg?itok=Opxz2wMA) 

 

[**OSTI OpenNet**](http://www.osti.gov/opennet)  
The Department of Energy is committed to openness. In support of that commitment, we have developed OpenNet to provide easy, timely access to recently declassified information, including information declassified in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. This database will be updated regularly as more information becomes available.

   ![U.S. Department of Justice FOIA Reference Materials logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum10041/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-04/U.S.%20Department%20of%20Justice%20FOIA%20Reference%20Materials%20logo.jpg?itok=SFq4NIc4) 

 

[**U.S. Department of Justice FOIA Reference Materials**](http://www.usdoj.gov/04foia/04_7.html)  
This site contains information and links pertaining to U.S. Department of Justice materials released under the auspices of the Freedom of Information Act.