Aero Sys Div, 1969 (RG 342 UD-UP 138; NND 63253; Boxes 35 and 58) By Michael Rhodes Recently declassified records from the Aeronautical Systems Division, USAF (RG 342 – Records of United States Air Force Commands, Activities, and Organizations) reveal some surprising, perhaps never-before-seen images:   The above illustration was discovered in the pages of [...]

Twenty records related to the Katyn Forest Massacre are now available on the National Archives Transcription Pilot Project.  Help transcribe telegrams, messages, letters and reports, including handwritten script.  Your efforts help improve the accessibility of the records.  For more information on how to get started, check out the Transcription Tips. Learn more about the Katyn [...]

The National Declassification Center (NDC) led a multi-agency project to identify and review for declassification records relating the Katyn Forest Massacre.  This effort resulted in the release of more than 1000 new pages of material not previously released to the public.  The opening was announced on September 10, 2012 during an event at The Capitol Visitors [...]

By Ms. Jenny Namsiriwan Crabb The National Archives has numerous gems in its collection.  We are discovering more of them as we continue our work in the National Declassification Center.  I discovered one such gem as I was working with a project regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis in February 2012.  The collection in its entirety [...]

On October 27, 2011, the National Declassification Center held a one-day conference on the Berlin Crisis of 1961.  The conference focused on events leading up to and following the Vienna summit between Khrushchev and Kennedy, the height of tension during August with the construction of the wall and the eventual standoff between the U.S. Army’s Berlin Brigade [...]

The autumn of 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the political crisis that resulted in the erection of the Berlin Wall and created a divided city for 28 years.  The National Declassification Center of the National Archives and Records Administration and the Historical Publications Office of the Central Intelligence Agency have partnered together to publish [...]

The pending release of the Report of the OSD Vietnam Task Force (aka the Pentagon Papers) has brought forth the question of relevancy. After all the Papers were made public 40 years ago, right? What’s the big deal? The fact of the matter is that no one, outside the people properly cleared to view Top [...]

NARA is planning a digital/textual release of the Pentagon Papers for the week of June 13, 2011. This simultaneous release will be conducted by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library, and the National Declassification Center at College Park.

I want to update everyone on our progress on this project with the great news that the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) has declassified the information of interest to them in the Report of the Vietnam Study Task Force.  Since the Report was an OSD product, they retained considerable interest in every volume [...]

In a follow on to the announcement that the NDC Director Sheryl J. Shenberger made in her Second Bi-Annual Report, I am presenting an outline of the Pentagon Paper Project. A Short History There is a considerable body of literature that discusses what came to be known as the Pentagon Papers, so I will not [...]