Declassified Documents  Tags: congress government_agencies government_information united_states declassified_documents foia  

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FBI Files

The FBI has released surveillance files on various individuals and organizations (e.g. Malcolm X, Albert Einstein, and the NAACP). To find these files, search Melvyl for the title words “fbi file"

The following books provide a lot of good background on the agency, its records and more, for the researcher:

• Unlocking the files of the FBI : a guide to its records and classification system. Gerald K. Haines and David A. Langbart. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1993.  Reference HV 8144 F43 H35 1993

• The FBI: a comprehensive reference guide by Athan Theoharis. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1999.
  Reference HV8144.F43.T48 1999

CIA Files

For a listing, search Pegasus (advanced search) by corporate author " United States. Central Intelligence Agency” limiting to either “book” or “microform” in the format selection.

NARA - the National Archives and Records Administration

NARA's primary purpose is to acquire, preserve, and make available for research the most valuable records of the federal government, as well as the papers of each President since Hoover.

The Archival Research Catalog (ARC): is the online catalog of holdings in Washington, DC, the regional records services facilities, and the presidential libraries. ARC contains information about a wide variety of NARA's holdings across the country, but represents only a limited portion of NARA's vast holdings. Another good source for searching for NARA holdings by agency is the Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives. To ensure that you find all information in which you are interested, consult Chris Granatino, U.S. Documents Librarian.

There are several hundred finding aids published by the National Archives. These are cataloged individually, however to get an idea of what is listed, search Melvyl for the series "National Archives microfilm publications. Pamphlet describing".

Scholarly Resources reproduces NARA microfilm and is the authorized distributor. Microfilm Resources for Research, a comprehensive catalog is in Reference: CD 3026 U5. An online version of this is available through the ARC database and on the NARA page.

Department of State

Davidson library owns the microfilm for many sets from the Department of State filmed at the National Archives. Titles to search under include:

diplomatic instructions
despatches from u.s. consul*
records of the department of state relating to internal affairs of ...
records of the department of state relating to political relations between ...

The Dept. of State also publishes Foreign Relations of the United States. This series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian, the series began in 1861 and now comprises more than 350 volumes. The volumes published since 1980 increasingly contain declassified records from all the foreign affairs agencies. Some volumes have been digitized and are available online.

National Security Council

The National Security Act of 1947 established the National Security Council (NSC) and its membership (the President, Vice-President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, etc.) to advise the President with respect to the integration of domestic, foreign, and military policies relating to the national security so as to enable the military services and other departments and agencies of the government to operate more effectively on matters involving the national security.

As a part of its work the NSC generated many documents including National Security Council Actions, National Security Action Memoranda, National Security Study Memoranda, Presidential Review Memoranda, Presidential Decision Directives, and Presidential Directives. The originals of the documents microfilmed here are housed at the National Archives as "National Security Council Files, Record Group #273."

United States. National Security Council. Documents of the National Security Council, 1947-1977. Washington, D.C.: University Publications of America.
Special Collections: UA 23 N2492 microfilm