LibGuides: Cold War: A Global History: American Online Primary Sources

U.S.-Focused Online and Digitized Primary Sources

Foreign Relations of the United States (Department of State)
Resource provides access to U.S. foreign relation documents from the Department of State's website.
National Security Archive: the Nuclear Vault
Resource includes all previous and forthcoming Archive Electronic Briefing Books on nuclear weapons policy, cross-referenced with an index. It also includes newly-declassified documents that may be of interest to novices and experts alike.

Digital National Security Archive - (DNSA)
This resource consists of expertly curated, and meticulously indexed, declassified government documents covering U.S. policy toward critical world events – including their military, intelligence, diplomatic and human rights dimensions – from 1945 to the present. Find more information.

CIA Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room
Provides declassified documents requested via the Freedom of Information Act.
CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence
The mission of Studies in Intelligence is to stimulate within the Intelligence Community the constructive discussion of important issues of the day, to expand knowledge of lessons learned from past experiences, to increase understanding of the history of the profession, and to provide readers with considered reviews of public literature concerning intelligence.
National Security Agency Historical Publications
Resource provides PDF publications from the NSA. The publications are organized by topic, and can be sorted by keywords or tags.
Office of the Secretary of Defense: Historical Office
Website provides historical information about the Department of Defense, including information on past and present Secretaries of Defense. The website also includes links to their publications on the Pentagon, Cold War Foreign Policy, Acquisition History, and more.
Joint History Office
Provides links to digitized historical studies from the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including the extremely valuable JCS and National Policy series.
Pentagon Papers
The classified Defense Department history of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict that was leaked to the New York Times by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971, now available in full.
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command
Digitized collections on U.S. Naval history.
U.S. Joint Committee on Atomic Energy
Contains documents from 1946 to 1977, many of which are Cold War-related. Curated by Stanford University.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Open
Provides the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge. You can quickly and easily locate dissertations and theses relevant to your discipline, and view the complete text in PDF format. The authors of these dissertations and theses have opted to publish as open access.

Frontline Diplomacy
Collection from the Library of Congress makes available interview transcripts from the oral history archives of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST). Most of the interviews involve post-World War II diplomacy, from the late 1940s to the present day, but the collection also includes accounts of Americans involved in Iraq and Afghanistan after 2003.
Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training: Oral History Collection
Provides access to 2500 U.S. diplomatic oral histories spanning eight decades.
Hoover Institution Library & Archive
Collection holds more than one million volumes and over six thousand archival materials documenting war, revolution, and peace in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
National Archives - Cold War Records
This website contains NARA prepared or sponsored resources about the Cold War. Includes holdings information, bibliographies, conference papers, educational materials, and exhibits.
U.S. Presidential Libraries and Museums of the National Archives
Presidential Libraries and Museums are repositories for the papers, records and historical materials of the Presidents. We work to ensure that these irreplaceable items are preserved and made available for the widest possible use by researchers.
Secret White House Tapes, Archive of Tapes
Maintained by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, provides access to all the currently declassified presidential tape recordings from FDR to Richard Nixon. The Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon tapes contain a great deal of Cold War-related materials.
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Nixontapes.org
Resource provides an extensive collection of Nixon tape audio and transcripts.
Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy: The Cold War
Index of external links to primary sources related to American foreign policy during the Cold War. A selection of primary sources collected by Mt. Holyoke College.
Vietnam Center and Archive (Texas Tech University)
Includes oral histories and source documents.

Web of Science
This collection of databases offers an integrated, versatile research platform, it delivers easy access to high quality, diversified scholarly information in anthropology, biology, chemistry, biochemistry, criminology, education, environmental sciences, geography, geology, marine sciences, mathematics and statistics, physics, psychology, social work, sociology, as well as search and analysis tools that enhance this content. Includes Web of Science Core Collection, which consists of multidisciplinary content covers over 12,000 of the highest impact journals worldwide. Find more detailed information.
New York Times (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
Digital archive for the New York Times dating back to 1851. An excellent database for history, including full-text and full-image articles. For most dates, the collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue--cover to cover--in downloadable PDF files.