Overview
The National Security Archive combines a unique
range of functions in one non governmental, non-profit institution. The
Archive is simultaneously a research institute on international affairs,
a library and archive of declassified U.S. documents obtained through the
Freedom of Information Act, a public interest law firm defending and expanding
public access to government information through the FOIA, and an indexer
and publisher of the documents in books, microfiche, and electronic formats.
The Archive's approximately $1.8 million yearly budget comes from publication
revenues and from private philanthropists such as the Carnegie Corporation,
the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
As a matter of policy, the Archive receives no government funding.
The National Security Archive was founded in 1985 by a group of journalists and scholars who had obtained documentation from the U.S. government under the Freedom of Information Act and sought a centralized repository for these materials. Over the past decade, the Archive has become the world's largest non governmental library of declassified documents. Located on the seventh floor of the George Washington University's Gelman Library in Washington, D.C., the Archive is designed to apply the latest in computerized indexing technology to the massive amount of material already released by the U.S. government on international affairs, make them accessible to researchers and the public, and go beyond that base to build comprehensive collections of documents on specific topics of greatest interest to scholars and the public.
The Archive's holdings include more than two million pages of accessioned material in over 200 separate collections. Supporting some 30 terminals, the Archive's computer system hosts major databases of released documents (over 100,000 records), authority files of individuals and organizations in international affairs (over 30,000 records), and FOIA requests filed by Archive staff and outside requesters on international affairs (over 20,000 records). Despite the Archive's non-traditional role (since the originals remain inside the government -- hopefully), Archive staff have developed extensive expertise with all levels of archival recordkeeping, ranging from basic collection description to box- and file-level inventories to individual document cataloging.
The Archive reading room is open to the public without charge, and has welcomed visitors from 32 foreign countries and across the United States--some of whom stay for weeks. The Archive fields more than 2,500 public service requests for documents and information every year. Archive staff are frequently called on to testify before Congress, lecture at universities, and appear on national broadcasts and in media interviews on the subject of the Freedom of Information Act and various topics in international affairs for which the Archive's collections provide documentation.
The Archive's financial affairs are administered by The National Security Archive Fund, Inc., a not-for-profit District of Columbia-based corporation established exclusively to promote research and public education on U.S. governmental and national security decisionmaking and to promote openness in government and government accountability through making government information more widely available to the public. Audited financial reports for the National Security Archive's activities prior to 1999 are included in the annual audits performed by the CPA firms of Keller Bruner & Company (1993-1998) and Deloitte & Touche (1985-1992) for the Fund for Peace, Inc., a New York-based tax-exempt corporation which served as the Archive's fiscal sponsor from 1985-1998. As an operating division of the National Security Archive Fund, Inc., the Archive receives tax-deductible funding from foundations, and approximately 20% of the Archive's annual budget from publication royalties.
The first major publication of the Archive was a 678-page mass market
paperback published by Warner Books in 1987, The Chronology,
on the Iran-contra affair. Time magazine called the book
"must reading," and Ted Koppel of ABC News Nightline praised
it for including "every known fact about the Iran-contra scandal."
The second Archive publication project has produced a series of large microform collections of documents on U.S. foreign policy as well as a CD-ROM index to the entire series co-published by the scholarly micropublisher Chadwyck-Healey, Inc. These collections include an average of 16,000 pages of documents released through the FOIA and other governmental processes, accompanied by finding aids which average over 1,700 pages for each collection--indices, catalogs, chronologies, glossaries, bibliographies and introductory essays. More than 400 copies of these microfiche collections have been purchased by universities and research libraries and in ten foreign countries. Microform Review stated, "The NSA series is unusual in public document publishing... it makes documents available from the twilight zone between currently released government information, and normal declassification after the elapse of the statutory period." Government Publications Review wrote that "NSA collections are almost universally praised for adding a new and invaluable research tool to national security studies." Other reviews in the library press have noted the collections' comprehensive coverage, user-friendly guides, state-of-the-art indexing and quality archival microfiche. Published collections include:
El Salvador: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977-1984 The Iran-Contra Affair: The Making of a Scandal, 1983-1988 Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977-1980 The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 The U.S. Intelligence Community, 1947-1989 The Philippines: U.S. Policy during the Marcos Years, 1965-1986 Afghanistan: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1973-1990 Nicaragua: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1978-1990 South Africa: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1962-1989 Military Uses of Space: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1945-1991 Nuclear Non-Proliferation, 1945-1991 The Berlin Crisis, 1958-1962 Presidential Directives on National Security: From Truman to Clinton Iraqgate: Saddam Hussein, U.S. Policy and the Prelude to the Persian Gulf War (1980-1994) The Soviet Estimate: U.S. Analysis of the Soviet Union, 1947-1991 El Salvador: War, Peace, and Human Rights, 1980-1994 U.S. Espionage and Intelligence, 1947-1996 U.S. Nuclear History: Nuclear Arms and Politics in the Missile Age, 1955-1968 China and the United States: From Hostility to Engagement, 1960-1998 Japan and the United States: Diplomatic, Security, and Economic Relations, 1960-1976 The National Security Archive Index on CD-ROM: The Making of U.S. Policy The Digital National Security Archive (Subscription product on the WWW)
