HIST4800: Seminar in U.S. Foreign Policy: Web-Based Digital Collections

The Alger Hiss Story web site recreates one of the most important legal cases in U.S. Cold War history, often cited as a turning point in 20th century American thinking. The site is dedicated to students of recent American history at all levels, including high school, college, and post-graduate work; to the research community of scholars, archivists, and teachers; and to a wide general audience.

A large directory of links to historical documents on the web, organized chronologically. Maintained by by George Laughead Jr., manager of the World Wide Web Virtual Library for United States History..

American Memory is a large-scale project of the Library of Congress to make available multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text from the Library's Americana collections. Comprising more than 9 million items that document U.S. history and culture, American Memory is organized into more than 100 thematic collections based on their original format, their subject matter, or who first created, assembled, or donated them to the Library.

The Brookings Institution, founded in 1916, is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and global economy and development. Its stated mission is to "provide innovative and practical recommendations that advance three broad goals: strengthen American democracy; foster the economic and social welfare, security and opportunity of all Americans; and secure a more open, safe, prosperous, and cooperative international system. The Foreign Policy section of the site includes numerous research reports and policy papers on topics in U.S. foreign policy.

In March 2001 the Central Intelligence Agency announced this important online release of intelligence documents. It is a compilation of declassified documents which collectively offer a retrospective on the CIA's analytical role during the Cold War. These are grouped in five chapters, each of which is prefaced by some brief comments.

After withholding information for 27 years, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has acknowledged its deep involvement in General Augusto Pinochet's regime in a declassified report released and placed online on September 19, 2000. Among other things, the report reveals that the head of Chile's secret police was a paid CIA asset, that the CIA was well aware of the efforts to track and kill political opponents, and that the agency supported the kidnapping and murder of the Chilean commander-in-chief, Gen. Rene Schneider in October 1970 after he refused to support the overthrow of President Allende. The full text of the report is available in HTML format at the CIA site.

Established in 1991 at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., the Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) works to gather historical materials from governments on all sides of the Cold War. The project offers a number of these materials on its site, along with in-house publications, information about fellowship programs, and detailed updates about conferences and seminars. [Internet Scout Project]

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), founded in 1921, is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher. Its membership has included senior politicians, more than a dozen secretaries of state, CIA directors, bankers, lawyers, professors, and senior media figures. Its web site includes a section containing over 3,600 historical and contemporary primary sources useful for research on foreign policy topics.

An extensive link collection compiled and maintained by Vincent Ferraro, The Ruth C. Lawson Professor of International Politics at Mount Holyoke College.

Frontline Diplomacy: The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training at the Library of Congress makes available interview transcripts from the oral history archives of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST). These transcripts present a window into the lives of U.S. diplomats and the major diplomatic crisis and issues that the United States faced during the second half of the 20th century and the early part of the 21st. 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. It also contains interviews from special projects on oral histories, including women ambassadors, minority officers, foreign assistance officers, labor specialists, and Foreign Service spouses. New interviews are continually being conducted and added to the collection.

This site provides access to more than 59,000 documents and other information of and about the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), an organization that promoted international commerce and the reduction of trade barriers among member states from 1947-1994.

The Historic Government Publications from World War II contains 343 Informational pamphlets, government reports, instructions, regulations, declarations, speeches, and propaganda materials distributed by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) during the Second World War. The documents are held by the Southern Methodist University Central University Libraries' Government Information Resources department. The documents, which reflect the thinking of the time, range widely in topics. You can view information on many categories, such as women's issues, children's issues, pocket guides to other countries, and more. You can view series, like the Victory Bulletin and 10 issues of the State Summary of War Casualties.

An extensive collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management. The site is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Preparedness Directorate, FEMA and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security.

A collection of documents pertaining to the history of Israel-Palestine relations maintained by MidEast Web, a registered non-government organization in Israel.

The Multilaterals Project, begun in 1992, is an ongoing project at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts to make available the texts of international multilateral conventions and other instruments. Although the project was initiated to improve public access to environmental agreements, the collection today also includes treaties in the fields of human rights, commerce and trade, laws of war and arms control, and other areas.Most of the texts date from 1945 or later, but the collection also includes historical texts, from the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia to the Covenant of the League of Nations.

Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents ("the world's largest nongovernmental collection" according to the Los Angeles Times), leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, public interest law firm defending and expanding public access to government information, global advocate of open government, and indexer and publisher of former secrets. The site currently offers over 450 Electronic Briefing Books (EBBs), which provide online access to critical declassified records on issues including U.S. national security, foreign policy, diplomatic and military history, intelligence policy, and much more.

The Presidential Libraries and Museums are repositories for preserving and making available the papers, records, and other historical materials of U.S. Presidents since Herbert Hoover. Each one contains a museum and provides an active series of public programs. When a President leaves office, NARA establishes a Presidential project until a new Presidential library is built and transferred to the Government. This site contains links to each library.

The RAND Corporation is an American nonprofit global policy think tank originally formed by Douglas Aircraft Company in 1948 to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the health care industry, universities, and private individuals. The organization has expanded to work with other governments, private foundations, international organizations, and commercial organizations on a host of non-defense issues. RAND aims for interdisciplinary and quantitative problem solving via translating theoretical concepts from formal economics and the physical sciences into novel applications in other areas, that is, via applied science and operations research. Its web site contains numerous research and policy reports on topics in international affairs, national security, terrorism and homeland security, and related subjects.

Posted in 2001 on the Law Library Research X-change (LLRX), this hypertext bibliographic essay offers a thorough discussion of accessing treaties and agreements and related research resources. The essay covers both print and online publications, including research guides; online full-text sources of US treaties and agreements; indexes and finding tools; status, updating, and ratification information; background information; and more. The essay was written by Marci Hoffman, the International & Foreign Law Librarian at the E.B. Williams Law Library. A link is also provided to a similar essay covering non-US Treaties.

The United States Institute of Peace works to prevent, mitigate, and resolve violent conflict around the world. USIP does this by engaging directly in conflict zones and by providing analysis, education, and resources to those working for peace. Created by Congress in 1984 as an independent, nonpartisan, federally funded organization, USIP’s more than 300 staff work at the Institute’s D.C. headquarters, and on the ground in the world’s most dangerous regions. Its web site includes a substantial collection of articles, books, and other publications, and it has also launched a digital library featuring collections on peace agreements, truth commission, and oral histories.

The Vietnam Center and Archive, based at Texas Tech University, collects and preserves the documentary record of the Vietnam War, and supports and encourages research and education regarding all aspects of the American Vietnam Experience. The collection includes documents, oral histories, and digitized audio and moving images.

This archive of primary documents from World War One has been assembled by volunteers of the World War I Military History List (WWI-L). International in focus, the archive intends to present in one location primary documents concerning the Great War. It includes biographical material, convention and treaty documents, links to other WW I sites, documents available through H-net, and other resources.