August 08, 2005

CIA Electronic Reading Room Thousands for formerly secret documents for researchers, enthusiasts, or the simply curious.

When I started my research, a few years ago, this 'Reading Room' was still only a showcase for a few selected documents. Now it's the most complete collection of CIA documents anywhere on the Internet. I use it extensively in my work. Is this kind of collection the future of archiving? Might this permit a resurgence of primary-source history research in an increasingly tight-fisted academic environment? Is this a good thing?

posted by Dreadnought 19 years ago
  • Yes Yes. And yes.
  • There is a better than even chance that Fidel Castro's government will fall within the next few years. (Aug 1993)
  • Huge historical document on reconnaissance flights over the USSR. Great stuff in those archives.
  • Of I course I quickly found myself wandering in the China Collection, which rather oddly isn't blocked from here (yet!). The anaylsis in the early days of the Cultural Revolution seems pretty solid given the obvious constraints, though I see this 'Short-term Outlook' from '68 reckons it was all going to be over soon. Sadly it dragged on for another 8 years - I guess the CIA's analysts couldn't believe even Mao was quite that nutty. Fanatstic resource, Dreadnought, and bookmarked for future perusal.
  • I linked to the FBI FOIA reading room in a comment a while back, but didn't know that there was a CIA FOIA site as well. Nice post!