Declassification
Analysis: More Grist for the Mill
What follows is a list of documents from the
period 1945-63 that were declassified in more than one way, together with links
to copies of variant versions of the documents in question. This list is obviously not complete. A large number of such documents can be
found. But these happen to be the
documents I found in the collection I had accumulated when I was doing the
research for my book A Constructed Peace:
The Making of the European Settlement, 1945-1963. I’m making it available for the convenience
of people interested in seeing what can be learned by comparing documents that
have been sanitized in different ways at different times and by different
declassifiers. It thus supplements the
webpage on “Declassification
Analysis” I posted in 1999 as a supplement to the Constructed Peace book.
As for sources, if a document is from the State
Department’s Foreign Relations of the
United States series [FRUS], the reference information can be found on the
first page of the link. For documents
from the Declassified Documents Reference System [DDRS], the source can be
found by doing a full text search for some phrase from the document on the DDRS
website. The remaining documents are ones I’ve scanned myself from paper
copies; the references are generally marked at the bottom of the page,
using abbreviations I gave in the book, pp. 403-405. (“NSA” means the
document comes from the National Security Archive Berlin File.)
Sometimes, however--for example, when I copied documents from the State
Department Central Files--the original reference number was stamped on the
page. Also, if the fact that variant versions of the document exist was
discussed in that book, I give the page and footnote number in the
corresponding listing below (e.g., CP 166n.77). Finally, I should
note that in the case of many of these scanned documents, the last two digits
in the filename indicate the date of declassification.
The documents I scanned were often marked up (by
me) after xeroxing. One of my goals in
doing so was to show which passages have been sanitized out of other versions
of the same document. Also, in the list
that follows, I generally put the “bad,” or more highly sanitized version,
first, with the “good,” or more complete version, following. When I refer to the “full” version below,
that just means the more complete version.
In the full version some material is sometimes still missing.
List
of Documents
Eisenhower notes of
sanitized version: DDRS
1985
full version: DDRS
1996
Dulles-Adenauer meeting,
September 16, 1954
sanitized: DDRS
1986
full: DDRS
1996
Elbrick to Dulles, October
12, 1954.
CP 166n.77
sanitized: FRUS
1952-54, 5:532
full: 740.5/10-1254,
RG 59, USNA.
Top-level meeting, November
3, 1954
CP 168n.78
sanitized: FRUS
1952-54, 5:532
full (first page only): 740.5/11-354,
RG 59, USNA.
Goodpaster
to Eisenhower, November 16, 1954
CP 177-78
n.119
sanitized: FRUS
1952-54, 5:533-535.
full: decl.
1979.
Dulles-Eisenhower
meeting, December 14, 1954
sanitized: DDRS
1986
full: DDRS
1996
Heusinger-Radford meeting,
July 9, 1955
sanitized: DDEL
1990
full: DDRS
1997
Dulles-Mollet-Pineau meeting,
May 6, 1957
CP: 222 n.85, 233 n.134
sanitized: FRUS
1955-57, 27:121
full: DSP/225/103315/ML
French version: DDF
1957, 1:738-740
Eisenhower-Dulles meeting, October 22, 1957 (document dated October 31)
CP 177
n.115, 178 n.124
sanitized: FRUS
1955-57, 27:800 (published 1992)
full: AWF/DDE
Diaries/27/October 1957 Staff Notes (1)/DDEL (declassified 1982)
Dulles-Brentano
meeting, November 21, 1957 (already
posted in part in earlier piece on “Declassification Analysis”)
CP 177 n.117
and 210 n.33
sanitized: FRUS
1955-57, 4:202
full: 740.5/11-2157,
RG 59, USNA. (partial text)
Macmillan to Dulles, January
8, 1959
sanitized: decl.
1990
full: decl.
following appeal to ISCAP
State-JCS meeting, January
14, 1959
CP 270 n.95
sanitized version: RG59
(released 1991)
almost full verson: FRUS
(mostly complete, with two interesting deletions on p. 262)
full version: NSA
Berlin File
Dulles phone call to
Eisenhower, January 25, 1959
sanitized: 1991
version
full: 1993
version
White House conference on
sanitized: 1986
version
full: 1991
version
Dulles-Adenauer meeting,
February 8, 1959
sanitized: FRUS
version (two small deletions)
full
version (from DSP) (decl. 1991) (passages missing from FRUS version are
marked)
Dulles-Macmillan meeting,
March 20, 1959, 11 a.m.; see also FRUS 1958-60, vol. 7, pt. 2, 832ff
sanitized: DDRS
1987
less sanitized: FRUS
(only one small deletion)
full: 1992
version (earlier deletions marked).
Eisenhower-Dulles-Macmillan
meeting, March 20, 1959, 3 pm
sanitized: DDRS
1989
full: 1992
Eisenhower-Macmillan
meeting, March 20, 1959, 7 pm. (doc. dated March 23)
sanitized: 1986
version
full: 1991
version
Dulles meeting with State
Dept. officials, April 24, 1959, 4 pm.
sanitized: FRUS 1958-60, vol. 7, pt. 2, 849, says withheld in
entirety
full: 1991
version
Eisenhower-Herter meeting,
May 27, 1959 (doc. dated May 28)
sanitized (p. 5 only): 1980
version
full: DDRS
1991
Eisenhower-Dillon meeting,
June 16, 1959 (doc. dated June 19)
sanitized version: decl.
1984
full version: DDRS
1996
Norstad account of meeting
with Adenauer et al., September 10, 1960
sanitized version: decl.
1992 (Norstad
Papers, DDEL,
full version: decl.
1978 (SS/ITM/5/NATO(4) [1959-1960]/DDEL)
Eisenhower-Spaak meeting,
October 4, 1960
CP 173 n.99, 214 n.53, and 289 n.16
sanitized: DDRS
1987
sanitized: FRUS
(published 1993)
full: SS/ITM/5/NATO(6)[1959-1960]/DDEL (decl.
1979).
NSC meeting, Nov. 17,
1960—lots of examples here
sanitized: DDEL
1991
full: FRUS
1958-60, vol. 7, pt. 1, p. 648ff
Kennedy meeting with Rusk
et al., August 3, 1961
sanitized: 1985
version (JFKL)
full version: FRUS
Kennedy to Norstad, October
20, 1961
sanitized: 1990
version from Norstad Papers, DDEL
full: NSA
version
“US Policy on Military
Actions in a Berlin Crisis” (evidently a draft of what would become NSAM 109),
October 20, 1961
sanitized (virtually in toto in 1990—only first page given): probably
from JFKL
full version: NSA
NSC meeting, November 15,
1961 (doc. dated Nov. 21)
sanitized version: decl.
1982
full version: FRUS
Bundy outline for Kennedy's
talk to the NSC, January 17, 1962
CP 303 n.62
full: DDRS
1991. (I can’t find my copy of the 1981 version, but this copy is marked up
to show passages sanitized out of that version)
Norstad to Lemnitzer, March
8, 1962: four versions from DDRS
Suggested NATO Nuclear
Program, March 22, 1962
Acheson
Papers 1993 (marked up to show material sanitized out of 1991 version)
FRUS
(complete)
Kennedy meeting with top
advisors, April 16, 1962
sanitized: DDRS
1991; same but marked
up by me (I was trying to fill in the blanks, just for fun)
full: FRUS
Bundy memo to JFK on
nuclear assistance for
sanitized: DDRS
1991
full: JFKL
1997
Kennedy-Malraux meeting,
May 11, 1962
sanitized: DDRS
1990
full: FRUS
NSC meeting, October 22,
1962
sanitized: DDRS
1981
full: DDRS
1992 (marked up to show passages sanitized in 1981)
Kennedy
remarks to NSC, January 22, 1963
decl. 1980
decl. 1985
decl. 1997
Other notes of same meeting:
decl. 1985
decl. 1997
NSC ExCom
meeting on
sanitized:
DDRS
1991
full: FRUS
NSC ExCom meeting on NLF, Feb. 12, 1963
sanitized:
decl.
1991 (7-line deletion on pp. 8-9)
full version: FRUS.
Kennedy-Harriman meeting, July 10, 1963
sanitized
version: decl.
1985
full
version: FRUS
Kennedy meeting with Rusk et al., July 22, 1963
sanitized
version: decl.
1985
full
version: FRUS
Kennedy meeting with key advisors, July 23, 1963
sanitized
version: decl.
1985
full
version: FRUS
Kennedy-Couve de Murville meeting, October 7,
1963
heavily
sanitized version (only non-sanitized portion copied): decl.
1978
less
heavily sanitized version: decl.
1985
full
version: FRUS
Ball-Couve meeting, October 8, 1963
sanitized
version (only pp. 1-2; p. 3 sanitized in full, not copied): decl.
1978?
full
version: RG59