“Reportable Information”

(In honor of Sunshine Week, I am proud to present NDC staff member England Reeder as our guest blogger today to write about a project on which he has been working that is close to public release.) Judge Merrick Garland collected the documents in this record series while he served as Special Assistant to the Attorney … Continue reading “Reportable Information”

The Weapons Systems Evaluation Group

Those who work in government and in the private sector supporting government are very familiar with the term "think tank", a slang expression dating from World War II that denoted an organization filled with "idea men" that sat around desks coming up with better and greater ways for government to operate.  During the World War … Continue reading The Weapons Systems Evaluation Group

New Entries Released by the National Declassification Center

The NDC has released a listing of 112 entries that have completed declassification processing between June 1 and September 29, 2017, and are now available for researcher request. This release consists of records from both military and civilian agencies. Highlights include: • Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History and Heritage Command, Political/Military Division, … Continue reading New Entries Released by the National Declassification Center

Djakarta Embassy Record Series Now Available Via the National Archives Catalog

The National Declassification Center is proud to announce that the contents of the newly-declassified Classified Central Subject Files of the U.S. Embassy Djakarta, Indonesia, 1963-1969 are now available via the National Archives Catalog.  This record series, digitized through the kind efforts of the National Security Archive, consists of correspondence, telegrams, airgrams, memoranda, reports, newspaper accounts, … Continue reading Djakarta Embassy Record Series Now Available Via the National Archives Catalog

NDC Releases U.S. Embassy Djakarta Records

  The National Declassification Center, in partnership with the privately-operated National Security Archive, is proud to announce the release of  a record series that has been the object of interest for a number of researchers worldwide.  The records, formally titled the Classified Central Subject Files, U.S. Embassy Djakarta, 1963-1969, have been the object of a … Continue reading NDC Releases U.S. Embassy Djakarta Records

What Happened to the American SST?

  The golden age of American aerospace prowess had to be the decade of the 1960s.  So many advances were being made across so many fields of aviation endeavor.  The Space Race demonstrated how the United States could safely and reliably place both manned and unmanned spacecraft into low earth orbit, to the Moon, and even … Continue reading What Happened to the American SST?

New Entries Released by the National Declassification Center

The NDC has released a listing of 94 entries that have completed declassification processing between January 3 and May 26, 2017, and are now available for researcher request. This release consists of records from both military and civilian agencies. Highlights include: Department of State, Records Relating to Cuba, Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, … Continue reading New Entries Released by the National Declassification Center

Joseph B. Kennedy and the Jet Speed Air Cushion Rail System

In the NDC's last blog entry, readers discovered from the records of the United States Embassy Djakarta, how an embassy goes about its mission to protect American citizens living in a foreign country during times of trouble.  This entry will look at a different mission, one that tried to protect America's overseas interests from....Americans. Meet … Continue reading Joseph B. Kennedy and the Jet Speed Air Cushion Rail System

The Curious Case of Harold Lovestrand

Summers in Indonesia are notoriously hot, which is not really much of a surprise for a nation of islands that straddles the equator.  The summer of 1965 was much hotter if you were an American in Indonesia.  In August of that year, missionary Harold Lovestrand, his wife and four children discovered what it meant to … Continue reading The Curious Case of Harold Lovestrand

Hollywood, Model Planes, and Atomic Bombs: Office of Naval Research Support for Vertical Envelopment

Lost amid a large 8,000 box series from the long disestablished Bureau of Aeronautics (Record Group 72 in National Archives-speak) in a classified stack at the National Archives in College Park lies a 500-page document whose ominous mushroom cloud cover artwork supported its Confidential classification marking. The light blue/green cover simply bore the words “Assault” … Continue reading Hollywood, Model Planes, and Atomic Bombs: Office of Naval Research Support for Vertical Envelopment