NARA is planning a digital/textual release of the Pentagon Papers for the week of June 13, 2011. This simultaneous release will be conducted by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library, and the National Declassification Center at College Park.
This is very good news. congratulations to NARA and all the agencies who have reviewed these records for declassification after so many years. The volumes that were not part of the unauthorized release may prove especially interesting to scholars and historians. I recommend that the entire PP be scanned (perhaps as part of the JFK Library’s digitization project) for 24/7 virtual access.
Thanks so much, John. We are in the process of scanning the entire Report of the OSD Vietnam Task Force, and we will give the digital version the widest possible dissemination.
Can you provide more details on the dissemination of the digital version? Will a copy of the digital version be given to GPO for preservation/dissemination?
Jim,
We are looking to host a digital version on the archives.gov website, and the three Presidential libraries (Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon) are planning their own access to the same digital version.
In terms of preservation issues, NARA maintains its own preservation copies of digital records–we do not go to GPO for those purposes. Please don’t forget that the original textual records will be available to researchers both here in College Park and in the three Presidential libraries as well.
It is a shame that there are no more heros like Dr. Ellsworth to expose the enormous lies that have produced the twin quagmires we now find ourselves in. With the screen of the Patriot Act, it will only get worse.