The Atoll The classic coral atoll of Enewetak and its small population had seen much change during the 20th century as compared to the relatively quiet nine previous centuries since humans first came to the atoll's islands. The Germans were the first industrial culture to claim possession of the islands which became part of the … Continue reading Operation Enewetak
The War in Southeast Asia was many things to many people. To some in the Defense Department under Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, the war appeared to be a technological challenge that American know-how was meant to conquer. To find an enemy who made the most of the cloak of darkness for movement and … Continue reading The Laser Target Recognition System (LTRS): A Lesson in Bleeding Edge Technology
Military leaders by default are the safety managers of their units, although one or more individuals may be formally titled "Safety Officer" as recognition of a specific responsibility within the military organization. The Safety Officer is an unheralded position wherein one may get recognition (and not the best kind) only when something goes wrong. So … Continue reading Navy Nuclear Weapons Safety–A Story in Posters
A document recently surfaced in the course of yet another NDC special project called PAIR--a note that speaks to a little-noticed aspect of World War II that involved one of the war's higher-profiled participants, Général de brigade Charles de Gaulle. PAIR (Pre-ADRRES Indexing Review) This NDC special project has been in operation since around 2015 … Continue reading “Note Pour L’Admiral Stark.”
(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”
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
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
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
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?
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
