Special Collections
A Life in Intelligence - The Richard Helms Collection
This collection of material by and about Richard Helms as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) and Ambassador to Iran comprises the largest single release of Helms-related information to date. The documents, historical works and essays offer an unprecedented, wide-ranging look at the man and his career as the United States' top intelligence official and one of its most important diplomats during a crucial decade of the Cold War. From mid-1966, when he became DCI, to late 1976, when he left Iran, Helms dealt directly with numerous events whose impact remains evident today and which are covered in the release.
A-12 OXCART Reconnaissance Aircraft Documentation
This release, containing approximately 1,500 pages of material, consisting of about 350 documents, maps, diagrams, and photographs will provide researchers on aviation and intelligence with significant additional detail about the design and development of the A-12. Follow the link above to the page housing this new special collection.
National Intelligence Council (NIC) Collections on this site
The National Intelligence Council (NIC) Collection
Analytic reports produced by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) on a variety of geographical and functional issues since 1946.
The Vietnam Collection
Over 170 estimative products on Vietnam have been declassified and were released in April, 2005. This collection, the largest such release to date and the first exclusively on Vietnam, covers the period 1948-1975. Of the 174 documents, 38 are included at least in part in the hard copy volume entitled Estimative Products on Vietnam, 1948-1975 and appear in their entirety in its accompanying CD/ROM.
The China Collection
These documents were published in a book and CD/ROM entitled Tracking the Dragon: Selected National Intelligence Estimates on China, 1948-1976 and were the subject of a major international conference cosponsored by the National Intelligence Council and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. in October 2004.
Historical Review Office Collections on this site
The Princeton Collection
Analytic Reports Produced by the Directorate of Intelligence on the Former Soviet Union Declassified and released for a March 2001 Conference at Princeton University
Collections available through the National Archives (NARA)
How to access the documents via NARA
Declassified National Intelligence Estimates on the Soviet Union and International Communism
Declassified Intelligence Estimates on Selected Free World Countries
An important part of CIA's ongoing effort to be more open and to provide for more public accountability has been a recognition of the importance of declassifying historically significant Agency documents. The process of opening up the Agency's historical record began in the 1980s when then Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) William Casey authorized the declassification and transfer of nine million pages of OSS records to the National Archives and established the Historical Review Program.
A more formal Historical Review Program (HRP) was established by DCI Robert Gates in 1992. Reaffirming the principle that the US government's records should be open to the public, the program called for significant historical information to be made available unless such release could cause damage to the national security interests of the United States. Subsequent DCIs R. James Woolsey and John Deutch, and current Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet have supported a vigorous historical declassification program.
CIA's Historical Review Program, with the exception of several statutorily mandated requirements, is a voluntary declassification program that focuses on records of historical value. The program's managers rely on the advice and guidance of the Agency's History Staff, the DCI's Historical Review Panel, and the general public in selecting topics for review. Under guidelines laid out for the program, historical records are released except in instances where disclosure would damage national security-that is, for example, where it would reveal sensitive foreign government information or identify intelligence sources and methods that are currently in use and that are subject to denial and/or deception. The Historical Review Program coordinates the review of the documents with CIA components and other US Government entities before final declassification action is taken and the documents are transferred to the National Archives.
Two projects currently in progress in HRP involve the review of National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) on the former Soviet Union and international communism and intelligence analyses on the former Soviet Union published by the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence. For more information on these specific collections, click on the appropriate summary title.