LibGuides: TC 302: The Cold War and Its Legacy / Hutchings: Find Primary Sources

Where to look.

American History In Video This link opens in a new window
Contains newsreels, public affairs and archival footage, as well as documentaries.
Updated regularly. This collection allows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through documentaries, commercial and governmental newsreels and archival and public affairs footage. The full runs of newsreels from United Newsreel and Universal Newsreel from 1929 through 1967 are included. On 14th September 2012, American History in Video was updated. As of this update there are 6,002 videos (including 3,211 documentaries) equaling 1,616 hours in American History in Video.
Users may also make isolated clips from the videos and save them in a free account available for registration set up within the database.
Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) This link opens in a new window
46 collections of declassified documents from post-WWII through today. You can browse the collections on the search interface.
The National Security Archive is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University.Updated annually. The Digital National Security Archive includes 53 collections of declassified documents, consisting of over 94,000 indexed documents, with more than 733,000 total pages. Each of these collections, compiled by top scholars and experts, exhaustively covers the most critical world events, countries, and U.S. policy decisions from post World War II through the 21st century. Glossaries, chronologies, bibliographies, overviews, and photographs are included.
The National Security Archive is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Reports: Latin America 1974-1996 This link opens in a new window
Open source intelligence for the CIA. These are translated into English, but we only have access to reports on Latin America.
Provides access to full-text searchable news reports from Latin America translated into English between 1974-1996 by the now defunct Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), which gathered open source intelligence for the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). FBIS gathered news reports from radio broadcasts, news services, and clandestine broadcasts.
Please note, although the home screen appears to allow searches covering multiple regions of the world, we only have access to reports on Latin America.

Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System Online
interviews conducted with refugees from the USSR during the early years of the Cold War.
National Security Archives
Search across declassified documents. Use the Documents section to search by keyword.
Nevada Test Site Oral History Project
Documents the remembered past of persons affiliated with and affected by the Nevada Test Site during the era of Cold War nuclear testing.

New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
up to 2013.
Updated annually. Includes all the articles published since the first issue of the paper in 1851. Provides full text and full image articles with digital reproductions of every page, every article and every issue in PDF format. In addition to news stories, includes editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements.
More recent years are also available in other full text resources.

The Nixon Years: from the National Archives, UK
Offers a non-US perspective on this era.

Socialism on Film, Module 1: Wars & Revolutions This link opens in a new window
This collection of films from the communist world reveals war, history, current affairs, culture and society as seen through the socialist lens. It spans most of the twentieth century and covers countries such as the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europe, the GDR, Britain and Cuba.
Sourced from the British Film Institute (BFI), this collection of documentary, newsreel and feature films from the ETV-Plato Films collection put together by the British communist Stanley Forman in the years after the Second World War - produced almost exclusively in the communist world and then versioned into English for distribution in the West.
Search across Adam Matthew primary source databases using AM Explorer
U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
Post WWII until 1970s intelligence, policy statements and more. Includes some FBIS reports.
Updated regularly. A full-text collection of declassified U. S. government documents. Includes correspondence and memoranda, minutes of cabinet meetings, technical studies, national security policy statements and intelligence reports. Coverage is from the years immediately following World War II through the 1970s. The major domestic and international events of the post-World War II world are covered in information by and for presidents, senators, and congress members.
Vanderbilt Television News Archive This link opens in a new window
News broadcasts going back to 1968. Best to know relevant dates for your topic rather than to use just keywords.
Updated daily. Provides a searchable archive of abstracts of news broadcasts from 1968 to present (ABC, CBS, NBC), 1995 to present (CNN), and selected content from PBS and FOX News. Digitized news broadcasts and special news-related programming from CNN, such as political campaigns, news conferences, and presidential speeches, are viewable with the RealOne media player. In the Advanced search you can exclude the News segments and see only the commercials.
Also includes more than 9,000 hours of special news-related programming including ABC's Nightline since 1989. These special reports and periodic news broadcasts cover presidential press conferences and political campaign coverage, and national and international events such as the Watergate hearings, the plight of American hostages in Iran, the Persian Gulf war, and the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.
Note: The Archive offers video streams that are duplications of entire broadcasts. Broadcasts from CNN and NBC can be streamed; broadcasts from all sources, including ABC, CBS, and Fox, can be loaned and downloaded in MP4 format after creating an account and paying a duplication fee ($17 per clip + a $10 processing fee). See Request a Loan from the Collection for more information.
Washington Post (Historical) This link opens in a new window
up to 1999.
Updated annually. Includes all the articles published since the first issue of the paper in 1877. Provides full text and full image articles with digital reproductions of every page, every article and every issue in PDF format. In addition to news stories, includes editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements.
More recent years are also available in other full text resources.

Wilson Center Digital Archive
The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) has amassed a collection of archival documents on the Cold War era from the once secret archives of former communist countries.
At the bottom of the page is the Primary Sources. You can also search the Digital Archive, browse collections or explore Document Readers for scholarship based on the project (left side menu near middle of page).

World News Connection This link opens in a new window
FBIS materials included, from '95-2013.
Contains materials provided to the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). The reports are full text, English translations of foreign news sources and information. Many of the materials are copyrighted. Particularly effective in its coverage of local media sources. Compiled from thousands of worldwide media sources.