Today's post was written by David Langbart, archivist in Textual Reference at the National Archives at College Park, MD. The pre-World War II Department of State is often referred to as a sleepy, slow-moving bureaucracy. This is especially true of the period before the First World War. Even departmental officials made remarks along those lines. … Continue reading To Avoid Embarrassment: Setting Priorities for the Handling of Documents in the Department of State, 1907
Today’s post is written by David Langbart, an Archivist in the Textual Records Division at the National Archives at College Park. On March 28, 1979, a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, experienced a partial meltdown. While ultimately there was no large-scale release of radioactive materials, the potential for a major disaster … Continue reading International Aspects of the Three Mile Island Incident I: Keeping the World Informed
Today’s post was written by David Langbart, an Archivist in the Textual Records Division at the National Archives at College Park. Forty-two years ago today, President Richard M. Nixon resigned from office. Resignation Letter of Richard Nixon August 9, 1974 NAID 302035 While generally thought of as an internal U.S. crisis, given the inter-relationship between … Continue reading President Nixon’s Resignation and Foreign Policy
By David Langbart By Executive Order 9981 (NAID 300009), dated July 26, 1948, President Harry S Truman ordered the integration of the armed forces of the United States. Given the stationing of large numbers of American forces overseas after World War II, that move potentially had ramifications for U.S. relations with host countries. With that … Continue reading Foreign Policy Aspects of Integration of the U.S. Armed Forces
To assist researchers interested in records of the Department of State and other foreign affairs agencies, the most heavily used records in the National Archives, the Textual Archives Services Division has launched a newly revamped set of pages on the Archives' website for providing an introduction to foreign affairs records. The conduct of foreign affairs … Continue reading Launch of new web pages on Foreign Affairs records
Many of our NARA colleagues are historians and researchers themselves. In this post, written by Lopez Matthews, we have the opportunity to learn about a few current research projects our staff members are undertaking. If you'd like more information on any of these projects, leave a note in the comments and we'll make sure the … Continue reading Students Share Scholarly Research at NARA
