PUBLIC RESEARCH / SOURCE GUIDE
Cold War Intelligence Archives
Where to start researching intelligence operations, surveillance and Cold War records.
Quick answer
Where can you research Cold War intelligence records?
The best starting points are the US National Archives, the CIA's online reading room (CREST), the National Security Archive at George Washington University and the Wilson Center Digital Archive. Together they hold declassified memos, intelligence estimates and foreign records, including documents such as the 1962 Operation Northwoods proposal, released in 1997.
Start with the original record
Look for dates, original agency authorship, redactions and later corrections.
Open National Archives research ↗
How to investigate
- Locate the original record and note its author, date and archive identifier.
- Separate what the record states from what later commentators infer.
- Cross-check the claim with independent documents and contemporaneous reporting.
- Record what remains unknown or disputed.
This page is an orientation guide, not an assertion that any specific conspiracy claim is established. The linked official source is an entry point; individual documents have not been exhaustively verified.
Continue your investigation
Key facts and dates
- March 1962: The Joint Chiefs of Staff sign the Operation Northwoods proposal. President Kennedy's administration rejected it.
- 1975 to 1976: The Senate's Church Committee investigates abuses by the CIA, FBI and NSA.
- 1985: The National Security Archive is founded at George Washington University to publish declassified records.
- 1997: The Northwoods memo is released by the Assassination Records Review Board.
- September 26, 1983: Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov judges a missile warning to be a false alarm.
- November 1983: The NATO exercise Able Archer 83 raises fears of nuclear war in Moscow.
Common questions
What was Operation Northwoods?
A 1962 proposal by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff for staged incidents that could be blamed on Cuba to justify military action. It was rejected and never carried out. The memo was declassified in 1997.
What was the Church Committee?
A US Senate committee that investigated intelligence agency abuses in 1975 and 1976, including assassination plots, domestic spying and drug experiments. Its reports led to permanent intelligence oversight committees.
Who was Stanislav Petrov?
A Soviet duty officer who, on September 26, 1983, decided that a satellite warning of incoming US missiles was a false alarm and did not escalate it. He was right.
Stories built on this record
The files below start from this record. Then they keep going. The first pages of every file are free.
Last reviewed 2026-10-13. Facts on this page come from the official sources linked above and the published record. Archive files are dramatized and always marked as files.