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DP History: Cold War

Cold War Guide

Use the sources here and...

  • History Reference Center
  • JSTOR
  • ​Questia School
  • New York Times
  • See help videos of these on the guide home page
  • Passwords here

Primary Sources

Presidential Library Resources

  • Truman Presidential Library - These critical documents show the pivotal moments in the early Cold War. The online archive includes presidential memos, letters, official government documents, and photographs.

  • The John F. Kennedy Library maintains an online collection of 272 memoranda relating to Kennedy's life and administration. View personal correspondence as well as official government documents relating to national security.

Sources for Specific Topics

  • NSC - 68, the full document. View the once-top-secret National Security Council document of April 1950 that set in motion the massive military buildup of the Cold War.

  • This website, created in 1994 under the Office of Human Radiation Experiments, tells the agency's Cold War story of radiation research using human subjects with various multimedia sources from declassified government documents, films, sound clips, and photographs.

  • From the JFK Library, this documentary gives context, timeline, and resources about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

  • The primary resources collection covers NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Since 1999, the PHP has initiated large-scale declassification of military materials from the Communist era in Central and East European archives. It has collected thousands of documents on the security aspects of the Cold War.

  • This NASA website provides US and Russian documents chronicling the early policy decisions and reactions to the space race.

  • The transcripts and films from a C-SPAN special on the Army-McCarthy Hearings, including both historical commentary and audio from the hearings.

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