Since 1974, the Declassified Documents Reference System has become an important and respected source of information regarding the United States' post-World War II domestic policy and international relations. It is the only compilation of material that are recorded, abstracted and indexed as they are released by government agencies, the National Archives and presidential libraries.

This collection provides direct information on the critical policies and events of post World War II era, including reports from Cabinet meeting minutes, National Security Council policy statements, CIA intelligence studies, presidential conferences, State Department political analyses, and Joint Chiefs' papers, forming a reliable record of U.S. dealings with, and perceptions of, the world unparalleled in any unclassified source.

The Declassified Documents Reference System covers a variety of areas of concentration, including:

• China and Taiwan--the Sino-Soviet split, the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Civil War, and the Taiwan Straits and Offshore Island crises
• Defense--development of hydrogen weapons; continental and civil defense issues; the B-1 and B-70, Minuteman, Polaris and cruise missiles; satellite systems; stockpiles and mobilization
• Domestic Affairs--the Kennedy assassination, the Alger Hiss case, the FBI Counterintelligence Program (cointelpro), internal security policy, riots and antiwar demonstrations
• Far East--the Korean War, Japanese security, nuclear testing in the Pacific, seizure of the Pueblo
• Intelligence--structure and organization, U-2 operations, covert activities abroad, drug research, psychological warfare and strategy
• National security policy--policy papers and attendant documents detailing preparations to correct deficiencies in U.S. military capabilities.
• Near East--accounts of the Arab-Israeli wars, the Suez crisis, the political situation in Iran, the U.S. intervention in Lebanon in 1958 and the attack on the U.S.S. Liberty
• Soviet Union--from lend-lease to purchases of high-tech agricultural equipment in the 1970s; reports on grain negotiations, disarmament talks, summits, nuclear accidents and defense production
• Vietnam and Southeast Asia--U.S. involvement from 1947 to 1974

Also available is the Retrospective Collection (Pre-1975), containing more than 6,000 documents, constituting more than 50,000 pages, released for the first time by government agencies after the passage of the Freedom of Information Act Amendment.

Abstracts and indexes of the annual collections are issued six times a year, in one volume per installment. Subject indexes are also compiled in a volume that is an accumulation of that year's indexes. Abstracts are arranged according to issuing agency and consist of a summary of each document and important bibliographic information such as date of issuance, original classification, pagination and date of declassification.

Entries appear under LC-compatible headings for persons, countries, conflicts, technical subjects and the like. Entry numbers lead the researcher from the index to the abstracts or directly to the microfiche, which are organized in the same order as the abstracts.

The Retrospective Collection comprises two hardbound abstracts volumes and a hardbound subject index.

Complete Collection (through 2010): 9,321 Fiche

Retrospective Collection: 1,020 Fiche