Thread by @ColdWarScience

Headed up to @USNatArchives (Archives II), and, as promised, I’m giving you a time-shifted thread on the FOIA process for items at the archives.

Let’s back up. To use anything at @USNatArchives, you need a researcher card. I’ll be working from College Park, but stopped in at Archives I this morning during a free hour. This doesn’t take long—15-20 minutes—and you use the same card at all US National Archives facilities.

Archives II, in College Park, can be tricky to get to. But there’s a secret! You can grab a seat on the employee shuttle downtown for a free ride! Leaves on the hour, outside Archives I, with a secret stop at the Federal Register (near Union Station).

Now, while I’m on the bus, let me tell you what I’m up to.

In the past 10-15 years, the federal government has declassified hundred of thousands of documents related to the Cold War. The volume of material is overwhelming; much of it sits unexamined in boxes at College Park, or in underground storage hours away.

Entire boxes are declassified at a go. Individual documents frequently still have their classification stamp, but the box has a label indicating that it’s cleared on the outside. When taking photos, it’s important to use the a declassification slug, for obvious reasons.

But sometimes, individual items are withdrawn. When this happens, the declassification specialist has to put in a form describing, more or less, what the item is. The forms vary over time but this one is typical.

It’s really easy to request these. You simple email NARA and request the documents. Update the location, if necessary, state your fee category and how much you’re willing to pay, and attach a PDF of the withdrawal tab.

Then. You. Wait.

Three years later, I got a letter telling me that hundreds of pages have been released. Hurrah! But there’s a catch. They want hundreds of dollars for the materials, and my book’s out. So I’m not particularly inclined to lay out that cash.

However! Thanks to my FOIA, *anyone* cannot view these materials! When a FOIA is successful, they remove the withdrawal tab and reinstate the original materials. They’re there, waiting for me, or you, or anyone else.

And, even more helpfully, the FOIA response letter usually lists the full shelf information, meaning that I should be able to just stroll in, full out my call slips, and chill.

Incidentally, this is why you should always files FOIAs for withdrawal tabs at NARAII. Even if the response comes in too late to be useful to you, it helps the next researcher.

(And before you ask, no, you don’t get “credit” for this, other than the small satisfaction of doing your part to cast some sunshine on federal records.)

Now. I really don’t know what’s in this 300+ document. I have no idea what, if anything, I will do with this information. But since I’m in College Park anyway, it seems a shame to not find out, right? Stick with me, hopefully I can answer this question later today!

Argh! Important typo a few tweets up: Anyone CAN, not CANNOT, view these documents. They should be in the box!

Unfortunately, there’s construction, and I may not make the 2 p.m. pull time. I get one more chance, at 3 p.m. Researching at Archives II is all about TIMING.

Through the grace of an archivist & familiarity w/ the system, I managed to squeak under the 2 p.m. call time. Managing carts and pull times at Archives II is an art and takes practice. It’s not uncommon to lose half a day to bad pulls. Don’t be too hard on yourself, esp at 1st.

When you arrive, expect to go through a metal detector. Then head for the basement—you’llneed to stow your stuff in locker. Bring a quarter. Today, I took out an iPad, my phone, my researcher card, and $10 for snacks. Everything else stays in the locker.

Then head upstairs. You check in twice: Once to access the elevators, then again at your research room. Textual records (the beating heart of Archives II) is Floor 2.

Pull times are extremely structured and your call slips must be approved. Go to the “researcher assistance” room for slips and archivists. It also holds shelves and shelves of books like these, with details on series and shelf locations. I’m working in RG 306, USIA.

It takes 30-60 minutes for pulls to arrive, which is why I’m currently sipping coffee in the basement cafe, tweeting at you. They also have cake, but I have a belly full of arepas (luv u, DC). More when my pulls arrives...

Right, right, here’s a sample shelf of finding aids.

Darlings!!! Not only did my boxes arrive in <1 hour, they’re the right boxes! And my documents are flagged with my FOIA case name, waiting for me to make a copy request! (NW 49319 = the number on my letter)

Once you have your boxes, you need to get permission to photo. They’ll give you a slug that matches the broader declassification number.

(Going dark for a bit while I figure out what’s in here, back later!)

Uh, these are actually really good documents. I’ll post more tonight, gotta photo 300 pages before closing.

Alrighty! Got my photos, including some of additional withdrawal slips in nearby folders. Having already dashed off a new FOIA for these, let me tell you what I found. (These threads will be a bit more content specific, but still some methodological pts—stay with me.)

These files contain the records of Hal Goodwin, the USIA’s science Advisor, c. 1958-1961. For more on Goodwin and why the USIA had a science advisor, see Chapter 5 of my book, FREEDOM’S LABORATORY.

Every single document that had been withdrawn was related to the work of the Operations Coordinating Board, am Eisenhower-era group tasked with implementing and coordinating psychological strategies as directed by the National Secuity Council.

There were absolutely no redactions, and the documents were provided as originals, rather than print-outs of redacted PDFs. In my experience, this is somewhat unusual—but I have a theory.

I could swear I’ve seen some of these documents before, in the “OCB Secretariat” section of RG 59 or NSC or something, but I don’t have my laptop or my database today, so I can’t check.

That in itself is a good time-saving tip—if you have access to your existing archival database while researching, and it’s well-organized, you can simply note that you’ve located an identical cache of documents and keep moving.

In this particular case, I suspect that the USIA docs (RG 306 P243) were reviewed for release BEFORE the OCB files, which seem to have been released nearly in their entirety c. 2010-2011...which explains the unusual lack of redactions here.

BUT I’m still glad I looked at these, because they’re not all familiar. One memo included instructions to destroy all OCB materials, but it had a cover note from Goodwin explaining why the USIA would do no such thing.

These are *great* documents on high-level US psychological warfare strategy in outer space, at a time when the US seemed to be losing the space race. Check out this sample of anxious report titles:

Thanks for reading! If you’re still hungry for more info on my somewhat maximalist approach to archives, see the “Note on Sources and Methods” in FREEDOM’S LABORATORY. <the end>