U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

To mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of opening for signature of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons on July 1, 1968 the Department of State embarked on a project to provide access to historical documents related to the Treaty’s negotiation and signing. The document collections released in 2018 include: 1) the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency’s in-house history of the Eighteen Nation Disarmament Committee and 2) newly declassified scenario documents and background memos leading up to the NPT’s signing in Washington.

Since 2018, we have reviewed additional records of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and undertook a systematic effort to identify documents relevant to the negotiation, signature, and ratification of the NPT. On March 5, 2020, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty’s entry into force, we began to release documents identified through this process.

The Archivists at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library assisted with this project, by searching their holdings and providing previously declassified documents. Those documents are stamped as files found in the LBJ Library at the National Archives and Records Administration. These include documents on the negotiating history the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its opening for signature on July 1, 1968. Any additional information about these holdings should be directed to the Library. [download]

Documents of Note: [download]

• The U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency During the Johnson Administration, [Volume II Policy and Negotiations: The ENDC 1964-1967 (p. 1-203)]
  
  

• The U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency During the Johnson Administration, [Volume II Policy and Negotiations: The ENDC 1967-1968 (p. 204-358)]
  
  

• The U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency During the Johnson Administration, [Volume II 22nd General Assembly, Security Council Actions, Senate Considerations, Conference of Non-Nuclear Weapons States (p. 359-458)]
  
  

• Site of NPT Signing, [Foster Memo, June 5, 1968]
  
  

• Signing of NPT, [State 188327, June 21, 1968]
  
  

• NPT Signature, [State 191939, June 27, 1968]
  
  

• Signing of the Nonproliferation Treaty Scenario, [July 1, 1968]
  
  

Secretary Clinton Emails

In December 2014, former Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton provided the Department with emails that were sent or received by her while she was Secretary of State.

The Department conducted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) review of all emails provided by former Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton. Starting in June 2015, a new set of emails from this collection was released on this site at the end of each month. These monthly releases continued until the entire collection of records was reviewed for public release. All releasable records are now available on this site.
 
In May 2015, the Department released a set of 296 of these documents which previously had been provided in February 2015 to the House Select Committee on Benghazi. All 296 documents originally released in May’s production were re-produced within the subsequent productions.
 
All documents are fully searchable.  

• May Release

• June Release

• July Release

• August Release

• September Release

• October Release

• November Release

• December Release

• January 7 (2016) Release

• January 29 (2016) Release

• February 13 (2016) Release

• February 19 (2016) Release

• February 26 (2016) Release

• February 29 (2016) Release

Argentina Declassification Project

The Argentina Declassification Project represents nearly 20 years of effort by U.S. government departments and agencies to release all information about human rights abuses in Argentina between 1975 and 1983. In 2002, the Department of State released 4,600 records pertaining to this critical time period. Following a request by President Mauricio Macri and human rights groups in Argentina, in 2016 and 2017 the U.S. government released nearly 2,000 additional documents. With this final release, the Department of State adds an additional 2,154 records to the collection which, all told, includes 5,596 records from 16 different agencies. All of the records released from 2016 to 2019, from all government agencies, can be found on the https://www.intel.gov/argentina-declassification-project page. All of the records released by the Department of State from 2002 and from 2016 to 2019 can be found here on this site.

This effort began in August 2000, when Secretary of State Madeline Albright met with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo while on a five-day trip to Latin America. Following this meeting, Secretary Albright set in motion an effort to release documents relating to the list of names provided by both the Mothers and the Grandmothers, with the goal of shedding light on what happened to hundreds of missing children captured by the Argentine military. Those documents were released in 2002.

In March 2016, President Obama announced the U.S. government’s intent to release the remaining information in its possession regarding these human rights abuses. This project required all relevant U.S. government departments and agencies to search their files for information pertaining to a 19-page list of terms developed by the National Security Council, working with the Government of Argentina, the State Department’s Office of the Historian, and select experts in the field.

In April 2017, President Trump delivered to President Macri the results of a re-review of 813 documents that had been withheld or redacted in 2002, along with 119 documents selected for inclusion in the Argentina and Latin American Region chapters from the Foreign Relations of the United States volume on South America, 1977–80, available here https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1977-80v24. The U.S. government released a majority of the previously redacted documents in their entirety. It released others with more precise and limited redactions. All are available here.

This final release marks the conclusion of this project. This collection highlights the lengthy and hard-fought deliberations over U.S. policy toward Argentina and the information available to U.S. officials from 1975 to 1985, providing critical context for this period. It will enhance the collections released in 2002, 2016, and 2017, and demonstrates the commitment of the people of the United States, and of their government, to transparency and human rights.

    Press Releases

• Final Argentina Declassification Project Release [April 12, 2019]

• Argentina: Declassification of Documents Related to Human Rights Abuses Occurring Between 1975–1984 [April 27, 2017]

• Argentina: Declassification of Documents Related to Human Rights Abuses Occurring Between 1975–1984 [August 20, 2002]

El Salvador Declassification Project

This collection of over 7,800 documents consists of documents processed under three different El Salvador Human Rights special projects cases. Documents concerning allegations of human rights abuses committed by Salvadoran security forces and FMLN rebels (1979 to 1991) were produced by the Department of State in response to inquiries by the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador and the U.S. Congress in 1993 - 1994. Documents concerning the murder of four American Churchwomen (Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan) by five Salvadoran National Guardsmen on December 2, 1980 are also included.

On July 24, 2024, the Department of State released the digitized audio of ' The Secret Colindres Confession' cassette tape. This Spanish-language recording was instrumental in identifying the perpetrators of the murder of four American churchwomen in El Salvador in December 1980. A transcript and English translation of the tape was released previously as part of the El Salvador Declassification Project. For more detail about the tape see H. Carl Gettinger’s July 19, 1983 memo to the State Department Office of the Legal Advisor. For further context, see Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-80, Vol. XV, Central America, El Salvador, in particular Documents 447-451, 453-454, 456-458, 461, and 494-495.