NSA Historical Releases

July 14, 2021

Arlington Hall

July 15, 2021

C130 Shoot down

On the 2nd of September 1958, Soviet MiG-17 pilots shot down a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance-configured C-130 aircraft over Soviet Armenia; 17 crewman were aboard. Below are the transcripts, reports, and audio files concerning the incident.

July 15, 2021

Communication Intelligence Board

July 15, 2021

Cuban Missile Crisis

July 15, 2021

European Axis Signal Intelligence in World War II

July 15, 2021

Foundations of COMSEC

July 15, 2021

Gamblers Ruin an Article by Tom Lehrer

July 15, 2021

Gulf of Tonkin

July 15, 2021

Herbert O. Yardley Collection

July 15, 2021

John F. Kennedy Assassination

July 15, 2021

Korean War

July 15, 2021

NSA 60th Anniversary

July 15, 2021

NSA "Appendix A to the Classified Annex to Department of Defense Procedures Under Executive Order 12333, Procedures for Monitoring Radio Communications of Suspected Narcotics Traffickers," December 21, 1984

July 15, 2021

Oral History Interviews

July 15, 2021

The Beale Papers

July 15, 2021

The Great Seal Bug

July 15, 2021

Truman Memorandum, Oct, 24, 1952

July 16, 2021

UKUSA Signals Intelligence Agreement Documents

The tradition of intelligence sharing between NSA and its Second party partners has deep and widespread roots that have been cultivated for almost three quarters of a century. During World War II, the U.S. Army and Navy each developed independent foreign SIGINT relationships with the British and the Dominions of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These relations evolved and continued across the decades. The bonds, forged in the heat of a world war and tempered by decades of trust and teamwork, remain essential to future intelligence successes. The March 5, 1946, signing of the BRUSA (now known as UKUSA) Agreement marked the reaffirmation of the vital WWII cooperation between the United Kingdom and United States. Over the next 10 years, appendices to the Agreement, some of which are included with this release to the public, were drafted and revised. These appendices and their annexures provide details of the working relationship between the two partners and also address arrangements with the other Second Parties (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand).

July 16, 2021

U.S.S. Liberty

On 08 June 2007, the National Security Agency (NSA) finalized the review of all material relative to the 08 June 1967 attack on the USS Liberty. This additional release adds to the collection of documents and audio recordings and transcripts previously posted to the site on 02 July 2003. The attack on the USS Liberty, like others in our nation's history, has become the center of considerable controversy and debate. It is not NSA's intention to prove or disprove any one set of conclusions, many of which can be drawn from a thorough review of this material. Instead, through these public releases, we intend to make as much information as possible available for the many scholars, historians, academia, and members of the general public who find interest in analyzing the information and forming their own conclusions.

July 16, 2021

U.S.S. Pueblo

July 16, 2021

VENONA

The U.S. Army's Signal Intelligence Service, the precursor to the National Security Agency, began a secret program in February 1943 later codenamed VENONA. The mission of this small program was to examine and exploit Soviet diplomatic communications but after the program began, the message traffic included espionage efforts as well. Although it took almost two years before American cryptologists were able to break the KGB encryption, the information gained through these transactions provided U.S. leadership insight into Soviet intentions and treasonous activities of government employees until the program was canceled in 1980. The VENONA files are most famous for exposing Julius (code named LIBERAL) and Ethel Rosenberg and Reealing give indisputable evidence of their involvement with the Soviet spy ring. The first of six public releases of translated VENONA messages was made in July 1995 and included 49 messages about the Soviets' efforts to gain information on the U.S. atomic bomb research and the Manhattan Project. Over the course of five more releases, all of the approximately 3,000 VENONA translations were made public.

July 16, 2021

Vietnam Paris Peace Talks

The following declassified records, originally issued between November 1972 and January 1973, are intelligence reports provided by the National Security Agency to the White House in support of American efforts to reach a settlement ending the Vietnam War. These reports, which were published as soon as possible after NSA obtained their contents and sometimes issued several times in a single day, sought to inform American diplomacy at a crucial time in our nation's past. Their release is intended to enhance the understanding of individual citizens, professional historians, and students of intelligence alike with respect to U.S. involvement in Vietnam and how NSA supports our country's most senior policymakers as they face critical decisions affecting our future. The reports in this release provided National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and other senior American negotiators with unique insights into how their South Vietnamese allies were reacting to developments at the Paris Peace Talks with North Vietnamese envoy Le Duc Tho. They also provided Dr. Kissinger and his colleagues advance notice of positions being taken by Saigon with respect to initiatives put forward by Washington and Hanoi. While the skill of American diplomats, the political landscape at home and abroad, and the military situation on the ground in Vietnam all played vital roles in the outcome, the NSA reports helped ensure U.S. envoys in Paris and their superiors in Washington were informed by the best possible intelligence as they conducted some of the most consequential negotiations in our nation's history.

July 16, 2021

Vietnam POW/MIA Documents

On 13 July 1992, the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs levied a task on NSA/CSS to review SIGINT reporting for relevance to the Vietnam POW/MIA issue and possible correlation to individual POW/MIA cases. NSA/CSS provided the Committee with three Correlation Studies, produced in August 1992, September 1993, and September 1996. Most of the information mentioned in these studies is chronologically organized by Reference Number (RefNo), which is listed as case #, and includes the incident date. The Department of Defense assigned RefNos to each incident in which there was the potential loss of life or capture. There are some entries without a RefNo or case #, but do have the incident date. The earliest incident is dated 1951 and the last 1988. Over the next several months, NSA/CSS will post over 1600 additional documents related to POW/MIAs in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. The documents are NSA field site reporting, NSA end product, summary reporting, memoranda, watch officers notes, and analyst communications. For ease of searching, those documents will be accessible under links posted for each RefNo for which they contain pertinent information. The correlation studies and the documents related to the incidents have been previously released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the past, but they have never before been posted together, facilitating access to families and historians. In addition, the documents have been reviewed using the most current guidance, making this release the most complete of any prior releases. Correlation Studies

July 16, 2021

Vietnam Tet Offensive Declassified Documents

July 16, 2021

William F. Friedman Collection of Official Papers

Aug. 26, 2024

Capt. Grace Hopper on Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People (1982)

On August 26, 2024, the National Security Agency (NSA) released a digital copy of a videotaped lecture, "Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People" that Rear Adm. Grace Hopper gave to the NSA workforce on August 19, 1982. This lecture highlights technological foundational principles, valuable perspectives on leadership and shared