---
aliases:
- NSArchive
- National Security Archives
category: Private Organization
created: 2026-09-22
location: Washington, D.C.
start: 1985
summary: Nongovernmental research institute and FOIA litigant at George Washington
  University, founded in 1985, whose suits and briefing books released the Family
  Jewels, the Bay of Pigs inspector general's report and Gottlieb's testimony.
tags:
- Organization
- FOIA
- Declassification
- Archive
updated: 2026-09-22
---

The National Security Archive, at George Washington University in Washington, was "founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy." It describes itself as an investigative journalism center, a research institute, a library of declassified documents, a leading nonprofit user of the [Freedom of Information Act](/events/freedom-of-information-act/), a public interest law firm and a publisher of former secrets.[^1]

### Releases Forced or Published

After a two-year effort under the Freedom of Information Act, the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) declassified on February 22, 1998, the 1961 report of its inspector general, Lyman Kirkpatrick, on the [Bay of Pigs](/events/bay-of-pigs/), published that year as *Bay of Pigs Declassified*, edited by the archive's Peter Kornbluh.[^2] The CIA released the [Family Jewels](/events/cia-family-jewels/), under Director Michael Hayden, on June 26, 2007, after a lawsuit by the archive.[^3] On February 13, 2001, the archive drafted a complaint against the Archivist of the [United States](/places/united-states/) and the Secretary of State over the telephone transcripts that [Henry Kissinger](/people/henry-a-kissinger/) had removed on leaving office and shipped to [Nelson Rockefeller](/people/nelson-rockefeller/)'s estate; the government recovered copies in August 2001.[^4]

Its electronic briefing books have published the planning record of the 1964 coup in Brazil, in No. 118 (2004), edited by Kornbluh, and No. 465 (2014), edited by Kornbluh and James G. Hershberg;[^5] the drafts showing that the [Gerald Ford](/people/gerald-r-ford/) [White House](/places/white-house/) altered the [Rockefeller Commission](/events/rockefeller-commission-1975/)'s report, including Dick Cheney's handwritten comments, in 2016;[^6] the 1978 confession of the DINA agent [Michael Townley](/people/michael-townley/) in 2023;[^7] documents on the assassination of General [Carlos Prats](/people/carlos-prats/) in 2024;[^8] and in October 2025 the transcripts of [Sidney Gottlieb](/people/sidney-gottlieb/)'s Top Secret testimony to the [Church Committee](/events/church-committee/) in October 1975.[^9] In 2025 it added a note to its 2000 publication of [State Department](/organizations/state-department/) documents on the killing of [Charles Horman](/people/charles-horman/) stating that the theory of an American role was now in doubt.[^10]

[^1]: National Security Archive, "About the National Security Archive." https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/about
[^2]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. *Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba.* New Press, 1998, as cited on the Bay of Pigs page.
[^3]: CIA FOIA Reading Room, "The Family Jewels," released 2007, as cited on the CIA Family Jewels page.
[^4]: National Security Archive Briefing Book No. 852, ed. William Burr, February 13, 2024; NSAEBB No. 123, "The Kissinger Telcons," and No. 263.
[^5]: National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 118, "Brazil Marks 40th Anniversary of Military Coup," ed. Peter Kornbluh, March 31, 2004; No. 465, "Brazil Marks 50th Anniversary of Military Coup," ed. James G. Hershberg and Peter Kornbluh, 2014.
[^6]: National Security Archive, "Gerald Ford White House Altered Rockefeller Commission Report in 1975," February 29, 2016, as cited on the Rockefeller Commission 1975 page.
[^7]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Dictatorship Declassified: Confessions of a DINA Hit Man." National Security Archive, November 22, 2023. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2023-11-22/pinochet-dictatorship-declassified-confessions-dina-hit-man
[^8]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Regime at 50: The Assassination of General Carlos Prats and Sofía Cuthbert." National Security Archive, October 1, 2024. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2024-10-01/pinochet-regime-50-assassination-general-carlos-prats-and-sofia
[^9]: National Security Archive, "Top Secret Testimony of CIA's MKULTRA Chief, 50 Years Later," October 30, 2025, as cited on the Sidney Gottlieb page.
[^10]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "Chile in Their Hearts." National Security Archive, May 7, 2025, as cited on the Charles Horman page.