The year 1931 stands as a major turning point in Japan’s modern history. In September 1931 Japanese armed forces overran Manchuria, committing their government to a course of direct action in Asia and, ultimately, to the rejection of the structure of international relations which had emerged in the 1920s. By 1940 Japan was caught up in a cycle of extreme nationalism, isolation, and ultimately war with the United States. This archive charts a key decade in U.S.-Japanese relations. It is is one of three digital collections based on the microfilm title Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to United States Political Relations with Japan, 1930-1954. The source material contains Decimal File 711.94.

This archive traces the outbreak of the U.S. war with Japan in December 1941 through 1944. It is one of three digital collections based on the microfilm title Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to United States Political Relations with Japan, 1930-1954. The source material contains Decimal File 711.94.

Japan in the summer of 1945 was a nation totally exhausted by war. The Allied Occupation, dedicated to political and social reform, thoroughly transformed the country in a remarkably short period of time. This is one of three digital collections based on the microfilm title Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to United States Political Relations with Japan, 1930-1954. The source material contains Decimal File 711.94.

J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972), the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, held longstanding interest in the Hollywood film industry as well as deep distrust of anyone on the political left. In August 1942 he ordered the bureau’s Los Angeles office to report on Communist activities of various motion picture personalities, including actors, directors, producers, and writers. The FBI's investigation of Hollywood revealed a growing operation organized in the early 1940s, and after the Second World War the investigation evolved into a sophisticated operation. Between 1944 and 1954 agents conducted extensive surveillance of suspected Communists, “left-wingers,” and “fellow travelers,” and assembled information used by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in an effort to purge Hollywood of Communist influence. This publication contains reporting from informers, such as Ronald Reagan, president of the Screen Actors Guild; data on influential figures; and FBI "reviews" of mainstream films that were believed to contain Communist propaganda. Documentation includes: FBI surveillance and informant reports; Justice Department and FBI memoranda, correspondence, and analyses; news clippings and articles; excerpts from HUAC hearings; briefing papers; speech excerpts; and transcripts of conversations. Subjects include: Lucille Ball; Humphrey Bogart; Bertolt Brecht; James Cagney; Charles Chaplin; Jules Dassin; Walt Disney; Howard Fast; Lillian Hellman; Danny Kaye; Gene Kelley; Peter Lorre; Groucho Marx; Vincent Prince; Edward G. Robinson; James Stewart; Gloria Swanson; and others. This collection comprises the FOIA files related to a variety of subjects under FBI surveillance due to their alleged Communist or “fellow traveler” activities. It does not include the files related to the Hollywood Ten.

J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972), the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, held longstanding interest in the Hollywood film industry as well as deep distrust of anyone on the political left. In August 1942 he ordered the bureau’s Los Angeles office to report on “Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry.” Various FBI reports chronicled the working of major film studios such as MGM, Paramount, RKO, and Warner Brothers, including studio management and labor union power struggles. The FBI's investigation of Hollywood resulted in many thousands of pages and show a growing operation organized in the early 1940s that continued throughout the Cold War. Subjects include: American Federation of Labor; Communist International; front organizations; Council of Hollywood Guilds and Unions; Screen Directors Guild; Screen Office Employees Guild; Screen Cartoonists Guild; Screen Writers Guild; Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee; Hollywood Ten; FBI support of anticommunist organizations; Humphrey Bogart; Charles Chaplin; Cecil B. DeMille; Katharine Hepburn; Gary Cooper; Frank Sinatra; among other topics.

In an atmosphere of hysteria following U.S. entry into the Second World War, and with the support of officials at all levels of the federal government, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, dated February 19, 1942, gave the U.S. military broad powers to ban any citizen from a wide coastal area stretching from the state of Washington to California and extending inland into southern Arizona. The order also authorized transporting these citizens to assembly centers hastily set up and governed by the military in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington. The same executive order, as well as other war-time orders and restrictions, were also applied to smaller numbers of residents of the United States of Italian or German descent. Yet while these individuals (and others from those groups) suffered grievous violations of their civil liberties, the war-time measures applied to Japanese Americans were harsher and more sweeping. Entire communities were uprooted by an executive order that targeted U.S. citizens and resident aliens. This publication consists of the documents from The Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Small Collections, “Japanese American Internment Collections,” in the custody of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.

This archive covers the trial of Julia and Ethel Rosenberg, a nondescript couple accused in 1950 by the U.S. government of operating a Soviet spy network and giving the Soviet Union plans for the atomic bomb. The trial of the Rosenbergs, which began in March 6, 1951, became a political event of greater importance than any damage they may have done to the United States. It was one of the most controversial trials of the twentieth century. After months in prison the Rosenbergs maintained their innocence and began to write poignant letters, which were widely published, protesting their treatment. A movement began to protest the “injustice” of the Rosenberg trial. In the months between the sentencing and execution, criticism of the trial grew more strident, and major demonstrations were held. Jean-Paul Sartre, the French philosopher, called the case “a legal lynching which smears with blood a whole nation.” In spite of attempts at appeal and a temporary state of execution by U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed on June 19, 1953. Both refused to confess. Their guilt and the harshness of their sentences continue to be vigorously debated. Recent studies of the couple’s activities show that the evidence against them was overwhelming. It is difficult, however, to imagine the execution of a married couple with young children without understanding the paranoia the Cold War produced. Since the early 1950s the Rosenbergs have been viewed by many as martyrs, conveniently sacrificed by an iniquitous United States in the name of anticommunism.

This archive covers the career of Roy Marcus Cohn (1927-1986) from the time he was the confidential assistant to the U.S. District Attorney in New York in 1952, to his indictment for participating in a possible payoff scandal involving the United Dye and Chemical Company. Materials include correspondence relating to the 1953 U.S. Army investigation by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, newspaper clippings, memos, teletypes, reports, and affidavits. News articles include: “Roy Cohn vs. Bob Kennedy: The Great Rematch” (September 1963); “Cohn Dares Morgenthau to Prosecute Personally” (September 1963); “Roy Cohn Charges Grand Jury With Operating in a Fish Bowl” (November 1963); “Post Office Denies It Tampered with Cohn’s Mail” (February 1964); “Fugazy Testifies Cohn Induced Him to Lie to U.S. Jury” (April 1964); and “Roy Cohn Acquitted” (July 1964). The documents are drawn from the FBI’s Washington, D.C., files.

This archive contains FBI records on the enigmatic billionaire Howard Hughes (1905-1976). It documents Hughes’s activities in various enterprises including aircraft manufacture and aviation; the motion picture business; Las Vegas real estate; and the Nevada gaming industry. Hughes’s relationship with film stars, reports on his sex life, details on his disappearance in 1970, and Hughes’s contested will are also covered. Of particular interest are letters written by Hughes in his own handwriting. Documents include: “Congress Probes Ownership of Airlines Which Won Routes” (July 1945); “Background into an unnamed racketeer who was employed by Howard Hughes” (June 1946); “Report of the allegation that Howard Hughes had invited Bugsy Siegel as a guest for the inaugural flight of the ‘Constellation’ from Los Angeles to New York” (c. 1947); “Investigation in a forged handwritten will” (1981); among other fascinating records.

This valuable resource for students of American political history details the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation of Huey Long (1893-1935), governor and senator of Louisiana, mainly during the 1920s. Documents include reports on voting fraud; correspondences regarding “Share Our Wealth Society” (1934-1935); “Our Blundering Government,” a March 1935 speech; the investigation of Louisiana officials and crime conditions in the state (July – August 1939); as well as the investigation into Long’s assassination (May- September 1939); among other records.

This FBI file, which covers the period 1970 to 1993, began as an investigation into the Committee of Liaison with Families of Servicemen Detained in North Vietnam (COLIFAM). Included here are interviews with hundreds of Vietnamese refugees as well as information on how the North Vietnamese hoarded personal items of American servicemen to exchange for money. Information on the Women's Liberation Movement, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and the Women's Peace Party is also contained here. Documents include teletypes, interviews, letters, memos, newsletters, and reports. The file is organized chronologically within two divisions: Domestic Security and Foreign Counterintelligence. Scholars interested in Vietnam-related government policy and domestic unrest will find this a useful collection.

When George H. W. Bush became president in 1989 the United States had already begun to see a thawing of relations with the Soviet Union. President Bush spoke of softening relations in his inaugural address, claiming that "a new breeze is blowing," and adding that "great nations of the world are moving toward democracy through the door to freedom." This collection provides an in-depth analysis of the events leading up to the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. and its implications for U.S.-Soviet relations. The collection consists of three FOIA files from the Bush Library. The first file contains material related to the Moscow summit and the coup in August 1991 against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. This file contains cables sent to the White House situation room concerning day-by-day developments, and conversations between President Bush and other foreign leaders. The second file, which concerns the dissolution of the Soviet Union, highlights the Bush administration’s response to the dissolution and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Documents here concern economic and humanitarian support, diplomatic recognition of the republics, aiding the transition to democratic governments and market economies, and defense issues, particularly the fate and control over the former Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal. The last FOIA file contains materials on the meeting between President Bush and President Mikhail Gorbachev in Malta (December 2–3, 1989) and the subsequent meetings between President Bush and NATO leaders in Brussels (December 3– 4, 1989). 

The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina came about as a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia. This collection consists of comprehensive materials related to the former Yugoslavia, particularly Bosnia, and U.S. presidential decision-making.

When East Germany opened its borders and Germans tore down the Berlin Wall separating East and West Berlin in early November 1989, it marked a symbolic end to Communist rule in Eastern Europe. In the minds of many, the Cold War was over. This collection provides an in-depth analysis of the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and its implications for U.S.-German relations.

This collection comprises materials related to the planning and organization of the October 1991 Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid. It consists of correspondence, memoranda, cables, diplomatic dispatches, reports, studies, maps, and printed material which document all aspects of staging the conference as well as the conference itself. The materials detail the role of the United States in convening the peace conference and the interactions and positions of the various parties involved. Subjects include the Persian Gulf War; Operation Desert Shield; Oil; public opinion; Intifada; U.N. Security Council Resolutions; Land for Peace concept; Palestinians; Palestine Liberation Organization; among other topics.

This archive treats U.S. foreign affairs during the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Notable subjects include the Arab-Israeli Conflict; the Camp David Accords; China; Panama Canal treaties; Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT); the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and U.S. responses to the intervention; the Iran Hostage Crisis; human rights; among other topics.

This collection in The National Archives at Kew covers British foreign affairs concerning the United States. The General Political Correspondence for the United States of America, in F.O. 371, consists primarily of communications between the Foreign Office and various British embassies and consulates in the North America. Governmental, political, military, economic, and cultural topics concerning Anglo-American relations are chronicled.

This collection in The National Archives at Kew covers British foreign affairs concerning the United States. The General Political Correspondence for the United States of America, in F.O. 371, consists primarily of communications between the Foreign Office and various British embassies and consulates in North America. Governmental, political, military, economic, and cultural topics concerning Anglo-American relations are chronicled.

This collection in The National Archives at Kew covers British foreign affairs concerning the United States. The General Political Correspondence for the United States of America, in F.O. 371, consists primarily of communications between the Foreign Office and various British embassies and consulates in North America. Governmental, political, military, economic, and cultural topics concerning Anglo-American relations are chronicled.

This collection in The National Archives at Kew covers British foreign affairs concerning the United States. The General Political Correspondence for the United States of America, in F.O. 371, consists primarily of communications between the Foreign Office and various British embassies and consulates in North America. Governmental, political, military, economic, and cultural topics concerning Anglo-American relations are chronicled.