Cold War Manuscripts Collections

The Booth Family for Special Collections houses a number of manuscripts collections about the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union during the mid- to later-part of the twentieth century. Manuscripts collections are generally personal papers generated by an individual or materials created by an organization. They may include letters, diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, printed materials, and other types of documents.

Below is a  list of manuscripts collections relating to the Cold War together with a link to the finding aid of each collection. A finding aid is essentially a list of the contents of a particular collection. Some of these collections are stored in secure, environmentally sound off-site storage. It usually takes a few business day to recall boxes from off-site storage.

Collection Description: The papers of Fr. Walsh throw considerable light on most aspects of his exceptional career: as guiding spirit of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service; as head of the Papal Relief Mission to Russia in the early 1920s; as president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association; and as an extremely involved consultant at the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials. Fr. Walsh was an ardent anti-Communist.

Date Span: 1885-1955.

Extent: 22.5 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Rev. Edmund A. Walsh, S.J. Papers 2 comprise a second addition of the personal papers of the extraordinary Jesuit educator, author, and geopolitician Rev. Edmund A. Walsh, S.J. Some coverage is given to the Papal Relief Mission to Russian in the 1920s. 

Date Span: 1904-1956.

Extent: 2.75 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Anthony Cave Brown papers comprise the extensive research files of historian and author Anthony Cave Brown used for his numerous books about U.S. and British military intelligence. Of note, there are files related to his book Treason in the Blood (1994) about H. St. John Philby and his son Kim Philby. Some documents in the Anthony Cave Brown Papers concern the Cold War.

Date Span: 1930-2006.

Extent: 206.85 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Robert F. Kelley Papers document relations between the United States and the Soviet Union during World War II and the Cold War period to 1975. Included are articles and addresses by Kelley on this topic. Also includes files on the early years of Radio Liberty.

Date Span: 1917-1975.

Extent: 7.5 linear feet.

Collection Description: The J. Graham Parsons Papers consist of personal and professional correspondence files, memoranda, and photographs accumulated by Ambassador Parsons during his many years as a U.S. diplomat, including his tenure as ambassador to Laos (1956-58); as ambassador to Sweden (1961-67); and as deputy U.S. representative at the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks held in Vienna and Helsinki (1970-72).

Date Span: 1930-1991.

Extent: 22.0 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Richard M. Helms Papers 1 comprise the private papers of Richard Helms, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1966 to 1973 and the U.S. Ambassador to Iran from 1973 to 1976. Includes correspondence, drafts of works, subject files, printed materials, and photographs.

Date Span: 1922-2004.

Extent: 40.5 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Richard M. Helms Papers 2 comprise a second portion of the personal papers of Richard Helms, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1966 to 1973 and the U.S. Ambassador to Iran from 1973 to 1976. The collection includes some of Helms' personal correspondence, appointment books, printed materials, and photographs.

Date Span: 1933-2003.

Extent: 2.0 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Richard M. Helms Papers 3 comprise a third portion of documents about the career of Richard Helms, who served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1966 to 1973 and the U.S. Ambassador to Iran from 1973 to 1976. The collection includes correspondence, rough drafts of his memoirs "A Look Over My Shoulder," appointment books dating from 1965 to 1973, printed clippings, awards, and numerous photographs.

Date Span: 1930-2004.

Extent: 9.5 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Richard M. Helms Papers 4 consist of a fourth portion of documents pertaining to the career of Richard M. Helms, director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency from 1966 to 1973 and U.S. Ambassador to Iran from 1973 to 1976. This particular portion of Helms' personal papers principally contains letters of recommendation on his behalf written to the "Chicago Daily News" in 1937 and to the U.S. Navy Bureau of Navigation in 1942.

Date Span: 1935-2008.

Extent: 0.25 linear feet.

Collection Description: The William Hood Papers contain correspondence, manuscripts, and printed items comprising research materials for his collaboration with Richard M. Helms on Helms' memoirs "A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency," which was published in 2003.

Date Span: 1936-2001.

Extent: 2.0 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Jean Edward Smith Papers consist of materials he amassed for his full-length biography of Lucius D. Clay entitled Lucius D. Clay: An America Life (New York: Holt, 1990). Some attention is given to the Berlin airlift, which Clay coordinated, and Germany during the Cold War.

Date Span: 1860-1990.

Extent: 12.0 linear feet.

The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) in Arlington, Virginia, conducts oral history interviews of former U.S. Foreign Service officials as part of the Foreign Affairs Oral History Project (FAOH). The interview transcripts are posted online, full-text, and free-of-charge on the ADST Web site at https://adst.org/what-is-adst/. There are more than 2500 transcripts arranged by name of the person interviewed. Some interviews discuss the Cold War.

There are also "Country Readers" which contain the excerpts from all of the interviews concerning a specific country.  The "Country Readers" are available on the ADST Web site at https://adst.org/oral-history/country-reader-series/

The FAOH transcripts are also accessible on the following Library of Congress Web page: https://loc.gov/collections/foreign-affairs-oral-history/about-this-collection/

The Booth Family Center used to hold the actual printed transcripts. However, they were sent back to ADST. The best way to access the interviews is from the ADST Web page or the Library of Congress Web page.

Collection Description: The Paul Warnke Papers 1 document the controversy that preceded his confirmation as Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and as a principal U.S. negotiator of the SALT II treaty. Most importantly the collection portrays his continuing role in the non-government arms control movement. There is much on Democratic presidential campaigns, the Vietnam War, and the legal culture of Washington, D.C. The collection consists of appointment calendars and log books, manuscripts, memoranda, printed material, and extensive correspondence.

Date Span: 1963-2000.

Extent: 57.0 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Jon S. Lodeesen Papers consist of records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and include annual and budget reports, as well as files relating to Lodeesen's many years of work in Radio Liberty's programming and research departments. The research files include articles and reports on the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries during the early sixties through the late eighties, particularly relating to freedom of information in published and broadcast media, and the role of RFE/RL.

Date Span: 1960-1996.

Extent: 15.0 linear feet.

Collection Description: The files of Yale Richmond, a specialist in intercultural communication, who served 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service with postings abroad as a cultural or information officer in Germany, Laos, Poland, Austria, and the Soviet Union. During the detente years of the 1970s, he was director of the Office of Soviet and East European Exchanges in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Department of State. He retired in 1980 as a Deputy Assistant Director for Europe, U.S. Information Agency. From 1947 to 1949 he was the U.S. Military Government officer in Germany.

Date Span: 1973-2000.

Extent: 3.5 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Kim Philby - Oleg Kalugin Collection consists of five letters from Philby to Kalugin and three typed manuscripts written by Philby. In the letters, Philby expresses his friendship for Kalugin and mentions mutual acquaintances. The manuscripts, for their part, concern counterintelligence. They are typed with a few handwritten notations.

Date Span: 1979-1980.

Extent: 0.25 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Kim Philby - Mikhail Lyubimov Collection contains 12 letters from Kim Philby to Mikhail Lyubimov. The letters were sent from Moscow to Copenhagen. In the letters, Philby thanks Lyubimov for sending many packages with presents to Philby. Moreover, Philby touches on his travel plans, especially to the Crimea. Also, Philby makes a reference to his autobiography "My Silent War" and to his 16th anniversary of living in the Soviet Union.

Date Span: 1977-1980.

Extent: 0.25 linear feet.

Collection Description: Comprised mostly of research files generated for his book The FBI-KGB War, the Robert J. Lamphere Papers document the research activities of Lamphere, who was an FBI special agent from 1941 to 1955. Research files on the Rosenberg case and the Venona case are particularly extensive.

Date Span: 1937-2002.

Extent: 3.75 linear feet.

Collection Description: This collection reflects Garthoff’s lifelong interest in the intelligence community and the Cold War. The bulk of the collection is newsprint or copies of news articles, and scholarly articles and copies of books on intelligence topics, frequently with marginalia and comments by Garthoff.

Date Span: 1919-2001.

Extent: 12.5 linear feet.

Collection Description: Correspondence, related files, and statistical summaries documenting Keller's work as acting director of the Far East Regional Publishing Center (1952-1954) in the United States Information Agency (USIA) and as head of the Far Eastern and Latin American branches in the USIA, where he published comic books promoting democracy.  

Date Span: 1939-1967.

Extent: 1.68 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Edward P. Gazur Papers consist of a typed manuscript by Edward P. Gazur entitled, Me and the KGB General: The Secret Odyssey of KGB Master Spy Alexander Orlov. The manuscript is divided into 27 chapters, and also includes introductory material, a prologue, a postcript, and what Gazur calls a "Basic Intelligence Primer," containing a brief history of Russian intelligence operations and common terms used by agents. The manuscript was written between 1999 and 2001, and published in 2002 by Carroll & Graf Publishers under the title, Alexander Orlov: The FBI's KGB General.

Date Span: 1999-2001.

Extent: 1.0 linear feet.

Collection Description: The Alexander Orlov Papers contain selected correspondence and printed materials of Alexander Orlov, the highest-ranking Soviet intelligence officer to ever defect to the West. The correspondence in the collection is devoted entirely to the release of Orlov's first book, The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes (1954). Printed materials by Orlov are also included.

Date Span: 1953-1980.

Extent: 0.5 linear feet.

Collection Description: This collection includes correspondence of Garret G. Ackerson with his family about his trip to Vietnam on behalf of the International Rescue Committee in the spring of 1968.

Date Span: 1923-1976.

Extent: 4.75 linear feet.

Collection Description: The George Tanham Papers comprise the research files generated by George Tanham, a U.S. diplomat who was an expert in the politics of South Asia and Southeast Asia. Tanham's files are mostly printed materials and manuscripts about various countries, such as Afghanistan, China, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Materials regarding counterinsurgency, foreign relations, international politics, nuclear policy, and other topics are included.

Date Span: 1952-2003.

Extent: 46.5 linear feet.

Collection Description: Includes a large series of lectures (including research notes and speech outlines) given by Martin F. Herz as the director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University (1978-83). He taught many courses on the Cold War and modern diplomacy. His research, notes, and outlines for many of his lectures comprise part of this collection (Folders 3:13-3:50).

Date Span: 1940-1983.

Extent: 8.75 linear feet.