pen Society Archives, a Soros Foundation project, contains extensive guides to the Archive's holdings on Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, including (among many other things) the research files of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. For an introduction to Chinese archival sources, see the Chinese History Research Site at the University of California, San Diego.
Scholarship On-LineThe work of historians and their students is also being transformed by the widespread online availability of scholarly journals. Indeed, H-Diplo, the H-NET discussion list dedicated to the study of diplomatic and international history, lists over fifty journals accessible in whole or part through the Web. Back issues of many journals, including the Journal of American History and the American Historical Review, are available through JSTOR, the large database of scholarly journals to which many libraries now subscribe.
Primary Sources On-lineIn addition to online databases and other bibliographic guides, libraries, government agencies and other public and private organizations are placing more and more of the historical record online. For example, the University of Michigan's outstanding government documents collection University of Michigan Documents Center includes many valuable resources. Cold War scholars will be especially interested in its extensive collection of documents, indexes and links on U.S. Foreign Policy. The Yale University Law School has created a rich documentary archive on U.S. foreign relations, the Avalon Project on the Foreign Relations of the United States. Both the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Library of Congress offer online materials on the Cold War. For an overview of documents, together with finding aids and other resources available through the National Archives, for example, see The Cold War Era: Records and Research at the National Archives and Records Administration. Many of the presidential libraries, in addition to extensive guides to their own collections, have digitized interesting (if often uneven) materials on the Cold War. Thus, the John F. Kennedy Library maintains a reference site with documents, photos and sound files, including the full text of the 272 National Security Action Memoranda issued by Kennedy from 1961 to 1963; while the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library hosts the Vietnam War Internet Project, a large set of documents, links, bibliographies and other materials relating to the Vietnam War. The Truman Library's online collection includes a detailed set of original documents and other materials on the Berlin Airlift. The recently established Harvard Project on Cold War Studies maintains an online documentary archive and a well annotated page of links to other cold war sites.
Freedom of Information Act Web sitesAs a result of the 1996 amendments to the Freedom of Information Act, individual agencies such as the FBI, CIA and the State Department have now established "electronic reading rooms" at which frequently requested declassified documents and other materials are posted. Thus, the Department of State FOIA Electronic Reading Room offers access to a wide variety of declassified State Department documents; while it is possible
The Declassified Cold War: The Cold
War International History
The National Security Archive has a mission similar to that of the Cold War International History Project, with which it often collaborates on conferences and other undertakings. The National Security Archive was founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars seeking access to classified government records.
Some of the RestThus far, we've touched on only a fraction of the Web-based resources relevant to the study of the Cold War. Indeed, the scope and variety of resources challenges the energy and intelligence of even the most dedicated researcher. As a consequence, many universities, government agencies, academic centers and institutes, museums, newspapers and broadcast media, foundations and other organizations have come to play an increasingly important role in providing gateways 