For Immediate Release: August 23, 2000
Further information: Tom McNaught (617) 514-1662
Boston -- Approximately 4,500 pages of previously classified materials were opened today by the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. The newly opened materials are from the working file of President Kennedy's National Security Council Advisor McGeorge Bundy and the NSC staff and will be filed in the Kennedy Library archives' National Security Files (NSF) collection.
The newly opened and sanitized documents include a significant amount of new material relating to Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Germany, India, Laos, USSR, and Vietnam.
The John F. Kennedy Library is currently undergoing an unprecedented declassification effort under the auspices of President Clinton's Executive Order 12598 which mandates that all documents 25 years and older containing national security classified information must be reviewed for declassification. The documents were declassified as a part of the Remote Archives Capture (RAC) project that was instituted to facilitate President Clinton's 1995 order.
The RAC Program was developed to aid the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and other Executive Branch agencies in the review of classified materials. The RAC Program involved the onsite optical scanning of classified materials in approximately 60 collections at the Kennedy Library. Scanning of several hundred thousand pages was completed by Kennedy Library and Central Intelligence Agency staff in April of 1998.
After the documents were scanned, many government agencies reviewed the materials in Washington, applying their own declassification guidelines. Once this review was completed, the RAC Program returned to the Library two disks of open or sanitized documents. A final review was conducted by the Kennedy Library staff to determine if review by additional agencies was required.
Researchers should be aware that the newly released documents represent only a portion of the material returned to the Library on the two disks. The Library staff anticipates openings in the other scanned collections at a future date and expects to receive further declassified material from the RAC Program as it is reviewed by participating agencies.
The RAC Program will ultimately entail the review of millions of pages at nine Presidential Libraries. Approximately 20 federal agencies are participating in this program. The RAC has been implemented in four other Presidential Libraries.
This declassified material is available for research use in the Library's Research Room. The hours of operation are Monday - Friday from 8:30-4:30. Before scheduling a visit, all interested parties should call the Research Room at 617-514-1629.
To document the life and career of President Kennedy and to provide insights into people, events, and issues of mid-20th century American history, the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum collects, preserves and makes available for research the documents, audiovisual material and memorabilia of President Kennedy, his family, and his contemporaries.
The Library's archives includes 36 million pages of documents from the collections of 340 individuals, organizations, or government agencies; oral history interviews with 1,300 people; and over 30,000 books. The Audiovisual Archives administers collections of over 200,000 still photographs, 7,550,000 feet of motion picture film, 1,200 hours of video recordings, over 7,000 hours of audio recordings and 500 original editorial cartoons.
The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum is a presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and supported, in part, by the Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization. It is one of ten presidential libraries operated by the United States government under the Presidential Libraries Act of 1955. The Kennedy Library and the Kennedy Library Foundation seek to promote, through educational and community programs, a greater appreciation and understanding of American politics, history, and culture, the process of governing and the importance of public service.