Thousands of once classified government documents provide the record to one of the most passionately debated yet
inadequately comprehended subjects of the day--U.S. intelligence-gathering and policy-making activities in El Salvador over the past decade.
Now, for the first time, the National Security Archive and Chadwyck-Healey Inc. bring together the key documents, previously inaccessible to the public, in a new fully indexed publication: El Salvador: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977-1984.
The National Security Archive, a non-profit research institute and library in Washington, D.C., has for several years been diligently locating, obtaining declassification of, organizing and indexing government documents on El Salvador needed by journalists, scholars, and policy planners.
Through systematic document searching, sophisticated use of the Freedom of Information Act, and computer-based cataloging, the Archive has developed an unmatchable collection of primary materials--comprehensive in scope, pioneering in organization.
Now, through a cooperative publishing program with Chadwyck-Healey, this resource, once available only to a handful of Washington insiders, becomes available, fully-indexed, to researchers everywhere.
El Salvador: The Making of US. Policy, 1977-1984 reproduces on microfiche over 27,000 pages of rarely-seen
government documents. In many cases, these materials have been gathered by the National Security Archive through its
own--or other investigators'--Freedom of Information Act requests.
Drawn from the files of more than a dozen top-level government agencies, the collection presents a uniquely integrated,
comprehensive picture of America's political, economic, and military involvement through the Carter and Reagan
Administrations.
The over 27,000 pages of documents include:
It would take an individual researcher years of work, along with an overwhelming financial commitment, to accumulate the
resources offered in this collection. Here is a one-stop retrieval for information on events, issues, and players, American as well
as Salvadoran, official as well as non-official, Left as well as Right.
While the State Department is the largest single source of documentation, there is also important representation from:
The White House
National Security Council
Central Intelligence Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency
Department of Defense
Southern Command
Department of Treasury
Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Agency for International Development
Peace Corps
Congressional committees
General Accounting Office
More than simply a vast accumulation of government writings, the publication-- designed by indexing specialist David
Bearman--offers researchers unprecedented access to specific information through in-depth, document-level indexing.
Important transactions within each document are indexed individually. Prepared by the Archive staff, the hard-bound Index
to names, organizations, and subjects is a major historical contribution in itself.
Also provided are:
Events chronology
Glossaries of key individuals and organizations
Chronological document bibliography
Bibliography of relevant secondary sources
These tools open additional paths of inquiry. Researchers will find the listings invaluable for follow-up interviews with relevant figures, or for efforts to reclaim government-excised references in declassified materials.
With its depth of documentary detail and balance of perspectives, the collection enables researchers to explore afresh:
This is a sampling of the more than 5,000 documents included in El Salvador: The Making of U.S. Policy 1977-1984:
Praise for El Salvador, 1977-1984
"These extraordinary materials on U S. policymaking and the crisis in El Salvador represent an enormous scholarly resource
that would not be available without the tremendous work of the National Security Archive. Students of foreign policy, Latin
American studies, and American politics will gain real insights from this unique collection of documents."
William LeoGrande
Associate Professor of Political Science
School of Public Affairs
The American University
"These documents provide unprecedented insight into the making of American foreign policy that only the Pentagon Papers have done before. They are a must for every journalist and academic who seeks to understand the inside story of foreign policy"
Raymond Bonner,
Former Correspondent in El Salvador,
The New York Times