THE FILES ARE OPEN.

Cambridge Spy Ring

A network of British officials recruited by Soviet intelligence who passed highly sensitive information over several decades.

Cambridge FiveMI6KGB

FILE 0011943

codebreakingSoviet intelligencesignals intelligence

VENONA Project

A secret American cryptanalytic effort begun in 1943 to examine encrypted Soviet diplomatic communications. The recovered material also exposed portions of Soviet espionage traffic.

FILE 0491943

Operation MINCEMEAT

A British deception operation that planted false invasion documents on a corpse to mislead Axis planners about Allied objectives.

World War IIdeceptionMI5

FILE 0151944

Simple Sabotage Field Manual

A classified OSS manual that described small, low-risk ways civilians in occupied territories could obstruct organizations, transportation and industry.

OSSWorld War IIsabotage

FILE 0281945

AARO Historical Record Report — Volume I

A Department of Defense historical review of U.S. government involvement with unidentified anomalous phenomena.

UAPAAROhistorical review

FILE 0341947

Roswell Air Force Reports

Air Force historical reports examining the 1947 Roswell incident and later claims involving bodies and a crashed spacecraft.

RoswellUFOProject MOGUL

FILE 0381947

Limited documentation

CIA UFO Special Collection

A CIA electronic collection of released documents involving foreign press reports, internal memoranda and historical handling of UFO material.

CIAUFO collectionFOIA

FILE 0391947

National Archives UAP Records Portal

A National Archives research portal bringing together federal records related to UFOs and unidentified anomalous phenomena.

UAPNational Archives2025

FILE 0361948

Project SIGN

An early U.S. Air Force program established to investigate reports of unidentified aerial objects.

Project SignUFOAir Force

FILE 0371949

Project GrudgeUFOAir Force

Project GRUDGE

The Air Force UFO investigation that followed Project SIGN and preceded Project BLUE BOOK.

FILE 0201950

StasiWest Germanyhuman intelligence

The Romeo Spy Program

East German intelligence used male agents—later nicknamed Romeo spies—to form romantic relationships with women who had access to sensitive West German government information.

FILE 0401950

CIAFamily Jewelsoversight

CIA Family Jewels

A collection of internal CIA reports assembled in 1973 concerning activities that might conflict with the agency's charter or legal restrictions.

FILE 0131952

UFOU.S. Air Forceaviation

Project BLUE BOOK

The longest-running U.S. Air Force program created to collect, investigate and evaluate reports of unidentified flying objects.

FILE 0431952

GuatemalaCIAcovert action

Operation PBSUCCESS

The CIA covert operation associated with the 1954 overthrow of Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz.

FILE 0021953

Operation TPAJAX

A covert Anglo-American operation connected to the August 1953 overthrow of Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and the strengthening of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

IranCIASIS

FILE 0031953

CIALSDbehavioral research

Project MKULTRA

A CIA research program that investigated chemical, biological and behavioral methods for interrogation and covert operations, including experiments involving unwitting people.

FILE 0351953

Robertson Panel

A CIA-sponsored scientific panel convened in 1953 to assess UFO reports and their national-security implications.

CIAUFORobertson Panel

FILE 0041954

Operation GOLD

A joint CIA–SIS tunnel operation in Berlin designed to tap Soviet military telephone cables. Soviet intelligence knew of the plan through a mole but delayed exposing it.

BerlintunnelSIS

FILE 0081957

A-12 OXCART

A highly classified, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft program developed for the CIA and tested at Groom Lake, preceding the better-known SR-71.

A-12Groom LakeLockheed

FILE 0051958

satellitespaceimagery intelligence

CORONA Satellite Program

The United States’ first successful photographic reconnaissance satellite program, publicly disguised as the Discoverer space program.

FILE 0061960

U-2Francis Gary PowersUSSR

The U-2 Incident

A CIA U-2 aircraft piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960, exposing the reconnaissance program and disrupting diplomacy.

FILE 0121960

Acoustic Kitty

A CIA research effort that explored whether a cat equipped with implanted audio hardware could be used as a mobile listening platform.

CIAanimalssurveillance

FILE 0441960

Bay of Pigs Operation

The failed 1961 invasion of Cuba by a CIA-supported force of Cuban exiles.

CubaBay of PigsCIA

FILE 0071962

ArcticFulton recovery systemSoviet station

Project COLDFEET

A two-man intelligence mission onto an abandoned Soviet drifting ice station, followed by an airborne pickup using the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system.

FILE 0181962

Operation NORTHWOODS Proposal

A 1962 Joint Chiefs proposal describing possible manufactured or staged pretexts that could be used to justify military action against Cuba. It was not implemented.

CubaJoint Chiefsproposal

FILE 0451962

Cuban Missile CrisisnuclearKennedy

Cuban Missile Crisis Records

Declassified intelligence, photographs and meeting records from the thirteen-day confrontation over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.

FILE 0211963

JFK2025 releaseNational Archives

JFK Assassination Records — 2025 Release

A major 2025 publication of previously classified records from the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection.

FILE 0221963

JFKWarren CommissionLee Harvey Oswald

Warren Commission

The presidential commission established to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

FILE 0251963

Oswald and Mexico City Records

Records concerning Lee Harvey Oswald's reported contacts with the Soviet and Cuban diplomatic missions in Mexico City before the assassination.

JFKOswaldMexico City

FILE 0261963

FBI Investigation of the JFK Assassination

The FBI's extensive investigation into the assassination, including interviews, laboratory work and examination of investigative leads.

JFKFBIDallas

FILE 0411967

CIAdomestic surveillanceantiwar movement

Operation CHAOS

A CIA program that collected information on American antiwar and dissident groups while searching for evidence of foreign influence.

FILE 0461967

VietnamPhoenix ProgramCIA

Phoenix Program

A Vietnam War program intended to identify and disrupt the Viet Cong's political and administrative infrastructure.

FILE 0091968

Glomar ExplorerK-129submarine

Project AZORIAN

A covert CIA engineering effort using the Hughes Glomar Explorer to recover material from Soviet submarine K-129, which had sunk in deep Pacific waters.

FILE 0271968

MLK Assassination Records — 2025 Release

A July 2025 release of more than 240,000 pages of records related to the investigation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

MLK2025 releaseFBI

FILE 0191970

CIA Pigeon Camera Program

A CIA research effort that developed lightweight cameras small enough to be carried by pigeons for photographic intelligence collection.

CIApigeonscamera

FILE 0111971

Operation IVY BELLS

A covert Cold War intelligence operation in which U.S. submarines placed recording equipment near an underwater Soviet naval communications cable in the Sea of Okhotsk.

submarineNSASoviet Union

FILE 0171972

remote viewingDIAparapsychology

STAR GATE Project

A group of U.S. government programs that examined whether remote viewing or related claimed phenomena could provide useful intelligence.

FILE 0421975

Church Committee

The Senate investigation that exposed major abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies and helped reshape oversight laws and practices.

Church CommitteeCIAFBI

FILE 0231976

House Select Committee on Assassinations

A congressional investigation that reexamined the assassinations of President Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

JFKCongressHSCA

FILE 0141979

ARGO Exfiltration

A joint American-Canadian operation that used a fake science-fiction film production as cover to remove six U.S. diplomats from Iran.

IrandisguiseCIA

FILE 0471981

KGBFrancetechnology theft

Farewell Dossier

Intelligence supplied by Soviet officer Vladimir Vetrov revealing a large KGB program for acquiring Western technology.

FILE 0101983

NATOnuclear riskSoviet Union

Able Archer 83

A NATO command-post exercise held during an especially tense period of the Cold War. Later records fueled debate over how seriously Soviet leaders interpreted the exercise.

FILE 0161984