Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents ("the world's largest nongovernmental collection" according to the Los Angeles Times), leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, public interest law firm defending and expanding public access to government information, global advocate of open government, and indexer and publisher of former secrets.

Articles about the Archive

‘Kicking and screaming’: 50 years of FOIA

By Philip Eil, July 1, 2016

Freedom of Information Act 50th Anniversary

C-SPAN, June 28,2016

Eyes Only: [redacted]

By Peter Carlson, The Washington Post, May 8, 2008

Open Secrets

By David C. Anderson, Ford Foundation Report, Summer 2000