Governmental documents can provide insight into decisions behind policies and law. The following resources provide access to treaties, hearings, laws, memos and other governmental documents.
Historic and current congressional information. Includes Committee Prints, Congressional Record 1789-2009, CRS Reports, Hearings 1824-present, Unpublished Hearings 1973-1992, House & Senate Documents and Reports, Legislative Histories, Executive Branch Documents 1789-1952, and the Serial Set. Coverage: 1789-present.
The American Presidency Project is a collection of presidential documents including speeches, memoranda, written statements, letters, etc. Can search by president to locate only documents relating to that presidency.
The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity.
Provides access to a broad range of previously classified federal records from 1900 to within the current decade. The types of materials include intelligence studies, policy papers, diplomatic correspondence, cabinet meeting minutes, briefing materials, and domestic surveillance and military reports. Coverage: 1900-2008.
Declassified government documents covering U.S. policy toward critical world events – including their military, intelligence, diplomatic and human rights dimensions – from 1945 to the present.
Contains United States intelligence, diplomatic, and presidential papers that deal with nearly all parts of the world.
This collection provides insight into the recent history of the surveillance of aliens and national security during World War II and the early postwar period. Coverage: 1940-1978.
Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, Custodial Detention. This collection comprises the entire contents of the Primary Source Media microfilm product entitled "National Security and the FBI Surveillance of Enemy Aliens."
The civil rights and anti-war movements, communism, Black-nationalist and white-supremacist hate groups, the Socialist Workers Party, and American radicalism. Documents from the files of the FBI. Coverage: 1956-1971.
