Declassification & release

CIA Declassifies Trove of Cold War-Era Intelligence Memos

As the U.S. and Russia reached the brink of nuclear war in 1962, President John F. Kennedy received top-secret intelligence from the CIA that a new warhead launcher was spotted in Cuba.

Amid those grave concerns, the memo ends on a different note. A U.S. agent in Moscow describes "packed houses and enthusiastic applause" during a run of Russian performances by the New York City Ballet.

That report, given to Kennedy a day before the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, is among roughly 19,000 pages of newly declassified CIA documents from the Cold War released Wednesday.

Declassification & release

Declassified CIA missives shed light on opening of Six Day War

The CIA published about 2,500 classified documents, dating from the time of Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in the sixties. The documents describe among other things the development of the Vietnam War and the response to the Cuban missile as well as the Six Day War, from the American point of view.On June 5, the opening day of the war, a daily briefing was transferred that was classified as "top secret." It reads as follows: "Hostilities began early this morning. Both sides report heavy fighting in the air and between armored forces along the Israeli border with Egypt. Israeli planes raided airfields in Cairo and other areas beginning at about 8am local time (2am Washington time).