The Cold War television documentary archive consists of transcripts of 531 interviews concerning events of the Cold War - the political, ideological tension between the United States and the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), 1946-1989, following the end of World War Two, which while falling short of actual war between these two nations, was evident in their foreign and defence policies, and those of their allies.

Interviews were conducted with eyewitnesses from the US, USSR, Germany, Poland, Britain, Czechoslovakia, Italy, France, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Spain, Vietnam, Korea, China, Israel Egypt, South Africa, Angola, Cuba, Chile, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and including politicians, policy makers and advisors, diplomats, journalists, academics, members of armed forces, dissidents, peasants, factory workers and civilians.

Events described include the Berlin blockade, 1948-1949, the Berlin Crisis, 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Oct 1962, the Vietnam War, 1965-1975, the Korean War, 1950-1953, the Hungarian uprising, 1956, the Prague Spring, 1968, the nuclear arms race, 1945-1991, and Chinese communism, 1949-1972.

The collections also contains transcripts of a series of seminars on the Cold War, Oct 1995, as well as an incomplete series of files relating to individual episodes of the documentary series including annotated extracts of interview transcripts and other production information. (Transcripts in this section of the collection are mainly duplicates, however there are a small number which are not found in the main transcript series).

Terrorism: Special Studies, 1975-1991 is a themed microfilm compilation of texts commissioned by the US government and published by University Publications of America, Inc. Original texts cover the period 1960-1991, and are drawn from a variety of originating bodies, including the US Defense Intelligence Agency, the US armed forces intelligence organisation; US Central Intelligence Agency; US Army War College; the Defense Intelligence College; US Department of State; Columbia University; US Naval Postgraduate School; US Army Command and Staff College; the Federal Aviation Administration; and non-partisan policy centres, including the RAND Corporation. The collection includes US Central Intelligence Agency terrorist yearbooks; US Defense Intelligence College reports on the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), the West German Red Army Faction, and the Irish Republican Army (IRA); US Federal Aviation Administration reports on the effectiveness of the Civil Aviation Security Program; RAND Corporation policy papers relating to hostage survival, terrorism in the 1980s, options for US policy on terrorism, right-wing terrorist organisations, terrorism in the Middle East, the Red Brigade, kidnapping, white supremacist organisations, and the threat of nuclear and biological weapons; US State Department reports on political terrorism; US Army War College policy papers relating to counter-terrorism, psychological aspects of terrorism, the operational level of 'Euroterrorism' in the 1980s, the media and terrorism, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), and Northern Ireland; Defense Intelligence Agency papers, including the report of the Symposium on International Terrorism, Washington, DC, 2-3 Dec 1985.