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).

The Diaries of Dwight D Eisenhower, 1953-1961, consists of a varied body of microfilmed manuscripts that contain several categories of material, arranged chronologically by month and year. Diary entries and dictated correspondence are filed in folders entitled 'DDE Diary'; 'DDE Personal Diary'; or 'DDE Dictation'. The bulk of actual diary entries falls into the years 1953-1956. Another prominent category is memoranda of telephone conversations with the more detailed conversations dating prior to 1959. The largest body of material is the official White House staff memoranda, reports, correspondence, and summaries of congressional correspondence. These types of documents are found in folders labelled 'Miscellaneous', 'Goodpaster', 'Staff Memos', and after 1957, 'Staff Notes'. Herein are the memoranda of conversations, or 'memcons', prepared by Gen Andrew Jackson Goodpaster, Defense Liaison Officer and Staff Secretary to the President of the United States. From 1956 to the end of the administration, 'Toner Notes' were produced, so named for White House staff member Albert Toner, who with fellow White House Research Group member Christopher Russell, prepared daily intelligence briefings for the President. Material in the collection includes entries relating to Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy and the trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg; correspondence with Vice President Richard Milhous Nixon; Prisoners of War exchanges in Korea; rapprochement between Argentina and the US; military aid to Yugoslavia; Eisenhower's 'Atoms for Peace' speech 1953; the situation in Indochina, 1954; the use of psychological warfare in the Third World; relations between the US and the People's Republic of China; France and the European Defence Community; waning British and French colonial ties; the Baghdad Pact, 1955; the Suez Crisis, 1956; US Joint Chiefs of Staff strategic planning in Europe; the Soviet invasion of Hungary, 1956; plans for mutual security arrangements with favoured nations; the Military Assistance Program; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; the African- American civil rights movement; military officer exchanges between Israel and the US; the American, British and Canadian Army Standardization Program; US Department of Defense budgetary matters; the 'Vanguard' satellite program, 1957; nuclear weapons, nuclear strategy and the US-Soviet 'missile gap'. Correspondents include HM King George V; Gen Juan Domingo Peron, president of Argentina; Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy; Rt Hon Sir Winston (Leonard Spencer) Churchill; Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India; Dr Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany; Gen Douglas MacArthur; Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr; Special Assistant to the President Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller; Gen Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle, President of France; Rt Hon (Maurice) Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of Great Britain; Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and Chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers; (David) Dean Rusk, President of the Rockefeller Foundation; John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State, 1953-1959; Herbert Hoover, Jr, Under Secretary of State, 1954-1957; Christian Archibald Herter, Under Secretary of State, 1957-1959.

Papers of Professor Lawrence Freedman, 1959-1992, including files of press cuttings, printed material and other papers relating to defence issues, 1959-1991, collected by Professor Lawrence Freedman, notably on the Gulf War, 1990-1991, the Falklands War, 1982, and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), 1959-1987, START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks), 'STAR WARS' (the US Strategic Defense Initiative), and defence issues in the Soviet Union, UK, Germany, France, Israel and China; Freedman's correspondence and research papers on topics including UK Nuclear History, START, 1990-1992, House of Commons Defence Committee, MOD Defence Estimates, SDI, Eastern Europe, Soviet arms control, strategy and foreign relations, 1990-1992; and USA Department of Defense Current News: special editions and selected statements, 1977-1988, topics of special editions are principally arms control, espionage and strategic defence initiative.

A small number of files were recalled from the 1st accession by Professor Freedman in 1998. These are indicated on the box list.

Papers of Sir Geoffrey Warren Furlonge relating to the Middle East, [1932-1983] including typescript memorandum by Furlonge entitled 'Memorandum on slavery in Saudi Arabia' [1932]; typescript account by Furlonge entitled 'The mission to Taif', Hejaz, Arabia, with eleven photographs, Jul 1934. Four letters home from Furlonge to his mother relating to Syria and the Lebanon, 1941-1944. Typescript articles by Furlonge, 1959-1977, including 'Mount Kenya', 1959; 'Anglo-Jordanian relations today', 1966; 'Palestinian diaspora', 1969; 'Algeria ten years after', 1972; 'Mauritania', 1974; 'Traditional Islamic society' [1974]; 'Notes on visit to the West Bank and Jordan', 1975; 'The future of the Spanish Sahara', 1975; 'Algeria: the next step forward' [1977]; 'The Arabia that was', 1977. Papers relating to an English Speaking Union lecture tour of North America by Furlonge, Sep-Nov 1964, including bound typescript volume listing speaking engagements, Sep-Nov 1964; typescript account entitled 'North American tour, 1964', written by Furlong, Dec 1964. Printed text of lecture by Furlonge entitled 'Jordan today', given to the Royal Central Asian Society, 8 Jun 1966, and published in the Royal Central Asian Journal , Oct 1966. Typescript draft chapters from an unpublished book on the Middle East, including chapters entitled 'Morocco', 'Spanish Sahara', 'The Nile valley', 'An antique land [Libya]', 'The Maghrib' and 'Algeria' [1965]. Four typescript draft chapters and typescript notes on the French mandated territories of Syria and the Lebanon, for an unpublished book entitled 'The liberation of the Levant', 1971. Correspondence 1971-1974, including with Sir Alec Seath Kirkbride, 1971-1972; the British Embassy, Rabat, Saudi Arabia, 1974; The Times , 1974. Typescript draft obituaries by Furlonge relating to individuals connected to the Middle East [1976-1983], including Maj Gen Seyyid Mudar Badran, Prime Minister of Jordan, 1976-1979; Sir Alec Seath Kirkbride, Diplomat, 1922-1954; Muhammad Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, 1970-1981; Khalid ibn Abd al-Aziz, King of Saudi Arabia, 1975-1982; Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, Islamic leader of Iran, 1979-1989; Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, 1941-1979, with related correspondence with the Obituary Department, The Times , 1981.

Public Statements by the Secretaries of Defense, 1947-1981 are microfilmed copies of official statements, press releases, speeches, announcements and memoranda released by successive US Secretaries of Defense, 1947-1981. Compiled by the US Department of Defense at the Pentagon, Washington, DC, the material reflects US government national security concerns during the height of the Cold War. Arranged chronologically, the series includes statement before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan), 1948; statement before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives on aid to Greece and Turkey, 1948; memoranda relating to Civil Defense Planning, 1948; statement on biological warfare potentialities, 1949; statements relating to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1949-1981; remarks at the unveiling of the memorial to British FM Sir John (Greer) Dill, 1950; testimony relating to the military situation in the Far East and the Balkans; statements relating to the Mutual Security Pact, 1952 and the Mutual Security Program, 1953; statement regarding the deployment of nuclear weapons for air defence, 1957; statement before the Senate Committee on Armed Services relating to satellite and missile programs, 1958; testimony regarding the Foreign Assistance Act, 1962; press conferences relating to the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962; joint statements with Gen Maxwell Davenport Taylor, Chairman, US Joint Chiefs of Staff, relating to the situation in the Republic of Vietnam, 1963; press conference regarding Gulf of Tonkin 'incident', 1964; statement regarding the appointment of Gen William Childs Westmoreland as Commander, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, 1964; press releases relating to the increased commitment of US ground troops to Vietnam, 1966; testimony regarding US operations in Cambodia, 1970; press conferences relating to US-Soviet Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) tests, 1970; statements regarding US arms sales to Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, 1974; statements regarding the fall of Saigon, Republic of Vietnam, to the North Vietnamese Army, Apr 1975; testimony relating to nuclear technology, including the Minuteman II nuclear missile, 1976; statements regarding Stealth technology and its application, 1980.