The collection presents an integrated record of US decision making during the 1958-1962 confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the situation of Berlin specifically, and Germany generally. The collection includes primarily records of Eisenhower's telephone conversations with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Under Secretary of State Christian Archibald Herter and minutes of Eisenhower's discussions with Gen Andrew Jackson Goodpaster, Defense Liaison Officer and Staff Secretary to the President and, for the Kennedy administration, records mainly prepared by McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and Laurence J Legere, Assistant to the Military Representative of the President, 1961-1962 and Senior National Security Council Staff Member, 1962-1963. The collection also includes records of East-West negotiations over Berlin and Germany, including US-Soviet 'exploratory discussions', 1958-1962; material relating to Allied efforts to develop a co-ordinated negotiating position during the first months of 1959 and the subsequent protracted talks in Geneva, Switzerland, May-Aug 1959; material relating to LIVE OAK, the tripartite American-British-French Berlin military contingency planning group under the direction of Gen Lauris Norstad, Commander- in-Chief US European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Apr 1959; papers relating to US and Soviet nuclear capabilities, 1959-1962; Berlin checkpoint crises, 1959-1961; a complete record of the summit meeting in Sep 1959 between Eisenhower and Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev at Camp David, Maryland, USA; papers relating to Western preparations for discussions on Berlin at the aborted summit of May 1960; papers relating to the 'Wall Crisis', including material relating to the refugee problem in the German Democratic Republic and US and Allied reactions to the construction of the Berlin Wall, Aug 1961; US and Soviet confrontations at US zone checkpoint, 'Checkpoint Charlie', Oct 1961; minutes of conversations between Soviet and US policy makers during the Kennedy administration, including a compete record of the talks between (David) Dean Rusk, US Secretary of State, and Andrei Andreevich Gromyko, Soviet Foreign Minister, Gromyko and Llewellyn E Thompson, US Ambassador to the Soviet Union, and Rusk and Anatoly Federovich Dobrynin, Soviet Ambassador to the US, 1962. It should be noted that papers of major Kennedy administration officials remain closed due to security processing delays at the John F Kennedy Library. Thus, files after Sep 1961 in the National Security Files remain largely sealed. Moreover, documents from files that have been reviewed continue to be withheld or heavily excised. Also, many of the Central Intelligence Agency and US Department of Defense files from 1961-1962 continue to be withheld or heavily excised.

The collection consists of pamphlets written by Davidson, papers relating to his part in the Allied Military Mission to Moscow, USSR, 1939 and papers relating to his career in World War Two as Commander in the Royal Artillery and as Director of Military Intelligence. The World War Two material includes maps used in the retreat of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) to Dunkirk, France, maps used as Director of Military Intelligence to illustrate the progress of the war to Queen Mary, mother of George VI and a personal diary kept while Director of Military Intelligence. There is also a file containing correspondence with E E Thomas of the Cabinet Office Historical Section relating to aspects of Military Intelligence during World War Two.

The MAGIC Documents: Summaries and Transcripts of the Top-Secret Diplomatic Communications of Japan, 1938-1945, is a themed microfilm collection relating to US deciphers of Japanese diplomatic codes through the use of MAGIC decryption, 1938- 1945. The collection contains copies of deciphered official and unofficial Japanese diplomatic communiqués sent from Japanese personnel stationed at embassies and consulates in the Far East, Europe and the Middle East, to Tokyo, Japan, 1938-1945, and includes material relating to Japanese civil, political and economic conditions and policies, military expenditures, strategy, tactics, and campaigns, and eventual peace initiatives and surrender, 1938-1945. Included in the collection are deciphered messages concerning Japanese perceptions of Allied strategy against Japan; the effect of Allied air raids on Japan; Japanese relations with the German Foreign Office; Japanese relations with the governments of Burma, Indo-China; Korea, Netherland East Indies, Siam, China, the Philippines; perceptions of Allied chemical warfare capabilities; perceptions of Allied Lend-Lease naval forces and strategy; British and French relations with colonies in the Far East; control of industry in Manchuria (Manchukuo); perceptions of Axis strategy and Japan's role within it; Japanese interest in Indian nationalism and the Indian Independence League; the Burma-Siam railway; Japanese attacks on the Burma Road, the supply route which connected Burma to Generalissimo Chiang Kai- Shek's nationalist forces in China; administration of the government of Japanese occupied Nanking, China; the Chinese Communist Party; the rationing of clothing and food in Japan; perceptions of the Soviet Comintern Pact; Japanese relations with German, European, and Chinese banks; Japanese relations with Spanish Gen Francisco Franco Bahamonde, the German High Command and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini; interpretation of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere; concern for Japanese nationals abroad, 1937-1945; Japanese naval strategy and tactics; function of the Japanese Consular Police, China; territorial claims on the Kurile Islands; material relating to Japanese military campaigns during World War Two; Japan's search for strategic resources in the Far East; military strengths and dispositions of the German Armed Forces; the origins of the Russo-Japanese Neutrality Pact; Allied and Axis propaganda methods; the treatment of Allied prisoners of war; the surrender of Japanese armed forces in the Far East.

Papers relating to Roberts' life and career, 1940-1992, including twenty four detailed letters home to his father, Col William Bradley Roberts, from North Africa and North West Europe, 1940-1944; papers relating to operations in North Africa, 1941-1943, including memoranda, typescript intelligence summaries and typescript and manuscript notes, notably on operations of 22 Guards Bde and 7 Armoured Div, North Africa, Jun 1941; brief notes and correspondence on tank deployment, tactics and specifications, 1943-1944, including typescript copy of letter from Gen Sir Bernard Law Montgomery to Lt Gen Sir Ronald Weeks, Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff, on tank specifications, Apr 1944; correspondence, accounts and notes relating to 11 Armoured Div operations in North West Europe, 1944-1945, notably planning notes and reports on Operation GOODWOOD, the 2 Army offensive south east of Caen, France, Jul 1944; typescript and manuscript accounts by personnel of 11 Armoured Div, dated 1982-1993, relating to operations in North West Europe, 1944-1945; correspondence, 1948-1992, including letters from Lt Gen Sir Henry Royds Pownall, Sep 1948, Lt Gen Sir Giffard Le Quesne Martel, 1951, Maj Gen Raymond Briggs, Feb 1951, Maj Gen Sir Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart, Sep 1952, and Maj Gen Ronald Frederick King 'David' Belchem, Nov 1978; correspondence between Roberts and the Daily Mail relating to articles written by Roberts on the possibility of a future war with the USSR, 1950-1951; press cuttings relating to service in World War Two, 1939-1945; correspondence between Roberts and The Guardian, Aug-Nov 1969, concerning the liberation of Antwerp, Belgium, 1944; newspaper cuttings, dated 1942-1967, relating to Roberts' service in World War Two, 1939-1945; one group photograph including Roberts [1945]; audiotape of BBC radio broadcast by Roberts, 1944, and after dinner speech, 1990.

Papers relating to the career of Brig John 'Joe' Starling, 1947-1992, including copy of memoir Soldier On! The Testament of a Tom , (Spellmount Ltd., 1992), detailing 45 years of Starling's military career; pamphlets and brochures advertising the Parachute Regiment and the Red Devils display team including The Parachute Regiment: Challenge! , c.1970; Train to be a Parachute Soldier , [1975]; Parachute Regiment and Officer Parachute Regiment , Office of Information, 1985; The Airborne Initiative: The 1990 Airborne Forces Golden Jubilee Appeal , 1989 and recruitment posters; recognition guides including Tips for Tankers: Defeating Soviet Armor , US Army Armor School, c 1955; Recognition Handbook: Foreign Weapons and Equipment (USSR) , MOD, 1964; Notes on the Soviet Ground Forces , MOD, 1972; Intelligence Aide-Memoire , Staff College, Camberley, 1976; Threat Recognition Guide , 1 (BR) Intelligence Training Directive, 1984; RAF: Aircraft, Missiles, Vehicles , Office of Information, 1985; Threat Recognition Guide , 1 (BR) Intelligence Training Directive, 1988; and flipbook showing Soviet weaponry and equipment.

Publications including Field Engineering and Mine Warfare, Pamphlet No. 4: Mines - Individual Mechanisms , War Office, 1961; NATO: Facts and Figures , NATO Information Service, 1971; Ranger Handbook , United States Army Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia, May 1972; Northern Ireland: What is it like for soldiers? , HMSO, 1974; Back Pocket Briefs: Royal Navy, Directorate of Naval Staff Duties , MOD, c.1988.

Lecture notes, handouts, pictures, maps and teaching aids on topics including lessons learned at Fibua Tewt, Aden, May-June 1967; battle handling exercises: tank stalk and tank ambush; explosive excavation of trenches; tactical exercises, Joint Services Free Fall Trials Team, May 1971, and the construction of petrol bombs to effectively attack tanks. Photographs including Starling in a rubber estate, evening meal in the jungle, Bukit Prang Base, river crossing, a patrol resting, armoured 3 ton truck, the corpses of Tamil terrorists killed in ambush, captured weapons displayed by an Iban tracker, Malay policemen and Starling, Malaya, 1949; group photographs including Champion and Waterloo Company; Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, July 1947; Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Hare and Hounds; Waterloo Company, July 1948; No 2 Platoon, East Anglian Regiment Training Brigade; Officers, School of Infantry (Platoon Weapons Wing), Hythe, May 1950; School of Infantry Tactical Wing Platoon Commanders Course, August 1950 and the Parachute Regiment Regimental Sergeants Major Convention, March 1973. Also Yemeni flag with National Liberation Front slogan in Arabic, Aden, 1963.

US Military Intelligence Reports: Japan, 1918-1941 is a themed microfilm collection relating to US Military Intelligence Division (MID) in Japan, 1918- 1941. Included in the collection are microfilmed copies of US MID reports from the military attaché and his staff, and correspondence and telegrams between the military attaché, his staff, US Army Headquarters and the Japanese Imperial Army Headquarters, and US and foreign diplomats throughout the Far East. These documents have been arranged into eight sections: general conditions, political conditions, economic conditions, general conditions in Korea, army, field artillery, navy, and aviation. These sections are not mutually exclusive and all include a range of routine and special reports. Reports on domestic policy cover the rise of right wing, socialist, and communist organisations in Japan; the effects of the 1923 earthquake; Japanese industrial expansion, notably the securing of raw materials from neighbouring countries; the South Manchurian Railway Company; oil prospecting; and the iron and steel industries. Military and foreign policy reports concern the occupation of Korea, Siberia, Manchuria (Manchukuo), and the 1919 independence demonstrations in Korea. Specific military reports cover Japanese military tactics; military regulations; combat principles; training; organisation, the social attitude of officers; civil-military relations; aviation technology and statistics; the annual budgets of the Japanese War Ministry; naval building programmes; the scrapping of warships in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922; naval operations in World War One; the use of air power against China; and the construction of offensive airfields in Indo-China.