HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79M00098A000100040001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 25, 2004
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 24, 1969
• Content Type: MF

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NFU T I A L
24 September 1969
MEMORANDUM FOR: Executive Secretary, USIB
SUBJECT: Historical Chronologies
As promised in our recent conversation, I am forwarding
for your information a list of selected historical chronologies
available in the Agency, and as indicated, in the Historical
Staff. This list was prepared by Dr. Martin P. Claussen of
the Historical Staff, who will be happy to discuss any
aspect of this subject with you.
nowara m. rmann
Chief, CIA Historical Staff
CONFIDENTIAL
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September 1969
Selected Chronologies of World Events, 1946 to date
Published chronological listings and narratives of
world events since 1946 exist in great profusion, scattered
in U.S. and foreign historical literature in books, magazine
and newspaper articles, and pamphlets, and varying widely
in format, subject arrangement, length and degree of detail,
and perspective and bias. Whether simple or complex, a
given chronology is normally tailored to a particular
historical problem, or used for reconstructing a particular
sequence of events crucial to a given policy issue. There
are many thousands of such publications (listed in the CIA
Library catalog, the Library of Congress catalogs, and the
established periodical indexes, etc.) that contain chronol-
ogical tracings on particular subjects of world affairs in
the postwar period. Chronologies exist in even greater
profusion, no doubt, in unpublished form, among the archives
of those governmental, academic, and industrial communities,
in the U.S. and abroad, which have been significantly involved
in one way or another with aspects of world affairs during
the past 25 years.
General Compilations
Some chronologies are particularly comprehensive,
authoritative, and detailed. In English-language materials,
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seven compilations (all of them on file in the CIA Library's
reference shelf) are especially noteworthy, as follows.
From the U.S. viewpoint, three compilations are basic
for establishing dates and chronological sequences: (1) The
annual volumes on United States and World Affairs, issued by
the Council on Foreign Relations (in print through 1966);
(2) the annual volumes of Current Documents on U.S. foreign
policy, compiled by the State Department Historical Office
(in print through 1966); and (3) the annual volumes of the
New York Times Index (through 1967), especially the detailed
chronological sequences which are cross-referenced under each
of several regional, topical, and organizational headings
relating basically to U.S. foreign relations.
Two series are useful for the British
viewpoint: (4) the
annual volumes of Surveys and Documents of the Royal Institute
of International Affairs (in print through 1961); and (5) the
Annual Register of World Events, which contains chronologies,
but only from 1956 through 1968.
Considerably less detailed, but authoritative and
comprehensive, are (6) William L. Langer, Encyclopedia of
World History (1968 ed.), and (7) Neville Williams, Chronology
of the Modern World, 1763 to the Present Time (1966).
Regional and Topical Compilations
By the way of example, listed below are several detailed
chronologies of particular areas and topics selected from the-CIA
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Library's reference shelf. (Items marked with an asterisk
arc also on file in the Historical Staff.) Most of them
were compiled by the Library of Congress for various Congress-
ional committees concerned with Foreign affairs. Included
are chronologies on Berlin, Southeast Asia, the Dominican
Republic, the Middle East, astronautic events, and disarmament.
U.S. Senate (85th Cong., 1st secs.), Committee on Foreign
Relations, Events in the Middle East; A Select Chronology,
1946-1957. Compiled by Library of Congress, Legislative
Reference Service. 1957. 25 pp. Cat.: DS. 61 U5
U.S. Senate (90th Cong., 1st sess.), Committee on
Foreign Relations, A Select Chronology and Background
94 - 7 Compiled
Documents Relating to Middle East [19-4-9--671-.-
by Library of Congress, Legislative Reference Service.
1967, 151 pp. Later edition (1st revised ed., 1969,
287 pp.) contains chronology from April 1946 to April 1969.
Cat.: DS 61 .U51 (Ref)*
Chronology of Arab Politics, January 1963-September 1966.
(15 in the series on the shelves . Published by the Political
Studies and Public Administration Department of the American
University of Beirut, Lebanon. Editors, Walid Khalidi and
Yusuf Ibish. Cat.: DS 63 .A52 E5 (Ref)
Library of Congress, Legislative Reference Service,
Berlin; A Chronology Summary with an Analytical Commentary,
1944-1961. 1959-61, 4 vols. at.: DD 881 U5 (Ref)
U.S. Senate (89th Cong., 1st Bess.), Committee on
Foreign Relations, Background Information Relating to
Southeast Asia and Vietnam. March 1969, 5th ed., 272 pp.
Cat.: DS 518.8 .U51 Ref)*
U.S. Senate (89th Cong., 1st secs.), Committee on
Foreign Relations, Background Information Relating to the
Dominican Republic. 1965, 100pp. Cat.: F 1938.5 .U52*
Free Europe Press, A Chronology of Events in Albania
New York: Free Europe Committee, Inc. (September, 1955
130 pp. Cat.: DR 701 .586 F8 C-2
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Library of Congress. Legislative Reference Service,
World Communist Movement; Selective Chronology 1818-1957.
Prepared foruse of the House Committee on Un-American
Activities. ,1960, 4 vols. Cat.: X 1.5 U5
U.S. Senate (84th Cong., 2d sess.), Committee on
Foreign Relations, Disarmament; A Selected Chronology,
January 1,1918-March 19, 1956. Compiled by Subcommittee
on Disarmament, Staff Study No. 2. 1959, 33 pp. Cat.: 'JX
1974 Al .U53 (Ref)
U.S. House of Representatives (87th Cong., 1st sess.),
A Chronology of Missile and Astronautic Events. Report of
the Committee on Science and Astronautics, House Report
No. 67. 1961, 189 pp. Cat.: TL 788.5 .U51 *
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