Document Library

The Document Library serves as a repository for primary sources on the history and policy of nuclear command and control. The documents are, where possible, linked or stored on the serve for direct access. The documents below are a small sample of the sorts of things we intend to upload to this section over time.

Date	Title	File ▲
1958-10-15	Ikle (RAND), "On the Risk of an Accidental or Unauthorized Nuclear Detonation"	URL
2017-11-14	Use of Nuclear Weapons Authority	PDF
2019-03-01	U.S. Nuclear Weapon Policy: Considering “No First Use”	PDF
1998-06-08	The History of Nuclear Weapon Safety Devices	PDF
1988	The President and the Atomic Bomb: Who Approved the Trinity Nuclear Test	PDF
1956-03-15	NSC 5602/1, "Basic National Security Policy"	PDF
1957-02-06	"Authorization for the Expenditure of Nuclear Weapons" (Draft)	PDF
1945-08-10	Groves to Marshall on third atomic bomb (with reply)	PDF
2015-05-19	USAF, Annex 3-72 Nuclear Operations	PDF
2016-12	DOD Law of War Manual, June 2015 (updated December 2016)	PDF
2017-11-14	DOD Instruction 5210.42: DOD Nuclear Weapons Personnel Reliability Assurance	PDF
1975-06	IDA, "The Evolution of U.S. Strategic Command and Control and Warning, 1945-1972"	PDF
1975-12-01	CRS, "Authority to order the use of nuclear weapons"	PDF
2017-11-14	Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on Nuclear Weapons Authority	PDF
2013-04-23	USAF, Air Force Instruction 91-104 (Two-Person Concept)	PDF
1987-08-21	National Security Decision Directive 281	PDF
1995-06-20	Written Statement of the Government of the United States (on the legality of nuclear weapons)	PDF
2014-10-02	USAF, Air Force Instruction 13-550 ("Air Force Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications")	PDF
1996-02-12	USJCS, "Nuclear Supplement to Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan For FY 1996"	PDF
1968-06	DOD, Strategic Offensive Weapons Employment in the Presence of Defenses (WEPS)	PDF
1969-08-26	DOD, WSEG Report 148 - Strategic Offensive Weapons Employment in the Time Period About 1975	PDF
1946-08-01	US Atomic Energy Act of 1946	PDF
1978-02	OASOD, "History of the Custody and Deployment of Nuclear Weapons, July 1945 through September 1977"	PDF
1952-09-10	NSC, "Agreed Concepts Regarding Atomic Weapons"	PDF
1975-09-04	DDRS, Jan Lodal of the NSC analyzes DOD comments on the President's letter to Senator Brooke concerning "First Use/First Strike."	PDF
1961-01-25	DDRS, Memorandum for the record by Brigadier Gen. A.J. Goodpaster outlines his meeting with President-elect Kennedy to inform Kennedy of procedures to be used in the event of a national emergency.	PDF
1964-12-01	DDRS, Briefing to the Gilpatric Committee by William J. Howard	PDF
1964-07-22	DDRS, Letter to McGeorge Bundy from the Deputy Secretary of Defense regarding the modified installation of permissive action link (PAL) devices on various weapons systems.	PDF
1963-08-31	DDRS, Comments on Department of Defense Draft Memorandum: Strategic Striking Forces	PDF
1963-05-29	NSA, Secret Memorandum from Jerome Bert Wiesner, Science Adviser to President Kennedy	PDF

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1940s (7) 1950s (9) 1960s (17) 1970s (9) 1980s (6) 1990s (2) 2010s (12) Carter, James (1) Chain of command (6) Civilian-military divide (8) Congress (5) Congressional Research Service (1) Constitutionality (1) Custody (7) Directives (6) Doctrine (4) Early warning systems (3) Eisenhower, Dwight D. (5) Ford, Gerald R. (1) France (1) Johnson, Lyndon B. (2) Kennedy, John F. (7) Law of war (5) Missiles (1) NATO (8) News Media (1) Nixon, Richard M. (4) Non-Use (3) Nuclear accidents (3) Nuclear football (1) Nuclear launch procedure (12) Nuclear safety (18) Nuclear war plans (4) Obama, Barack (4) Overseas deployment (8) People's Republic of China (1) Permissive Action Links (12) Predelegation (6) Presidential nuclear control (15) RAND Corporation (1) Reagan, Ronald (4) Remedies (1) Russian Federation (1) Soviet Union (5) Succession (3) Truman, Harry S. (9) Trump, Donald J. (3) Two-man rule (2) United Kingdom (1) United States of America (34) US Air Force (7) US Atomic Energy Commission (8) US Department of Defense (15) US Department of Energy (1) US Joint Chiefs of Staff (9) US National Security Council (4) US Secretary of Defense (4) US Strategic Air Command (4) US Strategic Command (4) World War II (3)