Preface

The series of NATO files found on this site are of unquestioned significance. Most importantly, these records represent a major moment in the life of the North Atlantic Alliance, a critical change in course. Andreas Wenger in his essay captures clearly the import of this period for NATO and the development of détente.

However, beyond the obvious historical significance, these files have another importance for NATO. They are the first subject files in the NATO Archives to have undergone the process of declassification and public disclosure. When they were made available in Brussels during 2001, the member nations and NATO staff had already been working for ten years to make available the formal NATO Documents of the first 16 years of the alliance. In the case of formal documents, all member nations have in principle an equal share in the documents and, therefore, there is a sense of common purpose in their disclosure. However, the so called Harmel files represented a different sort of challenge, being comprised of more varied material, including bilateral correspondence and national opinions. For these national documents, all of which had to undergo individual review for disclosure, there was the additional challenge represented by the variations in national law on the release of government documents. In short, these differences were overcome because the member nations were able again to achieve this sense of common purpose and to make these documents available based on a shared understanding of their historical importance.

The NATO Archives hopes to maintain this sense of purpose and welcomes the cooperation of the Parallel History Project in hosting these documents, thereby making them available to a wider community of researchers.