Considered a valuable source for understanding American policymaking overseas, the State Department’s “Foreign Relations of the United States” series has been missing important accounts about Iran and Congo due to CIA opposition.

 

The unpublished volumes deal with Iran from 1952-1954 and Congo 1960-1968, when the CIA worked to overthrow the democratically-elected governments of both countries. The spy agency has successfully stonewalled lengthy assessments of these periods despite a 1991 law requiring the State Department to publish such accounts within 30 years of their occurrence.

 

The Congo manuscript was cleared for release in 2003 by the State Department’s Historical Advisory Committee. However, CIA officials have delayed its publication, claiming that they want to protect information about paid informants, the identity of the station chief during the 1960s, and how much was spent on covert operations.

 

The Iran compilation was completed in early 2004, but the CIA has objected to its release, blaming British concerns about the joint U.S.-U.K. overthrow of Iran’s elected leader, Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953, even though it does not contain any MI-6 documents, and other published accounts have spelled out the United Kingdom’s role in the coup.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Why Is US Withholding Old Documents on Covert Ops in Congo, Iran? (by Stephen Weissman, Christian Science Monitor)