Wilson Center hosts Summer Institute for Conducting Archival Research
Coverage by John Milewski with photos by Kayla Orta
A unique training workshop for young historians that is being hosted this week at the Wilson Center got off to a thought-provoking start when Malcolm Byrne, Deputy Director of the National Security Archive and a former Wilson scholar, argued that “there is clearly no such thing as the final word in history.”
Sharing the experience of researchers who examined declassified documents from the Cuban Missile Crisis era, Byrne described revelations that had even surprised former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara when he learned of them.
Among the facts gleaned from the documents, which were accessed through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, were:
§ The Soviets had placed more medium-range ballistic missiles on Cuba than the U.S. suspected;
§ There were also Soviet nuclear warheads and tactical missiles on the island;
§ Instead of an estimated 10,000 Soviet troops, there were actually as many as 43,000 in place.
Moreover, all of this was happening while the Kennedy administration was contemplating an invasion. “Imagine what [an invasion] would have meant… Imagine what the results of that would be,” Byrne told attendees.
He also told the story of a nuclear torpedo-equipped submarine that was ready to attack a U.S. destroyer before cooler heads prevailed. That event could have been “end of the world… Dr. Strangelove,” Byrne said.
“The conclusion for scholars was that the story had changed entirely [from its earlier telling]. It was all about false conceptions, failed intelligence, misperceptions, misunderstandings, and human fallibility,” he reflected.
In Byrne’s estimation, the Cuban Missile Crisis provides a perfect example of “the challenges you’ll face as you head into the stacks and look for some of these gems that you know are there.”
He listed six key factors that the aspiring historians would need to keep in mind in order to tell – and update – the stories of history:
1) Patience, because “it takes a long time”
2) Persistence
3) Global reach
4) Creativity
5) “All of your scholarly training”
6) Transparency, because freely sharing your research can lead to useful collaborations
The 2017 Summer Institute for Conducting Archival Research continues throughout the week with presentations by Stephen Randolph, historian of the U.S. Department of State; Erin Mahan, chief historian of the Office of the Secretary of Defense; and nearly 30 noted historians, archivists, librarians, and researchers. Participants include more than two dozen doctoral candidates from U.S. and foreign colleges and universities.
The Institute is a joint initiative of the Wilson Center’s History and Public Policy Program and the George Washington University’s Cold War Group.
