“Few resources can be of greater use to the student of 20th century history than easy access to the original documentary evidence of how Britain's foreign policy was shaped by secret intelligence.”
Professor Anthony Glees, Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, University of Buckingham
Spanning four key twentieth-century conflicts, with a spotlight on the Second World War, Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War provides access to British government secret intelligence and foreign policy files from 1873 to 1953.
Sourced from The National Archives, U.K., the range of documents – from signals intelligence reports to government-directed policy and strategy – will support teaching and research from the period of Appeasement right through to the early Cold War. The content of the material is international in its breadth and scope.
At the heart of this resource are the files of the Permanent Undersecretary’s Department (PUSD). The PUSD was the point of liaison between the Foreign Office and the British intelligence establishment, and these files document intelligence activities and their influence on foreign policy from 1873 to 1951, providing new insights into key moments of twentieth-century history.