Sources of Historical International U.S. Data

As a result of the DataPASS initiative in the U.S., and especially the partnership that it supported between the custodial electronic records program of the U.S. National Archives and the Roper Center for Public Opinion at the University of Connecticut, there is now greater awareness of and expanded opportunities for using the rich collection of international public opinion data collected from 1952-1999, by the United States Information Agency (USIA). The National Archives also preserves and makes available online the public portion of the electronic telegrams, 1973-1975, from the U.S. Department of State's Central Foreign Policy Files. This presentation will focus on the complementary nature of these two types of data for research on U.S. foreign relations, and the manner in which the public opinion data and the electronic telegrams offer unique perspectives on a selection of mid-1970s topics.