The National Security Archive, an independent research institute and library located in the Gelman Library, released transcripts of more than 15,000 of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s telephone conversations from 1969 to 1977.

Kissinger, who also served as the national security advisor to President Richard Nixon, secretly recorded all of his incoming and outgoing telephone conversations while in office and took the transcripts with him when he left office in 1977 with the intention of keeping them from the public indefinitely. 

William Burr, a senior analyst at the archive and editor of the collection, said, “Kissinger’s conversations with the most influential personalities of the world rank right up there with the Nixon tapes as the most candid, revealing and valuable trove of records on the exercise of executive power in Washington.” 

According to the National Security Archive, the collection includes insight into the strained relationship between Kissinger and Nixon, and sheds light on both Nixon and Kissinger’s feelings about the Vietnam war. 

The National Security Archive said it began legal proceedings to obtain the documents in 2001, and used the freedom on information act, which gives American citizens the right to view government documents, to obtain the transcribed phone conversations. 

The collection of conversations is available on the Digital National Security Archive website.