Newly Released CIA Files Define Clinton Administration Role in Bosnian War Resolution

LOS ANGELES, California (September 26, 2013) - BACM Research / PaperlessArchives.com has announced the publishing of 2,346 pages of CIA, State Department, Department of Defense, National Security Council and White House files concerning the Bosnian War, CIA Intelligence, President Bill Clinton Administration’s policy decisions, and the Dayton Peace Accords.

The entire collection can be accessed for free at:

http://www.paperlessarchives.com/bosnian-war-cia-files.html

According to BACM Research this collection includes many declassified documents that will not be officially released by the CIA until October 1, 2013.

BACM Research/PaperlessArchives.com research director Jeffrey Spencer commented that, “It should be noted that many of the documents were declassified by the CIA’s Historical Review Program less than 17 years after their creation.  For the CIA this is a much more accelerated track for the declassification and release of secret documents. These are the youngest documents ever released by the Historical Collections Division of the CIA’s Information Management Services.”

The documents date from 1990 to 1997. The focus of this collection of files is a set of documents which reveal the role of the intelligence services in informing the Clinton Administration about the war in the Balkans. 

According to Spencer, “The release of these documents by the CIA sheds light on the supporting role intelligence played in the Clinton Administration’s policy decisions during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, the worst armed conflict in Europe since World War II. Many of the files document the role of intelligence in ending armed conflict and the challenges of sharing intelligence.”

The collection of 343 declassified documents highlight the accomplishments of the Clinton Administration in brokering the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, which resolved the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, and the role the Director of Central Intelligence Interagency Balkan Task Force (BTF) played in informing policymakers’ decisions. The compilation contains Statements of Conclusions from National Security Council meetings where senior officials made decisions on the Bosnian conflict, BTF memoranda pertaining to those meetings, key intelligence assessments, finished intelligence reports, memoranda, background studies, and conference reports.

A key document in the collection according to Spencer is Presidential Review Directive 1 US Policy Regarding the Situation in the Former Yugoslavia, January 22, 1993

“This, Presidential Review Directive (PRD) 1, was only declassified very recently,” says Spencer. “It was created on January 22, 1993, the very first PRD of the Clinton Administration. It documents the beginning of the administration’s development of foreign policy toward the former Yugoslavia.”

Jerry Spencer says his favorite document is an item he calls “Cocktails for Peace.”

Dated November 17, 1995, it is a memo from Don Kerrick, a member of the American negotiating delegation  to Tony Lake, United States National Security Advisor,  mentioning a softening in stance by the President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic,  during a more social setting after a day of formal talks that lead to the Dayton Peace accords. In the memo Kerrick  wrote:

“Last night, after your departure, spent bizarre two hours with Milosevic in our map room looking in great detail over Gorazde. After four scotches, Milosevic offered up more forthcoming corridor to Sarajevo. Falls short of Contact Group proposal, but better than previous offer… Milosevic has invited U.S. delegation to another lobster feast tonight... We have accepted - someone has to do it.”


About the Bosnian War (1992-1995)

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s declaration of sovereignty in October 1991 was followed by a declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992 after a referendum boycotted by ethnic Serbs. The Bosnian Serbs, supported by neighboring Serbia and Montenegro, responded with armed resistance aimed at partitioning the republic along ethnic lines and joining Serb-held areas to form a “Greater Serbia.” In March 1994, Bosniaks and Croats reduced the number of warring factions from three to two by signing an agreement creating a joint Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 21 November 1995, in Dayton, Ohio, the warring parties initialed a peace agreement that brought to a halt three years of interethnic civil strife. The final agreement was signed in Paris on 14 December 1995. The Dayton Peace Accords retained Bosnia and Herzegovina’s international boundaries and created a multi-ethnic and democratic government charged with conducting foreign, diplomatic, and fiscal policy.


About Central Intelligence Agency’s Historical Review Program.

Administered by the CIA’s Information Management Services Historical Collections Division, The CIA’s Historical Review Program identifies and declassifies collections of documents that detail the Agency’s analysis and activities relating to historically significant topics and events. The mission of the Historical Review Program is to broaden access to CIA historical material in order to promote a greater understanding of the scope and context of past actions. Not only does it aim to improve current decision-making and analysis by facilitating reflection on the impacts and effects arising from past foreign policy decisions, it also showcases CIA’s contributions to national security by providing the American public with valuable insight into its inner workings.


About BACM Research / PaperlessArchives.com

BACM Research/PaperlessArchives.com publishes documentary historical research collections through it website at

http://www.paperlessarchives.com.

Materials cover Presidencies, Historical Figures, Historical Events, Celebrities,Organized Crime, Politics, Military Operations, Famous Crimes, Intelligence Gathering, Espionage, Civil Rights, World War I, World War II, Korean War,Vietnam War, and more.

Source material from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA),Secret Service, National Security Council, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Justice, National Archive Records and Administration, and Presidential Libraries.

Contact Information

Jerry Spencer

Research Director

BACM Research – PaperlessArchives.com

Contact via E-mail