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  3. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, American Republics; Cuba 1961–1962; Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath, Volumes X/XI/XII, Microfiche Supplement
  4. About the Digital Edition

About the Digital Edition

In creating this digital edition, the Office of the Historian focused on maintaining the original structure of the microfiche supplement while bringing it up to the current standards of the Foreign Relations series. The editors supplied a heading and source note for each document based on the text from the List of Documents. In those instances in which the documents also included images of attachments and covering memoranda, the editors provided headings to mark these divisions, though this was not indicated in the List of Documents. In the digital edition, the editors examined the document images and added material such as the date, time of transmission, and location to document datelines when unavailable in the List of Documents entry. Many documents in these supplements contain marginalia, which are not accounted for in the source note. Where applicable, marginalia can be viewed in the facsimile version of each page. Numerous documents are partially or completely illegible; those that were known to have had such problems during the preparation of the microfiche were stamped: “Best copy available” and the editors have indicated gaps in legibility by inserting “[illegible in the original].” All brackets, except those indicating illegible or redacted text, are in the original.

During review, the editors discovered the following problems with images in the microfiche edition and made the following corrections:

  • Document 176: The first page of the document is missing in the microfiche. Editors printed the document without the first page.
  • Documents 346 and 347: These documents were filmed out of sequence in fiche sheet 20. Editors moved the documents to the correct order according to the List of Documents.
  • Document 375: The document was filmed out of sequence between Documents 370 and 371 in fiche sheet 21. Editors moved the document to the correct order according to the List of Documents.
  • Document 383: The document was filmed out of sequence between Documents 393 and 394 in fiche sheet 22. Editors moved the document to the correct order according to the List of Documents.
  • Document 409: The document was filmed between Documents 351 and 352 in fiche sheet 20. At frame 40 of fiche sheet 22, where Document 409 should be, there is a blank page with 409 circled at the top and handwritten text below that reads “Not Supplied.” Editors moved the document to replace the placeholder text at frame 40, fiche sheet 22.
  • Documents 455 and 456: These documents were filmed out of sequence in fiche sheet 23. Editors moved the documents to the correct order according to the List of Documents.
  • Document 502: This document was filmed out of sequence between Documents 498 and 499 on fiche sheet 24. Editors moved the document to the correct order according to the List of Documents.
  • Document 689: The heading was changed by editors to account for the placement of a covering memorandum. The entry for the document in the List of Documents is as in the original.
  • Document 691: Pages 2 and 3 of the document were printed out of sequence at frame 73 (page 3) and 75 (page 2) of fiche sheet 31. Editors moved these pages to the correct order.

About the Preview Edition

In 2012, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Office of the Historian released a preview of this digital edition of Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volumes X/XI/XII, American Republics; Cuba 1961–1962; Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath, Microfiche Supplement. The original microfiche was scanned in image form (3,113 images in all, including front matter and 746 documents), but the text had not yet been extracted from these images. Thus, the text of the preview was not searchable or accessible to screen readers. The preview edition contained a downloadable PDF of the volume’s front matter, as well as the complete text of the List of Documents; a link to a PDF was available for each document. The digital edition includes all of this material.