The quality of ARC reproductions has become more and more of an issue as time goes by and the original documents deteriorate. Today’s note is, perhaps, a serious example of this. Nonetheless, a completely illegible image is still not the same as a withheld or redacted record, as we will see below.
An illegible document: ARC 178-10002-10315
ARC 178-10002-10315 is a peculiar example of a difficult to read JFK document. It is not just difficult to read, it is impossible to read: six pages of black. This is in flat contrast to the JFK Database description of this record: “Restrictions: MANDATORY REVIEW MATERIAL; OPEN IN FULL. Current Status: RELEASE. Date of Last Review: 04/26/2018.” For those unfamiliar with the terse descriptions used in the Database, this means there are no redactions in this record, and it is released in full. This version of the doc was posted online by NARA in April 2018, and, because it is released in full, it has not appeared online at NARA since then.
Other examples of illegible docs
I have taken some flak over this record, since I claimed that there are no CIA records in the JFKARC which are still withheld in full. However, whatever has gone wrong with this release of the doc, it is not in any way redacted. It is, instead, illegible. There is obviously a difference between these two states, though the end result is the same: I can’t read it, and have no idea what it’s all about. There are many examples of illegible documents in the JFKARC, though usually it’s the other way around: many illegible records resemble nothing so much as a blank piece of paper. See, for example, ARC 104-10097-10130, 104-10182-10298, and 104-10196-10333.
The first two have quite clear descriptions in the JFK Database. Undoubtedly these are duplicates of documents which have survived elsewhere in the collection in a more readable form. The most common explanation for the blank nature of these copies is thermofax paper, a big headache for many documents in the ARC. The third is apparently a puzzle even to the CIA; the JFK Database description is “MOSTLY ILLEGIBLE. LEGIBLE TEXT: “USSR”, “ENGLISH TEACHER.” In any case, all three of these records are marked “Open in full,” despite their blankness.
All black record copies are not as common as all white. One I have seen is ARC 104-10113-10385. Like the other documents, it is listed as open in full in the JFK Database and has a clear description (it is supposedly a letter to Lt. General Joseph M. Swing, concerning Marcos Diaz Lanz).
My two cents
It may be that there was some technical issue with the six black pages of ARC 178-10002-10315. I wrote to NARA and they replied that the original doc was removed for scanning in order to put it online. Many of these documents are still not yet back in the box, and it may take awhile to get to it.
It is also worth noting that the MFF website has a note on this document here. The note mentions that researcher Bill Kelly has a webpage with a transcription of this document which Kelly made from a copy of the document he found at the Gerald R. Ford Library.