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Executive Order 12958

Classified National Security Information

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 24, 2025
Entity authorityQ5419874 ↗
Source-derived summary

Executive Order 12958 created new standards for the process of identifying and protecting classified information, and led to an unprecedented effort to declassify millions of pages from the U.S. diplomatic and national security history. In 1995, United States President Bill Clinton signed this Executive Order.

EO 12958 was amended and effectively replaced by President George W. Bush on March 25, 2003, in Executive Order 13292 (text). EO 13292 has itself since been revoked and replaced. The current EO in effect for classified information is Executive Order 13526 (text).

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Executive Order 12958” as classified National Security Information. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Executive, Order and Classified.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1995, 2003—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Executive, Order and Classified providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Executive Order 12958”, the useful work is to connect “classified National Security Information” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 24, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5419874. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1995 and 2003.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Executive Order 12958”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Executive Order 12958 primary sources, Executive Order 12958 archive and Executive research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Executive Order 12958”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Executive Order 12958” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.