Cold War

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  7/27/2020
  

  Joseph McCarthy and the Force of Political Falsehoods

  McCarthy never sent a single “subversive” to jail, but, decades later, the spirit of his conspiracy-mongering endures.

• 
• 8/9/2020
  

  Did the Atomic Bomb End the Pacific War? – Part II

  by Paul Ham

  Japan's surrender was hastened by imminent invasion by the Soviet Red Army, a crippling US naval blockade and conventional bombing, and a diplomatic promise to protect the Japanese Emperor from execution, argues Paul Ham. Granting undue credit to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki excuses atrocity. 

• 
• 8/2/2020
  

  Did the Atomic Bomb End the Pacific War? – Part I

  by Paul Ham

  Many people, including historians, believe that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused Japan's unconditional surrender, saved a million American lives, and was the least morally repellent way to end World War II. Paul Ham contends that none of this is true. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  7/21/2020
  

  Trump Has Brought America’s Dirty Wars Home

  by Stuart Schrader

  The history of the Office of Public Safety, created to support counterinsurgency around the globe during the Cold War, demonstrates that Trump’s ardor for authoritarian force has long-standing, homegrown roots.

• 
• SOURCE: Global Policy
  7/16/2020
  

  “A Tragic Illusion” - Did the Atom Bomb Make the United Nations Obsolete Three Weeks After its Birth?

  by Tad Daley

  President Harry Truman's knowledge of the imminent success of the Manhattan Project led him to fear that the United Nations' charter was inadequate to the task of preventing war; the Cold War meant that a better form of internationalism was never achieved. 

• 
• SOURCE: British Academy
  7/16/2020
  

  July 22: British Academy 10 Minute Talk: Art Historian, Professor, Writer, Spy – The Extraordinary Story of Anthony Blunt

  Listen to a brief talk on the scandal that engulfed the British Academy when one of its members was revealed to be a Soviet spy. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  6/23/2020
  

  New Film Tells Tale of North Korean Orphans Sent to Europe

  The documentary film “Kim Il Sung’s Children” will be released June 25, the 70th anniversary of the Korean War’s start.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  6/8/2020
  

  Using the Military to Quash Protests Can Erode Democracy – As Latin America Well Knows

  by Kristina Mani

  Even strong democracies have unraveled when the military was brought in to quell protest. Uruguay in the 1960s, Venezuela in the 1980s and Chile just last year provide insights.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  6/10/2020
  

  How the US Government Sold the Peace Corps to the American Public

  by Wendy Melillo

  Given the growing counterculture movement in the early 1960s, the government feared that few young Americans would be motivated to join the Peace Corps by a message that they’d be volunteering to help to fight communism. 

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  6/7/2020
  

  Yes, America Is in a Cold War With China

  "For too long the U.S. has looked the other way as the Chinese Communist Party has waged a new cold war against the American order," writes Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher.

• 
• 6/7/2020
  

  Turning Points and Roads Not Taken in American Foreign Policy

  by Roger Peace

  The end of the Cold War presented an opportunity for American foreign policy to turn away from militarism and toward cooperative development. The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest consequence of failing to secure a "peace dividend."

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  6/4/2020
  

  The Damage Trump Has Done This Week Extends Far Beyond America’s Borders

  by Mary L. Dudziak

  Concern that Orval Faubus's defiant stand for school segregation in Arkansas would sully America's reputation abroad pushed Dwight Eisenower to deploy the National Guard in the interest of both racial justice and American leadership. Calls to deploy the military today must consider this context.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  6/2/2020
  

  How History Will Judge the Complicit

  by Anne Appelbaum

  Why have Republican leaders abandoned their principles in support of an immoral and dangerous president?

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/29/2020
  

  The ‘Liberal World Order’ Was Built With Blood

  by Vincent Bevins

  American politicians, pundits and citizens need to understand that the history of American influence in the world has included violent subversion of democracy in the name of American interests.

• 
• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  5/5/2020
  

  V-E Day Plus 75

  by Andrew Bacevich

  What the present pandemic drives home is that protecting Americans while also creating an environment in which all citizens can flourish is going to require a radical revision of American national security policies based in Baby Boomers' interpretation of the meaning of World War II.

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  4/27/2020
  

  Inside the Mission to Perform Bone-Marrow Transplants on Survivors of the Chernobyl Disaster

  "Nevertheless, the next ten days demonstrated the value of international medical cooperation in moments of crisis, even when politics might make success seem impossible." writes Yair Reisner, an Israeli doctor whose help was requested by Russian officials after the disaster.

• 
• SOURCE: Foreign Policy
  4/29/2020
  

  As Putin Seeks to Reinvent History, Russia-Czech Relations Hit a New Low

  The dispute over a statue of a Soviet Army officer in Prague reflects Russian efforts to claim a heroic role in defeating fascism, eastern European nationalism, and contemporary power dynamics in the region. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/26/2020
  

  How Past Crises Changed America’s Public Schools — ‘And so too Will COVID-19’

  by Ann Marie Ryan and Charles Tocci

  While this certainly feels unprecedented, the history of American public schooling shows us it's not.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/10/2020
  

  Our Fear of Government Power Has Left Us Fighting COVID-19 with Volunteerism

  by Elisabeth S. Clemens

  Americans have always relied on the private sector in times of war and disaster.

• 
• SOURCE: Fox News
  4/9/2020
  

  Princeton Historian: America Can Beat Coronavirus if We Don't 'Defeat Ourselves'

  Stephen Kotkin, renowned for his work studying authoritarian regimes, said history teaches that the United States can triumph over the coronavirus pandemic if America doesn't "defeat ourselves."