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Title screen of the film "1983: The Brink of Apocalypse."

Standing on the Brink: The Secret War Scare of 1983

Remembering a time when a toxic cocktail of threats, fear, and misunderstanding nearly led us down the path to Armageddon.
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30 Years Ago Ronald Reagan Did Something No One Could Have Expected Years Earlier

If we remember correctly how the Cold War ended, we can gain inspiration for how to begin to overcome the “new cold war.”
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The Year The World Almost Blew Up – And Nobody Noticed

On November 9, 1983, the Soviet Union nearly ordered a full pre-emptive nuclear strike against the US and Western Europe.

Explaining the 'Mystery' of Numbers Stations

The stations' broadcasts have been attributed to aliens and Cold War relics, but they actually are coded intelligence messages.
Svetlana Stalin being photographed

My Secret Summer With Stalin’s Daughter

In 1967, I was in the middle of one of the world’s buzziest stories.

Your Child Care Conundrum Is an Anti-Communist Plot

Red-baiters deserve at least part of the blame for the shortage of affordable, high-quality pre-K.

JFK’s Russian Conspiracy

Kennedy had his own secret back channel with Moscow. It may have kept the superpowers from going to war.

The World Almost Ended One Week in 1983

In 1983, the U.S. simulated a nuclear war with Russia—and narrowly avoided starting a real one. We might not be so lucky next time.
Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman sitting together.

When the World Became a Huge Penitentiary

An eloquent portrait of underground life among the undocumented and the damned of the earth.
Black and White photograph of George F. Kennan sitting at a microphone.

U.S. Foreign Policy in the Cold War was Designed by a Bigot

George Kennan's diaries reveal just how much he hated America.
Young boy holding the Communist sickle and hammer, in black and white

Revisions in Red

A scholar wrestles with the legacy of her grandfather, onetime leader of America’s Communist Party.
A frayed and torn American flag flying on a flag pole.

Farewell, the American Century

Rewriting the past by adding in what's been left out.
Pete Seeger.

American Dreamers

Pete Seeger, William F. Buckley, Jr., and public history.
Nuclear weapon mushroom cloud

Mythologizing the Bomb

The beauty of the atomic scientists' calculations hid from them the truly Faustian contract they scratched their names to.

Ronald Reagan Jokes about the USSR

Reagan's use of jokes to openly mock the Soviet system were part of his broader Cold War strategy.
Screen capture of Carter at a podium giving his human right speech to university graduates.

Jimmy Carter Promotes Human Rights

Carter’s speech lays out his commitment to implement human rights into U.S. foreign policy.
Zbigniew Brzezinski

The Coldest Cold Warrior

How a sharp-elbowed Polish academic with an unpronounceable name helped defeat the Soviet Union.
Film still from "Three Seasons" of a flower seller in Vietnam.

Tony Bui on the Vietnam War’s Cinematic Legacy

Films from Vietnam and Hollywood testify to the range of stories told about the war on-screen and the different memories they embody.
A group of Asian men standing with towels around their necks

“Endless Bad Infinity”

A conversation with the creators of a podcast series on the feedback loop of American empire.
George Kennan

The Enigma of George Kennan

An exploration of the contrast between the supreme confidence of Kennan's policy prescriptions and the perpetual turbulence of his inner life.
Joseph McCarthy with a map.

Joseph McCarthy in Wheeling, West Virginia: Annotated

Senator Joseph McCarthy built his reputation on fear-mongering, smear campaigns, and falsehoods about government employees and their associates.
President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

The First Draft of the Ukraine War’s History

Washington’s policy-makers showed themselves more wicked and feckless than their Vietnam- and Iraq-era predecessors.
Trump's airplane in Greenland.
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Why Trump Wants Greenland—And Why He Probably Won't Get It

He's not the first to set his sights on the island.
Ronald and Nancy Reagan smiling and waving at victory celebration.

Honey, I Forgot to Duck

Reagan’s capacity to inhabit and generate legend stemmed from his own impulse to substitute pleasing fictions for inconvenient facts.
Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter Was the True Change Agent of the Cold War

There’s a reason the 39th president is still revered by former Soviet dissidents.
Spock and Kirk in a scene from Star Trek.

Star Trek’s Cold War

While America was fighting on the ground, the Federation was fighting in space.
Photo of 5 skeletons controlling panels.

Notes from the Cold War Underground

The weapons infrastructure of the Cold War is now getting rented out on Airbnb or memorialized as patriotic kitsch.
Phil Donahue.

Phil Donahue’s Cold War Legacy

The late telejournalist was a pioneer of informal diplomacy between American and Soviet citizens.
A pile of guns and rifle magazines on top of bullets.

More Guns, More Money: How America Turned Weapons Into a Consumer Commodity

How an American arms dealer and a surplus of guns in Europe after World War II popularized gun ownership.
Two drawn caricatures of Ronald Reagan's face.

I’m a Historian of the ’80s. I Cannot Tell You How Bizarre the New Ronald Reagan Movie Is.

There’s hagiography, then there’s...whatever this is.

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