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President Harry S. Truman signing a bill authorizing the Fulbright Program, with Sen. J. William Fulbright (left) and Assistant Secretary of State William Benton.

The Fulbright Program Is Quietly Burying Its History

Fulbright created an exchange program which sends Americans abroad and advances international engagement and mutual understanding. Yet it’s not his only legacy.
by Karin Fischer via The Chronicle of Higher Education on December 8, 2023
Coup leaders Admiral Massera and General Videla dressed in uniform

Argentina’s Military Coup of 1976: What the U.S. Knew

Declassified documents show the State Department had ample forewarning that a coup was being plotted, and that human rights violations would be committed.
via National Security Archive on March 23, 2021

Department of State’s Dissent Channel Revealed

Dozens of newly declassified documents show foreign service staff raising serious concerns about a range of U.S. policies abroad.
by Nate Jones, Tom Blanton, Emma Sarfity via National Security Archive on March 15, 2018
Black and white Washington DC.

Between Existential Fear and Isolationist Exhaustion: The United States on the Eve of the Cold War

Dean Acheson, President Truman’s prim, patrician undersecretary of state, was sitting in his office on February 21, 1947, when he received a visitor.
by Clay Risen via Literary Hub on March 21, 2025
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The Media Spawned McCarthyism. Now It's Happening Again

Some of today's most influential political figures also won power through their willingness to say things that capture media attention.
by A. Brad Schwartz via Made By History on February 9, 2025
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

History Warns Us About Cabinet Members Like RFK Jr.

If RFK is confirmed, he is likely to fail for reasons similar to those for past political choices for the cabinet.
by Dan McLaughlin via The New Republic on February 8, 2025
Sign along empty road reading "Private Road No Entry" in Hebrew and English.

How Israel Deceived the U.S. and Built the Bomb

Newly declassified documents reveal how Israel operated under the noses of U.S. inspectors.
by William Burr, Avner Cohen via Foreign Policy on February 7, 2025
A propaganda poster of an American flag on fire and white American citizens struggling against Communist officials, with the caption: "Is this tomorrow? America under Communism!"

What Happened the Last Time a President Purged the Bureaucracy

The impact can linger not just for years but decades.
by Clay Risen via Politico Magazine on February 6, 2025
Herbert O. Yardley and diplomatic codes from the Black Chamber.

The Spy Who Exposed the Secrets of the Black Chamber

In 1931, Herbert O. Yardley published a tell-all book about his experiences leading a covert government agency called the Cipher Bureau.
by Peter Zablocki via Smithsonian on February 4, 2025
Image of classified documents and Russia and US leaders shaking hands.

A Newly Declassified Memo Sheds Light on America’s Post-Cold War Mistakes

This remarkably prescient document holds several lessons about how to run foreign policy.
by Fred Kaplan via Slate on December 23, 2024
Screenshot of soldiers and an explosion.

Noam Chomsky on How America Sanitizes the Horror of Its Wars

On the origins of America's hegemonic foreign policy.
by Noam Chomsky via Literary Hub on October 16, 2024
Henry Kissinger, 1975.

Henry Kissinger: The Declassified Obituary

The primary sources on Kissinger’s controversial legacy.
by Peter Kornbluh, Tom Blanton, William Burr via National Security Archive on November 29, 2023
Gelringer family, who were later deported to Auschwitz.

The Millions We Failed to Save

The recent documentary "The US and the Holocaust" is a scathing, even bombastic indictment of US immigration policy over the past 160 years.
by Ruth Franklin via New York Review of Books on June 1, 2023
Crowd in the Senate chamber.

Mass Destruction

Real democratic participation in foreign policy is almost unimaginable today—but this wasn’t always the case.
by Daniel Bessner via Boston Review on March 27, 2023
Premiere of The Gaucho at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, November 4, 1927.

The Gaucho Western

When Hollywood went down Argentine way.
by Federico Perelmuter via Lapham’s Quarterly on January 23, 2023
George Kennan.

George Kennan’s False Moves

The great grand strategist of the Cold War believed he failed in his most important task.
by Patrick Iber via The New Republic on January 12, 2023
Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, speaks as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken watches from the side.

“Pale, Male, and [Educated At] Yale"

Diversity, national Identity, and the fraught history behind the State Department’s search for diplomats who “look like America.”
by John Gleb via Not Even Past on April 7, 2022
1950s American family watching TV.

How American Culture Ate the World

A new book explains why Americans know so little about other countries.
by Dexter Fergie via The New Republic on March 24, 2022
Illustration of burning cannabis with helicopters overhead

The Cold War Killed Cannabis As We Knew It. Can It Rise Again?

Somewhere in Jamaica survive the original cannabis strains that were not burned by American agents or bred to be more profitable.
by Casey Taylor via Defector on January 11, 2022
Frederick Douglass and the Haiti Commission on USS Tennessee in Key West.

Frederick Douglass and American Empire in Haiti

Toward the end of his life, Frederick Douglass served briefly as U.S. ambassador to Haiti.
by Peter James Hudson via Boston Review on December 9, 2021
Japanese migrants gather in Lima, Peru, in December 1941

America’s Forgotten Internment

The United States confined 2,200 Latin Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. They’re still pushing for redress.
by Jesús A. Rodríguez via Politico Magazine on December 5, 2021
Katherine Fite sitting next to Justice Jackson.

“It is History and It Is Fascinating”

Katherine Fite and the Nuremberg War Crime Trials, 1945.
by Tammy Williams via U.S. National Archives on November 19, 2020
Men at a table surrounded by flags of the world.

Why Is America the World’s Police?

A new book explains how U.S. political elites sold the UN to the public as a route to global peace, while all along wanting it as a cover for militarization.
by Sam Lebovic via Boston Review on October 19, 2020
Salvador Allende during his inaugural parade, November 3, 1970 (photo credit: Naul Ojeda)

“Allende Wins”

Chile voted calmly to have a Marxist-Leninist state, the first nation in the world to make this choice freely and knowingly, on September 4, 1970.
by Peter Kornbluh via National Security Archive on September 3, 2020
Artistic graphic of two newcaster superimposed on the image of protesters in a Guatemalean city

The (Literally) Unbelievable Story of the Original Fake News Network

In Guatemala, the CIA hired an American actor and two radio DJs to oust a president.
by Sylvia Brindis Snow, Shane Snow via Narratively on August 27, 2020
Guar standing in front of a building with a large painting of Mao Zedung above the entrance.
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Turn Out the Lights: When the Last American Diplomats Fled China

Untold stories of American diplomats who "lost" China.
by Joe Renouard via HNN on May 10, 2020

The Lavender Scare

In 1950, the U.S. State Department fired 91 employees because they were homosexual or suspected of being homosexual.
by Matthew Wills, Naoko Shibusawa via JSTOR Daily on November 18, 2019
News correspondent inside Berlin Wall tunnel.

The Battle Between NBC and CBS to Be the First to Film a Berlin Wall Tunnel Escape

Declassified government documents show how both sides of the Iron Curtain worked to have the projects canned.
by Mike Conway via The Conversation on November 8, 2019

1984: The Year America Didn’t Go To War

Cabinet members slugged it out, but the one with the real war experience convinced Reagan not to avenge the Marine barracks bombing.
by Mark Perry via The American Conservative on July 16, 2019
Illustration of Peurifoy and others attempting to find homosexuals within the federal government.

The Homophobic Hysteria of the Lavender Scare

Despite a thriving queer community in Washington, the 1950s State Department fired gay and lesbian workers en masse.
by Kazimir Lee, Dorian Alexander via The Nib on May 31, 2019
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