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Photo of George Bush giving a speech.

Why Did the United States Invade Iraq? The Debate at 20 Years.

The invasion is still the most important foreign policy decision by a 21st century U.S. president, so the surfeit of analysis should surprise no one.
by Joseph Stieb via Texas National Security Review on June 6, 2023
Cartoon of Henry Kissinger blowing out birthday candles on a cake depicting his criminal legacy.

Henry Kissinger, War Criminal—Still at Large at 100

We now know a great deal about the crimes he committed while in office. But we know little about his four decades with Kissinger Associates.
by Greg Grandin via The Nation on May 15, 2023
Harry Truman, left, holds a copy of the Torah presented to him by Israeli leader Chaim Weizmann in May 1948.

How A U.S. President Known to Disparage Jews Became Godfather of Israel

Harry Truman used antisemitic slurs in private. But his surprise decision 75 years ago to recognize Israel, launching a fierce alliance, was a long time coming.
by Gordon F. Sander via Retropolis on May 13, 2023
Daniel Ellsberg.

Courage is Contagious

Daniel Ellsberg's decision to release the Pentagon Papers didn't happen in a vacuum.
by Christian G. Appy via The Conversation on May 11, 2023
A demonstrator holds a progress pride flag during the Drag March LA protest in West Hollywood, California.
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The Shameful History of the Lavender Scare Echoes Today

Seventy years after a disgraceful episode of anti-LGTBQ history, we are facing a new wave of McCarthyist fearmongering.
by David K. Johnson via Made By History on April 27, 2023
Illustrated figure standing in front of a massive wall of classified documents.

The Cult of Secrecy

America’s classification crisis.
by Patrick Radden Keefe via Foreign Affairs on February 13, 2023
Row of power lines

It Wasn’t Just Oil Companies Spreading Climate Denial

The electricity industry knew about the dangers of climate change 40 years ago. It denied them anyway.
by Robinson Meyer via The Atlantic on September 7, 2022
Oil rigs just south of town extract crude for Chevron at sunrise in Taft, California, on July 22, 2008.

How Private Oil Companies Took Over U.S. Energy Security

And why it’s time to take it back.
by Gregory Brew via Foreign Policy on May 16, 2022
Deborah Lipstadt at her Senate nomination hearing.

Deborah Lipstadt vs. “The Oldest Hatred”

In her new role as antisemitism envoy, Deborah Lipstadt will attempt to fight a scourge of antisemitism that she seems to regard as incurable.
by Mari Cohen via Jewish Currents on April 28, 2022
The mushroom cloud created by the Castle Bravo nuclear test

The US Devastated the Marshall Islands — And Is Now Refusing to Aid the Marshallese People

The 1954 US nuclear tests absolutely devastated the small island nation, but the US has steadfastly refused to make real amends for it.
by Chuck McKeever via Jacobin on February 16, 2022
Afghan refugees at Dulles Airport

The Status of Refugees

Seventy years after the UN Refugee Convention, the United States should refresh its commitment to displaced people.
by Linda K. Kerber via Dissent on August 25, 2021
A man standing infront of a police line

The ‘Global Policeman’ Is Not Exempt From Justice

Confronting the violence of U.S. policing requires an international perspective.
by David Helps via Foreign Policy on August 13, 2021
Joseph McCarthy appearing on CBS television
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The Cold War on TV: Joseph McCarthy vs. Edward R. Murrow

In the heat of the Cold War, Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade became a media sensation.
via Retro Report on April 12, 2021
Joseph McCarthy presenting a map.

The Real Legacy of a Demagogue

A new biography of Joseph McCarthy does not reckon with the devastating effects of anti-communism.
by Dan Kaufman via The New Republic on October 2, 2020
Two men sitting on a couch and laughing, with an American flag behind them

The Conceit of American Indispensability

As we mine the 1940s for alternate visions of international order, we must not presume that the US remains the benevolent center of global politics.
by Sam Klug via Boston Review on August 18, 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.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on July 27, 2020

How ‘Jakarta’ Became the Codeword for US-Backed Mass Killing

The systematic mass murder and assault of accused communists in Indonesia by US-backed military forces has left a mark on the country and the world.
by Vincent Bevins via New York Review of Books on May 18, 2020
Seal of the CIA nestled against a background of modern art.

Was Modern Art Really a CIA Psy-Op?

The number of MoMA-CIA crossovers is highly suspicious, to say the least.
by Lucie Levine, Jonathan Harris, Christine Sylvester, Russell H. Bartley, Frank Ninkovich via JSTOR Daily on April 1, 2020

Ike's Military-Industrial Complex, Six Decades Later

As Eisenhower predicted, there is no balance left, as U.S. policy is reduced to who we threaten, bomb, or occupy next.
by James P. Pinkerton via The American Conservative on January 15, 2020

Why MLK Believed Jazz Was the Perfect Soundtrack for Civil Rights

Jazz, King declared, was the ability to take the “hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.”
by Ashawnta Jackson via JSTOR Daily on October 16, 2019

No Refuge

When Congress gave the Secretary of Labor discretion over any immigrant “likely to become a public charge,” they weren’t expecting someone like Frances Perkins.
by Rebecca Brenner Graham via Contingent on August 23, 2019
Sidney Hook speaking at the opening session of the Congress for Cultural Freedom in Berlin on June 26, 1950.

Is Science Political?

Many take the separation between science and politics for granted, but this view of science has its own political origins.
by Michael D. Gordin via Boston Review on August 20, 2019

The Making of the Military-Intellectual Complex

Why is U.S. foreign policy dominated by an unelected, often reckless cohort of “the best and the brightest”?
by Daniel Bessner via The New Republic on May 29, 2019
Henry Kissinger and Otis Pike shaking hands.
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How Partisanship and Distrust Leave Congress Vulnerable to Hacking

Congress isn't safe from foreign interference. It never has been.
by KC Johnson via Made By History on October 2, 2018
Protestors for ACT UP lying on the ground, holding hands, as police arrest them.
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The Russian ‘Fake News’ Campaign That Damaged the United States — in the 1980s

The 2016 election wasn't the first time that a disinformation campaign was used against America.
by Alexander Poster via Made By History on March 12, 2018

Operation Mongoose: The Story of America's Efforts to Overthrow Castro

And how they helped seal America’s fate in Vietnam.
by Max Boot via The Atlantic on January 5, 2018
William Gropper's map of American folklore.

A Popular '40s Map of American Folklore Was Destroyed by Fears of Communism

The government saw Red when looking at William Gropper's painting of the United States.
by Kyle Carsten Wyatt via Atlas Obscura on March 27, 2017
A memorial to those killed located in El Mozote, El Salvador. Archbishop Romero Trust.

Remember El Mozote

On December 11, 1981, El Salvador’s US-backed soldiers carried out one of the worst massacres in the history of the Americas at El Mozote.
by Branko Marcetic, Micah Uetricht via Jacobin on December 12, 2016
Graphic illustration of people standing in a line with text boxes over their heads

Internet Privacy, Funded By Spies

Spies, counterinsurgency campaigns, hippie entrepreneurs, privacy apps funded by the CIA.
by Yasha Levine via Surveillance Valley on March 3, 2016
Collage drawing of elements of US-Cuba relations, including JFK, Castro, missiles, a journalist at a typewriter, and soldiers from both sides carrying guns.

Cuba Libre

Covering the island has been a central concern for The Nation since the beginning—producing scoops, aiding diplomacy, and pushing for a change in policy.
by Peter Kornbluh via The Nation on March 23, 2015
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