On May 1, 1960, at the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union brought down an American U-2 spy…
To be Young, Rich and Ambassador to Paris in the ’50s
C. Douglas Dillon was a politician and diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to France in the critical post World…
Regarding Henry, Protecting Nancy – On Security Detail with the Kissingers
Traditionally, Secretaries of State receive a personal protection detail from the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). However, Henry Kissinger…
Bad Blood: The Sino-Soviet Split and the U.S. Normalization with China
In the 1960s, in the depths of the Cold War, the world was viewed in terms of a zero-sum game:…
When Friends Spy on Friends: The Case of Jonathan Pollard
Former Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard delivered over 800 highly classified documents to the Israeli government over a 17-month…
Selwa Roosevelt: The Lucky Chief of Protocol
Selwa “Lucky” Roosevelt is best known for her role as Chief of Protocol of the United States from 1982 to…
I, Spy? Diplomatic Adventures during Soviet-American Détente
Among the challenges of serving as a U.S. diplomat in the USSR during the Cold War years of 1945 to…
A Crack in the Iron Curtain: Freeing Sharansky
As General Secretary of the Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev authorized the release of thousands of Soviet Jews who wanted to leave the…
The Velvet Revolution, November 1989
In 1989, change was in the air throughout all of Eastern Europe. Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and perestroika –…
Eyes of the Dragon — Under Surveillance in China
The extent of the surveillance operations of the Soviet KGB is legendary, but the Soviet Union was not the only…