For those trapped in Eastern Europe in the 20th century, the horrors of World War II were supplanted by the…
“Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!”
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan made one of his most famous Cold War speeches at the Berlin Wall.…
Back in the USSR — Life as a Student in Moscow in the 1960s
Grim. Tedious. Unrelentingly cold and dreary. Add in KGB surveillance and the fear that they truly were out to get…
Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady
One of the most prominent political figures in Cold War history, Margaret Thatcher, led Britain as the only female prime…
An American in Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago”
He was a victim of cruel fate, a young American living in the USSR forced to endure unimaginable torture and…
The Day Stalin’s Daughter Asked for Asylum in the U.S.
On March 9th, 1967, Svetlana Alliluyeva — Joseph Stalin’s only daughter — walked into the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi…
Max Kampelman, A Hard-Nosed Pacifist
Max Kampelman (November 7, 1920 – January 25, 2013) was a key negotiator for the United States on major issues…
McCarthy’s Red Herring
With his infamous Wheeling, West Virginia speech on February 9, 1950, in which he declared he had a list of…
The Show Trial of U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers
On May 1, 1960, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union and its pilot, Francis…
The Assassination of Ambassador Spike Dubs — Kabul, 1979
Adolph “Spike” Dubs was a career diplomat who served in Germany, Liberia, and the Soviet Union. He became a noted Soviet expert, and in…