On November 22nd, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas while traveling with his wife in a…
Sorry Mao: It’s Pronounced “Truman”, not “Too-Lu-Mun”
In 1944, John Service, Colonel David Barrett, and a small group of diplomats and military staff went to Yenan to…
Bikini Bombshell: The First H-bomb Test on the Eniwetok Atoll
On November 1st, 1952 the United States detonated the world’s first hydrogen bomb on a large atoll called Eniwetok in…
Halloweens Around the World
BOO! Halloween is a holiday on October 31st where costumes, tricks, and treats reign supreme. Originally a pagan holiday, Halloween is…
Laos 1973 – No Coup for You!
While the eyes of America were on Vietnam, another war was being fought next door in Laos. Involvement of the…
Cain and Abel: Splitting Up North and South Korea
With the end of World War II in August 1945, there was still no consensus on Korea’s fate among Allied…
Terror on the 9th Floor — The Kuala Lumpur Hostage Crisis
On August 4th, 1975, five members of the Japanese Red Army or JRA – a militant organization intent on overthrowing…
“Viet Cong Invade American Embassy” — The 1968 Tet Offensive
On Jan. 30, 1968, Vietnamese communists attacked the American embassy in Saigon. For several hours they held the embassy grounds,…
As If Getting a Venereal Disease Weren’t Bad Enough…
Chas Freeman had an extraordinary career in the Foreign Service. He accomplished the unparalleled feat of becoming nearly bilingual in…
The Little Emergency that was the Korean War
There was a lot of unfinished business on the Korean peninsula in the 1940’s. It had been ruled by the Empire…