Richard M. Nixon’s presidency was a tempestuous mix of stunning foreign policy achievements (his trip to China) and shameful lapses…
Rolling Thunder: Behind the Fog of War
The call by South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Khánh on July 19, 1964 to expand the Vietnam conflict led to…
A Personnel Tragedy
Charles William Thomas was a bright mid-career Foreign Service officer who was selected out because his efficiency report was mixed…
Sound and the Fury — The 1954 Geneva Conference on Vietnam and Korea
In April 1954, amidst growing tensions regarding the situation in the Korean Peninsula and Indochina, the international community convened a…
Taiwan vs. China — Saber-Rattling Over The Third Taiwan Strait Crisis
Since 1979, the U.S. has maintained unofficial relations with Taiwan to preserve the U.S.’s recognition of the People’s Republic of…
Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s Founding Father
Lee Kuan Yew, who died in March 2015, is known for being the longest serving prime minster in the world…
Jordan, 1970 – An Attack on the Embassy and a Dispute with the King
Jordan is one of the United States’ staunchest allies in the Middle East and has been one of the few…
The Tumultuous Economy of 1990s Japan
The Lost Decade marked a tumultuous time in Japan’s economic history, as corporations and banking systems played fast and loose…
The End of an Era — Handholding Ferdinand Marcos in Exile
Just minutes after returning from his three-year exile, former Philippine Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. was assassinated at the Manila airport…
Rehabilitating Former Child Soldiers in Mozambique
Mozambique in the 1980s was a country in the midst of a bloody civil war, when at least 100,000 people…