Nagorno-Karabakh is a highly contested, landlocked region in the South Caucasus of the former Soviet Union. The present-day conflict has…
Cyprus — August 1974: “It was a blind shot that got the Ambassador”
On August 19th, 1974, recently appointed Ambassador to Cyprus, Rodger Davies, was shot dead during a Greek Cypriot protest outside…
An American Diplomat in Vichy France
Shortly after Nazi Germany invaded France in May 1940, the French government surrendered and signed the Second Armistice. Under its…
The Nazis Take Paris
After German troops invaded Poland in September 1939, Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany. Despite this, there were no…
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…
Escape from the Congo
During the Congo Crisis (1960-1966), which began after the colony was granted independence from Belgium, the province of Katanga declared…
The East Berlin Uprising, June 16-17, 1953
It began as a strike by East Berlin construction workers but quickly escalated into waves of protests throughout the German…
Independence and “Catastrophe”: The Deadly Founding of Israel, May 14, 1948
On May 15, 1948, the UK withdrew from Palestine. (It had been given a mandate over the territories after it defeated the Ottomans…
Apocalypse Not, Part II
On April 29, 1975, Francis Terry McNamara, then Consul General, finally received orders to evacuate the Consulate General in Can…
The Fall of Saigon — April 30, 1975
April 30, 1975 will long be remembered as the day that Saigon fell and with it, the end of U.S.…