After the United States withdrew from South Vietnam in 1975, communist North Vietnam quickly took over and established the Socialist Republic…
India and Pakistan on the Brink: The 1998 Nuclear Tests
In May 1998, India conducted its first nuclear bomb tests since 1974 at the Indian Army Pokhran Test Range. Known…
Kashmir and the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War
In the summer of 1965, India and Pakistan returned to the battlefields of Kashmir in a renewed attempt to establish…
Pot Shards
Back to Diplomats and Diplomacy Pot Shards: Fragments of a Life Lived in CIA, the White House, and the Two Koreas…
The Whistle-Blower: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
“We were young, we were foolish, we were arrogant, but we were right.” —Daniel Ellsberg The recent issue of NSA…
Dean Rusk — A “Silent Buddha” Amidst Chaos
Dean Rusk served as Secretary of State for eight controversial years, from 1961 through 1969, when public discomfort over his…
Managing a Massacre: The Ramifications of Tiananmen Square
The Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 1989, and the subsequent months of intimidation, deception and violence, shattered the façade of…
Caught in a Honeypot – Marine Clayton Lonetree Betrays His Country
Marine Security Guard Clayton Lonetree was seduced by a Russian woman, “Violetta Seina,” at the annual Marine Corps Ball in…
The Fall of Dien Bien Phu and the Rise of U.S. Involvement in Vietnam
Dien Bien Phu was a major battle of the first Indochina war in which the French fought against the Viet…
Making the World a Safer Place — Nuclear Arsenals and the Fall of the USSR
Imagine what Europe would be like today if Belarusian strongman Aleksandr Lukashenka were able to threaten his neighbors with nuclear…