On May 1, 1960, an America U-2 spy plane was shot down in Soviet airspace, causing great embarrassment to the…
French Colony to Sovereign State: Moroccan Independence
Moroccans celebrate November 18 as Independence Day in commemoration of their Sultan’s return from exile in 1955 and Morocco’s transition from…
A Battle of Wills in Berlin, 1959
Throughout the Cold War, Berlin was one of the main battlegrounds for the psychological warfare between the United States and the…
House Un-American: Foreign-Born Wives of American Diplomats
Before World War II, there was a concern, particularly with upper-level Foreign Service officers like Ambassador William C. Bullitt, regarding…
The “Lavender Scare”: Homosexuals at the State Department
In the 1950s and 60s, security within the U.S. government, including the State Department, was on high alert for internal…
Turning Out the Lights at U.S. Embassy Havana, 1961
The United States and Cuba officially severed diplomatic relations on January 3, 1961, the culmination of months of increasingly hostile bilateral…
A First-Class Spy Flap: CIA Agents Compromised in Ghana
Relations between the United States and Ghana were strained in the early 1980s. Its leader, the enigmatic former Flight Lieutenant…
“Never get into an elevator with a Polish blonde” — More Honeypots
During the Cold War and beyond, Western diplomats had to constantly keep their wits about them when serving in the…
The Carnation Revolution – A Peaceful Coup in Portugal
“There was real jubilation in the streets the first few weeks. It’s still known as the Revolution of the Carnations,…
Books, Defectors, and Song — The Cuban Missile Crisis, as Seen from Moscow
The Soviet Union, in Churchill’s famous words, was a “riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”; as such it made…