Cold War — Bunk History

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A crowd of Angolan rebels with weapons.

How the US Intervened to Sabotage Angola’s Independence

Fifty years ago today, Angola gained its independence from Portuguese domination. But the US was already working hard to snuff out the hopes of liberation.

by Elizabeth Schmidt via Jacobin on November 11, 2025

Dick Cheney waving.

Cheney’s Last Laugh

For many, Dick Cheney epitomized idealistic foreign policy hubris.

by Nathan Pinkoski via Compact on November 6, 2025

A teletype portrait of Curtis LeMay.

"I Have Sought to Slaughter as Few Civilians as Possible."

The rabid, apocalyptic Beat poetry that is "Mission with LeMay."

by Alex Wellerstein via Doomsday Machines on October 16, 2025

Illustration of Karl Marx in front of map of the United States.

The Triumphs and Travails of American Marxism

Karl Marx never visited the United States, but he and his ideas left an imprint nonetheless.

by Robin Blackburn via The Nation on October 13, 2025

President Dwight D. Eisenhower meets with five national labor leaders.

American Labor’s Shameful History of Support for Zionism

The US labor movement has never been neutral: its union officialdom has a more-than-century-long history of allying with Zionism.

by Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on October 12, 2025

Commercial and tourist docks of St. George's, Grenada.

Grenada: When the Cold War Got Spicy

The 1983 invasion of Grenada raised questions about the legitimacy of American reactions to a communist presence on the island.

by Rob Crossan via JSTOR Daily on September 19, 2025

A US military LeTourneau LCC-1 Sno-Train carrying supplies near Camp Century in 1959.

Thin Ice: The History of US Involvement in Greenland

Donald Trump's quest to acquire Greenland has a precedent in US Cold War history. We should consider it a cautionary tale.

by Gretchen Heefner via Foreign Exchanges on September 16, 2025

Henry Kissinger poses for a portrait in the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing at the White House, Washington, DC, 1969. Photo © Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Getty Images.

The Parallel Lives of Cold War Frenemies

On new biographies of Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger.

by Hazem Kandil via History Today on September 9, 2025

Soldiers watching a nuclear explosion.

Why Don’t We Take Nuclear Weapons Seriously?

The risk of nuclear war has only grown, yet the public and government officials are increasingly cavalier. Some experts are trying to change that.

by Rivka Galchen via The New Yorker on September 2, 2025

Frank Meyer testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1959.

Frank Meyer’s Path from Devoted Communist to Promoter of Conservative ‘Fusionism’

A detailed, exhausting, and ultimately too-gentle treatment of the midcentury writer and editor, Frank Meyer.

by Joshua Tait via The Bulwark on August 26, 2025

Part of the Parthenon Frieze, Elgin Marbles, British Museum.

The Origins of the West

Georgios Varouxakis reexamines when and why people began to conceptualize "the West."

by Max Skjönsberg via Law & Liberty on August 25, 2025

A young Donald Trump tosses an apple into the air.

When Trump's Brain Broke

Donald Trump seems stuck in the 80s.

by John Ganz via Unpopular Front on August 21, 2025

Fulgencio Batista, Andrés Domingo, and Richard Nixon drinking together.

The CIA Trained Fulgencio Batista’s Torturers in Cuba

The Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities, known for its blood-spattered record of torture and political killings, was backed by the CIA.

by Ramona Wadi via Jacobin on August 14, 2025

Spooking the Censors

Spooking the Censors

In the 1950s, the CIA funded efforts to smuggle great works of literature into the Eastern Bloc.

by Michael O'Donnell via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 13, 2025

Elon Musk wields a 'chainsaw for bureaucracy' on stage before speaking at CPAC.

Beyond Markets: A Conversation with Quinn Slobodian

How the New Right emerged from neoliberalism’s inner split.

by Quinn Slobodian, James Duesterberg via The Point on August 5, 2025

Joseph McCarthy

Joseph McCarthy’s War on Voice of America

A largely forgotten campaign of harassment and persecution from the 1950s that still echoes today.

by Daniel Golden via Columbia Journalism Review on August 4, 2025

Mike Davis

The Marxism of Mike Davis

On the life, influences, and “sophisticated yet lucid brand of Marxism” of the late, great writer.

by Nelson Lichtenstein via Jacobin on July 31, 2025

John F. Kennedy waves to a cameraman a crowd of supporters in Los Angeles in 1960.

To Bounce Back, Democrats Need a New John F. Kennedy Moment

JFK's presidential win in 1960 offers a guide for how Democrats can rebound in 2025.

by Bruce W. Dearstyne via Made By History on July 23, 2025

Leslie Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos in 1942.

General Groves Invented the Atomic Bomb, Not Oppenheimer

Gen. Leslie Groves promoted Oppenheimer as the atomic bomb's inventor to craft a propaganda narrative, obscuring the true creators and moral implications.

by Peder Anker via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on July 21, 2025

For Decades, a Treaty Contained the Threat of Nuclear Weapons. Now That’s All at Risk.

Trump did not create this situation, but he has accelerated its centrifugal forces.

by Fred Kaplan via Slate on July 17, 2025

Why America Got a Warfare State, Not a Welfare State

How FDR invented national security, and why Democrats need to move on from it.

by Samuel Moyn via The New Republic on June 26, 2025

South Korean soldiers walking through a trench of dead bodies.

The Moral Distortions of the Official Korean War Narrative

June 25 marks the 75th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. But the truth is that the US was a willing partner in mass murder across the peninsula.

by Grace M. Cho via The Nation on June 24, 2025

Donald Trump shakes the hand of a border patrol officer while a line of others waits to meet him.

State of Exception

National security governance, then and now.

by David Klion via The Drift on June 24, 2025

William F. Buckley during a press interview in Buenos Aires, Argentina, circa 1970s. (Alamy)

Steering Right

Sam Tanenhaus’s biography of William F. Buckley has certain limitations, but it captures the character of conservatism’s founding father.

by John O. McGinnis via Law & Liberty on June 19, 2025

H.A. Smith is sworn in as a first witness at a HUAC hearing.

American Hysteria

Red Scare can be read as solid history of the years it depicts—and chilling prophecy of the years to come.

by Maurice Isserman via Democracy Journal on June 18, 2025

AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland stands behind a podium speaking into an array of microphones.

When US Labor Backed US Imperialism

After the successful purges of leftists from unions, US labor leaders were enlisted by government officials to join in their global imperialist operations.

by Micah Uetricht, Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on May 26, 2025

A train in the Texas countryside.

The Secret ‘White Trains’ That Carried Nuclear Weapons Around the U.S.

For as long as the United States has had nuclear weapons, officials have struggled with how to transport the destructive technology.

by Brianna Nofil via HISTORY on May 25, 2025

Zbigniew Brzezinski

The Coldest Cold Warrior

How a sharp-elbowed Polish academic with an unpronounceable name helped defeat the Soviet Union.

by Eric Edelman via The Bulwark on May 23, 2025

The History of Government Influence Over Universities

During the Cold War, the government relied on universities for research, but also saw scholars as dangerous.

by Jeffrey Rosario via Made By History on May 20, 2025

A group of men in a bar watching Oliver North testify before Congress.

How the Iran-Contra Scandal Impacts American Politics Today

The Iran-Contra affair exposed how government officials can ignore democratic norms and practices.

by Alan McPherson via Made By History on May 14, 2025

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