On 26 June 1948, the Berlin Airlift began in earnest after the Soviet Union cut off land and water routes to the isolated western sector of Berlin. Germany’s capital, Berlin, was deep within the area controlled after WWII by the Soviet Union...
On 1 Nov 1952, the US detonated the world’s first thermonuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb (or H-bomb), on Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific. The test gave us a short-lived advantage in the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. Following the...
On 20 Aug 1968, Czechoslovakia was invaded. The troubles began in January when Alexander Dubcek took over as the nation’s leader. Dubcek wanted a major overhaul of the Czech political and economic system, and greater political freedom, including for...
Following WWII, the US moved quickly to demobilize the vast military it had constructed during the conflict. By 1948, less than 550,000 men remained in the Army. Relations between the Russians and Americans deteriorated rapidly. In 1947, the...
Korea, a former Japanese possession, had been divided into zones of occupation following WW II. US forces accepted the surrender of Japanese forces in southern Korea, while Soviet forces did the same in the north. Like in Germany, however, the...
I spent some time in Berlin while the Wall was still up; I was a West Point cadet and spent much of a summer’s leave there. To say that the wall was a glaring symbol of oppression is a major understatement. I was free, when in uniform, to go...