Today in labor History January 17, 1961: Patrice Lumumba, anti-colonial fighter and former premier of the newly independent Republic of the Congo, was assassinated with the complicity of the CIA. President Eisenhower authorized an assassination in 1960, because of Lumumba’s ties with the Soviet Union. CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb planned to kill him with poisoned toothpaste. Gottlieb was the main scientist behind the CIA’s MKUltra program, which did illegal human mind control experiments with drugs, like LSD, without the victim’s knowledge or consent. He was also involved in numerous assassinations.
https://www.europesays.com/1003920/ On this day in 1992 the European Community, along with its members, recognised the Republic of Slovenia as a sovereign and an independent state. #slovenia
It's been 30 years since the demise of dictator #Tito's Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), commonly referred to as SFR #Yugoslavia.
31 years since the end of the #ColdWar, the #WarsawPact, and the #USSR.
By invading #Ukraine since 2014, #Putler wants to turn back time and even twist history
"Today our adversaries are busily rebuilding their barriers, old enemies are reanimated, battle lines are being drawn, the tanks are literally on #Ukraine's lawn and the foundations of the world order are being shaken to their core. We stand at a crossroads", said Mr #Shapps
#UK#ColdWar#Propaganda: "The UK Foreign Office conducted covert propaganda operations inside the UK during the Cold War, recently declassified files show.
It sought to challenge and discredit leading journalists at television’s World In Action programme, intellectuals such as Eric Hobsbawm and the leaders of some of Britain’s largest trade unions.
The government body responsible was a highly secretive unit called the Home Desk, a part of Britain’s Cold War propaganda arm, the Information Research Department (IRD), which was housed within the Foreign Office.
The Home Desk’s modus operandi was to collect information on “subversive” individuals and organisations from open and secret sources, ranging from newspaper clippings and books to MI5 moles and classified material."
Dag’s discussion of the collapse of East Germany was interesting. He was amongst a group that sought change in East German policies but in no way wanted to rejoin with Western Germany. Sounded like he views the collapse as a product of momentum combined with unintended consequences.
The snorkeling discussion was great. Don’t know many who would want to cross a deep river trusting their lives to a snorkel.
Cheddi Jagan (1918–1997) was the first major politician in the Anglophone Caribbean enraptured by Marxism-Leninism as espoused by the Soviet Union − the beacon for the radical transformation of colonies like his country, British Guiana (Guyana). Moreover, he sought to persuade US President Kennedy, that although this was the...
#OTD in 1950, Modena: the police, armed with MGs, rifles and armoured cars opened fire against workers protesting against mass firings from a foundry for political reasons. 6 men died that day (3 of them ex-partisans), one of them lynched and shot in the head. 200 were wounded. #ColdWar @histodons
Sensational new episode of the Cold War Conversations podcast. Very interesting to hear the perspectives of an East German soldier in the mid-80s and hear how they viewed the West German, NATO, and Warsaw Pact armies.
I was an adviser to an Iraqi army T-72 battalion and the East German soldier’s thoughts on that tank, and development of the auto-loader, were intriguing.
Thank you Cold War Conversations for another great episode!
I've loved The New Cambridge Modern History ever since I first found it - all two or three feet of it - at the library when I was a kid.
It ends at 1945.
I'm looking for a similar book or series to the Modern History which takes up the torch and carries it through the mid- and late-20th century. At least to the end of the Cold War, but which doesn't focus on it solely.
In 1946, the US began its nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands – a terrifying thought for many Australians. Some 75 years on, the evidence shows their fears were well-founded.
In 1946, the Marshall Islands seemed very close for many Australians. They feared the imminent launch of the US’s atomic testing program on Bikini Atoll might split the earth in two, catastrophically change the earth’s climate, or produce earthquakes and deadly tidal waves.
A map accompanying one report noted Sydney was only 3,100 miles from ground zero. Residents as far away as Perth were warned if their houses shook on July 1, “it may be the atom bomb test”.
Radiation poisoning, birth defects, leukaemia, thyroid and other cancers became prevalent in exposed Marshallese, at least four islands were “partially or completely vapourised”, the exposed Marshallese “became subjects of a medical research program” and atomic refugees. (Bikinians were allowed to return to their atoll for a decade before the US government removed them again when it was realised a careless error falsely claimed radiation levels were safe in 1968.)
In late 1947, the US moved its operations to Eniwetok Atoll, a decision, it was argued, to ensure additional safety. Eniwetok was more isolated and winds were less likely to carry radioactive particles to populated areas.
Australia’s economic stake in the atomic age from 1954 collided with the galvanisation of global public opinion against US testing in Eniwetok. The massive “Castle Bravo” hydrogen bomb test in March exposed Marshall Islanders and a Japanese fishing crew on The Lucky Dragon to catastrophic radiation levels “equal to that received by Japanese people less than two miles from ground zero” in the 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic blasts. Graphic details of the fishermen’s suffering and deaths and a Marshallese petition to the United Nations followed.
"Radioactive Objects Found at San Francisco's Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Raise New Concerns"
"The discoveries raise fresh questions about the city’s plans to build thousands of homes on one of the nation’s largest and most polluted Superfund sites amid ongoing cleanup efforts."
Today in Labor History December 11, 1990: Students and workers demonstrated throughout Albania in protests that eventually led to the fall of communism, with a General Strike in 1991. And the communists were thoroughly trounced in the elections of March 1992.
Interesting set of documents from the U.S Govt just dropped. Potentially useful for historians of Eastern Europe and the Balkans during the tumultuous 80s. Excited to check it out.
QSL card from US airman stationed in Kaiserslautern, West Germany, February 1960. A year before the Berlin Wall would go up and two years before the Cuban Missile Crisis, but still a tense period in East-West relations. Contact was with an Israeli radio amateur, Bill, 4X4AS, on 20 meters.
What America spent money on during the Cold War instead of actual security in the daily lives of its citizens (#22789297):
"Throughout the world, our strategic focus stand guard over our way of life. But, if a general war engulfed the world, all our military power could be helpless.
Unless our leaders could survive and control our forces before and during the holocaust, an aggressor could strike without fear of reprisal.
Only the belief that we could control our forces throughout the entire spectrum of a general nuclear war would deter him from striking the first blow."
1969 US Air Force film, declassified thanks to the National Security Archive.
New Book / Discussion—“Cheddi Jagan and the Cold War: 1946-1992” (repeatingislands.com)
Cheddi Jagan (1918–1997) was the first major politician in the Anglophone Caribbean enraptured by Marxism-Leninism as espoused by the Soviet Union − the beacon for the radical transformation of colonies like his country, British Guiana (Guyana). Moreover, he sought to persuade US President Kennedy, that although this was the...
75 years after nuclear testing in the Pacific began, the fallout continues to wreak havoc (theconversation.com)
In 1946, the US began its nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands – a terrifying thought for many Australians. Some 75 years on, the evidence shows their fears were well-founded.