By Michael O’Brien
After [the]Vienna [Conference], events turned sour for Khrushchev. Instead of retreating, Kennedy held firm. The Soviets were spending a fortune subsidizing the collapsing East German economy. The GDR’s leader, Walter Ulbricht, had few options as refugees took … Read the article
By Dr. Jürgen Neffe
Since 1934, Leo Szilard had been pondering the possibility of neutron chain reactions and the massive explosions that would result. While Einstein purportedly still doubted whether atomic bombs could be built at all, the press … Read the article
By Callie Oettinger
Letter of Albert Einstein to the Lieutenant Stephen Brunauer, U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance, 8/13/1943.
Credit: Library of Congress.
CALLIE OETTINGER was Command Posts’ first managing … Read the article
By Catherine Merridale
Order no. 227 was issued on 28 July. At Stalin’s insistence, it was never printed for general distribution. Instead, its contents were conveyed by word of mouth to every man and woman in the army. “Your reports … Read the article
By Eric Frattini
Gavrilo Princip was a product of the years in which the winds of anarcho-syndicalism whipped through Europe. He was an overly idealistic Bosnian Serb student who dreamed of fighting great liberation battles. One day, in the streets … Read the article
By Callie Oettinger
The Korean War armistice talks lasted over a year, with the signing taking place July, 27, 1953 at Panmunjom.
One of the key problems during the negotiations?
Many of the Communist prisoners didn’t want to return home … Read the article
By Lewis H. Carlson and Robert Coury
Col. Bob Coury retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1974 after being one of the very few pilots to fly in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He also flew the Berlin … Read the article
By Callie Oettinger
July 26, 1947 the National Security Act was approved:
To promote the national security by providing for a Secretary of Defense; for a National Military Establishment; for a Department of the Army, a Department of the Navy, … Read the article
By Christopher J. Olsen
In Spring 1861, both sides worked feverishly to train and equip the new armies, but the start of major hostilities would fall to the North. Confederate leaders believed that the onus was on the Union to … Read the article
By Micheal D. Gordin
On July 16, a day before Terminal began, scientists working for the Manhattan Project had detonated the world’s first atomic explosion in the desert outside Alamogordo, New Mexico: Operation Trinity. Atop a hundred- foot- tall tower, … Read the article