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Eisenhower and the downfall of Joseph McCarthy
Eisenhower found McCarthy distasteful but had not desire to enter into a political fight with him. He thought that this would diminish the presidency and give lie to the idea that America was a harmo…
Published on 4 years ago
Britain's War at Sea 1939-45 Part One - Imperial Overstretch
By 1939, the Royal Navy had lost a decade of growth, after budget cuts during the Great Depression and the closure of shipyards resulted in an older fleet than that of its enemies. The navy's role as…
Published on 4 years ago
Richard Nixon and the beginning of the Watergate Scandal 1972-3
When Richard Nixon won his second presidential term in 1972 defeating George McGovern in 1972, he was at the height of his popularity. The previous year he had captured the public mood when he addres…
Published on 4 years ago
German Militarism and Social Cohesion in 1914
Despite a decade of social conflict prior to the First World War between German trade unions and bosses, the declaration of war by Germany against Russia in the summer of 1914 led to a temporary but …
Published on 4 years, 1 month ago
Debt, decline and post Prague Spring Eastern Europe 1969-1989
When the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies drove their tanks into Prague in 1968, crushing the nascent pro democracy movement led by Alexander Dubcek, the last pretense of there being anything …
Published on 4 years, 1 month ago
The Indian Army in the Middle East - 1940
In the summer of 1940 the British faced supply shortages in the Middle East and were vastly outnumbered by Italian forces in Libya. Archibald Wavell, one of Churchill's least favourite generals, came…
Published on 4 years, 1 month ago
Hitler, the Luftwaffe and the 'England Problem' - 1940
In the summer of 1940, German successes in Europe had been based on a very particular model of interaction between air and ground forces. The planned invasion of southern England and the seizure of L…
Published on 4 years, 2 months ago
Grain seizures and famine during the Great Leap Forward
During the forced programme of industrialisation in the late 1950s in China, known as the Great Leap Forward, China's peasants came under intense pressure from the violent Maoist state to produce imp…
Published on 4 years, 2 months ago
Harold Wilson and MI6 - 1963-76
Harold Wilson was the most successful Labour prime minister of the 20th Century, but was the subject of plots to remove him from power by the military, business and intelligence elites. No coup attem…
Published on 4 years, 2 months ago
De-Maoification 1976-1989
When Mao Zedong, China's 'great helmsman' died in 1976, the China that emerged after destructive reign began to be de-Maoified economically but also culturally. By the early 1980s a cutlure of Mao cr…
Published on 4 years, 3 months ago