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Maoism, Vietnam and the Domino Theory
John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson both saw Vietnam as the vital frontline in America's struggle against communism, but it was Chinese, as opposed to Soviet communism they were most concerned about. T…
Published on 4 years, 6 months ago
Neville Chamberlain's diplomatic and strategic world view - 1937
When Neville Chamberlain succeeded Stanley Baldwin as Prime Minister in 1937 he inherited a highly precarious world situation. His predecessor was exhausted from his time in office but also was defea…
Published on 4 years, 6 months ago
Poujade and French Postwar Fascism 1945-53
In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the French Fourth Republic commenced a purge of former members of the wartime Vichy regime that had collaborated with the Nazi occupiers. However, …
Published on 4 years, 6 months ago
The Indian Army Officer Corps in World War Two
The British hold over the Indian Army was born of strategic calculations; the army was the most powerful weapon in Asia at Britain's disposal, and its huge manpower enabled Britain to punch above its…
Published on 4 years, 7 months ago
Britain, France and the Middle East - 1956
During the 1950s, Britain, France the USA and the USSR all conducted great power politics and diplomacy in the Middle East, competing to court and undermine rising nationalist movements in Egypt, Sud…
Published on 4 years, 7 months ago
The Stalinist Showtrials on 1936-7
There are numerous competing histooriographies of the Stalinist terror, which peaked in 1937. The pretext of the assassination of Kirov, that Stalin may well have had a hand in was simply that, an ex…
Published on 4 years, 7 months ago
American Cold War Liberals and the McCarthyite era 1948-57
Anti communism became a defining aspect of American politics during the 1940s and 1950s, not just for the right wing of the Republican Party, but also for the Democrats and the liberal intelligentsia…
Published on 4 years, 7 months ago
Thatcherism 1979-2021
Margaret Thatcher was deposed by her party in 1990, but the legacy of her ideas in some form lingers on. The Tory Party itself has abandoned any pretence of interest the operating of free markets and…
Published on 4 years, 8 months ago
Germany's air war over the Netherlands and France: 1940
In the first year of the war, from September 1939 to September 1940, Germany's military forces fought four seperate European campaigns (Poland, Scandanavia, France and the Low Countries, Britain), th…
Published on 4 years, 8 months ago
France, De Gaulle and post war anti fascism 1945-51
The Second World War was a national humiliation for France, enduring occupation, collaboration with the Nazis and Vichy complicity in the Holocaust. The violent purge of collaborationists after the w…
Published on 4 years, 8 months ago