Cold War
Cold War Spies: General Reinhard Gehlen
By Peter KrossBy 1944, many top generals in Adolf Hitler’s army understood the war was lost and that they had better make arrangements to ensure their safety. Read more
Cold War
South African Paratroopers’ Raid on Cassinga
By Thomas B. BlevinsSouth Africa in the spring of 1978 was a country besieged. The apartheid state was increasingly unpopular with its neighbors and unable to control its own restive black population. Read more
Cold War
The Iran-Iraq War: New Borders, Old Enemies
By John WalkerThe world awoke to ominous news on September 22, 1980. Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein had launched a massive armored and air attack across the Iraq-Iran border. Read more
Cold War
The Corporal M2 Missile
By Peter A. GoetzSix days after the Allies’ D-Day landings on the coast of Normandy in June 1944, Germany retaliated by launching its first Vergeltungswaffe, or Vengeance Weapon, at the city of London. Read more
Cold War
The Battle of Hue City: In the Thick of the Tet Offensive
By John WalkerThe city of Hue was the capital of a unified Vietnam from 1802 until 1945. With its stately, tree-lined boulevards, Buddhist temples, national university, and ornate imperial palace within a massive walled city known as the Citadel, Hue was the cradle of the country’s culture and heritage. Read more
Cold War
Battle of Guningtou: The Republic of China Fights For Survival
By Edward F. ChenIn October 1949, the government of the Republic of China faced the greatest crisis in its history. Read more
Cold War
Military Weapons: The Davy Crockett Mobile Missile Launcher
By Peter A. GoetzDesign work for a minimum-size atomic warhead called the XW-51 began at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in the mid 1950s. Read more
Cold War
Freedom or Death: The Hungarian Uprising of 1956
By Todd Avery Raffensperger“To the Great Stalin, from the grateful Hungarian People,” read the inscription on a 24-foot-high bronze statue of Joseph Stalin on the grounds of Budapest City Park, erected in 1951 to honor the tyrant of the Soviet Union. Read more
Cold War
The Miracle of Bletchley Park
By Hervie HauflerGreat Britain’s military intelligence leaders learned from their experience in World War I that the kinds of minds capable of breaking codes are a rare commodity and are often not likely to blossom in a military atmosphere. Read more
Cold War
Cold War Intelligence
By John D. GreshamEveryone who has ever read a spy novel knows the basic plot line. A scientist has developed a formula, or intelligence operative has obtained secret plans or a roll or film. Read more
Cold War
Wehrmacht Pioneer Mathias Hansen Laid to Rest 70 Years After Operation Barbarossa
By Wilhelm R. Gehlen & Don A. GregoryLetters home provide us with a glimpse into the daily lives of soldiers during the best and worst times. Read more
Cold War
A Scout in Patton’s Third Army
By Kevin M. HymelThe Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter plane dove out of the sky with machine guns firing. The pilot’s target—a pontoon bridge being stretched across Germany’s Werra River by American engineers. Read more
Cold War
Mad Mike Hoare: How a Businessman Became a Legendary Mercenary
By John W. Osborn, Jr.With the exception of the French Foreign Legion, the concept of the mercenary, or soldier of fortune, seemed extinct after World War II. Read more
Cold War
The Heroism of Vision: Photographs from the Battlefield
By Al HemingwayOn the morning of February 23, 1945, on the tiny Pacific island of Iwo Jima, a 40-man patrol gathered at the 5th Marine Division headquarters for their final briefing with battalion commander Lt. Read more
Cold War
Fighting for the Hook
By Al HemingwayPeering intently through a telescope, General Lemuel C. Shepherd, the commandant of the Marine Corps, scanned the shell-pocked Korean terrain in front of his position. Read more
Cold War
The Greek Civil War: World War II’s Epilogue in the Mediterranean
By Jon LatimerAs 1944 drew to a close, the British in Greece found themselves in a parlous situation. They had agreed to support the restoration of Greek civil authority while overseeing the distribution of aid and the re-creation of armed forces to ensure internal security, all while commitments elsewhere were straining them almost to the breaking point. Read more
Cold War
The Symbolism of the Berlin Wall During the Cold War
By Bruce L. BragerIn June 1961, Walter Ulbrecht, longtime Communist party leader of East Germany, denied that his government had any intention of building the Berlin Wall, which would separate East and West Berlin. Read more
Cold War
The E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System
By Ken LaFayetteThe year 2007 marked the 30th anniversary of the E-3 Sentry’s Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) service to the United States Air Force. Read more
Cold War
The Multiple Launch Rocket System
By Christopher MiskimonOn February 24, 1991, the ground phase of Operation Desert Storm began. Over the next four days, the soldiers of an international coalition, formed to eject the Iraqi army of Saddam Hussein from the neighboring nation of Kuwait, carried out a whirlwind offensive that quickly overwhelmed their foe. Read more
Cold War
Delaying Action at Kapyong
By Marc D. BernsteinThe Chinese always attacked at night. It was April 22, 1951, and the Communists had just launched the largest offensive of the Korean War. Read more
