military history

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/12/2023
  

  A Servicemember in My Family was Never the Same after WWII—My Mother

  As part of the Clubmobile service of the Red Cross, Phyllis McLaughlin was an indirect witness to the traumas of the soldiers she served with hospitality, even before the jeep accident that ended her own service after nearly killing her. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/2/2023
  

  One Cost of American Military Protection of South Korea? A Brutal Sex Trade

  “Our country held hands with the U.S. in an alliance and we knew that its soldiers were here to help us, but that didn’t mean that they could do whatever they wanted to us, did it?”

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• 4/2/2023
  

  50 Years Later: Eyewitness to the Last Day of US Military Command in Vietnam

  by Arnold Isaacs

  In this excerpt, a journalist observes the tragicomic exit of the last US military command in Vietnam 50 years ago on March 29, 1973.

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  3/28/2023
  

  Will Ukraine be Remembered as the War of Surprises?

  by Rajan Menon

  Neither the perceived threat of NATO expansion nor Putin's alleged fears of liberalization explain the move to an all-out invasion. This uncertainty remains confounding, as has the progress of the war. 

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• 3/26/2023
  

  O'Hanlon: Policymakers Need to Know More History

  by James Thornton Harris

  "Studying war in this way should humble us about our ability to control and contain it in the future," says the Brookings Institution scholar, who urges security policymakers to read as much history as they can. 

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• SOURCE: National Security Archive
  3/20/2023
  

  Strangelove on the Square: Secret USAF Films Showed Airmen What to Expect if Nuclear War Broke Out

  Air Force training films, with their bloodless procedural guidance for launching armageddon, provide a surreal insight into the Cold War that put Kubrick's absurdism to shame (yes, HNN will feature Dr. Strangelove-related content at any opportunity). 

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• 3/19/2023
  

  The Curious History of Ulysses Grant's Great Grandfather

  by John Reeves

  The military experiences of Noah Grant in the French and Indian War typified changes in military strategy in the Americas and cemented a family commitment to the military that drove his great grandson Ulysses. 

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• SOURCE: CSPAN
  3/7/2023
  

  Matthew Connelly Presents Digital Lessons on the History of Government Secrecy

  Historian Matthew Connelly offers a series of talks and lesson plans for social studies teachers about the origins and significance of government secrecy, classified information, and freedom of information. 

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• 3/12/2023
  

  How The Irish Saved Wellington at Waterloo

  by Brendan Farrell

  For centuries, the Irish provided manpower to the British military, never more notably than on June 18, 1815. 

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• SOURCE: London Review of Books
  3/1/2023
  

  Review: The Unfinished Business of "Double V"

  by Eric Foner

  Eric Foner considers recent books on racism in the military in World War II and in Vietnam. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/24/2023
  

  Is Ukraine Headed for a Cease Fire? And Is That the Best Option?

  by Sergey Radchenko

  After an essential stalemate between 1951 and 1953, a cease-fire in Korea enabled the parties to avoid both defeat and the cost of victory. Is this the best chance for resolving the war in Ukraine? 

• 
• SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
  2/28/2023
  

  America Remains Trapped by the Dream of Global Hegemony

  by Andrew Bacevich

  American victory in World War II remains a source of dangerous myths and delusions about global supremacy. Both popular culture and foreign policy need to adopt the Iraq War as a less affirming, but more realistic, touchstone. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  2/17/2023
  

  Stephen Kotkin on How the Ukraine War Could End

  The historian of Russia and the USSR argues that Putin's invasion will ultimately be seen as a disaster for Russia. Its unclear, however, if that view is sufficiently widespread in Russia to change Putin's strategic outlook or the regime. 

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• 2/22/2023
  

  America Fought Its Own Battle Over Books Before it Fought the Nazis

  by Brianna Labuskes

  The Armed Services Editions paperback books were wildly popular among World War II servicemembers. But they became symbols of American freedom to read in the war against fascism only after a bitter domestic battle about the works and topics that would be permitted. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  1/17/2023
  

  Training Ukrainian Troops in the US Part of a Long History of Military Advising as Foreign Policy

  by Syrus Jin

  Training foreign military officers in the US has, since the 1950s, aimed at more than military success. It's been a vehicle for developing foreign political leadership and expanding US influence. 

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• SOURCE: New Statesman
  12/20/2022
  

  Ukrainesplaining, or, Why the West Underestimated Ukraine

  by Olesya Khromeychuk

  The credibility of Ukraine's claims and commitment to national self-determination have always been dismissed and diminished by the influence of Russian perspectives, even among academic observers. A woman historian finds the phenomenon familiar. 

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• 12/18/2022
  

  A Grisly but Significant Discovery at Red Bank Updates the History of the 1777 Philadelphia Campaign

  by Robin Baker

  Local volunteers excavating near the site of Fort Mercer in southern New Jersey discovered new evidence of the participation of Hessian mercenaries in a key battle in the British attempt to seize Philadelphia in 1777.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  12/6/2022
  

  The Conventional Wisdom About War Crimes is Wrong

  by Brian Klaas

  Ideology can be seductive, and doesn't require monstrous people to incite monstrous acts. 

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• SOURCE: War on the Rocks
  12/13/2022
  

  Politicization of the US Military over the Last 4 Decades

  by Kori Schake

  "If America wants to retain a military that recruits from all parts of the citizenry and brings them together into an effective fighting force, it should both correct that public perception and better insulate the military from being a pawn in partisan political disputes."

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• 12/11/2022
  

  Writing My Father Into History

  by Stephen G. Rabe

  As a child, the author developed an interest in history by hearing his father's stories on the journey from parachuting in to Normandy to the Brandenburg Gate and the occupation of Berlin. But he waited until retirement to research and write about them.