History As It Happens

Every major poll on public trust in institutions finds that Americans have little confidence in the government, news media, banks, big business, and more. Across the board, Americans do not expect their institutions to effectively perform in the public interest. Some of this distrust is warranted. The fabric of society has been torn by massive institutional failure and deceit. Some of the distrust is the result of cynical mis- and disinformation spread by politicians and demagogues, eroding trust even further. When did the "crisis of confidence" begin, and how might it abate? In this episode, The Washington Times culture report Sean Salai and Vanderbilt University historian Niki Hemmer discuss the reasons why Americans have lost faith in their leaders.

This is the first episode in an occasional series examining major counterfactual scenarios in history. As the 60th anniversary of his assassination approaches, a question still hangs over John F. Kennedy's legacy: had he lived and been reelected, would he have withdrawn from Vietnam? It's a tantalizing counterfactual, not only because LBJ's escalation led to an epic tragedy, but because of the relevant lessons we can apply to our foreign policy dilemmas today. In this episode, eminent Vietnam scholar Fredrik Logevall separates fact from myth concerning Kennedy's ideas and intentions for withdrawing U.S. military advisors from the Cold War theater of Southeast Asia. Note: The source of the Kennedy audio tapes is millercenter.org at the University of Virginia.

Ukraine's leadership remains committed to liberating all territory now under Russian military occupation. This includes parts of the eastern Donbas region whose villages have been depopulated and its infrastructure destroyed in nearly a decade of war, if we date the origins of the current conflict to the outbreak of the separatist revolt in 2014. Historically, the Donbas was home to pro-Russian and pro-Soviet political forces who resisted integration with the West. This is why the political scientist Alexander Motyl once argued Ukraine "should let the Donbas go." Today, however, with a full-scale war underway for 18 months, Motyl argues Ukraine simply cannot cede territory to Russia. Moscow aims to subjugate Kyiv, not merely occupy the eastern fringes on the country. Much of the Donbas may be rubble, but ceding it to Putin would not bring Kyiv a lasting peace, Motyl contends.

After four felony indictments, the first ever presidential mug shot, two impeachments, and the trashing of the peaceful transfer of power, Donald J. Trump has worn out the word unprecedented. Next spring, as he stands trial on criminal charges alleging he tried to steal the 2020 election, Trump may also cement his party's nomination for the presidency. And what if he's convicted? Unprecedented, indeed. But rather than focus solely on how none of this has ever happened before, in this episode historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel discuss the origins of the grievances and resentments that drive Trumpism. Trump has become a symbol for those who resent federal authority and cultural liberalism, namely the white working class left behind by deindustrialization and unsettled by demographic change.

In the aftermath of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, there has been an overdue reckoning with the fact that many historians, foreign policy analysts, politicians, and others underestimated Vladimir Putin and overstated Russia's decline. This was despite the fact that Russia's forever-president habitually broadcast his grievances about "the West." It is, therefore, critical to understand what drives Putin today and how he's holding his regime together. In this episode, Catholic University historian Michael Kimmage describes what he calls Russia's "mafia state" following the death of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. It is now apparent that Putin's ruling clique has survived Prigozhin's aborted challenge from June, and remains determined to fight a long war in Ukraine in the face of high casualties and economic sanctions. Also discussed in this episode is the unexpected popularity of the war inside Russia after 18 months of combat, how Russia is globalizing its war efforts to survive Western sanctions, and what it would take to get the Kremlin to the negotiating table.

Ukraine's counteroffensive, launched three months ago amid increasing pressure to turn the tide of the war, has made meager gains on its eastern and southern fronts against tough Russian defenses of minefields and trenches. Russia's war of aggression is now a war of attrition, and it's unclear which side may crack first. The high casualty figures -- an estimated 500,000 dead and wounded since the war began 18 months ago -- and lack of offensive progress are drawing comparisons to the First World War, whose aggressors also believed it would be over quickly. In this episode, Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft discusses what it will take to bring the war to an end, and why we should all be concerned with the darker parallels to the Great War a century ago.

Anniversaries have a way of concentrating our minds on important events, but most Americans paid little attention to a certain date in history when it crossed their calendars this month. On August 19, 1953, the CIA toppled Iran's democratic prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh and installed the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, an event whose consequences haunt U.S.-Iran relations to this day. For Iran, the detested Shah's rule, backed by billions in U.S. military aid, led to an Islamic Revolution in 1979. For the U.S., the 1953 coup was the first such operation pulled off by the new CIA, which under eight years of the Eisenhower administration perpetrated dozens of covert operations in 48 countries. Meddling in the internal affairs of other nations would become standard U.S. procedure during the Cold War following the "success" of 1953. In this episode, Eurasia Group oil historian Gregory Brew discusses the remarkable series of events that led to Mossadegh's demise and the enduring relevance of the coup in today's geopolitics. Note: Excerpts of the documentary COUP 53 are courtesy Amirani Media.

The massive gathering of Americans on the National Mall sixty years ago, on August 28, 1963, is best remembered by the final few minutes of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s soaring call for racial harmony, "I Have A Dream." But there was much more to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In this episode, historians Thomas Jackson and William P. Jones recover aspects of Black intellectual history and a radical economic agenda that are invisible in sanitized retrospectives on the revolution of '63. (Note: The source of the Kennedy audio tape on civil rights is the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, excerpted by Thomas Jackson).

This is the final episode in a three-part series about "Oppenheimer" and the historical debates raised by the blockbuster film. By the time he left office in early 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower had overseen the expansion of the nation's nuclear arsenal to 20,000 weapons. The United States had dramatically outpaced the USSR in the opening years of the arms race. The Soviet Union had roughly 2,000 bombs after the first full decade of the Cold War. The "missile gap" notwithstanding, both superpowers had more than enough nuclear firepower to destroy the world many times over, and this was the actual point of the policy of "mutually-assured destruction." Robert Oppenheimer and like-minded scientists had hoped to avoid this outcome by trying to influence national defense policy after the Second World War. Christopher Nolan's blockbuster film "Oppenheimer" shines a light on the physicist's opposition to the H-bomb program and his support for international arms control and openness, rather than secrecy, in national security policy. In this episode, historian Gregg Herken, author of "Brotherhood of the Bomb," discusses whether the U.S. missed a chance to avoid an arms race and decades of Cold War by ignoring Oppenheimer's advice in the late-1940s and early 1950s.

This is the second episode in a three-episode series about "Oppenheimer" and the historical debates raised by the blockbuster film. When Robert Oppenheimer accepted the job to lead the top-secret Manhattan Project, he and his fellow physicists expected any bomb would be used against Nazi Germany. But by the time the A-bomb was ready in late July 1945, Hitler was dead and Germany had surrendered. Some scientists questioned whether it was necessary to use "the gadget" against Japan, whose weakened military and industrial capacities could no longer project power across the Pacific. Christopher Nolan's cinematic masterpiece has revived interest in this contentious debate: could the Second World War had been won without destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki? In this episode, eminent historian David M. Kennedy discusses the difficult circumstances of August 1945. For Americans who look back on it as "the good war," the destruction of Japan may raise uncomfortable moral and ethical questions. Note: Audio excerpts of the "Oppenheimer" film are courtesy Universal Pictures. The source for Harry Truman's speeches is the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

This is the first episode in a three-episode series about "Oppenheimer" and the historical debates raised by the blockbuster film. On November 16, 1945, Robert Oppenheimer delivered an address to the American Philosophical Society about the changed world ushered in by a "most terrible weapon." The father of the atomic bomb cautioned his audience at the University of Pennsylvania that international cooperation was necessary to avoid future use of hundreds if not thousands of bombs in aggressive war. But Oppenheimer did not express regret – neither in 1945 nor for the rest of his life – about leading the A-bomb project to its successful completion. Yet he was haunted by its use against "an essentially defeated enemy." The complicated scientist was brought to life on the big screen by actor Cillian Murphy in director Christopher Nolan's cinematic masterpiece, "Oppenheimer." In this episode, national security analyst and arms control expert Joe Cirincione discusses the enduring consequences of the discovery of nuclear fission in 1939 and of the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction capable of destroying human life. Note: Audio excerpts of the "Oppenheimer" film and of director Christopher Nolan are courtesy Universal Pictures.

A single sentence in Florida's new K-12 social studies curriculum caused a political uproar: "Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." People on the left say Florida, under Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, is trying to teach kids that Black people benefited from slavery. People on the right are defending the new standards. But what's omitted from -- or downplayed in -- the African American history section is a far more important problem. The Florida standards almost entirely ignore the centrality of property rights in enslavement. There's no mention of proslavery ideology. The role of racism, while not ignored, may not be sufficiently emphasized. In this episode, historian Bob Hall widens our perspective to understand the complexities of racial slavery in North America.

A new exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery is compelling its viewers to reflect on the roots of U.S. hegemony. "1898: Imperial Visions and Revisions" is a superbly presented and thought-provoking collection of portraits, paintings, political cartoons, old newspaper clippings, and other artifacts that tell the story of overseas expansion through the eyes of Americans and the people over which they would rule, after defeating Spain in a short war, in Puerto Rico, Guam, Cuba, and the Philippines. Congress annexed Hawaii against the will of Hawaiians the same year. At a time when the U.S. role in the world is subject to considerable debate, the exhibit -- co-curated by Kate LeMay and Taina Caragol -- confronts us with the controversial origins of America's global reach. Did you know an Anti-Imperialist League, whose members included Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie, protested U.S. domination of overseas territory?

In 2023 labor is striking back. In a resurgence of labor militancy after decades of dormancy, tens of thousands of American workers are walking off their jobs as they demand better pay, conditions, protections, and dignity from their employers -- from Hollywood to hotels. In this episode, Michael Kazin, a distinguished historian of social movements at Georgetown University, discusses the long fight for economic rights that is central to American labor history. Unions existed before the Great Depression and New Deal, but it was not until the cataclysms of the 1930s that industrial workers in steel and autos achieved recognition of their right to organize, framing their demands in language that would fit today's conflicts.

On today's geopolitical chessboard, most eyes are watching Eastern Europe or the Indo-Pacific. Somewhat unnoticed is what's happening in Cuba. Russia has turned to an old ally for help in its "clash with the West." Beginning early this year, high-level Russian officials began visiting Cuba to deepen economic, military, and diplomatic ties with the Communist island. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri discusses why Russia intends to use Cuba as a counter-balance to U.S. support for Ukraine, drawing parallels to the Cold War relationship between Cuba and the Soviet Union. As they did in the early 1960s, both nations today see an interest in cooperating against the U.S. But unlike the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, today's Russian military assistance to Cuba should not be viewed as an existential threat but rather as a realpolitik ploy to antagonize Washington, Suri says.

Historian Alexis Coe wants you to read George Washington's Farewell Address. She's been reading it repeatedly, and describes it as a "shockingly modern document." Coe, whose short biography of our first president, "You Never Forget Your First," was a best-seller, says Washington's warnings about factionalism and despotism have burning relevance for our current times. In this episode, Coe talks about why our foremost founding father warned posterity about the "dangers of party" to national unity.

Thursday, July 27, marks the seventieth anniversary of the Korean War armistice. It ended three years (1950-1953) of brutal combat between North Korea and its Communist allies, namely Mao's China, on one side, and South Korea, the U.S., and more than a dozen allies fighting under the U.N. banner on the other. It was an armistice, not a peace treaty. And to this day real peace remains a distant possibility. In this episode, The Washington Times' reporters Guy Taylor and Andrew Salmon discuss why North Korea remains an isolated, unpredictable, nuclear-armed country while South Korea is a flourishing democracy and an important American ally in Asia.

In his concurring opinion supporting the majority ruling striking down race-based affirmative action in college admissions, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas argued for a race-neutral reading of historical efforts to remediate the effects of slavery and racism. In his view, the formerly enslaved "freedmen," who were supposed to be cared for under the Freedmen's Bureau established after the Civil War, was formally a "race-neutral category." Thomas has spent his judicial career arguing the Fourteenth Amendment bars any form of race-conscious policymaking, and he has taken a narrow view of the rights protected under the amendment's clauses. Does he have his history right? The eminent historian of the Reconstruction era Eric Foner joins the conversation.

There's been talk of Ukraine possibly joining NATO since the early years of post-Cold War Europe, but it never happened. And the allies aren't quite ready to go ahead with membership now, as evidenced by their vaguely-worded commitment issued at the Vilnius summit "to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the Alliance when Allies agree and conditions are met." From the moment the post-Soviet world started coming into view, when and where NATO should expand has aggravated relations between the U.S. and Moscow. When it came to Ukraine, the country got the worst of both worlds: it was left on the wrong side of Europe's dividing line and Russian leaders were angered by the mere idea of Ukraine entering NATO. In this episode, historian Jeffrey Engel discusses the origins of today's debate about Ukraine's future, whose circumstances could compel the U.S. and its European allies into direct conflict with Russia.

Nearly four centuries ago, authorities in Windsor, Connecticut hanged Alice Young, the first recorded execution for witchcraft in the British colonies. In all, twelve people were charged and convicted of witchcraft in Connecticut; eleven were hanged. This year, after persistent lobbying by descendants of the wrongly accused, state legislators exonerated them all, an act of moral restitution for a bizarre and terrifying chapter in American history. Historians differ as to why the witch-belief craze exploded in the mid-1500s in Europe, and it isn't entirely clear why it quickly died down in the late 1600s before the Enlightenment began to take hold. In Europe and America, an estimated 50,000 people were executed for witchcraft. In this episode, historian Kate Carté discusses why religious fanaticism and paranoia consumed entire communities.

Note: Audio clips of "A Small Light" are courtesy NatGeo. Anne Frank's 'A Diary of a Young Girl' has been read by tens of millions of people in dozens of languages. It is an entry point for Holocaust studies for each new generation of school students. Her tragic story has been the subject of stage plays and movies, too. And now the young Dutch woman who tried to hide the Frank family from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam is the subject of a moving dramatic series produced by NatGeo and streaming on Hulu. 'A Small Light' depicts the story of Miep Geis, who took care of Otto, Edith, Margot, and Anne Frank along with four other Jews as they hid in a secret annex until being betrayed and arrested in August 1944. In this episode, three people who befriended Otto and Miep after the war talk about the importance of telling this story, even if parts of the NatGeo series took some dramatic license. Cara Wilson-Granat, Ryan Cooper, and Father John Neiman each took different journeys to reach the same destination, inspired by Otto and Miep's strength and humanity.

This is a bonus episode in a three-part series on the radicalism of the Declaration of Independence. The video version will air on C-SPAN 2's American History TV on July 15. George Washington University historian Denver Brunsman joins Martin Di Caro in a conversation about the contested meanings of the American Revolution and the enduring radicalism of the ideals embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

This is the last in a three-part series of episodes about the radicalism of the Declaration of Independence and enduring importance of the American Revolution. Whatever its authors meant by them at the time – in the summer of '76 while at war with Great Britain – the words the American revolutionaries wrote in the Declaration of Independence would inspire generations of Americans of all races and creeds to fulfill the promise of fundamental human equality and liberty, the most radical idea of the 18th century and today. And that's despite the fact that the document's primary author didn't live up to his words. Thomas Jefferson was a lifelong slaveholder. In this episode, historians Annette Gordon-Reed and Joseph Ellis discuss the power of the promissory note signed by the founders. They also consider the pitfalls of approaching the American past through the personal failings of men like Jefferson.

This is the second in a multi-part series of episodes about the radicalism of the Declaration of Independence and enduring importance of the American Revolution. The Declaration of Independence contains the most recognizable words in American history, a source of egalitarian inspiration that transcends time. But at the time they drafted the document, the Continental Congress was absorbed with more earthly matters than debating Enlightenment philosophy. They had a war effort to oversee and politics to deal with. The British were landing thousands of troops in New York. Public opinion was split. Inflation was soaring. In this episode, historian Jack Rakove discusses the pragmatic and ideological concerns of the 18th-century revolutionaries whose efforts would have a radical influence on world history.

This is the first in a multi-part series of episodes about the radicalism of the Declaration of Independence and enduring importance of the American Revolution. All Americans recognize the famous words of the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." For generations, these words served as a common source of inspiration to achieve the promise of fundamental human equality. Today, however, competing narratives about the American founding are a cause of division, mostly over the issue of slavery. In this episode, eminent historians Sean Wilentz and Jim Oakes discuss how a revolution whose animating principles were embodied in the Declaration, fundamentally changed American society and triggered lasting political conflicts over the radical idea of egalitarianism.

What just happened in Russia? In a stunning although not entirely surprising turn of events, Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin turned his troops and tanks toward Moscow after spending weeks criticizing Russia's abysmal performance in the Ukraine war. A violent confrontation was averted, however, when Prigozhin struck a deal with the Kremlin to abort his mutiny and leave for Belarus. The crisis left Russian president Vladimir Putin looking weak and humiliated after the gravest challenge to his authority since he took power in 1999. In this episode, historians Michael Kimmage, Vladislav Zubok, and Sergey Radchenko offer historical perspective and clear-eyed analysis of the cracks forming in Putin's regime.

In the early years of the Cold War, as the Korean peninsula was divided and then embroiled in a hot war, an orgy of killing took place on a small island off the southern tip of present-day South Korea. Villages were liquidated. Civilians were massacred. And it began while the U.S. military government still ruled over post-war southern Korea. But the Jeju Incident, known as 4/3 in native tradition, and its bloody aftermath were memory-holed for decades. Today, however, South Koreans want the U.S. to acknowledge its alleged complicity in the suppression of a left-wing uprising that began on April 3, 1948. Rebels attacked police posts across Jeju, provoking a ferocious response from Seoul. In this episode, Washington Times Asia bureau chief Andrew Salmon discusses his reporting on the ghosts of Jeju.

The Republican Party's disappointing showing in the midterm elections renewed grumbling that former president Donald Trump was a drag on the party. After all, the GOP might have won back the Senate had it not been for the inept campaigns of Trump-preferred candidates such as Herschel Walker. But Mr. Trump's popularity somehow survived. Eight months later, following his second indictment on felony charges, Mr. Trump seems to be again defying the conventional political wisdom, or what remains of it since 2016. No matter what he does or says or is accused of, polls indicate the former president's popularity among Republicans remains steadfast. In this episode, political journalist Damon Linker of "Notes From the Middleground" on Substack revisits the question of whether Trumpism is on the decline. At this point, the answer is clearly no. Why has Trump succeeded where past right-wing populists like Pat Buchanan or George Wallace failed?

If a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dead, does this mean Israel exists as a "one-state reality?" Do Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank live in conditions tantamount to apartheid? In an essay in Foreign Affairs, four scholars of the Middle East argue that analysts and policymakers should drop the illusion a two-state solution is possible as long as Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza continue. In this episode, one of the scholars, George Washington University political scientist Michael Barnett, defends their position against criticism that they're ignoring Palestinian responsibility for the absence of peace.

Note: Clips of 'Ghosts of Beirut' are courtesy Showtime. Audio of Lebanon at war is from the Associated Press archive. As Lebanon sank into the abyss in the 1980s, few people noticed a teenager who had worked as a bodyguard for Yasser Arafat's PLO. But his deeds would soon start making international headlines. Long before Osama bin Laden became a household name, this unknown young man began a decades-long crusade of bombings, kidnappings, and assassinations that would leave hundreds of people dead in dozens of attacks across the globe. Few knew what he looked like or his actual name. Known as "the ghost," Imad Mughniyeh was a founding member of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Mughniyeh remains a mysterious figure, but he made an enduring impact on history. His rise and fall are the focus of the new Showtime dramatic series "Ghosts of Beirut." In this episode, director Greg Barker discusses why he made a film about the terrorist whose mark on global events far surpassed his notoriety, a shadowy figure whom the CIA and Mossad hunted for a quarter-century.

Note: Audio clips of "White House Plumbers" are courtesy HBO. Audio of the "smoking gun" Nixon tape is from millercenter.org. Will Americans ever tire of Watergate? The notorious scandal that brought down a president – the scandal against which all future cases of presidential malfeasance would be measured – continues to bubble up in pop culture. The HBO series "White House Plumbers" is a comedic depiction of the bumbling burglars who were caught breaking into the DNC headquarters inside the Watergate hotel in 1972. In this episode, historian Ken Hughes, a renowned expert on secret presidential recordings and author of two books on Richard Nixon's criminality, talks about the ongoing fascination with Watergate, and whether comedy or satire is as effective as drama in portraying the extraordinary events that wrecked Nixon's presidency.

June 6, 1944 continues to hold a central place in Americans' popular memory of the Second World War. It is synonymous with D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy, which took place 79 years ago today. The largest amphibious assault in human history, immortalized in pop culture by epic films such as "The Longest Day" and "Saving Private Ryan," initiated the battle for France and the downfall of Hitler's Third Reich in the Western theater of operations. In this episode, military historian Cathal Nolan discusses what took place after D-Day, the overshadowed difficulties encountered by U.S., British, and Canadian armies as they drove east toward the Rhine. The Allies didn't cross the Rhine until March, 1945 – a testament to the strength of German resistance, Allied logistical challenges, mistakes by Allied commanders, and the typical vagaries of war fought on a massive scale. The war, contrary to contemporary hopes, would not end by Christmas.

The images of Bakhmut, the latest Ukrainian city to be left in ruins after months of Russian shelling, evoke memories of the Second World War. Every building reduced to piles of pulverized concrete or a flimsy facade with windows blasted out, streets clogged by rubble and wrecked vehicles. But you don't have to peer back into the 1940s for parallels to what's happening in Ukraine today. In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, Russia destroyed Grozny, the largest city in Chechnya, twice. Tens of thousands of civilians died. It was in the Second Chechen War when newly empowered Vladimir Putin, then 47, crushed Chechen independence on his way to reestablishing Russian state power after the enervating turmoil of the prior decade. As in Grozny a decade ago, Russian military commanders are showing no qualms about using massive violence against urban areas, an unsettling indication of where the current war is headed. In this episode, historian Mark Galeotti, the author of more than 25 books on Russia, discusses the parallels between the first major war of the post-Soviet era (prosecuted by Boris Yeltsin against Chechnya) and Putin's destructive bid to subjugate Ukraine.

Americans – many of them, anyway – revere the Constitution and the men who framed it. We can recite its preamble with its aim of securing "the blessings of liberty" for future generations. But more than 230 years after its ratification, historian Jack Rakove contends we're still laboring under damaging myths about what the Constitution does and does not mean. Rakove, who has written or edited dozens of books on the founding era, identifies the role played by myths, spurious claims, and lies in distorting constitutional debate and American politics in general. Jack Rakove is emeritus professor of history and political science at Stanford University.

Henry Kissinger, sage of American diplomats, is celebrating his milestone 100th birthday on May 27. To some, Kissinger is the embodiment of realpolitik whose shrewd diplomatic efforts left an enduring mark on the global order. To others, he's a war criminal. During the Vietnam War, Kissinger was a driving force behind the secret bombing of neutral Cambodia in 1969. He also backed the coup that toppled the democratically-elected leader of Chile. In this episode, historian Thomas Schwartz parses Kissinger's record, as the man has become a symbol of what's right and wrong with U.S. hegemony. Why are views of Kissinger still so polarized decades after he left power? Does your opinion of Kissinger say more about you and your politics than it says about his actual deeds? Are your views of Kissinger an index of your broader worldview concerning U.S. foreign policy – or imperialism?

Martin Luther King Jr. had serious problems with American capitalism. He considered himself more of a democratic socialist as he demanded the federal government spend billions to eradicate poverty, and as he worked to build a multiracial working-class movement. Today, as the share of American workers in labor unions continues to decline and as income inequality worsens, one wonders if the country will undergo a national reckoning on class as it has with regard to race. Over recent years Americans have been debating the role of race and slavery in national origins, but there's been relative silence when it comes to class issues. This problem extends to popular remembrances of King. His crusade to end racism and legal segregation overshadows these other aspects of his philosophy and legacy. In this episode, historian Thomas Jackson discusses the importance of MLK's economic outlook in his overall civil rights agenda.

American allies in the Indo-Pacific are in a difficult spot. They have economic ties to Beijing, but China's rising influence and coercive methods underscore the importance of their long-standing military pacts and trade relationships with the United States. The visit by South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol to Washington in April opened a window into this complex diplomatic problem. The warm reception Mr. Yoon received and his moves to more closely align his nation's interests with the U.S., met a cooler response in his own country. The escalating friction between the U.S. and China also complicates Seoul's economic ties to the latter. In this episode, The Washington Times' national security team leader Guy Taylor and Asia editor Andrew Salmon talk about the complexities of a multipolar world, where America's days as the sole superpower in East Asia are over.

This is the fourth episode in a multiple-part series marking the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, which began on March 20, 2003. Earlier episodes were published in March. From 1990 to 2003 the United States, through the U.N. Security Council, imposed the most punishing sanctions on a sovereign state in modern history. The sanctions on Iraq caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children from inadequate food, medicine, and public health infrastructure. They flattened Iraq's economy and tore at the fabric of its society. But the humanitarian catastrophe remains somewhat of an "invisible war." When Americans reflected on the twentieth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, their minds focused on what happened after March 20, 2003, rather than on the fourteen years of economic warfare that preceded it. In this episode, Sarhang Hamasaeed of the U.S. Institute of Peace discusses life under Saddam, surviving the sanctions, and his work as a peacebuilder in Iraq today.

Russian president Vladimir Putin, who sees himself as an astute student of history, once more exploited his nation's victory over Nazi Germany to justify his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. In his annual speech on May 9 – Victory Day in 1945 – Mr. Putin said Russia would continue its war against "torturers, death squads, and Nazis," repeating his fantasy version of reality. "Once again, we see war that is afoot, but we have been pushing back, fighting against international terrorism to protect the people in the Donbas region and to protect our country." Russia's autocrat is overlooking a more important, accurate history lesson. In the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, a Soviet leader impulsively gambled, brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, but then stepped back from the precipice by compromising a peaceful way out. In this episode, historians Sergey Radchenko and Vladislav Zubok discuss the origins of Nikita Khrushchev's move to send nuclear missiles to Cuba. They unearthed astonishing accounts of mishaps and miscalculations in recently declassified Soviet documents, which they detailed in an essay for Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations. Radchenko and Zubok say the "unlearned lessons" of the Cuban Missile Crisis include the roles of misperception, miscalculation, chance, and other unpredictable factors that influence the outcome of events. In 1962, they contend, the world got lucky.

Can the 14th Amendment save the U.S. from defaulting on its debts if Congress fails to raise the federal government's borrowing limit? That may depend on who you ask. Like so much else in the Constitution, Section 4 of the 14th Amendment means different things to different people today as it did in the 1860s when it was ratified. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri discusses Section 4's enduring relevance, and the importance of civics in understanding past and present political conflict. The 14th Amendment is arguably the most consequential one ever ratified after the Bill of Rights. It was passed in a certain historical context – in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War – but its words stand for all time. It was designed to make a more perfect union.

This is the second in a two-part series of conversations recorded at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello as History As It Happens goes on location, with special guests historian Alan Taylor and Brandon Dillard, Monticello's director of historic interpretation and audience engagement. The "history wars" have reached Monticello. Visitors to Thomas Jefferson's old plantation in rural Virginia often bring their emotional or ideological baggage. But is it possible to talk too much about slavery at a historic plantation? How does an institution such as Monticello present Jefferson's successes and failures to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who visit each year, many of whom revere Jefferson, his radical ideals, and his remarkable mind? Listen to Alan Taylor and Brandon Dillard talk about the challenge of interpreting the past in our divisive political environment.

This is the first in a two-part series of conversations recorded at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello as History As It Happens goes on location, with special guests historian Alan Taylor and Brandon Dillard, Monticello's director of historic interpretation and audience engagement. Thomas Jefferson wrote the most famous, inspiring words in all of American history. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." From the moment the ink dried on the Declaration of Independence, Americans have been in a perpetual state of argument over its meaning. Democracy for whom? Freedom and equality for whom? No founding father better articulated the ideals or personified the paradox of the American Revolution. In this episode, Alan Taylor and Brandon Dillard discuss why Jefferson still matters, from his views on the nature of democracy to whether white and Black people might one day live together as equals.

As Ukraine prepares to launch its spring offensive to break the stalemate against the Russian invaders, it's unclear if Ukrainian forces will be able to reach Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which for centuries has been of vital strategic importance. In this episode, the Quincy Institute's Anatol Lieven, who spent three weeks in Ukraine reporting on public opinion toward the war, talks about Crimea's historical relevance to today's conflict. First taken by the Tsarist Empire in the late-18th century, the Soviets transferred Crimea to the Ukraine S.S.R. in 1954. More than a half century later, the Kremlin seized it back in the aftermath of the 2014 revolution that ousted a pro-Russia president from Kyiv.

Fifty years ago the U.S. agreed to withdraw the last of its forces from Vietnam. After years of excruciating negotiations held as the combatants lost tens of thousands of casualties, the Paris Peace Accords of 1973 were heralded by President Richard Nixon as "peace with honor." But everyone who signed the accords knew peace was not in the offing. Two years later, in late April 1975, Saigon fell to the Communists. In this episode, historian Carolyn Eisenberg of Hofstra University and peace-building expert Andrew Wells-Dang of the U.S. Institute of Peace reflect on the meaning of the Paris Accords and the restoration of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Vietnam more than twenty years later. Is it possible to heal war's wounds?

Nearly 40 years before Russian security agents arrested Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and falsely charged him with spying, the KGB did the same to Nicholas Daniloff, whose plight became an international incident. The Moscow bureau chief for U.S. News and World Report, Daniloff was nabbed in the summer of 1986 as the Reagan White House was negotiating the terms of the next nuclear arms summit with the Kremlin, to be held in Iceland. Reagan personally pleaded with Gorbachev to free the American journalist. Today, President Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are hardly on speaking terms. What will it take to free Evan Gershkovich?

April is Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi. Since the Confederacy was created by secession with the aim of protecting human chattel slavery, one wonders what kind of heritage Mississippians are supposed to celebrate. Maybe Governor Tate Reeves' bland proclamation, which makes no mention of slavery, treason, or the ruin brought on by Confederate defeat, is less a statement about history than current politics. Americans are deeply divided across a range of issues, and many people view their own government as the enemy of freedom, an attitude that echoes in the words of Confederate leaders. Historian James Oakes discusses what the Confederacy was all about.

The 1990s began with the collapse of the Soviet Union and expulsion of Saddam Hussein's armies from Kuwait. As the world's only superpower, the U.S. would intervene militarily – on humanitarian grounds – in countries most Americans knew little about: Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo (but not Rwanda). President Clinton worked with Russian president Boris Yeltsin on establishing a stable U.S.-Russia relationship. China was welcomed into the world's rules-based trading system. Democracy and capitalism appeared to be on the march. The decade ended with Russia's economy in ruins and Vladimir Putin in charge of the Kremlin prosecuting a brutal war in Chechnya. In this episode, historian Michael Kimmage discusses the faulty assumptions that underpinned U.S. foreign policy during the pivotal decade between the Cold War and onset of the global war on terrorism. If the past 20 years of failed war-making and nation-building in the Greater Middle East are cause for reflection, the origins of this strategic drift may be found in the decade where U.S. leaders hoped to shape a "new world order."

Few things in life, let alone politics, are truly unprecedented. When it comes to the American presidency, Donald Trump did make history as the first former chief executive to be charged with a crime. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg got a grand jury to indict Trump on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records. Trump's case comes half a century after President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, preventing the latter from facing any legal consequences for the Watergate scandal. While Ford hoped to put the "long national nightmare" in the past, the pardon deprived the country of establishing any precedent for prosecuting rogue presidents. But no two cases will ever be the same, and in this episode, historian and Watergate chronicler Michael Dobbs discusses the major similarities and differences between then and now.

Historian Michael Kazin, a distinguished scholar of the American left, says American politics are caught in "the long 1960s." For decades Congress has been unable to pass sweeping measures desired by the progressive left to fundamentally reform American capitalism. They simply don't have the votes. In fact, neither major party recently has dominated Congress the way, for instance, Democrats did during the New Deal era, with more than 70 seats in the Senate and a massive advantage in the House. Why a partisan stalemate has endured since the 1960s is a complicated problem to unpack, but the answer leads to today's congressional math. Throughout U.S. history, very few periods of one-party dominance have occurred, periods where great legislative activity was possible.

Forty years ago, 'Return of the Jedi' opened in movie theaters, but 1983 also was a big year for another kind of 'Star Wars.' Two months before the movie premiered, President Ronald Reagan delivered a nationally televised address announcing an initiative to build a space-based missile shield that would use lasers to shoot down incoming ICBMs. Derisively dubbed "Star Wars" by skeptics -- skeptics who were right to doubt its feasibility -- Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative never amounted to anything useful. It was, however, part of Reagan's vision for a world free of nuclear weapons, a vision he successfully pursued in negotiations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In this episode, Joseph Cirincione, an expert on nuclear non-proliferation and national defense, discusses how the world has moved a long way in the wrong direction from the "golden age" of nuclear arms reduction treaties.