#the Cold War

[pureamericanism]

I always thought it was odd that the acts that finally drove a wedge between the Soviet Union and her western fellow-travelers were the crushing of the '56 and '68 uprisings. Not that these were particularly nice or good things, mind you, but after having held their noses for all of Stalin's megacidal atrocities, the systematic extermination of millions and the industrialization of slavery across half a continent, to finally have this be the bridge you're unwilling to cross? Again, the brutal crushing of pretty legitimate and popular protest movements is not very nice at all, but even if you don't buy the official Soviet explanations of foreign agents and counterrevolutionaries (and why would you, tbh), the existential stakes of the cold war make it a tad more justifiable than your ordinary repression. These were, frankly, the actions of a pretty normal state engaged in the grim realities of great power politics.

But that's the thing, isn't it? The very hugeness of Lenin and Stalin's atrocities helped them to be justified. If you're expecting the advent of Communism to usher in a millennarian utopia, you might expect this awesome revelation of the new order for the ages to be preceded by terrible heralds and to be birthed, screaming, in whole rivers of blood. But to achieve the earthly paradise through the ordinary machinations of great power politics? No, believing in that was too much to ask.

[stone-cold-groove]

Missile attack!

[crow2222]

Darry has a stroke fic but wakes up with a French accent

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[usualgangofidiots]

November 1955 cover

Artist: Wally Wood Mad Logo Art: Harvey Kurtzman Border Art: Will Elder

[bonnieura]

1962

[irregularincidents]

Twelve days into the Korean War, on 7th July 1950, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover approached President Harry S. Truman with a list of 12,000 names.

These names (97% of which were American citizens) were of people that Hoover felt should be indefinitely arrested and placed in concentration internment camps due to his claims that the people named were necessary to “protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage" in the event that America were to go to war against the Soviet Union.

The letter wherein he proposed these arrests stated that eventually the interned people would be allowed to have a hearing. The hearing board would have been a panel made up of one judge and two citizens. But the hearings “will not be bound by the rules of evidence,” his letter noted.

Who would have been these people that Hoover wished to detain? His usual suspects. People with socialist or communist beliefs or sympathies (real or manufactured), pacifists, early members of the civil rights movement such as the African-American singer and actor Paul Robeson...

Truman, to his credit, didn't agree with Hoover's suggestion and chose to veto it, although Congress reportedly would later vote to overturn his veto.

This was one of several documents declassified in the mid-2000s that underlined for as terrible as J. Edgar Hoover was, there were still even worse things he wanted to do that even Truman (who was brought on as FDR's vice president because the Democrats thought he'd make them look tougher on communism than Roosevelt's former VP, the socially progressive Henry Agard Wallace*) was against it.

*Wallace wanted to do things like ending segregation, bringing about gender and racial equality, and establishing a national health service (like the UK eventually adopted several years later), so OBVIOUSLY he had to go.

[whispering-about-the-tmnt]

As I mentioned yesterday, here is the layout for my 1970s TMNT AU Lair (fallout shelter). My son and I had a lot of fun doing this! I doubt there are any questions, but if you want to know anything, ask away!

Edit: I had the wrong streets mentioned when I first posted this, so I edited it to put the right ones on!

[richo1915]

Now I don’t go in for these American traditions (actually European) as an Australian. Bad influence on our youngsters. But being a Trade Unionist and a bit Bolshie, I couldn’t go past this.

[shattered-pieces]

Americans: just because you never heard of Ukraine before or it wasn't on your radar doesn't mean it doesn't matter, doesn't mean it's a "fake country", doesn't mean it hasn't existed long before you knew about it

[themesopelagiczone]

cookiecutter sharks took down nuclear submarines during the cold war!! they'd bite off chunks of the rubber around sonar domes and cause the oil to leak, blinding submarines and forcing them back for repairs. the americans thought it was some kind of secret soviet technology but actually, it was these little cat-sized, glow in the dark bitches that will bite anything that moves.

medium | business insider

photos: noaa observer project

[codesquire]

If you're teaching US History and you mention the Cuban Missile Crisis without mentioning, in the god-damned preface, that the US had put missiles in Turkey, you lose serious credibility.

This sort of US aggression abroad, being ignored, is part of how we got to where we currently stand...

I've unfollowed 2 history YTers over this.

This sin of omission is its own form of propaganda.

[thoughtportal]

The myths of the atomic bomb

Oliver Stone and historian Peter Kuznick[4] (director of American University's Nuclear Studies Institute) began working on the project in 2008. Stone, Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham co-wrote the script.[5] The documentary miniseries for Showtime had a working title Oliver Stone's Secret History of America. Kuznick objected to the working title "Secret History", claiming that "the truth is that many of our 'secrets' have been hidden on the front page of The New York Times. If people think the secrets will be deep, dark conspiracies, they'll be disappointed. We'll be drawing on the best recent scholarship".[6] It was subsequently retitled The Untold History of the United States.[7]

[stone-cold-groove]

Cover from Bell Telephone’s civil defense pamphlet, The Big Call - 1950.

[madame-helen]

[hiraethstar]

I’ve been rereading The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis and I think there’s a reference to nuclear warfare towards the end.

When they are in the Wood Between the Worlds with Aslan, he shows them the hollow that was once Charn and warns them that their world could end up like Charn. When Polly questions it, he elaborates: ‘you are growing more like it. It is not certain that some wicked one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things.’

The book was published in 1955, after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Around that time was the Korean war where more countries were starting to take up nuclear arms.

The disturbing thing is it’s still very poignant 68 years later.

[thedestinysunknown]

Tomb Raider 2 The Golden Mask Remastered - The Cold War:

"Now, we talk about Tomb Raider 2's expansion, The Golden Mask, and I hope you like ice themed levels, because that's most of em. Also, I hope you don't mind dealing with strong enemies, because there's a lot of em as well. Either way, this is a decent way to start this pack."

PS: the gameplay used for this gifset is not mine. The original video belongs to the user: Steven3517, on Youtube.