Tue, Jan 2, 2018
Forget trenches, infantry and tanks. The United States and Soviet Union fought the Cold War with ideas and information. The United States adapted those techniques for their own purposes, broadcasting an image of the nation as a beacon of hope and freedom through covert ops and jazz concerts alike even if those at home were hurting or oppressed.
Tue, Jan 9, 2018
Americans were desperate to find hope in the shadow of the bomb. Miracle cures, cheap energy, and even brand new atomic gardens: the wonders of the atom to discover. Right? Eager to explore nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes, Americans instead found the resulting radioactive fallout too dangerous.
Tue, Jan 16, 2018
America sent a man to the moon in 1969, and with Neil Armstrong's first steps, the United States projected to the world an image of American power, wealth and achievement. But it was hardly just for bragging rights. The space race started under Kennedy to compete with the Soviets on a global stage, but it was under Johnson that its goals became domestic. NASA, Head Start, Medicaid and even the war in Vietnam were domestic social programs, used at least in part to alleviate poverty, provide jobs and desegregate the country.
Tue, Jan 23, 2018
In the early 1970s, while trying to wind down the war in Vietnam, President Richard Nixon made overtures to Moscow and Beijing that would usher in a new era of the Cold War: Detente. But the thaw in relations didn't last long the Iran Hostage Crisis and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan set the old adversaries against each other once again. Throughout the Eighties, President Reagan took a hard line against the "Evil Empire," ramping up military spending and rhetoric, and Americans were once again tense with nuclear anxiety.
Tue, Jan 30, 2018
Talking with Audra Wolfe, the author of Competing with the Soviets: Science, Technology, and the State in Cold War America and Patrick Wyman, host of the hit podcasts Fall of Rome and Tides of History. Investigate how the Cold War standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union compares to another much earlier rivalry between ancient Rome and the Sassanid Persians.