Who Is Trying to Keep What Secret from Whom and Why? MI5-FBI Relations and the Klaus Fuchs Case

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 124-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
The United States ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Witness Testimony ◽  
The Public ◽  
Klaus Fuchs ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Security Standards ◽  
The Cold War

Klaus Fuchs was one of the most infamous spies of the Cold War, whose espionage feats altered the nature of the early postwar period. Drawing on newly released archival documents and witness testimony, this article considers the events surrounding his arrest and conviction. These sources reveal that even before Fuchs was arrested, he was used as a pawn.Because of his supreme importance to the British nuclear weapons program, some British of ficials initially believed that he should remain in his position, despite his admission of guilt. Until the matter was resolved, Fuchs was used unwittingly as a wedge between the British and U.S. intelligence services.Moreover, when the United States criticized British security standards, the Fuchs case was used by MI5 to cajole and mislead Parliament and the public.

scholarly journals Women in noir style: the soviet version

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Soviet Culture ◽  
The Public ◽  
Personality Cult ◽  
Soviet Cinema ◽  
Soviet Literature ◽  
The Cold War

The paper is devoted to a comparative analysis of the popular culture of the Cold War in the United States and in the USSR, namely, to the genres, which were stimulated by the public moods of the Cold War (noir, spy detective, etc.). It is argued that despite the refusal of Soviet critics to use Western terminology, the genres of noir and spy detective existed in the Soviet literature and cinema, but had their own national and cultural content. In particular, the images of “fatal women” and “female adventurers”, who were central in the noir poetics, were not typical in the Soviet popular culture, excluding works devoted to the life abroad (in particular, novels by A. Tolstoy “Emigrants”, “Hyperboloid of engineer Garin”, etc.), however, noir motifs have appeared in the Soviet literature and cinema since the mid-1950s, when the official optimism of the Soviet public culture has been replaced by emotions of disappointment and tragic past (after J. Stalin’s death and denunciation of his personality cult). The novels of the little-studied writers L. Ovalov (“The Copper Button”) and H.-M. Muguev (“Doll of Mrs. Bark”, “The Quiet City”, “Fire Paw”) were analyzed in the context of the biographies of their authors, gender politics of the novels and the Soviet concepts of “freedom” and the opposition of “friend” and “enemy”. It is proved that the images of “adventurers” and style in the spy novels by Ovalov and Muguev reproduce the poetics of “noir” in the Soviet literature, which looked as authentic view in depicting war, emigration, espionage, captivity, conspiracies, and other existential situations. It was argued that the noir motifs in the late Soviet cinema were used in depicting the bipolar and hostile world in the spy genre (“The Secret Agent’s Blunder”, “17 Moments of Spring”), and also in depicting the postwar period of Soviet culture, losses of ideals and destroying a large number of people’ destinies. It was argued that the “Soviet project” was not separated from the cultural mainstream of the 20th century, it experienced the influences of Western popular culture and its values.

Protest and survive

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Nuclear Disarmament ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Defence Policy ◽  
Civil Defence ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Political Groups

This chapter offers a critical investigation into the ways in which the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) sought to undermine the official narrative of nuclear weapons and civil defence policy of successive British governments during the last two decades of the Cold War.  The first part of the chapter explores the ways in which CND used the tools of propaganda and parody to turn government advice and publicity surrounding policies of public protection against itself. The second part of the chapter investigates to what extent CND’s activism presented a threat to the process of policy making and to what effect the co-ordinated anti-nuclear campaign by CND and related groups was a cause of anxiety for civil defence planners and policy makers. It asks whether, by offering both the public and political groups of the left alternative politics which sought to challenge the official version of Cold War defence, CND could be said to have contributed to either non-compliance with, or early termination of, civil defence policy.

Latin America between the Second World War and the Cold War: Some Reflections on the 1945–8 Conjuncture

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Bethell ◽  
Ian Roxborough
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World

The importance of the years of political and social upheaval immediately following the end of the Second World War and coinciding with the beginnings of the Cold War, that is to say, the period from 1944 or 1945 to 1948 or 1949, for the history of Europe (East and West), the Near and Middle East, Asia (Japan, China, South and East Asia), even Africa (certainly South Africa) in the second half of the twentieth century has long been generally recognised. In recent years historians of the United States, which had not, of course, been a theatre of war and which alone among the major belligerents emerged from the Second World War stronger and more prosperous, have begun to focus attention on the political, social and ideological conflict there in the postwar period – and the long term significance for the United States of the basis on which it was resolved. In contrast, except for Argentina, where Perón's rise to power has always attracted the interest of historians, the immediate postwar years in Latin America, which had been relatively untouched by, and had played a relatively minor role in, the Second World War, remain to a large extent neglected. It is our view that these years constituted a critical conjuncture in the political and social history of Latin America just as they did for much of the rest of the world. In a forthcoming collection of case studies, which we are currently editing, the main features of the immediate postwar period in Latin America, and especially the role played by labour and the Left, will be explored in some detail, country by country.1In this article, somewhat speculative and intentionally polemical, we present the broad outlines of our thesis.

scholarly journals On Adapting Nuclear Deterrence to Reduce Nuclear Risk

Daedalus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 149 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-83
Author(s):  
Brad Roberts
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
The United States ◽  
Comprehensive Approach ◽  
Nuclear Deterrence ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Cold War

Since the end of the Cold War, changes to the practice of nuclear deterrence by the United States have been pursued as part of a comprehensive approach aimed at reducing nuclear risks. These changes have included steps to reduce reliance on nuclear weapons in U.S. defense and deterrence strategies. Looking to the future, the United States can do more, but only if the conditions are right. Policy-makers must avoid steps that have superficial appeal but would actually result in a net increase in nuclear risk. These include steps that make U.S. nuclear deterrence unreliable for the problems for which it remains relevant.

“It Is a Day of Judgment”: The Peacemakers, Religion, and Radicalism in Cold War America

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leilah Danielson
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Politics Of Resistance ◽  
The Cold War

AbstractThis article argues that Christian beliefs and concerns shaped the political culture of anti-nuclear activism in the early years of the Cold War. It focuses in particular on the origins of the Peacemakers, a group founded in 1948 by a mostly Protestant group of radical pacifists to oppose conscription and nuclear proliferation. Like others who came of age in the interwar years, the Peacemakers questioned the Enlightenment tradition, with its emphasis on reason and optimism about human progress, and believed that liberal Protestantism had accommodated itself too easily to the values of modern, secular society. But rather than adopt the “realist” framework of their contemporaries, who gave the United States critical support in its Cold War with the Soviet Union, radicals developed a politics of resistance rooted in a Christian framework in which repentance for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the first step toward personal and national redemption. Although they had scant influence on American policymakers or the public in the early years of the Cold War, widespread opposition to nuclear testing and U.S. foreign policy in the late 1950s and 1960s launched them into leadership roles in campaigns for nuclear disarmament and peace.

The Specter of Yalta: Asia Firsters and the Development of Conservative Internationalism

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-156
Author(s):  
Joyce Mao
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Political Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
China Policy ◽  
Legislative Oversight ◽  
Legislative Proposals ◽  
International Peacekeeping ◽  
The Cold War

During the 1940s, conservative leaders in the United States turned to the emerging Cold War in Asia both to condemn the moral bankruptcy of liberal globalism and to establish their own brand of anti-Communist internationalism. “Asia Firsters” such as Senators William F. Knowland, John W. Bricker, and Robert A. Taft evoked the specter of Yalta and Roosevelt’s betrayal of Nationalist China as a signature issue which extended far beyond the question of who “lost” China. Yalta served as a touchstone for the right’s ideological and political development during the Cold War. Focusing on U.S.-People’s Republic-Taiwan relations during the early and mid-1950s, this article traces how initial criticism of the 1945 agreements quickly evolved into practical legislative proposals that addressed executive overreach, legislative oversight, collective international peacekeeping, opposition to Beijing’s admission to the United Nations, and constitutional principles vis-à-vis active global interventionism. Although Asia Firsters failed to substantively change China policy, their approach was an inspiration for the most enduring American political movement of the postwar period.

scholarly journals Installation “Breakthrough”, Implementation and Memorialisation of the “Cold War” in the USA

2021 ◽  
pp. 58-64
Author(s):  
V.E. Dergacheva ◽  
Yu.G. Chernyshov
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The United States ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Cold War

Using the installation “Breakthrough” as an example, the article examines the widespread in the United States assessments and methods of memorializing the results of the Cold War. The authors note that the thesis of a US victory in the Cold War was central to official US political rhetoric in the early 1990s. This is confirmed by the politics of memory — in particular, the creation of the installation “Breakthrough”, the establishment of the commemorative medal “Cold War Victory Medal”, etc. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is considered the most symbolic event of the end of the Cold War. One of the fragments of this wall is called “The Breakthrough”, it is now in Westminster College in Fulton (Missouri), where W. Churchill in 1946 pronounced his famous speech and where (in a symbolic sense) the Cold War began. Installation “Breakthrough”, being a symbol of the beginning and end of ideological confrontation, carries a certain ideological message — it is a “breakthrough to freedom” and victory in the “cold war”. However, by the early 2000s, when passions subsided in society and wider access to not only American, but also Soviet archival documents was opened up, more ba-lanced assessments of the causes and results of the Cold War began to appear in American scientific circles. Some American historians started talking about the common victory of the USA and the USSR over the ideological confrontation, which could develop into a dangerous “hot war.” Globalization also influenced the perception of the outcome of the Cold War: this confrontation is assessed by some American researchers as a natural stage in the development of international relations, which led to a new redistribution of centers of influence on the map of the “multipolar” world.

History, Ideology, and Human Rights

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-176
Author(s):  
Anthony DiFilippo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Northeast Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
South Korean ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Rights Issues

This article will analyze the connection between history, countervailing ideologies, that is, the legacy of the Cold War, and the perceived identification of human rights violations as they pertain to countries with major security interests in Northeast Asia. This article will further show that the enduring nuclear-weapons problem in North Korea has been inextricably linked to human rights issues there, specifically because Washington wants to change the behavior of officials in Pyongyang so that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) becomes a state that at least remotely resembles a liberal democracy. Although supported by much of the international community, including the United States' South Korean and Japanese allies in Northeast Asia, Washington's North Korean policy has remained ineffective, as Pyongyang has continued to perform missile testing and still possesses nuclear weapons.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Cameron
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personal Beliefs ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Nuclear Strategy ◽  
Public Expectations ◽  
The Cold War

The conclusion summarizes the argument of the book as a whole, pointing to the central importance of domestic public and congressional opinion since the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson, and through the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks of Richard Nixon’s administration, in the formulation of US nuclear strategy, even when such opinion diverges fundamentally from the views of the president. This forces presidents into playing a double game in their attempt to reconcile their personal beliefs on nuclear weapons with public expectations. The chapter argues that this dilemma is common across U.S. national security policymaking, but is especially acute in the case of nuclear strategy because of its extremely abstract nature. The chapter concludes by showing how the double game between presidents and their publics played out for the rest of the Cold War. It then offers a tentative prediction regarding its resurgence as the United States’ global commitments come under new pressure from Russia and China.

Punk Crisis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond A. Patton
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Punk Rock ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Global Movement ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The Cold War

This book tells the story of punk rock as a global movement that spanned the boundaries of the Cold War world, focusing on examples in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern and Central Europe, the United States, the United Kingdom, and their connections with the Third World. Drawing on archival documents, ’zines, mainstream publications, and other sources, it closely examines the appeal of punk to its practitioners and the reactions of each society to the rise of punk. It argues that punk grew out of and contributed to the global transition from the late Cold War era to the era of neoliberal/neoconservative globalization. Punk arose among individuals and scenes communicating across the Iron Curtain at a moment characterized by transnational crisis, globalization, postmodernism, and an aesthetic/cultural turn in sociopolitics. Through the culture wars it helped provoke in the First World and Second World alike, punk contributed to a global realignment from the sociopolitically, ideologically oriented world of the Cold War to the subsequent era, oriented primarily around culture and identity. Through the example of punk, it challenges the resistance-centric framework of Cold War era cultural studies, presenting an alternative model for how culture is intertwined with politics that accounts for its significance as a major sociopolitical force.

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