The End of European Empires: African Independence Changes the Cold War Map 1945–1960 - Britain ruled territories stretching from West Africa to East and southern Africa. France governed enormous areas of northern, western, and central Africa. Belgium controlled the Congo, while Portugal maintained colonies including Angola, Mozambique, and Portuguese Guinea. Yet beneath the maps painted in European colors, a political transformation was gathering strength. African veterans we

My Name is Henry Kissinger: U.S. National Security Adviser and Secretary of State I was born Heinz Alfred Kissinger in Fürth, Germany, in 1923. I grew up in a Jewish family at precisely the wrong moment in German history. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement transformed the country around us, and antisemitic persecution became part of daily life. In 1938, my family fled Germany for the United States. I was fifteen years old. That experience taught me something I would never for

Guatemala: The CIA-Backed Coup and the Beginning of a New Cold War Battlefield 1954 - Long before American troops fought in Vietnam, the United States was already confronting governments and movements it feared could move toward communism. In Guatemala, that confrontation would help overthrow a president and leave consequences lasting for decades. A Country Trying to Change Guatemala had long been dominated by wealthy landowners and powerful businesses while many rural and In

My Name is Ho Chi Minh: Revolutionary Leader of North Vietnam I devoted my life to the independence and revolutionary transformation of Vietnam. I was born Nguyễn Sinh Cung in 1890 in central Vietnam, when my homeland was dominated by French colonial rule. I would live under several names, travel across oceans, embrace communism, build a revolutionary movement, and become the leader of North Vietnam. To my followers, I became "Uncle Ho," the symbol of Vietnamese independence.

Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Accords, and the Division of Vietnam 1954 - The division of Vietnam marked the dramatic end of French colonial rule in Indochina and created the political division that would eventually draw the United States into one of the longest and most controversial wars in its history. What began as a Vietnamese struggle against French colonial rule became entangled with the worldwide Cold War, as communist and anti-communist powers competed to determine Vietn

My Name is Fidel Castro: Revolutionary Leader of Cuba I was born in 1926 near Birán, in eastern Cuba, the son of Ángel Castro, a successful landowner, and Lina Ruz González. I grew up in a country of enormous contrasts. Cuba possessed rich farmland, sugar plantations, ports, and businesses, yet many ordinary Cubans lived in poverty while wealthy families and foreign companies controlled much of the economy. I received a good education, eventually studying law at the Universit

1959 — The Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro Overthrows Batista In 1959, the Cuban Revolution transformed Cuba and created a political shockwave that would eventually reach far beyond the Caribbean. For years, Cuba had been ruled by Fulgencio Batista, a former army officer who seized power in a 1952 military coup after having previously served as Cuba's elected president. His new regime canceled elections, restricted political opposition, and increasingly relied on censorship an

My Name is Wernher von Braun: Rocket Engineer and Architect of the Saturn V Long before rockets became weapons of war or machines capable of carrying men to the Moon, I dreamed of traveling into space. I was born in Wirsitz, Germany, in 1912, into an aristocratic family. As a boy, mathematics did not always come easily to me, but everything changed when I discovered the writings of rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth. Suddenly mathematics and physics had a purpose. If mankind inten

Rockets Before the Space Race: From World War II to the Cold War Before Sputnik beeped above the Earth and before astronauts dreamed of walking on the Moon, the technology that would carry humanity into space was being developed for a much darker purpose. During World War II, scientists and engineers made enormous advances in rocketry as nations searched for new weapons capable of striking enemies from great distances. When the war ended in 1945, the United States and Soviet

My Name is Ernest Bevin: From a Working Boy to Britain's Foreign Secretary I became Britain's Foreign Secretary at a moment when victory in one terrible war was giving way to the dangers of another kind of struggle. I was never born to privilege, nor trained in the drawing rooms where diplomats traditionally learned their trade. I came from the working people of Britain. I knew what it meant to earn one's bread, to organize men, to argue across a table, and to stand firm when