Many factors enter into the world of diplomacy and international relations. Appearances count. One need only note the imposing edifices erected by some countries to house their embassies overseas. Something as mundane as the cars in which diplomats ride at their posts can also affect how people in other countries see them. In a July … Continue reading Automobile Diplomacy, 1961
[NOTE: This post was drafted before the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine.] Chernobyl. Today, the name of the city in present-day war-torn Ukraine conjures visions of a nuclear disaster of previously-unseen proportions. On April 26, 1986, technicians at the nuclear power plant near Chernobyl lost control of one of the four reactors on the site … Continue reading Chernobyl Before It Was CHERNOBYL!
Today’s post was written by David Langbart, an Archivist in the Textual Records Division at the National Archives at College Park. Last week's post discussed President Nixon's resignation and foreign policy. Among the countries potentially most affected by the transfer of the Presidency was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). President Nixon had developed and … Continue reading Foreign Reaction to President Nixon’s Resignation
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. In 1935 the State Department asked the United States Embassy in Moscow for copies of documents from the Russian archives relating to the American purchase of Alaska in 1867. The Embassy responded in 1936 by sending along copies, and in some cases translations, of 45 documents which … Continue reading From Buchanan’s Blunder to Seward’s Folly, Sort Of
