Cold War | Content Section | Literary Review

The Spies Who Loved Each Other

Posted on May 25, 2021 by Frank Brinkley

Seventy years on, the case of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, a nondescript couple from Manhattan’s Lower East Side sentenced to death in the electric chair, still holds a horrid fascination. The Rosenberg story has been explored in books, films and on the stage, Tony Kushner’s play Angels in America (1991) being one notable example. ‘It […]

Countdown to Armageddon

Posted on May 25, 2021 by Frank Brinkley

The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 still provides a compelling and dramatic story that is worth retelling. It is a story with a limited cast and a clear plot line spread over a few days. For most people, it began on Monday 22 October when President John F Kennedy announced the discovery of Soviet nuclear missile bases on Cuba and demanded that they be removed. The tension eased a little on 25 October, when Soviet ships presumed

The Good Fight

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Jonathan Beckman

The Hiss–Chambers affair marked the point where the Cold War came home to America. In 1948, Whittaker Chambers – obese, troubled, scruffy, mumbling into the microphone of the House Un-American Activities Committee as he struggled to reconcile himself to his past life as a secret agent – accused a charming, articulate and successful former State […]

Reds Under the Beds

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Jonathan Beckman

Revisionist history is often a bitter pill to swallow, especially when the consensus has permeated the very language of the debate. In the early 1950s, one crucial issue divided American public opinion, and continued to do so for decades. The question centred on the nature of Soviet communism, and the internal threat posed by American […]

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