Born on the March 9th, 1934 (the same year that Hitler declared himself Fuhrer) to a carpenter and a milkmaid, Yuri Gagarin led a difficult childhood. Like millions of other people in the Soviet Union, the Gagarin family suffered under Nazi occupation in 1941. After an officer took over their house, the family was forced to live in a mud house ten feet by ten feet for almost a whole year. His two older brothers were deported to Poland for slave labour and they did not return until after the war.
At the age of 16 he entered apprenticeship at the Lyubertsy Steel Plant near Moscow. He graduated from 7th grade and from his apprenticeship and he was selected to further study at the Saratov Industrial Technical School. On weekends, he volunteered for training as a Soviet air cadet. There he learnt to fly a biplane and later a Yak-18. After his graduation, he was drafted for the Soviet Army in 1955. He was sent to the First Chkalov Air Force Pilot's School and learnt to fly the MiG-15. In the November of 1957 he became a lieutenant of the Soviet Air Forces, and in 1959 he became senior lieutenant.
In 1960, after an extensive selection process, Gagarin was chosen along with 19 other pilots for the Soviet Space Program. This group was further funneled to just six people, called the Sochi Six. These men underwent very thorough training and testing. Eventually, Gagarin was selected due to his excelling at the tests and because he was only 5 foot 2 inches tall (the cockpit was small). His active lifestyle (he played basketball and ice hockey) helped improve his fitness. A soviet air force doctor described Gagarin as follows:
"Modest; embarrasses when his humor gets a little too racy; high degree of intellectual development evident in Yuri; fantastic memory; distinguishes himself from his colleagues by his sharp and far-ranging sense of attention to his surroundings; a well-developed imagination; quick reactions; persevering, prepares himself painstakingly for his activities and training exercises, handles celestial mechanics and mathematical formulae with ease as well as excels in higher mathematics; does not feel constrained when he has to defend his point of view if he considers himself right; appears that he understands life better than a lot of his friends"
On the 12th of April 1961, the Vostok 1 spacecraft, with Gagarin on board, was launched. It successfully made it into space and orbited Earth, making Yuri the first man in space and the first man to orbit Earth. Apparently, during reentry, he whistled the tune of a nationalist Soviet tune ("The Motherland Hears, The Motherland knows").
After his flight Yuri became a global sensation, visiting Italy, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Japan, the UK, and Egypt. He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest award of the Soviet Union. He did have an awkward encounter when his wife caught him cheating on her and his attempted escape through the window resulted in his face hitting a kerbstone. He continued working with the Soviet Space Program, moving up the ranks to Colonel. On the 27th of March, 1968, he died in a fatal crash while on a routine training flight. He was cremated and his ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin.
Monday, January 28, 2019
Sunday, January 27, 2019
The Second Kennedy
Everyone is familiar with JFK, but what most people don't know about the Kennedy family is that they have two major government figures, and the same amount of assassinations. JFK's little brother, Robert F. Kennedy, was born in 1925 as the seventh child in nine. His family was already very politically active - with his father being the US Ambassador to the UK and his mother being the daughter of a Boston politician. However, it took him a while to outgrow the shadow of his older siblings. He even served as an apprentice to his own brother, a private, in WW2. Then, determined to have success of his own, Kennedy moved back to Massachusetts to get his pre-law degree from Harvard. He then graduated and moved onto law school at the University of Virginia in Arlington.
Immediatly out of law school, he moved onto being a lawyer for the US Department of Justice and served as campaign manager for his more famous brother's senatorial campaign. Then, in the year 1952, during the height of McCarthyism, Robert worked for a subcommittee on Investigations working under Joseph McCarthy himself. After his brother won the presidency, his career skyrocketed. John appointed his little brother as Attorney General, and Robert took the opportunity to make as much justice as he possibly could. He actively sought out voter fraud and organized crime, as well as assisted with the negotiations of labor unions. However, he was most famously known for his contributions to the civil rights movement. When the first black girl to ever attend a segregated school was receiving threats, RFK sent armed troops to protect her.
His life was changed when his brother was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald. The family took a tremendous loss, while at the same time they had just lost their infant son, Patrick. However, despite it all, RFK still stayed Attorney General for a while after president Lyndon B. Johnson took over the presidency. When he finally resigned, he announced his campaign to represent the state of New York for the senate. The democrats were thrilled that this was happening - he was very antiwar and socially progressive. He openly criticized Johnson's escalation of the Vietnam war, and travelled across the world to learn more about human rights violations and social justice issues. He won the position of senator, and then set his sights on being the next president of the United States in the election of 1968.
Unfortunately, after giving a speech about his latest primary win, RFK was also assassinated in a kitchen corridor of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He was assasinated by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant with Jordanian citizenship. After the death of the senator the next day, Sirhan was tried and convicted for murder and was originally given the death penalty. However, the California court system had outlawed the death penalty, so Sirhan was given life in prison without parole. He still remains in Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego to this day.
Immediatly out of law school, he moved onto being a lawyer for the US Department of Justice and served as campaign manager for his more famous brother's senatorial campaign. Then, in the year 1952, during the height of McCarthyism, Robert worked for a subcommittee on Investigations working under Joseph McCarthy himself. After his brother won the presidency, his career skyrocketed. John appointed his little brother as Attorney General, and Robert took the opportunity to make as much justice as he possibly could. He actively sought out voter fraud and organized crime, as well as assisted with the negotiations of labor unions. However, he was most famously known for his contributions to the civil rights movement. When the first black girl to ever attend a segregated school was receiving threats, RFK sent armed troops to protect her.
His life was changed when his brother was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald. The family took a tremendous loss, while at the same time they had just lost their infant son, Patrick. However, despite it all, RFK still stayed Attorney General for a while after president Lyndon B. Johnson took over the presidency. When he finally resigned, he announced his campaign to represent the state of New York for the senate. The democrats were thrilled that this was happening - he was very antiwar and socially progressive. He openly criticized Johnson's escalation of the Vietnam war, and travelled across the world to learn more about human rights violations and social justice issues. He won the position of senator, and then set his sights on being the next president of the United States in the election of 1968.
Unfortunately, after giving a speech about his latest primary win, RFK was also assassinated in a kitchen corridor of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He was assasinated by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant with Jordanian citizenship. After the death of the senator the next day, Sirhan was tried and convicted for murder and was originally given the death penalty. However, the California court system had outlawed the death penalty, so Sirhan was given life in prison without parole. He still remains in Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego to this day.
The School of the Americas
The School of the Americas was founded in 1946 with the aim of improving ties with Latin American militaries, training them, and instilling a "respect for human rights and democracy in... a region traditionally plagued by military rule and repression." It was assigned the Cold War goal of teaching "anti-communist" counterinsurgency training to military personnel of Latin American countries.
Though the goal of this school appeared civil enough, a training manual released by the Pentagon recommended interrogations like torture, execution, blackmail, and targeting the relatives of those being questioned. A curriculum like this resulted in a handful of graduates becoming some of Latin America's most notorious strongmen of the 1970s and 80s including drug dealing dictator, Manuel Noriega, and Roberto D'Aubuisson who organized many of El Salvador's death squads. Others were involved in the 1989 murders of six Jesuit priests, the El Mozote massacre that resulted in 900 deaths, and the 1980 assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero.
In 2000, the school was shut down but reopened in the same location on January 17, 2001. This time around, they were run by the Defense Department rather than the Army and named the "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation." Classes were reported to now focus on peacekeeping, disaster relief, and counterdrug operations rather than Cold War training in counterinsurgency. In addition, now that the school is run by the Defense Department, students can come from outside the military (e.g. police departments and civilian government agencies).
In 2007, a bill was proposed to defund the school but was narrowly defeated. The school is still in operation.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/28/opinion/school-of-the-dictators.html
https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=81917&page=1
http://www.benning.army.mil/Tenant/WHINSEC/
Though the goal of this school appeared civil enough, a training manual released by the Pentagon recommended interrogations like torture, execution, blackmail, and targeting the relatives of those being questioned. A curriculum like this resulted in a handful of graduates becoming some of Latin America's most notorious strongmen of the 1970s and 80s including drug dealing dictator, Manuel Noriega, and Roberto D'Aubuisson who organized many of El Salvador's death squads. Others were involved in the 1989 murders of six Jesuit priests, the El Mozote massacre that resulted in 900 deaths, and the 1980 assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero.
In 2000, the school was shut down but reopened in the same location on January 17, 2001. This time around, they were run by the Defense Department rather than the Army and named the "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation." Classes were reported to now focus on peacekeeping, disaster relief, and counterdrug operations rather than Cold War training in counterinsurgency. In addition, now that the school is run by the Defense Department, students can come from outside the military (e.g. police departments and civilian government agencies).
In 2007, a bill was proposed to defund the school but was narrowly defeated. The school is still in operation.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/28/opinion/school-of-the-dictators.html
https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=81917&page=1
http://www.benning.army.mil/Tenant/WHINSEC/
Saturday, January 26, 2019
Some Details Behind the Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project at first seems to be an arduous, burdensome, and herculean task. Being told to design, refine, build, and launch a nuclear warhead in only seven years with computers thousands of times weaker than a single iPhone is a tremendous challenge. But the hundreds of shrewd scientists, tens of thousands of workers, and many billions of dollars thrown into the project quickly made it a bitter-sweet reality. In this post I would like to scrape the surface of some of the organization and science behind not just the explosives, but also the project itself.
However, let us not forget that much of the project, including designs of the two WW2 warheads, is still kept secret. Most of the information the government released about the project came right after the Bombings of Japan in the Smyth Report (sadly the report only contained theoretical information, which makes sense because quantitate data from experiments would be too valuable to the Soviets). It is important to note that Fat Man and Little Boy both had different fuels (plutonium and uranium respectively) and different ignitions (implosion-type, where the fuel is compressed by explosions then set off and gun-type, where two blocks of fuel are shot at each other, respectively). The gun-type ignition used on Little Boy is terribly inefficient also. Of the 60 kg of uranium it is believed only about 1 kg reacted. Compare this to Fat Man, where of the 3 kg of Plutonium about 1 kg of it reacted.
Compared to many other everyday mechanical devices, an atomic bomb is actually a surprisingly simple design. For example, it is believed that Fat Man (the bomb dropped on Nagasaki) had only twenty major parts and a relatively straightforward solid-state spherical geometry. Compare this to a rocket engine, which has tens of thousands of components involving pumps and valves. Why then do more nations not have atomic weapons? The greatest difficulty in creating a warhead is amassing enough of the radioactive isotope (either Uranium-235 or Plutonium-239).
Instead of focusing on one primary way of processing the already abundant nuclear isotopes, General Leslie Groves, who was the head of the project, chose to simultaneously study four methods of extraction (gaseous diffusion, centrifuge, electromagnetic separation and liquid thermal diffusion). Although today the centrifuge is the predominant form of isotope separation, the researchers at Los Alamos failed to create a working centrifuge. Instead they settled on the gaseous diffusion technique, which works on a similar basis as a TLC that you might take in a chemistry class or the electrophoresis you might do in a biology class.
Those taking physics might know that power is the rate-of-change of work. By this definition, a nuclear weapon is the most powerful entity man has ever made. The conventional units of measure for the yield of a nuclear device is a ton of TNT (which is about equivalent to 4.184 gigajoules of energy release). Little Boy and Fat Man had 13 and 22 kilotons of TNT respectively. Both bombs were single stage fission reactions though. Modern arsenals consist almost entirely of two stage fusion bombs (where the first step is a regular fission reaction which then forces a fusion reaction). To compare this to fission bombs, the Tsar Bomba, a fusion device had 50 megatons of TNT. The chemical reaction for a two step fusion bomb is shown below.
https://physics.info/weapons/catalog.svg
However, let us not forget that much of the project, including designs of the two WW2 warheads, is still kept secret. Most of the information the government released about the project came right after the Bombings of Japan in the Smyth Report (sadly the report only contained theoretical information, which makes sense because quantitate data from experiments would be too valuable to the Soviets). It is important to note that Fat Man and Little Boy both had different fuels (plutonium and uranium respectively) and different ignitions (implosion-type, where the fuel is compressed by explosions then set off and gun-type, where two blocks of fuel are shot at each other, respectively). The gun-type ignition used on Little Boy is terribly inefficient also. Of the 60 kg of uranium it is believed only about 1 kg reacted. Compare this to Fat Man, where of the 3 kg of Plutonium about 1 kg of it reacted.
Compared to many other everyday mechanical devices, an atomic bomb is actually a surprisingly simple design. For example, it is believed that Fat Man (the bomb dropped on Nagasaki) had only twenty major parts and a relatively straightforward solid-state spherical geometry. Compare this to a rocket engine, which has tens of thousands of components involving pumps and valves. Why then do more nations not have atomic weapons? The greatest difficulty in creating a warhead is amassing enough of the radioactive isotope (either Uranium-235 or Plutonium-239).
Instead of focusing on one primary way of processing the already abundant nuclear isotopes, General Leslie Groves, who was the head of the project, chose to simultaneously study four methods of extraction (gaseous diffusion, centrifuge, electromagnetic separation and liquid thermal diffusion). Although today the centrifuge is the predominant form of isotope separation, the researchers at Los Alamos failed to create a working centrifuge. Instead they settled on the gaseous diffusion technique, which works on a similar basis as a TLC that you might take in a chemistry class or the electrophoresis you might do in a biology class.
Those taking physics might know that power is the rate-of-change of work. By this definition, a nuclear weapon is the most powerful entity man has ever made. The conventional units of measure for the yield of a nuclear device is a ton of TNT (which is about equivalent to 4.184 gigajoules of energy release). Little Boy and Fat Man had 13 and 22 kilotons of TNT respectively. Both bombs were single stage fission reactions though. Modern arsenals consist almost entirely of two stage fusion bombs (where the first step is a regular fission reaction which then forces a fusion reaction). To compare this to fission bombs, the Tsar Bomba, a fusion device had 50 megatons of TNT. The chemical reaction for a two step fusion bomb is shown below.
63Li + 10n → 42He + 31H + 4.7 MeV
21H + 31H → 42He + 10n + 17.6 MeV
Also here is an interesting statistic.https://physics.info/weapons/catalog.svg
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Operation Hurricane
So far, in class we have learned about the history of atomic and nuclear weapon possession in the United States and Soviet Union, which got me interested in the other countries’ progress in nuclear testing during this time. It turns out that the United Kingdom was the third nation to detonate a nuclear weapon, on October 3 1952, known as Operation Hurricane.
Britain’s history of nuclear weapon involvement began with the Tube Alloys project, which was merged with America’s Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb. With this in mind, it is only natural that Britain would have a significant involvement in America’s progress in nuclear weapons, playing a large role in America’s first atomic bomb.
Upon the end of World War II, America stopped cooperating with Britain on nuclear weapon development. America’s choice to do so reflected America’s desire to maintain its monopoly on atomic weaponry. In addition, this choice was interpreted by British as a possible sign of American isolationism. After the war, Britain was losing its status as an international power, already far overshadowed by the United States and Soviet Union. Therefore, after their breakup, Britain continued their project to build nuclear weapons.
Britain’s geography prevented an easy area for them to conduct atomic testing on their own home country, so the British were forced to seek areas overseas. Their first choice was an American nuclear testing area, the Pacific Proving Grounds; however, the Americans refused the British request. After that, Britain turned to America’s Nevada Test Site, which America accepted, provided that Americans were the ones to conduct the test. Fearing a one-sided information exchange and potential humiliation if failure were to be overseen by the Americans, Britain ultimately chose to conduct their first test on an island of their close ally Australia.
This interaction between Britain and American for Britain’s first nuclear test is one example of America’s desire for secrecy and monopoly over nuclear weaponry. Despite Britain’s major contribution to the production of the atomic bomb during World War II, once the war ended, the US desire for monopoly resulted in the breaking of the collaboration between the two countries. This event also gives another example of how important a common enemy was for countries to unite in World War II, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Even though collaboration between these two Allies was necessary when fighting against Hitler, America no longer saw a need to collaborate as much with Britain once the war is over, which is only natural. In other words, the decrease in strength of collaboration between former war Allies was not just limited between the US and the Soviet Union.
We Laika Space Dog
It took off. A while of silence, and then the beeping emerged. As it became more apparent, Americans were sure: it couldn't get any worse. Sputnik meant America was behind in the Space Race as well as at risk of directed nuclear attacks on behalf of the Soviets. Every last American life had seemingly been threatened.
But then, it did. It got worse. There was another Sputnik... and this one had our best friend on it. Half of America was still most worried about a Soviet attack, but another half of Americans were more preoccupied with the fate of the mongrel aboard Sputnik 2.
Born circa 1954 in Moscow, Laika, a part-husky/Samoyed part-terrier mutt, would make history as the first animal to orbit the Earth. At eleven pounds, the brave little dog would pave the way for human spaceflight. To call her brave might be unfair, as I doubt the Soviets asked her if she wanted to risk her life (when they picked her from the streets) for her supposed best friend, man. But I like to think of Laika, better known as Curly to Americans who seem to believe even our naming system is better than that of the Soviets, as a hero to the hundreds of thousands of dogs across the globe that watched her on the family television throughout her voyage.
Her legacy manifested itself in the next trip to space with a human, Yuri Gagarin, on board. While she herself would die six hours into the mission, Laika's survival thus far proved that living organisms could withstand the launch into orbit and endure a micro-g environment. The cause of death was overheating, probably from a mechanical failure within the vessel, although it would take many years (until 2002 to be exact) for the Soviet Union/media to admit/realize both of the true details of time of death and manner of death. They initially claimed they had euthanized her prior to the launch, then they said that on day 6 her oxygen had run out. Regardless, Laika was loved by the public and I'm glad that the following (successful!) space missions would prove her death was not in vain. She was 3 when she passed.
Should you ever visit the military research facility in Moscow that prepared Laika's flight to space, you'll see a small monument to Laika. You'll see a dog standing atop a rocket. And you may miss her, maybe even want to cry for her, even though you never really knew her. But know this: she was a hero, and she was just eleven pounds. And she was cute. Okay, go ahead and cry.
She was really cute.
But then, it did. It got worse. There was another Sputnik... and this one had our best friend on it. Half of America was still most worried about a Soviet attack, but another half of Americans were more preoccupied with the fate of the mongrel aboard Sputnik 2.
Born circa 1954 in Moscow, Laika, a part-husky/Samoyed part-terrier mutt, would make history as the first animal to orbit the Earth. At eleven pounds, the brave little dog would pave the way for human spaceflight. To call her brave might be unfair, as I doubt the Soviets asked her if she wanted to risk her life (when they picked her from the streets) for her supposed best friend, man. But I like to think of Laika, better known as Curly to Americans who seem to believe even our naming system is better than that of the Soviets, as a hero to the hundreds of thousands of dogs across the globe that watched her on the family television throughout her voyage.
Her legacy manifested itself in the next trip to space with a human, Yuri Gagarin, on board. While she herself would die six hours into the mission, Laika's survival thus far proved that living organisms could withstand the launch into orbit and endure a micro-g environment. The cause of death was overheating, probably from a mechanical failure within the vessel, although it would take many years (until 2002 to be exact) for the Soviet Union/media to admit/realize both of the true details of time of death and manner of death. They initially claimed they had euthanized her prior to the launch, then they said that on day 6 her oxygen had run out. Regardless, Laika was loved by the public and I'm glad that the following (successful!) space missions would prove her death was not in vain. She was 3 when she passed.
Should you ever visit the military research facility in Moscow that prepared Laika's flight to space, you'll see a small monument to Laika. You'll see a dog standing atop a rocket. And you may miss her, maybe even want to cry for her, even though you never really knew her. But know this: she was a hero, and she was just eleven pounds. And she was cute. Okay, go ahead and cry.
She was really cute.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Herblock
Herbert Lawrence Block, more famously known as Herblock, was an American political cartoonist active during much of the 20th century. While we've learned about him only in the context of McCarthyism, Herblock's work has actually covered many other topics, and has even earned him multiple accolades for his work.
Block was a supporter of Roosevelt's New Deal, although he did question some of Roosevelt's decisions, such as his notorious effort to increase the number of judges on the Supreme Court.
As WWII broke out in Europe, Block advocated early on for American aid against the Nazis. He made many cartoons portraying both the Nazis and the Italian and Spanish fascists as tyrants who dreamed of conquest and empires.
Block faced backlash from the president of the NEA, who believed that Block's anti-isolationism messages in his cartoons were going against American public opinion. At the same time, Block received his first Pulitzer Prize for his work, which solidified his position as one of the most influential and important cartoonists in America.
As we learned in class, much of Herblock's fame post-WWII came from his political cartoons against McCarthyism. Block was one of the first people to take a stand against McCarthy, and even won another Pulitzer Prize in 1954 for his work on behalf of President Eisenhower. However, even Eisenhower himself faced criticism from Block for "insufficient action on civil rights and for not curbing the abuses of Senator McCarthy". Block pursued a policy of total editorial independence, claiming that the Post should publish his work even if the political statement he makes does not line up with the paper's political stance.
Herblock also received a lot of praise for his cartoons attacking the Nixon administration over Watergate. Block received his third Pulitzer Prize for these comics in 1979, and ended up on President Nixon's infamous enemies list. Throughout the next few decades, Block would continue to criticize presidents from both parties, as well as take stances on some of the most controversial issues even for today: abortion, gun control, cigarettes, and the influence of religion upon public policy, as well as many more. Block received the Presidential Medal of Honor from Clinton in 1994, and eventually passed away in 2001, just before his 92nd birthday, with a legacy that continues to live beyond him to this day.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
The Transatlantic Accent
Besides the obvious lack of technology back then, one thing that makes old movies different than contemporary movies is the way that they speak. Immediatly after the boom of "talkies", movie stars adapted a certain unnatural speaking tone, which was dubbed "Mid-Atlantic" or "Transatlantic". It was meant to encapsulate both American and British speaking voices.
Originally used by upper-class white people to display their class, the Transatlantic accent later moved onto the stage and the big screen. Presidents such as Truman even used this accent sometimes during speeches to appear more high-and-mighty. This lead to the rise of the accent in popular culture and new media. According to Rita Moreno, star of West Side Story and a broadway adaption of Singin In the Rain, it was also used to encapsulate an accent that the viewer can't quite place. It was also used by Katherine Hepburn in "The Philadelphia Story", such as when she turns her "ohs" into "oohs". The accent also turns consonant sounds that are normally skipped over into sharp "t" sounds.
Katherine Hepburn consciously used this accent to portray how wealthy she was, despite growing up extremely poor and fleeing from Nazi Netherlands. Acting coaches also did this with other stars that were playing a character that was of high status.
Monday, January 21, 2019
The Pumpkin Papers
The historic Pumpkin Papers, which were uncovered during the McCarthy era, were key evidence during the Hiss trials of 1948. There were 65 papers total, all retyped secret State Department documents. Four additional pages were written by Hiss, and there were rolls of both developed and undeveloped film, which were more pictures of State and Navy Department documents. Now, not all of the Papers were found in a pumpkin, actually, the 65 typed and 4 handwritten papers were stashed in a dumbwaiter inside the home of Whittaker Chamber's nephew's mother. Ironically, the rolls of film were the only things found in the pumpkin on Whittaker Chamber's farm in Maryland, not the papers.The existence of the aforesaid "Pumpkin Papers" came into light during the Hiss trials in 1948, when, in response to a subpoena, Whittaker Chambers led two HUAC agents to the rather bizarre hiding place. It was believed that Priscilla, Hiss's wife, typed the papers, and that Chambers collected data for the USSR every 7-10 days. To get some backstory, the case against Alger Hiss began when ex-communists, TIMES editor, Whittaker Chambers testified to HUAC that Hiss was a communist between the '30s and the '40s. Not just this, but Chambers stated that Hiss gave him secret copies of papers throughout Hiss's employment in the Department of State. However, Hiss, when called to trial, denied even knowing Chambers, later revealing he did know of him under a different name. He vehemently denied being a communist, and charges and countercharges were soon commonplace during the trials. The trials were extremely controversial, with even President Truman stating that the HUAC was using false and misleading evidence to defame Hiss, whilst critics argued that Truman himself was coddling communism in America.
With the testimony of Chambers, the Hiss trials began. However, the statute of limitations had run out, meaning that Hiss could not be tried for treason. Instead, Hiss was charged with two counts of perjury- the first being lying about copying state documents, and the second being his denial of knowing Chambers. Even after the end of the trials, Hiss was still an enigma. Many believed he was an innocent caught up in anti communist hysteria, others thought he was in fact a soviet spy with communist beliefs.
Origins of NATO
The Origin of NATO
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was founded in 1949 in San Francisco, California. This organization was designed as a peacetime military alliance. The original goal was to stop Germany from re-arming while also containing tensions between the US and the Soviet Union after World War 2 and into the Cold War. The US wanted to rebuild Europe because they thought that if Europe was strong and powerful, it would prevent the expansion of communism. As much as the US wanted to make Europe strong again, there were many setbacks in their quest for progress. The civil war in Greece and the Berlin Crisis were some examples of the conflicts between the US and the Soviet Union during this time that eventually led the Truman Administration to propose a European-American alliance. By doing this, the US hoped to guarantee the security of Western Europe.
The Brussels Treaty was also an important factor in the formation of NATO. Western European nations such as Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg signed this treaty which essentially said that if one of these countries was attacked, the others would help them. After this was signed, Arthur H. Vandenburg, a Republican senator, proposed that there should be a security agreement, but should be separate than the Security Council (where the Soviet Union had power). After his resolution passed, the NATO negotiations started to form. The US faced the challenge with forming a treaty that didn’t interfere with Congress’s power of declaring war. Also, the Western European countries wanted NATO to only include the countries in the Brussels Treaty plus the US. The US, however, thought that it would be more beneficial to include countries such as Canada, Norway, and Ireland.
The final agreement included the US, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the UK. Also, the agreement said that the attacks only applies to those in Europe or North America meaning that colonial territories were not accounted for. The treaty was signed and within a couple months, the US had received many requests for military aid. This led to the formation of the Mutual Defense Assistance Program which helped build the defenses in Western Europe.
Overall, the main purpose of NATO was to be used as “nuclear umbrella”. It was this idea that if one nation was attacked, then others would come to protect it. Although this was mainly created for the struggles in the Cold War, it has lasted beyond the years of the Cold War. Now, it includes even more nations and remains the largest peacetime military alliance.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/nato
Sunday, January 13, 2019
The Life and Crimes of Lavrentiy Beria
After learning more about the Soviet Union and its secret police I wanted to find out more about its chief, Lavrentiy Beria.
Lavrentiy Beria was born on March 29, 1899, and joined the Communist Party at around the age of 17. He initially participated in revolutionary activity before being drawn into intelligence and counterintelligence activities and appointed as head of the secret police in Georgia. While there, he led the repression of a Georgian nationalist uprising, resulting in up to 10,000 executions.
In 1938, he was brought to Moscow as the deputy to Nikolay Yezhov, head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (the Soviet secret police). Yezhov was shot (apparently on Stalin's orders) and Beria became head of the secret police. As head, he supervised a purge of the police bureaucracy and pushed the expansion of forced labor camps, setting up more than 500 "Gulags." It's rumored that they once contained as many as five million prisoners. According to historian and former prisoner Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko, "Human life had no value for [Beria]."
In 1941, he became a deputy prime minister of the USSR and during WWII, controlled the Soviet Union's internal security system and was also a major player in raw-materials production (because they used the slave labor available in the camps). In addition, after Russia invaded Poland, Beria orchestrated the Katyn Massacre, a mass execution of Polish prisoners of war. He had sent a memo to Stalin suggesting that the prisoners were a threat to the Soviet regime in Poland and should, therefore, be executed.
Later, he became part of the executive policy-making committee and after Stalin's death, became one of four deputy prime ministers and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (which combined secret political and regular police functions). Beria attempted to use his position as chief of the secret police to succeed Stalin as sole dictator. But, he was defeated by an anti-Beria coalition in 1953. He was arrested, deprived of his government and party posts, and publicly accused of being an "imperialist agent" and of conducting "criminal antiparty and antistate activities." He was convicted of these charges and was executed.
In addition to being a violent and ruthless man, he was also a sex criminal who would, according to many accounts, cruise the streets of Moscow and pick out pretty women to rape. The true extent of Beria's crimes and violence remain unknown, locked away in classified files.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lavrenty-Beria
https://www.history.co.uk/article/historys-forgotten-people-lavrentiy-beria
Lavrentiy Beria was born on March 29, 1899, and joined the Communist Party at around the age of 17. He initially participated in revolutionary activity before being drawn into intelligence and counterintelligence activities and appointed as head of the secret police in Georgia. While there, he led the repression of a Georgian nationalist uprising, resulting in up to 10,000 executions.
In 1938, he was brought to Moscow as the deputy to Nikolay Yezhov, head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (the Soviet secret police). Yezhov was shot (apparently on Stalin's orders) and Beria became head of the secret police. As head, he supervised a purge of the police bureaucracy and pushed the expansion of forced labor camps, setting up more than 500 "Gulags." It's rumored that they once contained as many as five million prisoners. According to historian and former prisoner Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko, "Human life had no value for [Beria]."
In 1941, he became a deputy prime minister of the USSR and during WWII, controlled the Soviet Union's internal security system and was also a major player in raw-materials production (because they used the slave labor available in the camps). In addition, after Russia invaded Poland, Beria orchestrated the Katyn Massacre, a mass execution of Polish prisoners of war. He had sent a memo to Stalin suggesting that the prisoners were a threat to the Soviet regime in Poland and should, therefore, be executed.
Later, he became part of the executive policy-making committee and after Stalin's death, became one of four deputy prime ministers and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (which combined secret political and regular police functions). Beria attempted to use his position as chief of the secret police to succeed Stalin as sole dictator. But, he was defeated by an anti-Beria coalition in 1953. He was arrested, deprived of his government and party posts, and publicly accused of being an "imperialist agent" and of conducting "criminal antiparty and antistate activities." He was convicted of these charges and was executed.
In addition to being a violent and ruthless man, he was also a sex criminal who would, according to many accounts, cruise the streets of Moscow and pick out pretty women to rape. The true extent of Beria's crimes and violence remain unknown, locked away in classified files.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lavrenty-Beria
https://www.history.co.uk/article/historys-forgotten-people-lavrentiy-beria
The Displaced Person of World War II
Once the Nazi Reich had fallen the Unstable Allies faced a massive problem. The Millions of Europeans who had lost their homes. Through Bombing and battles many cities had been destroyed and the Economic situation of Europe was broken. Once rebuilding began millions of people needed to be moved at the same time. The Germans called this time the year 0 because for them and many other countries it was a restart. The Germans in particular faced some interesting situations. All of the Eastern germans where ordered to move west, and thousands of POWs had to move across Europe to return home. This of course pales in comparison to Poland. Poland after being conquered had almost their entire army flee and join the British or soviets against the germans. Even more civilians left Poland trying to escape the Nazis.
It is incredible to think what these people had to live through. Entire countries swallowed up, then war waging through their country. Only for the war to end and having to rebuild everything.
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
The Lavender Scare
As we begin to talk about the Red Scare in class and read about it in our textbooks, another scare at the same time caught my attention as an interesting blog topic. The Lavender Scare was a hunt for homosexual people in the government, as they were believed to be connected to communist. This claim had no real logic to it, but people believed they were morally connected somehow, or that they would be blackmailed into giving the soviets government secrets.
The Lavender Scare started along with the Red Scare, as Senator McCarthy released his famed list of federal employees who were communists. McCarthy spoke about homosexuals in reference to this list, calling them "unsafe risks.” In the 1950s, this claim caused a full federal investigation into the departments of government to stop “the employment of homosexuals and other sex perverts in the government.” This also made it very hard for gay people to resign and try to escape the persecution, as the resignation itself was also often seen as an admittance to being gay, and staining their record with “perversion.”
Eventually, a report called Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government was released by Senator Hoey, who had done investigations into the homosexual issue as well. The report stated that in the past three years of investigations done, from the The Hoey Committee Investigation to the The Wherry-Hill Investigation, that 5,000 people had been detected as homosexuals in the military and civilian workforces. The report then concluded that homosexuals should no longer be allowed in the government, as they posed too large of a security risk and were "generally unsuitable.” This report helped to lay the groundwork for executive order #10450.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1953 Executive Order #10450, "Security Requirements for Government Employment,” explicitly added sexuality onto the requirements for employment, banning lesbians and gay men from working in the government. It is estimated that, because of this order, 5,000 - 10,000 civil servants lost their jobs. This came from investigations that looked at how a person acted, dressed, or even who their friends were. People were placed under surveillance to see if they visited gay bars or hung out with “known homosexuals.” This guilt by association as well as guilt by stereotype was demeaning and terrifying, forcing many back into the closet, and causing others to lock the door tighter. Being out at this time was a gamble. It could get you fired, beaten up, disowned, and targeted more than ever before.
This caused many people to lose opportunities. Queer people no longer bothered applying for any government positions, afraid to be persecuted and outed. Some passed up promotions and other job opportunities due to the executive order. Some who had been fired already face underemployment, complete unemployment, financial ruin, and in some of the worst cases, suicide. Luckily, the Lavender Scare didn’t publicly reveal the names to the world, and had no dramatic spectacles, keeping many relatively anonymous. This likely saved lives, as truly public outings could have lead to further hate crimes and suicides.
Despite the fear, some fought back. Frank Kameny was a brave individual who took the case to the supreme court. He argued that discrimination against homosexuals was the same as racial discrimination, or gender-based discrimination, or religious discrimination, and that he should not be treated as a second-class citizen. He sadly lost the case, but continued to fight for gay rights, and could honestly be a blog post of his own.
The ban continued on until the the U.S. Civil Service Commission ended it in the federal civil service in 1975. In 1977, the ban was also lifted for foreign service. However, the ban was never truly over until Executive Order 12968, signed by Bill Clinton, that stated “The United States Government does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or sexual orientation in granting access to classified information.” Even then, the official repealing of the act came with President Obama signing Executive Order 13764.
As we look back on the Lavender Scare, we also must remember that these people were not just numbers or ghosts. Due to the lack of public spectacles, gays and lesbians often remained as feared spectres, fired mysteriously and not kept track of. But lives were ruined. One man spoke about how he lost his job and income, and could no longer care for his sick parents. Another committed suicide from leaping off a bridge. Though the papers the government officials turned in listed these people as statistics, real lives were thrown away.
The Lavender Scare was an event not many know about, especially not by name. But it had an astronomical impact on thousands of lives and left a dent for years afterwards. The act wasn’t officially repealed until 2017, and even then survived over 20 years, causing financial ruin, hate crimes, and death. This is not an event we should ignore in the midst of all the other cold war events, as it affects us to this day. This piece of LGBT history will not be overlooked.
Sources:
https://www.nglcc.org/blog/lgbt-history-lavender-scare
http://outhistory.org/items/show/1425
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/summer/lavender.html (This source is amazing, read it if you want the full story!)
https://www.bnl.gov/bera/activities/globe/kameny.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_10450
The Lavender Scare started along with the Red Scare, as Senator McCarthy released his famed list of federal employees who were communists. McCarthy spoke about homosexuals in reference to this list, calling them "unsafe risks.” In the 1950s, this claim caused a full federal investigation into the departments of government to stop “the employment of homosexuals and other sex perverts in the government.” This also made it very hard for gay people to resign and try to escape the persecution, as the resignation itself was also often seen as an admittance to being gay, and staining their record with “perversion.”
Eventually, a report called Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government was released by Senator Hoey, who had done investigations into the homosexual issue as well. The report stated that in the past three years of investigations done, from the The Hoey Committee Investigation to the The Wherry-Hill Investigation, that 5,000 people had been detected as homosexuals in the military and civilian workforces. The report then concluded that homosexuals should no longer be allowed in the government, as they posed too large of a security risk and were "generally unsuitable.” This report helped to lay the groundwork for executive order #10450.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1953 Executive Order #10450, "Security Requirements for Government Employment,” explicitly added sexuality onto the requirements for employment, banning lesbians and gay men from working in the government. It is estimated that, because of this order, 5,000 - 10,000 civil servants lost their jobs. This came from investigations that looked at how a person acted, dressed, or even who their friends were. People were placed under surveillance to see if they visited gay bars or hung out with “known homosexuals.” This guilt by association as well as guilt by stereotype was demeaning and terrifying, forcing many back into the closet, and causing others to lock the door tighter. Being out at this time was a gamble. It could get you fired, beaten up, disowned, and targeted more than ever before.
This caused many people to lose opportunities. Queer people no longer bothered applying for any government positions, afraid to be persecuted and outed. Some passed up promotions and other job opportunities due to the executive order. Some who had been fired already face underemployment, complete unemployment, financial ruin, and in some of the worst cases, suicide. Luckily, the Lavender Scare didn’t publicly reveal the names to the world, and had no dramatic spectacles, keeping many relatively anonymous. This likely saved lives, as truly public outings could have lead to further hate crimes and suicides.
Despite the fear, some fought back. Frank Kameny was a brave individual who took the case to the supreme court. He argued that discrimination against homosexuals was the same as racial discrimination, or gender-based discrimination, or religious discrimination, and that he should not be treated as a second-class citizen. He sadly lost the case, but continued to fight for gay rights, and could honestly be a blog post of his own.
The ban continued on until the the U.S. Civil Service Commission ended it in the federal civil service in 1975. In 1977, the ban was also lifted for foreign service. However, the ban was never truly over until Executive Order 12968, signed by Bill Clinton, that stated “The United States Government does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or sexual orientation in granting access to classified information.” Even then, the official repealing of the act came with President Obama signing Executive Order 13764.
As we look back on the Lavender Scare, we also must remember that these people were not just numbers or ghosts. Due to the lack of public spectacles, gays and lesbians often remained as feared spectres, fired mysteriously and not kept track of. But lives were ruined. One man spoke about how he lost his job and income, and could no longer care for his sick parents. Another committed suicide from leaping off a bridge. Though the papers the government officials turned in listed these people as statistics, real lives were thrown away.
The Lavender Scare was an event not many know about, especially not by name. But it had an astronomical impact on thousands of lives and left a dent for years afterwards. The act wasn’t officially repealed until 2017, and even then survived over 20 years, causing financial ruin, hate crimes, and death. This is not an event we should ignore in the midst of all the other cold war events, as it affects us to this day. This piece of LGBT history will not be overlooked.
Sources:
https://www.nglcc.org/blog/lgbt-history-lavender-scare
http://outhistory.org/items/show/1425
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/summer/lavender.html (This source is amazing, read it if you want the full story!)
https://www.bnl.gov/bera/activities/globe/kameny.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_10450
Klaus Fuchs -- Spy
Klaus Fuchs - Spy
In class, we talked about how Stalin was not surprised in hearing about the atomic bomb that the U.S. had created. I did some research on some of the spies that were involved in giving information to the Soviet Union about the Manhattan Project. The most famous spy that I found in my research was Klaus Fuchs.
Klaus Fuchs was born in 1911 as a German citizen. He grew up Lutheran and joined the Communist Party of Germany. However, when the Nazis started to rise to power in 1933, he went to England to study Physics at the University of Bristol. He graduated in 1937 and was also offered the opportunity to study at Edinburgh University.
When World War 2 broke out, he was interned in Canada, but one of the professors from Edinburgh University intervened and Fuchs was allowed to return to Edinburgh. Upon his return in 1941, Rudolph Peierls asked Fuchs to work on the atomic bomb research project in Great Britain. This lead to him becoming a British citizen in 1942. Because of his work on the project in Britain, he was one of the first scientists to be sent to America to work on it. At Columbia University in New York, he worked on a team and conducted research, but he was eventually relocated to Los Alamos, New Mexico where he worked in a weapons laboratory. He was very knowledgeable about the science behind it, especially about the plutonium core of the bomb. He was also present when the Trinity test was conducted.
After the war, it was discovered that he had given information of the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union in 1945. Not only that, but he also gave them information about the hydrogen bomb of 1946 and 47. However, proof that the Manhattan Project had been compromised was not discovered until 1948 and in 1949, Fuchs had returned to Great Britain. While in England, the Harwell Atomic Energy Research Establishment was confronted and accused of telling the Soviets about American plans with the atomic and hydrogen bonds. He confessed to these crimes and was convicted. He was sentenced 14 years in prison.
There was more investigation on the information about the hydrogen bomb that Fuchs had passed on. It was deemed that it was substantial enough to have an impact because the key methods had not yet been discovered in the U.S. while he was working on the project. Because of this, he was released in 1959 and was allowed to emigrate to East Germany. There, he continued his scientific career and died in East Berlin in 1988.
http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Fuchs.shtml
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