Recently I came across the details of an art installation inspired by nuclear weapon control centers. Pioneer Works, a gallery in Red Hook (Brooklyn), is presenting a documentary on “the bomb” which begins with the first atom bomb tests and traces the story to the present day. The film, directed by Kevin Ford, Smriti Keshari, and Eric Schlosser, sketches out the full history of atomic weaponry and international brinksmanship, from the first atom bomb tests in the Nevada desert in the 1940s through the Cold War into the modern day. Click here to access the Pioneer Works website.  Viewing of the documentary is by appointment only.

Other ways popular culture has addressed “the bomb” popped up on the independent arts site Hyperallergic.com. Three of them are mentioned below.

Atomic Cafe

The first of the three was the film Atomic Cafe from 1982.

                                           Poster for the re-release of The Atomic Cafe (courtesy Kino Lorber)

An article on the film in Hyperallgic notes that

the film combined newsreel footage, propaganda films, candid and news photos, cartoons, public service announcements, songs, and other materials from the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, all dealing with nuclear weapons and their looming threat to human civilization. . . . Many selections showcase the flippancy with which popular culture approached the bomb.

You can read the article here or watch the movie on YouTube.

Invisible Colors: The Arts of the Atomic Age

Hyperallergic also published a book review of Invisible Colors: The Arts of the Atomic Age by Gabrielle Decamous (MIT Press). The book has five stars and is almost out of stock on Amazon.

An abstract of the book from a Japanese source notes: “The effects of radiation are invisible, but art can make it and its effects visible. Artwork created in response to the events of the nuclear era allow us to see them in a different way. Invisible Colors explores the atomic age from the perspective of the arts, investigating atomic-related art inspired by the work of Marie Curie, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the disaster at Fukushima, and other episodes in nuclear history.”

The Hyperallergic review says:

The book is organized geographically, coursing around the globe from well-known “nuclear events” like Hiroshima and Nagasaki (and, of course, Chernobyl) to the plights of subalterned peoples in New Jersey and uranium mines in Saskatchewan, Czechoslovakia, Niger, and elsewhere. Unlike the tourists visiting Chernobyl today, nearly everyone Decamous addresses was exposed to radiation over days, weeks, and even decades — and typically without informed consent.

Read more from the review here  or check it out on Amazon.

Chernobyl: HBO Miniseries

Interested in radioactive landscapes? Then you might also be interested in the 2019 HBO miniseries on Chernobyl. You can watch it on HBO Max or obtain it from Amazon Prime. The trailer is below.

Hot Spots: Radioactivity and the Landscape

Lastly from Hyperallergic is an article titled “Hot Spots: Radioactivity and the Landscape” at UB Art Galleries in Buffalo. This 2018 exhibit examines the nuclear past and future of the United States as portrayed by in diverse media by various artists. Below is one example.

                    Naomi Bebo’s “Woodland Child in Gas Mask” (2015).

Want to see more? Access the full article here. And be sure to enjoy the images.

The Photographer Who X-Rayed Chernobyl – How to Make the Invisible Visible

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone – Highly Contaminated Ground

A final take on contamination and radioactivity comes from Atlas Obscura and their article titled “The Photographer Who X-Rayed Chernobyl – How to Make the Invisible Visible.”

While living in Berlin in 2007, Brazilian artist Alice Miceli took long train rides—18 hours or more—to Belarus, then another leg, by car or train, to Chernobyl. She made this journey more than 20 times. With permission to be in Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone before tours were available, she photographed the site using a regular camera, but also documented the area—and the legacy of the 1986 nuclear disaster there—in a different, more extraordinary way. Miceli placed radiographic film plates used for chest X-rays—specifically sensitive to radiation—wrapped in layers of industrial plastic on the ground, on windows, on trees. She wanted to make visual records of something invisible to the naked eye, namely the area’s radioactive contamination, particularly the isotope cesium 137.

Want to learn more details about her method and see some of her many photographs. You can read the article here.

Dr. Strangelove

To end — and to save myself tons of grief from disappointed readers — the trailer to Dr. Strangelove is below.

As you’ve no doubt heard, Myanmar’s military launched a coup to start the month of February 2021, unseating the country’s popularly elected government. The country’s top civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (known as “The Lady,”) is now under house arrest along with other leaders from her party, the National League for Democracy. A one year state of emergency has been announced with ultimate authority transferred to the army chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. According to the New York Times:

State television broadcast a statement from the military . . . that said extreme steps were necessary because of what it labeled voter fraud in elections last November . . . .  In its statement, the military said that it will oversee free and fair multiparty elections after the end of a state of emergency.

Before the coup, Myanmar was celebrated as a country moving toward democracy. In a region where authoritarian governments were the norm, its generals honored 2015 election results that brought the National League for Democracy into power. But according to The Times:

the political transition of the Southeast Asian nation was never quite as smooth or as significant as the political fairy tale made it out to be.

Now the country’s future is uncertain. After achieving independence from British rule on January 4, 1948, and inching toward democracy in 2015, Burma — now Myanmar — was beginning to open up to tourism and other development. Observers now wonder what will happen to those efforts. How will the coup affect the country’s tourist industry? Will foreigners still want to visit given the nation’s dismal record on human rights?

What’s In A Name?

Before we go any farther, though, just a word about names. For now, I’m using Burma and Myanmar interchangeably. The ruling military junta changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar in 1989, a year after thousands were killed in the suppression of a popular uprising. Rangoon also became Yangon. The change was recognized by the United Nations, and by countries such as France and Japan, but not by the United States or the UK.

A statement by the British Foreign Office says:

Burma’s democracy movement prefers the form ‘Burma’  because they do not accept the legitimacy of the unelected military regime to change the official name of the country. Internationally, both names are recognized.

Myanmar’s Literary Tradition

Myanmar’s literary tradition has been a key element of the country’s push to attract foreign visitors. The Irrawaddy Literature Festival, an annual not-for-profit event under the patronage of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has been a particular draw.

Assuredly, Suu Kyi’s support for the festival has ensured its success. Myanmar’s literary tradition goes back thousands of years and encompasses multiple genres including Buddhist literature, folklore and culture, scripts for pwe marionette theater, British fiction from the colonial period, post colonial literature, and today’s modern writing.

George Orwell and Colonialism

If you’re a political observer, especially if you’re interested in colonialism and its lasting impact, George Orwell’s first novel, Burmese Days, will immediately grab your fancy. Best known for his Cold War works 1984 and Animal Farm, Burmese Days was published in 1934 and draws heavily on Orwell’s experience as a colonial police officer in what was then a province of British India. His experiences there provided him with first hand knowledge of Burmese life — its people, and its culture.

Orwell’s first book gives us an account of colonial life in the British Empire, a world where the ‘club’ was everything, and bureaucracies were staffed by loyal subjects tasked with maintaining the peace and indoctrinating locals into the ethos of the Empire.  But I don’t want to give too much away. The book is available for just 99 cents on Kindle, so you can read it for yourself if you haven’t already done so. Suffice it to say that when Orwell lived in Burma, the country was one of the most violent parts of the British Raj, terrorized by armed gangs known as Dacoits.

Over time, Orwell’s Burma has been isolated and considered a pariah nation. As previously mentioned, the country was ruled for decades by a repressive military junta, but more recently it’s been opening up to the outside world. And even as ethnic and religious tensions continue to smolder in its hinterlands, especially focused on the Rohingya Muslims, the country’s hospitality industry has been scrambling to meet rising demand for hotels and services. Until the coup, tourists were flocking to Myanmar to see romantic echoes of Orwell’s former British colony before its remnants were destroyed by development.

But today I’m wondering. Is it possible to find traces of Orwell’s Burma in the cities of Yangon, Bagan, and Mandalay or has the nation been overrun by a strong military presence? Will tourists still come when the country is under military rule? 

Geography

For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of Myanmar, the nation is the northwestern-most country on the mainland of Southeast Asia, strategically located near major Indian Ocean shipping lanes. Characterized by central lowlands, the Central Valley Region is ringed by steep, rugged highlands.

Hkakabo Razi, Burma’s highest mountain (and the highest mountain in Southeast Asia at 19,295 feet) is  located in the northern end of the country. It’s part of a series of parallel ranges that run from the foothills of the Himalayas.

The climate varies in the highlands from subtropical to cool alpine, depending on elevation.  Above the alpine zone, it’s cold with harsh tundra and an Arctic climate. The higher elevations are subject to heavy snowfall and bad weather. Summers in the lowlands tend to be cloudy, rainy, hot, and humid. Tropical monsoons are common. Winters are less cloudy with scant rainfall, mild temperatures, and lower humidity.

Let’s Explore

Most tourists start their exploration of Burma in Yangon.  Previously known as Rangoon, the city is a former royal capital known as the “Garden City of the East” for its lush tropical setting.  Built in 1901, the five star Strand Hotel in Yangon remains one of Southeast Asia’s few grand colonial hotels, and one of its most inspiring. It is one of only two hotels in Burma that meet international luxury standards.

While you’re in Yangon, you’ll want to be sure to see the Shwedagon Paya, one of Myanmar’s top religious sites and a true wonder of the religious world. The pagoda complex contains hundreds of stupas, statues, and temples spanning more than 2,000 years of religious art and architecture. The central tower is covered with hundreds of solid gold plates, while the top is adorned with thousands of diamonds. Relatively few tourists visit here and it is primarily a gathering place for monks, worshippers, and local families.

During the Myanmar independence movement, Shwedagon Paya was the scene for much political activity. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi spoke to massive crowds here in 1988, and the temple was also at the center of the monks’ protests in 2007.

During an earlier detainment under house arrest (1989-2010),  Suu Kyi was one of the world’s most prominent political prisoners and she was honored with many awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2008. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited her in 2011, a symbolic diplomatic gesture that paved the way for President Obama’s official trip the following year.

The Road to Mandalay

If you are going to travel from Yangon to Orwell’s home in Mandalay, you have a choice to make. Will you go by boat or by car?

The Irrawaddy or Ayeyarwady River, a river that flows through Myanmar from north to south, is the country’s largest river and most important commercial waterway.  George Orwell was posted to the Irrawaddy Delta in 1924. In his time (and Rudyard Kipling’s), one traveled from Rangoon to Mandalay by paddle steamer, a journey of several days.

Now many travel from Yangon to Mandalay by car, stopping at Burma’s new city, Nay Pyi Taw along the way.The city was created in 2004 to replace Yangon as capital.  The name means “Abode of Kings,” signifying an attempt to start a new history. According to the Indian journalist Siddharth Varadarajan, Nay Pyi Taw is  

the ultimate insurance against regime change, a masterpiece of urban planning designed to defeat any putative ‘colour revolution’ — not by tanks or water cannons, but by geography and cartography.

The recent coup proved Varadarajan wrong however.  Soldiers blocked roads in the capital and in Myanmar’s main city, Yangon. Regime change was evident when the military announced that 24 ministers and deputies had been removed, and 11 replacements had been named, including in finance, health, the interior and foreign affairs.

Several temples represent the early Bagan period. First, the Temple of Gubyaukgyi of Myinkaba Village, with its well preserved colored paintings inside that date back to its construction in 1113. The temple is typical of the Mon style in that the interior is dimly lit by perforated rather than open windows. Manuha Paya, known as the Mon King Temple and built by the captive Mon King Manuha in 1067, is said to represent his view of being imprisoned. Lastly, visit Nan Paya, a rare early period Sandstone temple with the best examples of the early Bagan carvings.

You might want to take a break before you continue your exploration of the temples of the Early Period at the Shwezigon Pagoda. Shwezigon was completed in 1058 C.E. as the most important reliquary shrine in Bagan, a center of prayer and reflection for King Anawratha of the new Theravada faith. Take some time to learn about the Burmese belief in “nats” (spirits), officially replaced by Buddhism, though the belief continues among many people today.

Mandalay

From Bagan, proceed on to Mandalay where “the flyin’-fishes play.” I’ve always loved the Frank Sinatra version of the song, but never had a clue that the lyrics were actually selected verses from a poem by Rudyard Kipling. Listen to the Frank Sinatra version on YouTube below. This particular version of the song is interesting because it’s so clearly dated and incorporates some images of the British colonial presence.

Orwell’s Mandalay

Orwell’s Mandalay has been long regarded as the cultural and spiritual heart of Myanmar. Mandalay, its second largest city, is located within easy walking distance of colonial hill stations, ancient cities, and other cultural attractions.  Orwell says:

Mandalay is rather a disagreeable town . . . it is dusty and intolerably hot, and it is said to have five main products all beginning with a P, namely, pagodas, pariahs, pigs, priests, and prostitutes.

The pagodas are still here (and probably the prostitutes), but I’m not so sure about the other three.

Clearly things have changed since Orwell’s time. There’s now a five star hotel, the Sedona Hotel Mandalay, nestled on four acres of beautifully landscaped gardens, and located on the edge of the large moat that surrounds the Mandalay Palace, the last royal palace of the Burmese monarchy. 

Orwell did his police training less than a mile from the Mandalay Palace. And, like the palace , Orwell’s great trilogy of novels tracks the development of Burma. As Emma Larkin argues in her book Finding George Orwell in Burma, Burma’s colonial society was transformed through independence and the socialist coup in 1962 into a version of Animal Farm and then Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Banned for many years, Burmese Days is now celebrated. In 2012, eight decades after its initial publication, the novel won the highest literary award in Burma.

Maung Myint Kywe, the book’s translator, sees the work as “a scathing portrait of the imperious attitudes of both the British and Burmese.”  He also feels the book is a way for young people to learn the history of discrimination against the Burmese during British rule.

He says

Orwell is unbiased, even though he himself is British. He has fairly portrayed how bad the British were, as well as we Burmese too.

According to Emma Larkin, the author of Finding George Orwell in Burma, there’s a joke ‘in country’ that Orwell wrote not just one novel about the country, but three: a trilogy comprised of Burmese Days, Animal Farm, and Nineteen Eighty Four. She says: 

It is a particularly uncanny twist of fate that these three novels effectively tell the story of Burma’s recent history. The link begins with Burmese Days, which chronicles the country’s period under British colonialism. Not long after Burma became independent from Britain in 1948, a military dictator sealed off the country  from the outside world, launched ‘The Burmese Way to Socialism’, and turned Burma into one of the poorest countries in Asia. The same story is told in Orwell’s Animal Farm, an allegorical tale of a socialist revolution gone wrong in which a group of pigs overthrow the human farmers and run the farm into ruin. Finally, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell’s description of a horrifying and soulless dystopia paints a chillingly accurate picture of Burma today, a country ruled by one of the world’s most brutal and tenacious dictatorships.

It’s interesting that Nineteen Eighty-Four has long been admired by Burmese readers who are drawn to its descriptions of “official deception, secret surveillance and the manipulations of the authoritarian state.” These activities are all familiar to those who lived under Burma’s military dictatorship. In fact, Than Shwe, Burma’s former dictator was often referred to as “Big Brother,” the name given to the party leader in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Since 2011, the regime has engaged in political and economic liberalization. The government released most political prisoners and dropped the censorship laws that were reminiscent of Orwellian totalitarianism. Nevertheless, In 2014, Myanmar was still ranked as one of the 25 most corrupt countries in the world according to Transparency International. Religious violence was mounting, peace talks with ethnic armed groups were unsuccessful, and the military continued its hold on parliament. 

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s support of the military in their efforts against the Rohingya led many to say that she had “lost her halo.” Even before the coup, the fate of democracy in Myanmar was yet to be determined.

I’m willing to gamble that Orwell’s old residence, recently identified, will be restored. A group of artists — led by local historian (and Orwell fanatic) Nyo Ko Kaing — has launched a campaign to protect and restore Katha, the town that was the basis for the fictional Kyauktada in Burmese Days. The group wants Orwell’s home in Katha as well as the nearby European Country Club turned into tourist attractions. And the government has said that it will give the group money to convert a red-brick colonial mansion, formerly the district commissioner’s house, into a museum celebrating the author. Tourism is now a government imperative, so momentum is growing.

When Orwell made Kautha his home, he said it had “not changed greatly between the days of Marco Polo and 1910” when the British established a railway terminus. A century later, the town remains relatively isolated and hard to reach. 

Al Jazeera writes that “horse drawn Hackney carriages can still be seen whisking people past the colonial prison, school, hospital, tin-roofed church and pagoda, which (according to Orwell) “rose from the trees like a slender spear tipped with gold.” A two-story teak house  — long thought to be the  novelist’s old residence — sits on raised brick stilts across a dirt track from the tin-roofed church.  And the house has come full circle since Orwell lived there. It now belongs to a police major. I wonder if he is a writer . . . .

Note: You can read the Rudyard Kipling poem here. http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/mandalay.html

Photos:

Featured photo of Sule Pagoda by William (Flickr.com/photos/heyitschili)

Swedagon Paya in Yangon by Jose Javier Martin Esparto (Flickr.com/photos/druidabruxux/)

Irrawaddy River by Stephane DAMOUR

Bagan by KX Studio (Flickr.com/photos/104284854@N07/)

1984 by Christopher Dombres (Flickr.com/photos/christopherdombres/)

Orwell’s Home in Katha by podia.smith (Flickr.com/photos/36464510@N03/)

Carriage by Paul Arps (Flickr.com/photos/slapers/)

How many of you play chess or at least watched The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix?

Do you wonder if chess actually played an important role in the Cold War or do you think it’s just suggestive of the American-Russian rivalry?

Well, if you’re sick of being mired in bad news and want a little entertainment, here are two fairly recent movies and a Netflix series that can provide some insight.

The Coldest Game

The first movie, The Coldest Game, is available on Netflix. It’s a Polish Production set in Poland, but the dialogue is primarily in English. I think it’s the weakest of the offerings even though it includes lots of original footage of events surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The story revolves around an alcoholic math genius who is abducted by US officials and convinced to play in a US-Soviet chess match in 1962.

Bill Pullman does a great job in his role as Professor Manksy, and some of you may find it really enjoyable. Audiences seem to be split.

The blog decider.com says:

This is Thirteen Days crossed with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy crossed with Searching for Bobby Fischer crossed with, um, Barfly. Or Arthur. Take your pick.

Need help deciding?

Here’s a trailer that makes it look more coherent than it is.

Pawn Sacrifice

I really enjoyed this next movie, Pawn Sacrifice, a film by Edward Zwick about Fischer’s chess match against the Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky. You can watch the whole thing for free on YouTube.

The Fischer-Spassky match was played in Iceland in the summer of 1972 with the title of world champion at stake.

A New York Times review by Neil Genzlinger in 2015 argues that the film is only partly about Bobby Fischer.

It is equally about us — Americans or any other nationality inclined to put too much importance on chess matches, soccer matches, space races, whatever. It’s about how we manufacture celebrities on scant pretext and then destroy them, or allow them to destroy themselves while we watch.

Like The Coldest Game, the film includes original footage, illustrating that the match was treated not just as a sports event but as a symbolic showdown between the ideologies represented by the US and the Soviet Union.

Watch the trailer here.

The Queen’s Gambit

And then there’s The Queen’s Gambit – a Netflix miniseries with a 4.9 star rating out of 23,611 reviews on ‘google’.

Set during the Cold War era, orphaned chess prodigy Beth Harmon struggles with addiction in her quest to become the greatest chess player in the world.

In its review, The New Yorker Magazine calls it “the most satisfying show on television.”

I don’t play chess, so I can’t comment on the accuracy of the actual chess scenes. But I am awfully competitive, so I got too hyped up to binge watch.

The Cold War isn’t quite as overpowering here as in the other two films, but I think it gives you more of the actual atmosphere of the era.

Here’s the trailer.

All three are highly recommended for anyone who wants to turn off cable TV. How much bad news can you watch?

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Photograph by Matt on Flickr.

Still looking for Christmas presents? Maybe you can get some toy ideas for girls from the Cold War!

According to American Cold War ideology, homemakers in the United States were a bulwark against communism, fortifying the family social unit that was basic to a democratic society. In contrast, in the Soviet Union, communism drove women out of the home and put them to work, forcing children into state-run daycare centers and assaulting the family.

In response, postwar American society emphasized the importance of the “traditional” family structure which had a male wage-earner and a female housewife and mother. This placed the domesticated woman at the center of American values and viewed her domesticity as a weapon against any subversive communist influences. According to US Census data, in 1950, 23.8% of American married women had jobs outside the home; the figure climbed to 30.5% by 1960, and 39.6% by 1969.

An article in Life Magazine in 1953 tied working women to the consumer society, saying she worked “to increase her buying power as a consumer, for herself and particularly for her family.”

The bottom line was that, for most women, life was home centered. Women cared for their homes and for the emotional and nutritional needs of their families. They nursed, cooked, cleaned, decorated, and shopped. Girls and their toys mimicked the activities of their mothers.

Women’s housekeeping tasks were faithfully reproduced by their daughters who played with their own child-sized sweepers, vacuums, and pots and pans, Some of these were made by the same companies who manufactured the working appliances their moms used. Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company sold versions for real use and also the “Little Queen Carpet Sweeper” for girls, a good way to instill brand name loyalty at an early age.

Vintage Little Queen Carpet Sweeper on Etsy

The Kenner “Easy Bake” and Deluxe Topper Corporation’s “Suzy Homemaker” toy ovens were also popular. They used a light bulb as a heat source that could bake real, but tiny, cakes. Packaged cake mixes from Betty Crocker were sold especially for this use. The Easy Bake slogan promised little girls that they could make “Food as Good as Mom’s.”

“SH-collection BradRoss” by Bradross63 (talk) (Uploads) – Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikipedia

Lessons in gender roles were seamlessly linked to lessons in the growing consumer economy. In the early 1950s, Americans began to spend more of their disposable income on food, not because of a rise in food prices, but because of marketing of new kinds of convenience foods. Toys reinforced the message that most food could be found packaged and processed.

Betty Crocker play cake mix from the 1950s.

The most important girl’s toy to come out of the Cold War era was the “Barbie” doll, introduced by Mattel in 1959. Barbie was sold as a fashion doll and ads promised:

Girls of all ages will thrill to the fascination of her miniature wardrobe of fine-fabric fashions . . . . Feminine magic! A veritable fashion show, and every girl can be the star!

Barbie didn’t cost very much when she was first introduced — only about $3 — but her clothes and accessory add-ons earned Mattel very healthy profits.

Barbie provided a contrast to then popular board games because some of the board games actually allowed for the possibility that women might be more than just a fashion object. She might, in fact, work outside the home, but only within a very narrow spectrum of possibilities.

The Selchow and Righter Company made a board game called What Shall I Be in two versions, one for boys and one for girls. Interestingly, there was no overlap between the careers offered to each. Girls choices in the 1966 version included the “helping” professions, like teacher or nurse, with some very glamorous options like stewardess, ballerina, actress, and model. In the 1968 version, boys could try out becoming doctors, engineers, astronauts, scientists, athletes, and statesmen. Neither of the options touched on the majority of real women’s jobs, the “pink collar ghetto” of secretaries, clerks, and waitresses.

Selchow and Righter Board Game for Girls

Selchow and Righter Board Game for Boys

It’s interesting to note that, according to a recent article in The Atlantic, the marketing of toys is more gendered today than it was 50 years ago when gender discrimination and sexism were the norm. But that’s another story.

Cover photograph by James Vaughan (Flickr).

Are you as sick of Zoom as I am? If so, you might want to pick out a good read, grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, and decompress.

Here are 10 recently released books to choose from. All the books can be purchased on Amazon, and many — if not all — will be available at your local library. The books are listed in no particular order, and all have 4.4 stars or above (out of 5).

(Please note: the links will take you to Amazon and if you purchase there, Cold War Studies will receive a small donation at no extra charge to you.)

The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War (by Catherine Grace Katz) tells the story of the three intelligent and glamorous young women who accompanied their famous fathers to the Yalta Conference in February 1945, and of the conference’s fateful reverberations in the waning days of World War II.  According to Amazon

The Daughters of Yalta is a remarkable story of fathers and daughters whose relationships were tested and strengthened by the history they witnessed and the future they crafted together.

Some of you may have read Ben Macintyre’s highly acclaimed work from 2019, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War.  Well, he’s out with a new one titled Agent Sonya: Moscow’s Most Daring Wartime Spy.  Highly rated on Amazon, the book tells the story of Agent Sonya, a decorated intelligence agent and colonel in Russia’s Red Army, who’s living undercover as a housewife in a small English village. All that her neighbors know about her is that she makes great scones; they don’t realize she’s funneling atomic secrets from Britain and the U.S. to the Soviet Union. 

Here are two more good reads for those of you who are interested in espionage.

The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War–a Tragedy in Three Acts  is on my bedside table now. Authored by Scott Anderson, the author of the best seller “Lawrence in Arabia,” the book is set in the early Cold War years, an era when Washington’s fear and skepticism about the agency resembles our climate today.

The Spymasters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future, written by Chris Whipple,  offers a detailed portrait of the agency and its work. Often, their biggest adversary is the federal bureaucracy. “We can overthrow foreign governments,” one official told Whipple, “but we have a more difficult time dealing with our own.” 

Not interested in espionage?  If you’re interested in technology, you might want to try Jill Lepore’s new book titled If Then: How the Simulatics Corporation Invented the Future. (It’s free with Kindle Unlimited.) In their review, the New York Times says:

Starting in 1959, a team of social scientists began work on the ‘People Machine’, trying to learn how to predict human behavior and decisions. Over time, the team did work for the Kennedy presidential campaign, the Department of Defense and The New York Times. In many ways, it was a precursor to big tech and its relentless hunger for user data: Lepore calls the company ‘Cold War America’s Cambridge Analytica’.

The period immediately after World War II was a time when millions of people were left homeless and stranded. The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War by David Nasaw tells their story. Nasaw offers a broad look at how political indecision left the fate of these people in limbo for years. According to The New York Times, lingering prejudices, especially unfounded links between Jews and Communism, meant that many Nazi collaborators were resettled before Jewish Holocaust survivors.

Can’t get enough of books about JFK? Here’s a new one titled JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956.  Is there anything new to learn about JFK?  Apparently Fredrik Logevall, the author seems to think so.  A Pulitzer Prize winning historian and Harvard professor, Logevall’s book is the first of a projected two-volume project.  This volume traces President John F. Kennedy’s formative years, from his childhood through his decision to run for president.

Speaking of the American Century, Stephen Wertheim’s Tomorrow The World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy is also on my bedside table. So far I’ve spent a lot of time reading about the evolution of isolationism and internationalism over the course of American history. According to Wertheim, elites in the United States conceived a new role for the nation as the world’s armed superpower even before the attack on Pearl Harbor. As the Nazis conquered France, the architects of the nation’s new foreign policy came to believe that the United States ought to achieve primacy in international affairs.

Lastly, the book I’m actually most looking forward to reading, The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III by the husband and wife team of Peter Baker and Susan Glasser. Acclaimed by both liberals and conservatives, the book has a full five stars on Amazon after 211 reviews. Peggy Noonan, the Wall Street Journal columnist and speech writer for Ronald Reagan states:

No one has ever captured James Baker’s historical importance and essential nature as well as Peter Baker and Susan Glasser have in this superlatively reported history. This is a history not only of a man but of late twentieth century politics in America .  .   .

As a bonus you might want to listen to The New York Times Book Review‘s podcast on The Quiet Americans and The Man Who Ran Washington.  You can find it here.

Happy Reading!!

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Photograph by Carl on Flickr

The video below is the second in a two part series that takes you quickly through the last 50 or so years of Cuba’s political and economic history.

Here are the salient points:

By 1990, when the Russians were gone, things were really tough. It was becoming very clear that the Cuban people could not sustain life at such a minimal level indefinitely.

Castro and his advisers came up with a new strategy.

Agriculture was one of three areas of focus.

Acquisition of scarce hard currency through tourism and biotechnology was also central.

The key was to develop things that would produce a high rate of return.

Cuba’s economic decision-makers wanted to allow capitalist investment and enterprise to operate within Cuba itself.

They counted on the appeal of Cuba’s beautiful beaches.

They also believed that historic attractions like Old Havana could be used to promote the tourist sector.

Prostitution has increased and inequality between those working in the dollar economy and others has become a reality.

Multiplier effects include sales of tobacco and rum.

In mid 1990, the first joint venture hotel opened in Varadero beach with profits to be split 50-50.

The hotel, built with foreign capital, had construction costs of $30 million.

The growth of the tourist industry has been accompanied by large investments in construction to enlarge hotel facilities.

By 2011 there were well over 2 million tourists, many more than before the Revolution.

Joint venture capital includes major investors from Spain, Germany, Austria, and Finland among others.

Cuba’s military is highly involved in the tourist sector.

There has been substantial construction of tourist facilities within Havana itself, which retains its position as the main tourist attraction within the country.

Old Havana, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is particularly attractive to tourists.

Old Havana, the colonial core, is known for its lovely old buildings.

Finance was centered in Old Havana in an area known as ‘little Wall Street.’ This was a symbol of North Americanization.

Most activities was centered around the various plazas.

In Havana, rather than displacing residents of the old core, the area is being redeveloped with a concern for the integration of social services and living quarters.

While commercial activities are in place on the first floor of many buildings, renovated housing is available on the upper levels.

Due to a shortage of classrooms, elementary school classes are held in the public space of recently reconstructed museums.

Joint ventures and foreign real estate investment insure that resources are available to redevelop historical commercial structures.

UNESCO continues to assist with the renovation of convents, cathedrals, and other designated buildings.

Despite strenuous US objections, tourism alone is ensuring Cuba a fair amount of success in its efforts to be reintegrated into the regional economy of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Jamaica, Mexico, and other Latin American nations are involved in substantial joint ventures related to tourism.

Other Cuban trade efforts are also meeting with regional success.

The relaxation of US sanctions would provide a definite boost to the Cuban tourism industry.

Raul says: “We have to eliminate forever the notion that Cuba is the only country in the world where one can live without working.”

He goes on to say: “Without an increase in efficiency and productivity, it is impossible to sustain definitively the enormous social expenditures of our socialist system.”

Right now Cuba’s economy is stagnant.

The real value of wages in Cuba remains at around 40% of the 1989 level.

Cuenta-Propistas — the self-employed — have become the designated saviors of the Cuban economy.

Raul diplays remarkable faith in micro-enterprise and the “Gospel of Productivity.”

The key question: Can the micro (and cooperative)-enterprise sector absorb 500,000-1,200,000 apparently redundant workers?

The Fidelista model is discredited.

We will have to wait and see what happens.

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Video by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe

(Please don’t use the contact info at the end of the video. You can always reach me at lisa@coldwarstudies.com)

I wrote this post for Cold War Magazine in 2016 when, for the first time in 88 years, an American president was visiting the island of Cuba. Now, Cuban Americans are in the news again because of their voting power in the upcoming 2020 presidential election, so I thought this would be a good time to reprint the article. The focus is on what’s been happening in Cuba since the 1959 revolution.

The video below will give you the insight you need to understand Cuba’s sociocultural, political, and economic conditions.

It is the first of two parts that will take you quickly through the last 50 or so years of Cuba’s political and economic history. (I’ll post Part Two next week.)

Here are the highlights:

Fidel Castro – popularly named “Savior of the Fatherland” and “Maximum Leader” – reached Havana on January 8, 1959.

President Batista fled Cuba very early in the morning on January 1, 1959.

Opposition to Batista first emerged in 1955. By December 1958 most Cubans despised his government.

Even the Eisenhower Administration wanted Batista out of office.

At the time of the Revolution, Havana was home to the privileged, hardworking, and marginalized.

A great deal of American investment was in the Vedado section of Havana where the Hotel Nacional was located.

In the 1950s, Havana was the center of commercialized vice, much of it underwritten by US organized crime.

The city was famous for its glitzy atmosphere.

At first everything was fine between Castro and the American government. But soon bad blood ensued.

When Cuba nationalized US petroleum properties, Eisenhower eliminated Cuba from the US sugar quota.

As the 1960s progressed, Castro was preoccupied with developing a model of socialist self-government that was uniquely Cuban.

Castro wanted to “ruralize the city” and “urbanize the countryside.”

Resources poured into rural areas for electrification and the construction of new towns.

Roads and buildings in Havana suffered from a lack of upkeep and maintenance.

In 1972, Cuba joined COMECON, the economic arm of the Soviet bloc, and in 1975 Cuba began implementing Soviet economic and planning principles.

Soviet models of economic and social planning facilitated Havana’s social, cultural, and political integration with the Soviet bloc.

1986 marked the beginning of a new period called the Period of Rectification. By this time, Cubans were disillusioned with the Soviets.

Cubans were pressuring their government to return to the core Revolutionary project with its significant gains in the status of women and blacks.

Unfortunately for Cuba, glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union put an end to any hoped for reforms.

In 1990, with the end of the Cold War, Cuba entered a challenging period known as The Special Period (of War) in Time of Peace.

Cuba had an oil driven economy and 98% of the island’s petroleum came from the Soviet bloc.

Aside from oil, 66% of Cuba’s food, 86% of all raw material, and 80% of machinery and spare parts came from Soviet dominated trading partners.

Factory closures became common, food scarcity was widespread, and the already inadequate technology base began eroding.

Exports were also affected since 66% of Cuba’s sugar, 73% of the island’s nickel, and 98% of the country’s citrus fruits had been exported to the Soviet bloc.

Cuba’s abandonment by the USSR was further complicated by a tightening of US sanctions.

Things were very tough. Learn more in Part II.

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Video by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe

(Please don’t use the contact info at the end of the video. You can always reach me at lisa@coldwarstudies.com)

Would you rather read a comic book or a 500 page biography?

In 1948, President Truman’s campaign answered that question with a 16 page comic book published by the Democratic National Committee.

By this time, President Truman was used to the snickering of political cartoonists. They’d made fun of his stance on many controversial issues: the desegregation of the armed forces; his decision to drop the atomic bomb;  and the Republican takeover of Congress (called the Do Nothing Congress by Truman). Now that he was in the middle of the 1948 presidential campaign, political and editorial cartoons were everywhere.

Actually Truman sort of liked them. We know this because, after he left office, he became an avid collector. And, while in office — as we have seen — he used them to his advantage. 

Benjamin Franklin: Join, or Die?

Political and editorial cartoons have long been part of propaganda campaigns.  They trace their origins in the US to Benjamin Franklin and his cartoon Join, or Die (1754). The cartoon depicts the disunity of the Thirteen Colonies during the French and Indian War. It became even more famous later on when it was used to encourage the former colonies to unite during the American Revolution. 

Political cartoons were in and out of favor during the early 19th century, but in the 1880s, the media became popular again.

The 1948 Democratic National Convention

Some say the 1948 presidential campaign of Harry Truman is one of the greatest political campaigns in the modern era. No one gave him a chance of beating the Republican nominee, Thomas E. Dewey of New York. The Southern Democrats, called Dixiecrats, led by Strom Thurmond, and the Progressives, led by Henry Wallace, had both splintered from the Democratic party. In fact, Hubert Humphrey’s civil rights speech at the convention provoked a walk out.

Nevertheless, the convention re-nominated Truman and adopted a plank proposed by Northern liberals.

Thirty-five southern delegates walked out of the convention. The move was on to remove Truman’s name from the ballot in the southern United States. The problem of course: Truman’s support for a stronger civil rights platform than they found acceptable.

The Democratic party lost faith, and refused to spend their usual large sums of money on the election. Truman’s prospects for victory were dim.

The 1948 Presidential Election

On election day, Truman went to bed at 6:30. He woke up about midnight just in time to hear NBC announce:

While the President is a million votes ahead of the popular vote, when the country vote comes in Mr. Truman will be defeated by an overwhelming majority.

Truman concluded:

. . . to the sorrow of myself, and to those who were listening with me, it looked very much as if the election would be thrown into the House of Representatives because, of course, it was not possible for me to get a majority of the electoral votes. I went back to bed, and went to sleep.

About 4 AM Truman woke up again.  This time he heard the NBC announcer proclaim:

While the President has a lead of two million votes, it is certainly necessary that this election shall go into the House of Representative. He hasn’t an opportunity of being elected by a majority of the electoral votes of the Nation!

Truman called the Secret Service in and said:

We’d better go back to Kansas City, it looks as if I’m elected!

The Media Had It Wrong

As it turns out, Truman was right. He carried 24,105,812 popular votes to Dewey’s 21,970,065. This translated into his winning 28 states and 303 electoral votes. Dewey ended up with 189 electoral votes from 16 states.

Not surprisingly, the cartoonists had been having a field day.

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Sources:

Harry S. Truman Library and Museum

Truman Comic Book: The Story of Harry S. Truman
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/story-harry-s-truman?documentid=NA&pagenumber=1

Truman Cartoons in the Library of Congress:
https://www.loc.gov/collections/cartoon-drawings/?fa=subject:truman,+harry+s.

Join, or Die (1754)
By Benjamin Franklin – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress;Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3g05315. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10604794