Watching TV coverage of President Trump's first foreign trip, I was reminded of Casey Stengel's question during his first season wit...

From our village in southern Belgium to downtown Paris was about a three hour drive. About the same as from Oriental to Raleigh. Two decad...

May Day, 1960, CIA pilot (former Air Force officer) Francis Gary Powers, flying alone at more than 70,000 feet, was on his 27th U-2 mission,...

It is becoming pretty clear that the most urgent question facing today's Europe is the German question. Paul Krugman sees Germany as k...

I hear a lot of hysterical hyperbole coming out about negotiations with Iran. I am glad the negotiations are going on. The opponents seem ...

V-E (Victory in Europe) Day is usually listed in the US as May 8. But surrenders were already underway in April. April: 1,500,000 prisone...

Is there something significant about the number 47? That's the same number Mitt Romney used to describe the percentage of Americans who ...

The calendar says today is Veterans' Day. History says today is Armistice Day - the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, when th...

On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia mobilizes. Following events came on hot and heavy. July 31, Germany warns R...

July 28, 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph of the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia, responding to Serbia's answer to Austro-Hunga...

A little over a month ago, I posted a reflection on the danger of failing to live up to the international security guarantee the nuclear po...

Michael McFaul, until very recently our ambassador to Russia, has an article in today's New York Times. He takes a look at how things...

The West's contribution to the totally unprecedented challenge of conversion of the Soviet Union to a democratic and market-based societ...

Here is the agreement of 1994 whereby Ukraine gave up her nuclear weapons in return for a security guarantee. Russian occupation of Crime...

This was Mark Twain's take on the lessons of history. Ukraine's travails of the past three months and Russia's intervention re...

Что Делать ? Is the title of one of Lenin's books. "What is to be done?" is one way to translate the phrase. I like the simp...

We last left the president sailing aboard USS Iowa on November 14th, 1943, on his way to Teheran . To bring readers up to date, here are the...

Mark Twain is said to have observed that history doesn't repeat itself - but it does rhyme. Many of us read history not only for enter...

Today's New York Times prints an op-ed article by historian Eri Hotta addressing similarities and differences between today's Japan ...

November 14, 1943   In a freak accident, President Roosevelt, Generals Marshall and Arnold, Admirals Leahy and King, plus scores of dis...