Skip navigation.

SHAFR Opinion

The McChrystal Affair: Pity the Poor Historian

by Michael Hunt

Crossposted from Michael Hunt’s Washington and the World blog.
There is good reason to pity the poor historian, who has been tested especially severely during the recent McChrystal-Obama imbroglio as the eruption of historical parallels and lessons have ranged from the wrong-headed to the off-kilter.
Henry Kissinger is a good example of the wrong-headed. This policy heavyweight, [...]

LGBT Equality and The Limits of Human Rights

by Laura Belmonte

Last October, a bill was introduced in the Ugandan parliament that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment or even death.  The bill also calls for the extradition of Ugandans who engage in homosexual sex in other countries and for criminal penalties for individuals, media, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and [...]

Thinking about Remembering

by Molly Wood

I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and even though I have not lived there for many years, I still visit regularly. I often think that my decision to become a historian stems in part from the stories of my family history told to me by grandparents and other relatives. I learned from my grandmother, for [...]

Germany to Greece: Drop Dead

by William Glenn Gray

Germans have chosen to work; Greeks have chosen leisure. For this reason, Germans are furious with Greece for accumulating an unsustainable debt burden and thereby undermining the solidity of the European currency. But the self-righteous anger in Berlin may itself call into question the political basis of the Euro.

Diplomats Among Warriors

by John Prados

In Afghanistan at the moment (February 2010), U.S. Marines, allied troops, and Afghan government soldiers are embarked on an offensive at a town called Marja in Helmand province. American commander-in-chief General Stanley A. McChrystal here makes the first expression of the strategy that underlies the appeal for reinforcements that led to the Obama administration “surge” [...]

Is Wartime a Time to End Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

by Mary Dudziak

As the Obama Administration moves (slowly) toward repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, one argument in opposition is that the nation is at war, and significant changes in the military should not take place during wartime. One response to that point is that all hands are needed during heightened military deployments, and it harms American [...]

Beware Presidents’ Use of History

by John Prados

We are told that history plays as tragedy and repeats as farce. But perhaps that is changing. In the summer of 2007 President George W. Bush invoked the Vietnam analogy to justify an equally or more tragic war in Iraq. And in the West Point speech announcing his new strategy for Afghanistan, President Barack Obama [...]

« View Older Posts

Resources

Many of these links were harvested from Nick Sarantakes’s excellent U.S. Diplomatic History Resources Index.

Collection Finders

Archives Index

Archives Index of Congressional Collections

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections

U.S. Diplomatic History Resources Index

Archives in the United States

Air Force Historical Research Agency

American Foreign Policy Center at Louisiana Tech University

Bush Presidential Library

Carter Presidential Library

Clinton Presidential Library

Cold War International History Project

Dirksen Congressional Historical Collection

Eisenhower Presidential Library

Ford Presidential Library

Hoover Presidential Library

Johnson Presidential Library

Kennedy Presidential Library

Georgetown University Foreign Policy Collections

Marshall, George C., Library & Archives

National Security Archive

Nixon Presidential Library

Reagan Presidential Library

Roosevelt Presidential Library

Truman Presidential Library

U.S. National Archives

Archives outside the United States

Algeria, National Archives

Argentina, General National Archives

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Australia, National Archives

Australia, National Library–Manuscript Collections

Australian War Memorial

Austria, State Archives

Belarus, National Archives

Belgium, General State Archives

Brazil, National Archives

Bulgaria, General Department of Archives

Canada, National Archives and Library

Chile, General Historical Archives of the Ministry of External Relations

China, Republic of (Taiwan), National Archives

Churchill Archives Centre

Croatia, National Archives

Cuba, National Archives

Czech Republic, State Archives

Denmark, National Archives

Ecuador, National Archives

Estonia, National Archives

European Union, Historical Archives

Finland, National Archives

France, National Archives

France, Diplomatic Archives

Germany, Federal Archives

Germany, Political Archives of the Foreign Office

Greece, General State Archives

Greece, Historical Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Greenland National Archives

Hungary, National Archives

Iceland, National Archives

Imperial War Museum

India, National Archives

Ireland, Department of Defence, Military Archives

Ireland, National Archives

Japan, National Archives

Kenya National Archives

Korea, Republic of (South), Government Archives

Latvia, State Archive

Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

Liechtenstein, State Archives

Luxembourg, National Archives

Macedonia, State Archives

Malta, National Archives

Mexico, General National Archives

Military History Institute

NATO Archives

Netherlands, National Archives

Netherlands Antilles, National Archives

New Zealand, National Archives

Nixon Library & Birthplace

Norway, National Archives

Norway, Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Olympic Studies Centre

Peru, General National Archives

Poland, State Archive

Portugal, National Archives

Slovenia, Archives of the Republic

South Africa, National Archives

Swaziland, National Archives

Sweden, National Archives

Switzerland, Federal Archives

Tunisia, National Archives

Turkey, General Directorate of Archives

U.K. National Archives

U.N. Archives

U.N. Documentation Center

Vatican Secret Archives

World Bank Archives

Suggestions for resources to add?  Please contact us.