Cold War

The release of the 23rd Bond film, Skyfall, coincided with the 50th anniversary of James Bond’s first appearance on the silver screen. Klaus Dodds looks back on half a century of 007.

The battle of Cuito Cuanavale was a key moment in the smokescreen conflict of the Cold War played out in southern Africa. Gary Baines looks at the ways in which opposing sides are now remembering the event.

John Herschel Glenn Jr was the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20th 1962.

Paul Lay pays tribute to the playwright, dissident and former Czech president, who has died aged 75.

Andrew Boxer demonstrates the ways in which external events affected the struggles of African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s.

Caught between the end of empire and the birth of NATO, Britain's postwar Labour government played a key role in the early stages of the Cold War.

Martin Evans introduces a short series looking at changing attitudes to history in the former Communist states.

Alex von Tunzelmann reassesses a two-part article on the troubled relationship between the United States and Cuba, published in History Today 50 years ago in the wake of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Michael Dunne remembers the US-backed invasion of Fidel Castro's Cuba.

Rowena Hammal explains why the Korean War broke out in 1950.