U.S.S.R.

The Spy Who Came in From Geneva: Nosenko, the K.G.B. Defector

Tennent (Pete) Bagley.
Courtesy of Yale University Press
Tennent (Pete) Bagley.

I just got off the phone with a legendary spy. Well, let me amend that: a legendary counterspy.  read more »

KT's Cold Warriors

It's kind of like going back in time.

Tomorrow morning KT McFarland will join Robert McFarlane, Reagan's national security advisor, for one of her K.T. "kitchen talks" at the house of some emigrees from the Soviet Union. And in the evening, she has that fund-raiser (pdf of invite here) with Henry Kissinger, General P.X. Kelley, former commandant of the Marine Corps, and John F. Lehman, the former Secretary of the Navy and member of the 9/11 Commission.

- Jason Horowitz

Through a Glass, Darkly: Exorcising the Pentagon

The construction of the Pentagon began with a groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 11, 1941
Spaceimaging.com/Getty Images
The construction of the Pentagon began with a groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 11, 1941

James Carroll claims to have left the priesthood in the early 1970’s.  read more »

A Feel-Good Version of History Salutes the Deserving Winners

John Paul II and Lech Walesa.
Getty Images
John Paul II and Lech Walesa.

In this pungent and partisan book, John Lewis Gaddis, a professor of history at Yale University, com  read more »

25-1

Those are Ladbroke's odds against New York's winning the 2012 Olympic Games.

And if you want a sense of the hunger for good news, and what some might call wishful thinking, over at NYC2012, the metaphorical champagne corks were popping there when the bookie cut the odds from 50-1.  read more »

But while the professional oddsmakers are usually a pretty good place to turn, the structure of the Olympic Committee makes this hard to predict. One odd fact: International Olympic Committee members are on the body for life, and so the membership includes a weird array of sports bureaucrats including Vitaly Smirnov, who was appointed when he was vice-minister of sport of the Soviet Union.

As John Paul Fades Away, His Revolution Continues

Old editions of the Yale Songbook included a German drinking song called "The Pope." This was its fi  read more »

Two Rockwell Kents: A Moby-Dick Etcher And Stalin Admirer

Like many people of my generation in this country, I grew up reading books that were illustrated by  read more »

No Missile Shield Could Prevent This

With smoke still billowing like a funeral pyre from theruins of the World Trade  read more »

Faithful Marxist Preaches; Nation's Shareholders Shrug

For Norman Birnbaum, capitalism is all stick, no carrot.After Progress: American Social Reform and  read more »

Sell Butter (Not Guns) To China

A few weeks before Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited Washington, I was talking with an old-style  read more »