United States of America – Page 2

Building the Trump Organisation

After graduating in 1968, Donald Trump took on a three year apprenticeship at his father’s company. It was brutal, with him and his brother, Fred, having to manage projects that were about to go bust in low to medium income housing areas. However, he soon became the President of the company in 1971.

Meanwhile, the Civil Rights Act and Fair Housing Act had just been passed and the Department of Justice would check many buildings and apartment complexes to see if they discriminated against people based on the colour of their skin, which had been made illegal due to the act. Eventually, the DOJ arrived at the Trump apartments and began to notice a pattern.

The DOJ would send in an undercover black or hispanic member of the department, asking for a type of apartment. They would be denied, being told that there were no availabilities. Right afterwards, they would send in a white undercover member of the department, asking for the same type of apartment, and they would be welcomed with open arms. They repeated this process over and over again on multiple different Trump complexes, until they had enough evidence to file a civil lawsuit, titled “United States v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump, and Trump Management, Inc.”

A fragment of a front page New York Times article, October 16th 1973

The DOJ found that many apartments would be filed with a “C” for apartments listed under people of colour, the C possibly standing for coloured. Not only that but doormen were told to tell black applicants that the rent was twice as high as it actually was. One man was asked why he denied a black applicant, he claimed he was told by his boss to not rent to black families.

Trump was infuriated but instead of settling with the DOJ, he decided to fight back and fight back hard. It was around this time that Trump was not too unfamiliar with partying at high end nightclubs with a beautiful woman at his side. At one of these nightclubs he met Roy Cohn.

Roy Cohn was notoriously cutthroat and ruthless. He was the chief counsel to Joseph McCarthy during the McCarthy Trials, trials that sent hundreds to prison of the suspicion of being a communist. He also prosecuted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were suspected of being Soviet spies. This was the kind of man Trump needed.

They attempted a counter-suit against the DOJ for $100 million dollars, citing false allegations. The judge immediately dismissed this. However, the DOJ’s case did not end with Trump’s company being sued. He instead managed to strike a deal in which he would admit no responsibility in exchange for changing his company’s policies on applicants with different race or skin. This made Roy Trump’s top lawyer, whilst also teaching Trump something. To always fight and never admit defeat.

However, after this, Trump was no longer satisfied with the low income housing market. After all, he had grown up with the glitz and glamour of a small mansion in Queens, and all Queens had to offer was the low income housing. He turned his eyes to the former height of civilisation, Manhattan.

Manhattan was once a prospering metropolis. However, since prohibition, it had become a hive of scum and villainy. Many gangs had been set up by immigrants forced to live in slums who had to commit crime to get by, such as the Five Points Gang made up of Irish Immigrants. The mob made a rise there too, exporting illegal alcohol, the most notable mobsters being Lucky Luciano of the Italian Mafia and Meyer Lansky of the Jewish Mob. Since the war, crime in the borough had sky rocketed. In 1929, 425 murders were committed in New York. By 1973, that number had rose to 1680. The amount of crime committed was so high that it inspired the fictional city of Gotham in the Batman Comic Books, a city well known for its large supervillain presence and mafia activity. However, Trump saw past the crime and saw an opportunity.

New York is either going to get much better or much worse and I think it will get better
Donald Trump speaking to the New York Times

Donald Trump, using his father’s many political and business connections, managed to buy up the Commodore Hotel, which was facing foreclosure, and renovate it into the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Many city planners considered the renovation to be ludicrous, due to its placement on 42nd Street, very well known for its adult movie theatres, drug dealers and hookers at the time. However, the plan went ahead thanks to a very large and controversial tax break and the hotel finished renovation by September of 1980.

He then set his eyes on an old dilapidated department store on Fifth Avenue. He had the building demolished and the plot was turned into the now famous 58-storey Trump Tower. Here were the operations of the Trump Organisation, whilst Trump would live with his new wife, a Czech model named Ivana Zelníčková, in a vast penthouse on the top floor.

Eventually, Trump’s memory of the designer of the bridge came back to his mind. He decided he wasn’t going to be some guy who designed one of the tallest buildings in the city. He wanted to make Donald Trump a household name. And his first step in the plan was to sell the fantasy. Trump could not say that he came from a rich background and his empire was built on connections and tax breaks. That won’t sell. Trump instead told a story of hard work and perseverance, a tactic used by many billionaires today, despite many already having a rich family. However, Trump took it a step further.

Trump would use his fame to keep up his persona of a ladies man party animal, who was never spotted without a beautiful woman or another celebrity at his side. This caught the attention of the tabloids. One time, for 22 days in a row, Trump appeared on a cover of a tabloid, due to his persona. He decided to use his tabloid fame to his advantage.

He would often use fake aliases to report to notable tabloids, exaggerating his achievements. On one notable occasion, he called up Forbes under the alias of John Baron, claiming that his, Donald Trump’s, net worth was $100 million, when at the time it was more around $5 million. By 1984, he had met actress Marla Maples, with whom he had began an affair, leading to a tumultuous relationship with Ivana, ending in a nasty divorce in 1990. However, Trump used this to fuel the tabloids, building up his celebrity factor even more than before, with a tug of war between Ivana and Donald over who had the favour of which tabloids. Due to his exploitation of the tabloids, Trump was on the cover of a newspaper 87 times in the span of 15 years.

Trump had established a grand empire of real estate, fame and journalism, and it was only going to get better from here.

The Soviet-Afghan War

In 1973, Mohammad Daoud Khan overthrew his own first cousin, the King of Afghanistan, establishing an autocratic one party nation. Despite his many economic reforms, similar to those of his cousins, Khan’s foreign policy strained tension with neighbours and factions within his own country. Eventually, Khan was overthrown and killed by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan lead by Hafizullah Amin in 1978, making Afghanistan a Communist nation.

Insurgent cars arriving at the Presidential Palace, 1978

Soon, the new Communist Afghanistan, with new President, Nur Muhammed Taraki, began facing struggles. They tried to reform women’s rights, mainly to education, make the state more secular and enacted some awful land reforms. Anyone who spoke out about these reforms would be arrested. Soon, uprisings from Islamic Rural areas began occurring and Taraki began losing control of his nation. During the violence, Taraki was killed by Amin, allowing Amin to ascend to power

Meanwhile, Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Union, and the rest of the Kremlin did not trust Amin and decided that in order to secure their next door neighbour, not wanting yet another fundamentalist Islamic country on their doorstep like Iran before it, Amin had to die. On December 27th, 1979, Soviet forces raided the palace, killing Amin, putting a Soviet puppet in his place, Babrak Karmal. Whilst Soviet forces did manage to capture key military forts in cities and urban areas, they were unable to secure the insurgents in the mountainous countryside, who would use the mountainous terrain to wage brutal guerilla warfare. These insurgents were called the Mujahideen. And this was just the ticket, the US needed.

Outside of the Warsaw Pact, the international community strongly opposed the invasion, with many other Communist nations such as China, Muslim majority countries such as Pakistan and many more opposing the occupation. However, no-one was a stronger opponent than the United States, who imposed a trade embargo on Soviet products, boycotted the Olympic Games, which were being held in Moscow that year, and, most importantly funded the Mujahideen.

It was the height of the Cold War, and, after the Iran Hostage Crisis, Jimmy Carter had not won a second term. The new “tough on Communism” Ronald Reagan wanted to limit Soviet expansion as much as possible, whilst also wanting to give the Soviets their own Vietnam.

2/2/1983 President Reagan meeting with Afghan Freedom Fighters in the Oval Office to discuss Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan

We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives—on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua—to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth.
Reagan in his 1985 State of the Union address.

Over six years, in Operation Cyclone, the CIA would funnel $3.2 billion worth of weapons, economic help and military training towards the Mujahideen. Pakistan was also a large supporter of the Mujahideen’s efforts against the Soviets, serving as an operational base for the Mujahideen. The British were also a key supplier of finances and weapons, with MI6 assisting from their base in Islamabad.

During the war, atrocities were committed by both sides, with the Soviet Forces engaging in chemical warfare and airstrikes on civilian targets, whilst the Mujahideen brutally tortured captives. These acts forced 4 million citizens to seek asylum and did nothing to help either side.

Soon, the USSR, under the new leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, realised that there was no winning this conflict. It began to slowly withdraw whilst stabilising a Communist government under their new puppet, Mohammad Najibullah, who, despite his decent reforms, did not help the trust in the communist government. They also restricted direct involvement, only training and funding a new Communist Afghan Army, which ultimately resulted in failure.

The Soviet-Afghan War was an absolute catastrophe for the Soviets. It showed the weakness in the Belly of the Bear, and proved that, with time, the Soviet Union could be defeated. Many historians cite the war as laying the groundwork for the collapse of the Soviet Union, only 2 years after the end of the war. The Communist regime eventually collapsed, thrusting Afghanistan into civil war, with one of the factions of the Mujahideen, the Taliban, taking control of the country in 1996 and were not deposed until 2001 during the War in Afghanistan, starting a terrorist insurgency that would last 2 decades, eventually returning to power in 2021 after the American withdrawal from the country. By many scholars, the Taliban and the rule they imposed over Afghanistan, as well as their insurgency, is currently considered to be one of the greatest enemies to the United States and the world at large

A modern day photo of Taliban Insurgents in Afghanistan

The United States respects the people of Afghanistan […] but we condemn the Taliban regime. […] It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists. By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder.
George W. Bush addressing Congress

The Iranian Revolution

In 1952, Mohammed Mosaddegh was elected to the office of Prime Minister of Iran by the Iranian People. An openly socialist leader, he increased social security, mandated higher taxes and enacted mass land reforms. The most famous of his policies was to nationalise Iranian Oil. These oil fields were initially owned by the British in Persian land, through the private Anglo-Persian Oil Company. This meant that the fields were now under state ownership, posing a problem to British and American oil interests in the region. On August 19th, 1953, the MI6 and CIA backed a coup in Iran, overthrowing the democratically elected Mosaddegh and centralising power under the absolute monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had been the Shah of Iran in a constitutional standing since the end of the Second World War.

The kings had been absolute rulers of Iran for millennia before a parliament was introduced in 1906. The rule of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the father of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was widespread with oppression and suppression of minority groups. He was forced to abdicate in 1941 and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took power. After the Second World War, Britain began to allow democracy to have more power in Iran. Once oil was nationalised under Mosaddegh, who was backed by an Iranian Communist party, the coup was orchestrated and democracy died.

Between 1963 and 1975, the Shah was considered to be quite a decent ruler. He reorganised the oil industry, which went from producing $555 million in 1964 to $20 billion by 1976. Much of this money was re-invested into infrastructure and education. The population grew, infant mortality fell and a professional middle class was beginning to develop. However, the problem was these reforms were coming fast and hard. Many universities pumped out graduates quicker than jobs could be made, especially prevalent in the capital city of Tehran, where this effect was most dire. After 1975, the Shah ruled with absolute autocratic power. Many political prisoners were tortured and arrested by a brutal secret police known as the SAVAK. He abolished all political parties, replacing them with the pro-Monarchy, Conservative Liberal Resurgence party.

Many of the positive reforms, however, were largely opposed by Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shia Cleric from Qom. He mainly complained that the reforms would give women too many rights, including the right to vote, as well as saying that the government neglected the poor and was strongly opposed to the sale of Iranian Oil to Israel. Khomeini believed that a king was inherently un-Islamic and that he must be deposed. Due to his opposition, he was exiled to Türkiye in 1964. Iran was a powder keg of economic inequality and vast oppression. All it needed was a match.

On January 7th, 1978, an Iranian Newspaper published an article that was highly critical of Khomeini. Small demonstrations began to break out across the country. However, these grew once the army began to fire on protestors. Once more protestors arrived, the army would once again crack down and the cycle would continue. Many had also grown discontent with the West’s influence in Iranian life and society.

American lifestyles had come to be imposed as an ideal, the ultimate goal. Americanism was the model. American popular culture – books, magazines, film – had swept over our country like a flood…We found ourselves wondering ‘Is there any room for our own culture?
A woman interviewed by Michael Axworthy

A confused Shah had no idea why the people were protesting him, suspecting them to either be Communists or controlled by the British. Despite his attempts to appease the people, he was forced to flee to the United States on January 16th, leading to a break down of diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States from then on. Many say that these initial protests were not about fundamental Islam, however, but with a discontent with a decreased standard of living. In the second phase of the revolution, Khomeini moved to establish an Islamic Republic, which involved extreme anti-American fever and the taking of hostages inside the US Embassy in Iran.

Since the revolution, Iran has become a fundamentalist Islamist dictatorship, with the people’s vote in parliament and President ultimately being worthless, when all parliamentary legislation can be superseded by God, embodied by the Supreme Ruler, who, from 1979 until his death, was Khomeini. To ensure the support of an Islamic Republic in Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary guards and Hezbollah were created in order to ensure there would be no counter coup. Sharia law was strictly enforced, with those who disobeyed receiving harsh punishments. By at least October of 1979, several hundred people had already been executed. Everything was owned by the state, including the media, who always bowed down to the Supreme Leader. Repression is still rife in Iran, perhaps even more than it was under the Shah, especially in relation to women’s rights, which have been highly supressed.

The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

John F Kennedy was a Democrat Party member, who represented Massachusetts in both houses of Congress. After a brief time in the Navy and Journalism, Kennedy got into politics. In 1960, he ran for President and won by only a hundred thousand votes to Eisenhower’s Vice President, Richard Nixon. Kennedy was and still is the youngest President Elect in history. Kennedy was well known for his stances on civil rights, foreign policy and lower taxes.

In the months leading up to November 1963, Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson had made plans to make trips to soothe over tensions between the Liberal and Republican candidates in Texas. The plan was to arrive in Fort Worth, spend the night at Hotel Texas, drive to an Airforce Base, take Air Force One down to Love Field Airport in Dallas, and drive down to the Trade Mart via Dealey Plaza for a banquet. The idea of driving to the Trade Mart was proposed by Republican Texas Governor John Connelly. The turns through Dealey Plaza would proceed as follows. The motorcade would turn right onto Houston off Main before making a sharp left onto Elm Street to disembark onto the freeway.

A very crude diagram made by yours truly of the turns made through Dealey Plaza

However, another option was considered for the banquet, the Women’s Building. Had this been the case, the car would have remained straight on Main Street facing the opposite way, only just grazing the plaza. This would’ve meant that Kennedy’s left shoulder would’ve faced the plaza with his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy in between him and the plaza. In addition, these odd turns through the plaza could’ve been avoided if they hadn’t chosen to go down the freeway. However, the freeway was considered more scenic by secret service agents over the route through the Design District so was chosen instead. The motorcade was finalised and publicised to the public by November the 16th.

A potential alternate route highlighted in yellow. The route taken is highlighted in red

Whilst inspecting the route, secret service agents discovered that there were over 20,000 windows overlooking the route. Instead of inspecting them, they decided to inspect none of the windows along the motorcade route due to a lack of manpower being able to monitor the route.

After having arrived at Love Field, the motorcade was 15 minutes late due to the President shaking hands with all his citizens. This was a common habit for Kennedy to do, departing from the secret service to be among his people.

Kennedy shaking hands with the public at Love Field

Eventually they got into the motorcade and sped off. Kennedy and Jacqueline were in the back seats which were slightly elevated, with Kennedy sitting on the right side of the car. John Connelly was directly in front of Kennedy with his wife, Nellie, sitting on his left. Two secret service agents sat in the front, William Greer driving and Roy Kellerman in the passenger seat. The limousine was open top, giving the public a very clear view of President Kennedy.

A diagram of the limo used on that day. It was specifically modified to be convertible

At Dealey Plaza, the streets were lined with masses of people. One such person was Arnold Rowland. He looked up, at around 12:15, and spotted something unusual.

Interrogator: While you were standing on Houston Street […], did you have occasion at any time to observe the Texas School Book Depository Building?
Rowland: Yes, […] We looked and at that time I noticed on the sixth floor of the building that there was a man back from the window, not hanging out the window. He was standing and holding a rifle. […] This was on the west corner of the building, the sixth floor […] and this was the only pair of windows where both windows were completely open and no one was hanging out the windows, or next to the window. […] We thought momentarily that maybe we should tell someone but then the thought came to us that it is a security agent. We had seen in the movies before where they have security men up in windows and places like that with rifles to watch the crowds, and we brushed it aside as that, at that time, and thought nothing else about it until after the event happened.

Rowland: Do you ever have reoccurring dreams, sir?
Interrogator: What?
Rowland: Do you ever have reoccurring dreams?
Interrogator: Yes.
Rowland: This is a reoccurring dream of mine, sir, all the time, what if I had told someone about it. I knew about it enough in advance and perhaps it could have been prevented. I mean this is something which shakes me up at times.
Arnold Rowland’s Testimony for the Warren Commission, 1964

At around 12:20, a man named Howard Brennan also spotted a man on the sixth floor. He was described to be white and was pacing back and forth, this time on the most Eastern window that faced the plaza

At 12:29, Kennedy’s motorcade turned onto Houston. Around this time, Connelly’s wife turned to Kennedy and said “Mr. President, they can’t make you believe now that there are not some in Dallas who love you and appreciate you, can they?” Kennedy responded with “No, they sure can’t.” These would be the President’s final words. At 12:30, as Kennedy turned onto Houston, student Amos Euins looked up to the window as the car slowed down to around 9 mph.

Then I was standing here, and as the motorcade turned the corner, I was facing, looking dead at the building. And so I seen this pipe thing sticking out the window. I wasn’t paying too much attention to it
Amos Euins’s Testimony for the Warren Commission, 1964

The first shot rang out. Only a few people realised what had happened. A car backfire, a firework. Some jested about being startled by such an insignificant little thing.

Another shot rang out. “Then I looked up at the window, and he shot again.” Amos describes. Kennedy is now clutching his neck, bleeding profusely. Jacqueline tends to her husband as Connelly also reacts to being hit from the same bullet. Clint Hill leaps towards the Limo in order to protect the President

Kennedy holding his neck after being shot

The final shot rings out as President Kennedy’s head explodes, a large flap of tissue still clinging onto the side of his head. His brain matter is sprayed all over the bonnet. Jacqueline screams and attempts to clear it up. As the limo sped up, Hill clambered onto the back of the bonnet.

A diagram of the second shot that struck Kennedy’s head

At 80mph, the Limo speeds away to Parkland Memorial Hospital and Kennedy is taken inside at around 12:36, 6 minutes after his lethal headshot. Somehow he was still alive, if only technically. After 20 minutes of operation, the word came out.

From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time, 2 o’clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.
Walter Cronkite on CBS, 1963

Johnson, Jackie and the other officials drove back down to Love Field and took off on Airforce One. On the flight, Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. Whilst also on the flight, the officials received some shocking news.

Lee Harvey Oswald was, at the time, 24 and was a worker at the school book depository, where Amos claimed that the shots were fired from. He was hired there in October of 1963. Oswald was rather open about his Marxist beliefs and had attempted to renounce his US citizenship and had visited Russia in the late 50s. In fact, his wife was a Russian Immigrant. He was a member of the US Marine Corps for 3 years and was a very talented marksman, specifically with the M1 rifle. He was also prone to violent tendencies, having chased his brother around with a knife when they were both children. He was under observation by the FBI agents, who failed to inform anyone about Oswald, despite his place of work overlooking the route. Oswald was also in possession of a 6.5 mm Carcano Italian made rifle. A fully intact bullet found in Connelly’s thigh matched a round that could’ve been fired from such a rifle.

Not long after the shooting, Oswald was spotted in the second floor lunchroom of the Texas School Book Depository by police officer Marrion Baker with the accompaniment of Roy Truly, superintendent of the Book Depository, who positively identified Oswald. He seemed calm. He is then believed to have left the building 3 minutes later to catch a bus.

At 1:15, Officer J D Tippit discovered Oswald, having been given the description of a slender white man in his early 30s at 5 foot 11 and weighing 165 lb or 75 kg. After walking around to the front of his car, he was, seemingly unprovoked, shot 5 times in the chest by Oswald with a handgun. Multiple witnesses reported the crime and could identify Oswald out of a line-up later. Oswald then strolled down to the Texas Theatre and took a seat without paying for a ticket. Police ran into the building. Oswald allegedly resisted arrest before being taken down to Dallas PD. However, two officers on the scene claimed Oswald acted very differently. After being interrogated for 12 hours, he denied all involvement in the assassination of Kennedy.

On the morning of November 24th, Oswald was scheduled for a transfer to the county jail. At 21 minutes past 11, on live TV, Oswald was shot and fatally wounded by local nightclub owner, Jack Ruby. Ruby claimed to be an admirer of Kennedy’s and was so distraught by the killing, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Ruby was sentenced to death before it was alleviated and died of cancer in 1967.

Almost immediately after the assassination, Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, formed the Warren commission, a group of higher ups inside the US government, whose purpose it was to investigate Kennedy’s death. They were adamant that Oswald acted alone and fired 3 shots from the South East corner of the School Book Depository, the first shot missing and hitting the ground, the second shot hitting President Kennedy and Governor Connelly and the final shot being the fatal head shot to Kennedy. The reason they were so fixated on this reasoning is that 3 shell casings were found by the window, around which boxes had been placed in order to form a sniper’s nest. A 6.5 mm Carcano Rifle was found in another corner of the building, with Oswald’s palm prints only being found on the rifle after his death. This was the official ruling, that Oswald acted alone after having explored no other avenues.

Over the next few years, many have drawn up conspiracy theories regarding the assassination. From Johnson to Russia, from the Mafia to the CIA, there are endless multitudes of possible conspiracy options, that draw from government documents, inconsistent testimonies and forensic analysis. This has led many to believe that Oswald did not act alone that fateful November morning. Whether or not this is the case is heavily debated, much like Kennedy’s legacy. Some have argued he was one of the greatest Presidents in American history, by launching the race to the Moon, his diplomacy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, advancing the Civil Rights cause in government, and establishing humanitarian aid programmes such as the Peace Corps and USAID. However, some have viewed his legacy as romanticised due to his assassination, and point to his poor handling of the Bay of Pigs invasion, his timidness regarding Congress passing Civil Rights and the Vienna Summit that almost directly enabled the Soviet Union to construct the Berlin Wall, as well as his personal health issues and alleged adultery.

Ultimately, the assassination has made it almost impossible to separate Kennedy the President from the myth that grew around him after his death. Whether he was a visionary leader cut down in his prime or a deeply flawed politician whose legacy was transformed by tragedy, his presidency remains one of the most debated in American history. More than sixty years later, the question of who killed Kennedy may remain disputed, but there is little doubt that his death permanently changed the way Americans viewed their government, their presidents and their own history.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

In 1959, the Cuban communist revolutionary, Fidel Castro with the help of Che Guevara toppled the US Backed military dictator, Fulgencio Batista. He immediately began mass land reforms, giving land taken by the Americans back to the Cuban people, before he aligned himself with Nikita Khrushchev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

A photo of Castro (left) and Khrushchev (right)

Fearing the communism in his own backyard, President Dwight D. Eisenhower cut off all diplomatic relations with Cuba and issued a trade embargo. He also requested, on his way out, that some Jupiter Class Nuclear Missiles be place in Turkey and an invasion would go ahead against Cuba, using 1400 trained CIA Trained Cuban exiles. The next President, the young and charming John F. Kennedy was told that the US involvement could be covered up and that the invasion would cause an anti-Communist uprising in Cuba.

Unfortunately, the plan went awry very quickly, with poorly disguised bombers missing their targets and immediately being identified as American. The invasion was an absolute disaster, with hundreds of American lives being ended and thousands captured.

American Operatives being captured in the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs

Sensing weakness from America, Khrushchev took this opportunity to erect the Berlin Wall in August of that same year. Kennedy spoke on the wall in his famous speech, where he said:

[D]emocracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in.
Kennedy speaking in Berlin in 1963

Not long after that, Khrushchev was on his boat in the Black Sea, thinking about the Jupiter Missiles in Turkey. Whilst the missiles weren’t highly effective, Khrushchev still believed the missile’s presence to be an act of aggression. And slowly, an idea began to brew in Khrushchev’s head.

Day 1 – October 16th, 1963

At around 8 in the morning on October 16th, 1962, NSA, McGeorge Bundy arrived at the White House, informing President Kennedy of a photograph taken by a U2 Spy plane over Cuba. The photographs clearly showed Soviet Medium Range Ballistic missiles, with a range far enough to destroy most of the Eastern Seaboard.

Labeled photographs taken by the spy plane

Within minutes, Kennedy gathered his foreign policy team, including Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defence, Robert McNamara, Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff, General Maxwell Taylor, Speech Writer, Ted Sorenson and ambassador Lewin Thompson. As the crisis developed, the committee would soon become known as the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, or ExComm for short.

They agreed to secrecy and not to let anyone else know about the crisis. However, the secrecy could not really be broken, as no-one really knew specifics. Would the missiles launch and, if so, when? Could there be more missiles? But, amidst the uncertainty and speculation, Kennedy was firm. He could not allow Soviet missiles in Cuba and they had to be removed immediately. There were 4 main options considered, either a limited airstrike on the missile bases, a wider strike which would include other Cuban military facilities, an even larger airstrike which would then be followed up with an invasion or a blockade of Cuba.

Day 2 – October 17th, 1962

They eventually ruled out just the airstrikes, insisting that if an airstrike were to be conducted it must be backed by an invasion, lest Khrushchev send more missiles. However, this was under the pretence that the missiles were not ready to fire, which they, in fact, were. More U2 Spy planes discovered even more sites, with the number now totalling 32 Soviet missiles in Cuba. However, Kennedy had to keep up appearances, having a dinner with the Libyan Crown Prince and supporting Democratic Congressional candidates in Connecticut.

Day 3 – October 18th, 1962

Kennedy decided to take action and had a meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko, who denied that any Soviet offensive weapons were in Cuba.

As to Soviet assistance to Cuba, Mr. Gromyko stated that he was instructed to make it clear, as the Soviet Government had already done, that such assistance, pursued solely for the purpose of contributing to the defense capabilities of Cuba and to the development of Cuba, toward the development of its agriculture and land amelioration, and training by Soviet specialists of Cuba nationals in handling defensive armaments were by no means offensive. If it were otherwise, the Soviet Government would have never become involved in rendering such assistance.
An excerpt from a memorandum from the meeting with Gromyko

Kennedy was specific to not mention the missiles specifically, but did recall his public warning that he made on September 14th, that in response to any offensive weapons being put into Cuba by the Soviets, there would be the “gravest consequences”

Day 4 – October 19th, 1962

Still attempting to keep up appearances, Kennedy attended campaign events in Ohio and Illinois, whilst the rest of ExComm discussed plans to move forward. During this time, another spy plane managed to capture photos of an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Site. This would mean that if missiles were to fire from Cuba, the only safe major city in the United States would be Seattle.

A map with the range of the missiles highlighted in red

Day 5 – October 20th, 1962

Kennedy ended up having to lie to the American people so they would not panic, saying he had a cold, in order to return home to Washington instead of continuing his six state tour. After 5 hours of deliberation, ExComm came to the conclusion that a blockade must be enforced. However, they could not exactly call it a blockade, as that would be an act of war, so they very subtly decided to call it a “Quarantine”

Day 6 – October 21st, 1962

The military advisors, fearing their planned invasion would not go ahead, attempted to convince Kennedy one more time of an air strike. However, they could not guarantee that all the missiles would be hit. This was too much of a risk for Kennedy, who decided to go ahead with the quarantine.

Day 7 – October 22nd, 1962

Kennedy contacted Truman and Eisenhower, the two presidents before him, about the situation, before contacting British Prime Minister, Harold McMillan. He then wrote to Nikita Khrushchev before addressing the nation on national television.

Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere.

[…]

Acting, therefore, in defence of our own security and of the entire Western Hemisphere, I have directed that a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba be initiated. All ships bound for Cuba carrying offensive weapons will be turned back.

[…]

It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.

[…

The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are – but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world. The cost of freedom is always high – and Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission. Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right – not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.
President John F. Kennedy, televised address to the American people, 22 October 1962

Day 8 – October 23rd, 1962

Kennedy signing the authorisation for the quarantine

Kennedy once again wrote to Khrushchev, requesting the stop of all Soviet ships towards Cuba. However, this writing would often take an obscenely long amount of time, with them having to be shipped halfway around the planet, translated, having a response written up, sent back and translated again. Sometimes, messages were not given responses for 12 hours at a time.

Day 9 – October 24th, 1962

Khrushchev wrote back to Kennedy regarding his letter. Whilst he did not actively threaten Kennedy, he also did not say he wouldn’t back down either.

You, Mr. President, are not declaring a quarantine, but rather are setting forth an ultimatum and threatening that if we do not give in to your demands you will use force. Consider what you are saying! And you want to persuade me to agree to this! What would it mean to agree to these demands? It would mean guiding oneself in one’s relations with other countries not by reason, but by submitting to arbitrariness. You are no longer appealing to reason, but wish to intimidate us.
An excerpt of Khrushchev’s letter to Kennedy

The DEFCON level was moved to DEFCON 2, one step short of all out war.

Day 10 – October 25th, 1962

Photos from the missile sites being shown at the UN

Kennedy once again urged Khrushchev to back down, whilst at the UN, United States Ambassador, Adlai Stevenson, verbally attacked Valerian Zorin, Soviet Ambassador to the UN, presenting photos of the missiles.

Stevenson: Mr. Zorin, I remind you that you didn’t deny the existence of these weapons. Instead, we heard that they had suddenly become defensive weapons. But today — again, if I heard you correctly — you now say they don’t exist, or that we haven’t proved they exist. […] Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R has placed and is placing medium and intermediate range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no? Don’t wait for the translation: yes or no?

Zorin: I am not in an American courtroom, sir, and therefore I do not wish to answer a question that is put to me in the fashion in which a prosecutor does. In due course, sir, you will have your reply. […]

Stevenson: You are in the court of world opinion right now and you can answer yes or no. You have denied that they exist. I want to know […] if I’ve understood you correctly.

Day 11 – October 26th, 1962

A Soviet Freighter was stopped at the quarantine line and was searched for contraband. No such contraband was found and it was allowed to pass into Cuba. Castro sent a letter to Khrushchev, urging him to initiate a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the United States.

Day 12 – October 27th, 1962

A letter arrived from the Kremlin, requesting that in exchange for removing the missiles from Cuba, Kennedy had to withdraw the Jupiter Missiles from Turkey. Many in ExComm saw this as outrageous, with some even comparing it to Chamberlain’s appeasement before WW2, an appeasement which Kennedy’s father strongly supported. This option is opposed even more when Cuban Anti-Aircraft guns shoot down a U2 Spy Plane, killing the pilot. An American man had been killed because of this, and many military men in ExComm sought war. Kennedy resisted this pressure to invade strongly. Later that night, Bobby Kennedy met with a Soviet Ambassador to negotiate the terms of the missile withdrawal.

Day 13 – October 28th, 1962

The thirteen most tense days in human history were over, as both nations withdrew their missiles from Turkey and Cuba respectively as the world blew a massive sigh of relief. In addition, the United States pledged to never invade Cuba again.

Kennedy was eventually shot in a motorcade in Dallas in November of the next year. Some suspect that Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis undermined the CIA, who many believed ordered his assassination. Khrushchev was ousted from the communist party in 1964 and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev. Khrushchev then died of a heart attack in 1971. A hotline was set up between the two nations via a famous red phone in each of the leader’s offices, to ensure such delays in communication would never happen again. However, the United States and Cuba never sought diplomatic reconciliation until 2016, when Barack Obama became the first President to visit the country since 1928.

President Obama meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro

Many say, to this day, that the Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest humanity ever came to ending the world via nuclear annihilation. Whilst many, at the time, saw the two leaders of the two superpowers as traitors to their people for seeking a diplomatic solution, many today see them as brave men for doing such things and many in the West cite them as some of the greatest leaders of their respective countries.

The Construction of the Berlin Wall

After the end of World War 2, the 4 major powers that defeated the Nazis, the Americans, French, British and Soviets gathered together to discuss the matter of Germany. The powers feared that if Germany were to be reunited, at least immediately, the ideas of Nazism and Fascism could make a rise once more. An idea was proposed, that Germany be divided into West and East as a temporary measure, the West being occupied by the USA, UK and France and the East being controlled by the USSR.

However, soon the question of Berlin came up. Being around 200 miles into East Germany, logic dictated that Berlin fell into the hands of the Soviets. However, whoever controlled the capital practically controlled the country so a subdivision was set up, wherein France, Britain and America made the Western side of Berlin a part of West Germany, whilst the Eastern half was controlled by East Germany.

Soon, this temporary measure became somewhat permanent. The city of Berlin soon became divided into East Berliners and West Berliners. The West promoted the values of the countries occupying such as democracy and liberal market economies whilst the East promoted communism, not just in East Germany but other countries surrounding themselves. Trade from West to East was banned and a practically impenetrable border was made across East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. Athens alone — Greece with its immortal glories — is free to decide its future at an election under British, American and French observation.
Winston Churchill speaking at a Midwestern College, 1946

Whilst East Germans weren’t strictly allowed to leave East Germany to West Germany, the East Berliners, could simply walk across the road to West Berlin and were allowed to move from there. By 1961, 3.5 million people had followed this practice. This open border posed a problem to the Soviets. The Soviets had been portraying the West as a continuation of Nazism and their citizens were soon finding that wasn’t the case.

Whilst the Western Allies were promoting the reconstruction of Germany after the war, Soviets were extracting resources as war reparations, making the economic situation dire. Many East Berliners sought jobs in the West due to the more stable currency, whilst West Berliners bought products for cheaper prices in the East. Whilst education and healthcare were free in the East, consumer goods, salaries and general freedoms were better in the West, in no small part to the Eastern Secret police, called the Stasi, who would report on and arrest anyone accused of Anti-Soviet behaviour. Eventually, the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev had enough of the emigration.

On August 13th, 1961, Berliners woke up to a large fence surrounding West Berlin. With 43km (27 miles) across Berlin and a further 112km (69.5 miles) in East Germany, Berlin was permanently divided. Before further construction could continue, some chose to leap over the barbed wire into the West but, before long, the Berlin Wall was fully constructed.

By 1975, large concrete barricades, rising to 3.6m (11ft) in height replaced the fences, with a smooth pipe to prevent climbing on the West Side. 302 watchtowers were set up in a new area called the Death Strip, a 100m (328ft) wide area in between the main wall and a less developed wall on the Eastern side. This area was littered with landmines, guard dogs and spike traps. Families were divided, friends separated and the ultimate symbol of the Eastern Bloc had been built, an authoritarian impassible wall that represented everything the West believed about Communism.

Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was “civis Romanus sum.” Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

[…]

There are many people in the world who really don’t understand, or say they don’t, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.

Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. […] While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together.

What is true of this city is true of Germany–real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. [This] generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people.

[…]

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner.”
John F. Kennedy speaking at the Rudolph Wilde Platz in Berlin, 1963

JFK making his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, 1963

The Cuban Revolution

By 1953, Cuba was politically unstable. When Spain first established control over the island in the early 16th century, it created a society structured around hierarchy and exploitation. At the top were Spanish-born elites, known as Peninsulares, while those of Spanish descent born on the island, Creoles, occupied a secondary position. Beneath them were enslaved Africans and their descendants, whose forced labour became central to Cuba’s plantation economy. Although the island’s indigenous population declined drastically following European arrival, Cuban society became increasingly diverse, shaped by a mixture of African, European, and mixed-race communities.

A photo of Christopher Columbus landing in Central America in 1492

By the 19th century, tensions within this system had begun to grow. Wealth and power remained concentrated in the hands of a small elite, while many Cubans, particularly in rural areas, lived in poverty. At the same time, a distinct Cuban identity was beginning to emerge, especially among Creole elites who resented both Spanish control and their exclusion from the highest levels of authority. These tensions would eventually give rise to a series of independence movements, the most significant of which was led by José Martí. Martí, a writer, political thinker, and revolutionary, envisioned an independent Cuba free not only from Spanish rule but also from foreign domination. In 1895, he helped launch a new war of independence against Spain. Although Martí was killed early in the conflict, the war continued, gradually weakening Spanish control over the island.

By the late 1890s, Spain was struggling to maintain its hold on Cuba, both militarily and economically. In 1898, the conflict took a decisive turn when the United States intervened following the explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbour. The cause of the explosion remains disputed, but it was widely blamed on Spain in the American press, creating public pressure for war. Under President William McKinley, the United States declared war on Spain, quickly defeating Spanish forces in what became known as the Spanish-American War. Although Cuban rebels had fought for independence for years and done most of the effort, it was the American intervention that ultimately brought the war to a close.

A painting of Theodore Roosevelt, then assistant Secretary of the Navy, charging into battle in Cuba

In its aftermath, Spain relinquished control of Cuba, but full independence did not immediately follow. Instead, the United States established a military government on the island and retained significant influence over its future. This influence was formalised in 1901 through the Platt Amendment, which granted the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and limited Cuba’s sovereignty in foreign policy. It also allowed the establishment of a permanent American naval base at Guantánamo Bay. While Cuba was formally independent by 1902, in practice it remained heavily dependent on and influenced by the United States.

Economic ties deepened this relationship. American businesses invested heavily in Cuba, particularly in the sugar industry, which became the backbone of the island’s economy. By the early 20th century, a significant portion of Cuba’s land, infrastructure and key industries were controlled by U.S. companies. While this brought periods of economic growth, it also created a system that was highly dependent on American markets and vulnerable to external shocks. These weaknesses became painfully clear during the Great Depression. As demand for Cuban sugar collapsed, unemployment soared and living standards declined sharply, especially in rural areas. Economic hardship quickly translated into political unrest.

A family of rural cane cutters during this period

By the early 1930s, opposition to the government of pro-American Gerardo Machado had reached a breaking point. Machado’s increasingly authoritarian rule, combined with the economic crisis, sparked widespread protests, strikes and violence across the island. In 1933, his government collapsed under mounting pressure from America, who were losing confidence in his leadership. What followed was not a stable transition, but a period of political turmoil, marked by rapidly changing governments and competing factions struggling for control. Out of this instability emerged a new and influential figure, Fulgencio Batista.

Initially rising through the ranks as a military officer during the so-called “Sergeants’ Revolt,” Batista became the dominant figure behind the scenes, exerting control over the Cuban government throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Although Cuba experimented with constitutional government during this period, political corruption, economic inequality and social unrest remained persistent problems. In 1952, Batista seized power directly in a military coup, cancelling elections and establishing a dictatorship. His regime maintained close ties with the United States and oversaw continued economic growth in some sectors, particularly in urban areas such as Havana. However, this growth was unevenly distributed. Large sections of the population, especially in rural regions, continued to live in poverty, while political repression increased.

The […] most disastrous of our failures, was the decision to give stature and support to one of the most bloody and repressive dictatorships in the long history of Latin American repression. Fulgencio Batista murdered 20,000 Cubans in seven years – a greater proportion of the Cuban population than the proportion of Americans who died in both World Wars, and he turned Democratic Cuba into a complete police state – destroying every individual liberty. Yet, [the United States] publicly praised Batista – hailed him as a staunch ally and a good friend – at a time when Batista was murdering thousands, destroying the last vestiges of freedom, and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the Cuban people, and we failed to press for free elections.
John F. Kennedy’s speech at a Democratic Party dinner, 1960

Batista’s regime radicalised many among the Cuban populace. Confidence in democratic institutions was severely undermined and they began to believe that American foreign policy regarding anti-Communism had been prioritised over the needs of the Cuban people. One of the radicalised individuals was a young lawyer by the name of Fidel Castro. Castro, who had previously ran for political office and legally challenged Batista, had largely given up on the rule of law and believed that only an armed revolution could stop him. Castro was not originally a communist or particularly anti-American by the beginnings of his political activity, having hired multiple anti-communists in his government when he rose to power. However, these people were eventually sidelined as his regime progressed.

Castro under arrest after the 1953 Moncada Attack

In July of 1953, Castro led over 160 people in an attack on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba, in an attempt to enact a mass popular uprising. However, this was an abject failure, with many of the rebels being captured, tortured and executed. Both Castro and his brother were arrested, but he managed to use the trial as a platform for his ideology and the platform that would build the foundations for the later revolution. The pair were released in May 1955 and founded the July 26th Movement, named after the date of the Moncada attacks, before retreating to Mexico to regroup and reorganise. Here, they met Che Guevara.

A former medical student, Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna believed that much of the poverty, hunger and disease that he had witnessed was a product of a capitalist system of exploitation by the United States against Latin America, an ideology that was solidified after the CIA assisted overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz. The Castro brothers, Guevara and some 80 revolutionaries crowded onto a yacht and set sail to Cuba in 1956, where they were ambushed by Cuban forces. A handful of survivors retreated into the mountains. From here, the plan for the revolution was devised, where it would be split between guerilla fighting in the mountains and an insurgency in urban areas. Eventually, a combination of military defeats, loss of public support and the backing out of elites and the US led to Batista fleeing the country in early 1959. Castro and Guevara’s forces entered Havana largely unopposed due the collapse of the Cuban government.

Whilst there was a great demand for change within Cuba, the support for Castro’s movement in particular was not universal. It was undecided what was to come post-Batista amongst the Cuban populace, which Castro believed could become a breeding ground for a US-backed counter revolution, ideas which were reinforced by the CIA backed failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. As a result of this belief even prior to the invasion, he suppressed the vast majority of political opposition whilst pursuing closer diplomatic and economic ties with the Soviet Union, which led to economic sanctions by the US. Using their economic backing from the USSR, Castro advanced social reforms in education and healthcare, but many of these programmes became strained following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Despite this, the US sanctions on Cuba have persisted, despite the near yearly declarations by the UN to lift the sanctions. Many have described the vast poverty in Cuba caused by the sanctions as a humanitarian crisis.

The Truman Doctrine

In the aftermath of World War 2, many of the war torn countries, such as France and Poland, began to turn to Communism in order to rebuild. Wanting to expand their influence, the Communist USSR, lead by Joseph Stalin, wanted to expand Communism all across Europe. Meanwhile, the United States opposed this, wanting more countries to embrace free market economies, capitalism and democracy. This lead to tensions rising between the two factions who were once allies against the Nazis. This divide between Western Capitalism and Eastern Communism was no clearer than in Greece.

From 1946-1949, Greece was in a civil war, between the Nationalists, backed by the United States, and the Communists. Whilst Harry Truman, President of the United States, feared that the Soviets may back the Greek Communists, Stalin’s focus was more on Turkey, and seeing if they would become a Communist nation, due to their oil production in Iran needing to pass through Turkish waters, requesting a military base in the country and transit rights through the Dardanelles Strait and the Sea of Marmara. Due to the economic impacts of having the water being Soviet Occupied, the United States sought a democracy in Turkey.

Many people feared that the Soviet Union would have a monopoly over the Mediterranean if Greece and Turkey fell to Communism. Truman chose to take action and addressed Congress with his plan on March 12th, 1947

One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.

The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.

I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.
An excerpt from Truman’s speech to Congress

Truman was very careful to not explicitly name Communism or the USSR, but everyone knew what he was talking about. In order to truly combat communism, Truman, with the advise from Senator Arthur Vandenburg, over exaggerated the crisis, to such a degree where it would scare the American people and get them to side against Communism. Many modern historians cite the Truman Doctrine as the declaration of the Cold War.

Donald Trump’s Early Life

Donald John Trump was born on June 14th, 1946 to Fred and Mary Anne Trump. His father, Fred, had started off making a successful carpentry business. However, during the Great Depression, this business was on the verge of bankruptcy, until he built one of the largest self serve supermarkets in New York and sold it for a large profit. He used the money to buy up a subsidiary of a bankrupt real estate company for pennies on the dollar, giving them access to a large number of properties that were bordering foreclosure. Fred bought them for a fraction of the price that he sold them at, making his company one of the most profitable and famous real estate companies in the city.

Donald was the fourth child of five. He had three older siblings, Maryanne, Fred Jr and Elizabeth, and had one younger brother, Robert. The Trump House was enormous, with 23 rooms in prime Queens Real Estate and a Chauffeur that drove the children to school every morning.

However, despite this lavish lifestyle, Fred was very tough on his children. Despite his vast wealth, Fred still forced Donald to do his local paper round. Donald became a notorious bully at school and with his younger brother.

I was a very assertive, aggressive kid. In the second grade I actually gave a teacher a black eye—I punched my music teacher because I didn’t think he knew anything about music and I almost got expelled. […] As an adolescent I was mostly interested in creating mischief, because for some reason I liked to stir things up, and I liked to test people. I’d throw water balloons, shoot spitballs, and make a ruckus in the schoolyard and at birthday parties. It wasn’t malicious so much as it was aggressive.
Donald Trump’s writing in “The Art of the Deal”

Due to his unruly behaviour, Donald was sent, by his father, to New York Military Academy. NYMA was notorious for being incredibly tense, with physical and verbal abuse being actively encouraged, often times with hazing new students and physical assaults from teachers. However, Donald quickly learnt discipline and was Captain in his class, whilst being dubbed the Ladies Man of his yearbook. He was very well known in his school as being the baseball champion, often being incredibly successful in first base. Many teachers began to notice that Trump always had to be number one, and would do anything to be so. He then graduated the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in economics.

The Verrazano Narrows Bridge connected Brooklyn to Staten Island and had finished construction in 1964, being the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. Fred had invited Donald down to the opening and was in the crowd during the ceremony. He later told the New York Times that no-one mentioned the designer of the bridge, not even once.

I realised then and there that if you let people treat you how they want, you’ll be made a fool, […] I don’t want to be anyone’s sucker.
Donald Trump speaking to the New York Times

Due to him being in college, he managed to avoid the Vietnam draft 4 separate times. Once he left college, he was called up once again but it was claimed that he had a problem with his heel bone so could not be called up. It is worth noting however that the doctors who told this to the draft office either lived or worked in Trump Properties.

The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

In 1932, in Cavendish University, J. D. Cockcroft and E. T. S. Walton bombarded lithium with protons from a particle accelerator. The protons caused the lithium atom to split. Many scientists, the most notably of whom were under Nazi governance in Germany, realised that if they continued to split uranium and plutonium atoms, with the protons from one atom splitting another and the process repeating in a process called fission, they could make a new source of energy. However, with this power, the results could also be used for much more sinister means.

August, 1939. About a month before the outbreak of WW2, Albert Einstein, a highly accomplished scientist who discovered the theory of relativity (E=mc²) sent a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, then President of the United States, on a highly serious matter. Einstein believed that the Germans were working on a super weapon, a super weapon that would harness the power of Cockcroft and Walton’s work and make a fission bomb, that could wipe cities off the map. Despite being a pacifist, Einstein believed that such a weapon would be better in the hands of the Americans than the Germans. By August of 1942, the development of an atomic weapon was granted by FDR. A group of hundreds of scientists all were called upon by the US government to assist in the development of the technology.

One of the top scientists on the project, who led the scientific research and design of the bomb, was Dr J Robert Oppenheimer. He graduated in chemistry from Harvard and obtained his doctorate in physics from the University of Göttingen in Germany. Whilst abroad in Europe, he learned a lot about quantum physics, a field that was not that expanded in the United States. One of the most notable German physicians was Werner Heisenberg, who thought of the famous Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Many believed that Heisenberg was working on the German Nuclear bomb.

Back to Oppenheimer, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkley, where he expanded the field of Quantum Physics in the United States, becoming a professor in 1936. He even partially discovered a black hole in 1939. He was considered to be one of the greatest minds in Atomic Research, the kind of man that the US was after. However, he was under observation by the FBI since 1941 due to his ties to communist groups and union activity whilst in California. Most notably, he was a leading figure in the Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists, and Technicians (FAECT), a white collar union for technical professions, and met many close friends through the Communist Party of the USA, of which his brother Frank was a member.

His wife, Kitty, was a former member of the Communist Party before leaving in the 1930s before they met. He also had an on and off affair with active Communist Party member, Jean Tatlock, who committed suicide in 1944. However, whether he was actually a member of the party was heavily debated. During his 1954 security clearance hearing, he testified that he agreed with many of the ideas of communism but would not tow a party line. He also openly campaigned and funded the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, before joining the American Committee for Democracy and Intellectual Freedom, which campaigned against Jewish persecution in Nazi Germany. The group was later branded as communist during the era of McCarthyism. As Chief of Security for the Manhattan Project, Colonel Boris Pash was asked to assess Oppenheimer regarding his alleged communist ties. Whilst stating that he “may still be connected with the Communist Party”, Pash did not believe Oppenheimer to be a spy, believing that “Oppenheimer’s personal honour and concern for his reputation would deter him from such action”. Pash therefore did not recommend his removal from the project, but instead that Oppenheimer be accompanied by counter-intelligence agents.

Oppenheimer, as well as many other notable scientists such as Richard Feynman, Edward Teller and Isidor Isaac Rabi, were gathered in Los Alamos, a remote part of the New Mexican Desert where a small town was built in order for the scientists to do their research and accommodate their families. The bomb, codenamed the Manhattan Project, was worked on for months on end. The first contained chain reaction occurred in a secret lab under a Chicago University football stadium. The theory’s were now fact and the development of the bomb begun. During the time creating the bomb, Italy fell after an allied invasion and a small civil war. The Axis powers were on the ropes and the President, now Harry Truman after the death of FDR on April 12th of 1945, was confident that this bomb would be the final push to end the German War Machine. However, it ended a lot sooner than expected.

On the 21st of April 1945, the Soviet forces entered Berlin. Only 9 days later, Hitler fed cyanide to his wife, Eva Braun, and shot himself in his bunker in Berlin. A little over a week later, Germany surrendered. 2 out of the 3 major Axis powers were out of the war as well as the bomb’s target. Truman began to reconsider the target. He had been bombing the Japanese for months on end and he believed that a mainland invasion of Japan would only cost more American lives. With the Soviets beginning to invade Japanese occupied Manchuria, he decided what to do.

On July 16th 1945, in the middle of the New Mexican desert, a fireball erupted. The infamous Trinity Test had been conducted. The bomb worked. Around a month later, in the city of Hiroshima, Japan, the first bomb was dropped.

Photos of the bombings (Hiroshima left and Nagasaki right)

Buildings were instantly turned to rubble and people were vaporised on the spot, leaving only their shadows on the pavement. However, some would consider these the lucky ones. Akiko Takakura was at the Bank of Hiroshima when the bomb dropped. Despite being within 300 metres of the hypo-centre, she survived the initial bomb.

When I regained consciousness, I found myself in the dark. […] After a while, it began to rain. The fire and the smoke made us so thirsty and there was nothing to drink, no water, and the smoke even disturbed our eyes. As it began to rain, people opened their mouths and turned their faces towards the sky and try to drink the rain, but it wasn’t easy to catch the rain drops in our mouths. It was a black rain with big drops. […] We opened our mouths just like this, as wide as possible in an effort to quench our thirst. Everybody did the same thing. But it just wasn’t enough.
Takakura’s account of the aftermath of the bombing

A drawing that Takakura made of her drinking the thick black rain

Takakura’s account is likely due to the bomb vapourising all the exposed water in the surrounding area, hence her dire thirst. The evaporated water had then mixed with the radioactive soot in the atmosphere, producing the thick black rain. Her friend, who also drank the water, succumbed to radiation sickness.

Private Shigeru Shimoyama just stepped into a concrete reinforced warehouse that was only 6 blocks away from the hypo-centre. He was flug against a back wall by the force of the explosion, saving him from falling debris. When he awoke, he found that his arms and shoulders had been impaled on nails protruding from the wall, leaving him hanging about a metre off the ground. Upon freeing himself and leaving the building, he spotted a group of bureucrats carrying a life sized portrait of Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa) throught the rubble. He spied a naval vessel patrolling through the river, full of dead bodies, which paused and the crew bowed to the Emperor.

He then turned around and saw a peculiar, pinkish white, fleshy horse. It was then that he realised the horse had gone through a phenomenon known as de-gloving, in which the skin of the horse was removed by the force of the blast, but still kept the horse alive. Shigeru, horrified, ran from the scene. Whenever he turned back, the horse continued to follow him.

Another soldier stationed outside the city heard the bomb go off and saw the mushroom cloud arise from the horizon. At the train station he was at, a passenger train rolled through from Hiroshima, all its windows smashed and most of its passengers burnt to a crisp. Those who weren’t stared out the windows with blank expressions on their faces. Every coach was at least smouldering with two coahces entirely engulfed in flames. After bringing a train to a stop, the group of soldiers decided to turn back in an effort to help survivors. On their way back, they encountered lines of people walking along the railway line, who all had their clothes, skin and muscles peeling off. These people were dubbed the Ant Walkers of Hiroshima.

A drawing of the Ant-Walkers by a survivor of the bombing

3 days later, another bomb was dropped, this time on Nagasaki, another nearby city. Anywhere between 150,000 and 246,000 people were killed in the bombings, the majority of which were civilians. The Japanese issued surrender on August 15th, with the surrender taking effect on September 2nd. World War 2 was over, lasting 6 years and 1 day.

The Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mamoru Shigemitsu, signing the peace proclamation aboard the USS Missouri

In the ensuing Tokyo Trials, seven out of the 28 people on trial were executed for crimes against peace, war crimes or crimes against humanity, including the Japanese Prime Ministers, Kōki Hirota and Hideki Tojo. Other Prime Ministers during this time were not executed, either sentenced to prison, dying before Japanese surrender or simply not being tried. Most notably, Senjūrō Hayashi and Fumimaro Konoe both died before Japanese surrender, from a brain haemorrhage and cyanide ingestion respectively. Kiichirō Hiranuma was sentenced to life at Tokyo before passing away in 1953. Nobuyuki Abe was arrested by the American occupation government but was never tried for any war crimes. The Emperor, however, was not tried on such crimes, despite being complicit in them, as the United States believed that in order to secure Japan for a democratic future, a stable Emperor must help them in their efforts. In addition, no-one on trial ever implicated Hirohito in any of the atrocities they committed in China and the Pacific.

However, the head of Unit 731, the Japanese human experimentation unit, Shirō Ishii, was not indicted for such crimes, as the Americans wanted to exchange their findings for immunity in court. Some of Unit 731’s experiments involved largely biological research. On occasion, they would release the bubonic plague into populated Chinese villages to study the rate of infection. They would give various diseases to prisoners of war and vivisecting them to observe the results on the human body. They would also cut open a person whilst they were still alive to remove organs to observe what impact it would have on the human body, including connecting the guts back up to the throat. This is only the tip of the iceberg of these experiments and the man behind these experiments got off Scott free.

After the bombing, Oppenheimer became and advisor to the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), where he strongly advocated for international control of nuclear power in order to prevent a nuclear arms race with the Soviets. After the testing of the first Soviet nuclear bomb in 1949, Oppenheimer was suspected of allowing Russian spies into Los Alamos due to his communist ties. He had a feud with Lewis Strauss, the commissioner of the AEC, who felt sidelined by Oppenheimer’s contributions to the commission and atomic policy at large. Most notably, Oppenheimer believed that the government should be more open about American nuclear capabilities, whilst Strauss believed that such openness would benefit nobody but Soviet military planners. In 1949, Oppenheimer mocked a suggestion by Strauss in a public hearing regarding the medical use of isotopes. This was something that Strauss found humiliating and would never forget.

A photo of Strauss testifying in the 1950s

Eventually, Strauss began to develop a feud beyond just personal and political disagreements. He eventually began to suspect Oppenheimer of being a Soviet Spy. Strauss requested of J Edgar Hoover that he conduct surveillance on Oppenheimer, who discovered no evidence of disloyalty to the United States. However, Strauss persisted, organising with William L. Borden, former executive director of the United States Congress Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearance. Borden sent a letter to the FBI, stating that “more probably than not J. Robert Oppenheimer is an agent of the Soviet Union.” The clearance hearing was organised by Strauss, who appointed the board of three men as well as the lawyer to lead the case against Oppenheimer. Most of the evidence used against Oppenheimer was obtained illegally and was not shared with Oppenheimer’s lawyers in advance. Many government officials and scientists at Los Alamos testified at the hearing. Most notably, Lieutenant General Leslie Groves, Military Director of the Manhattan Project, stated the following.

In this case I refer particularly to associations and not to the associations as they exist today but the past record of the associations. I would not clear Dr. Oppenheimer today if I were a member of the Commission on the basis of this interpretation.
Excerpt from Groves’ testimony on Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer’s clearance was revoked in a 2-1 vote. He was shunned from the scientific community and political life for years until Lyndon B. Johnson gave him the Enrico Fermi Award, named after the Italian Physicist who created the first artificial nuclear reactor.

Many scholars today still wonder if the use of nuclear bombs on Japan was necessary. Some say that Japan would’ve surrendered regardless and that the bombing was merely Truman showing the power of the United States. No matter what you may think of the ethics of the bombing may be, the impact of the bombing was undeniable, with many people fearing nuclear annihilation due to rising tensions between nuclear powers, a fear that began in the 40s and is still very prevalent to this day.

A military parade in North Korea in present day, showing off North Korea’s nuclear warheads

The longer the fighting goes on [in Ukraine], the more lives will be lost and the greater risk of nuclear escalation. Those who fuel escalation must know that in the event of a nuclear war, nobody wins.
Jeremy Corbyn, former UK Labour Party Leader, in an article for ‘Tribune’ magazine