A GUIDE TO WEB RESOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE COLD WAR

 Click on:

World War II	The Atomic Bomb	Cold War Origins	The Cold War in Asia	Cold War Politics
Cold War Culture	US, Latin American & Cold War	Vietnam	The Cold War Revival	New World Order

ABOUT THIS SITE:  The web sites listed below have been organized to assist undergraduate students to learn more about the history of the the United States during the Cold War. Many of these sites are themselves collections of links to other web sites. Most (though by no means all) have been created by librarians, historians, museum curators and other members of the historical community.  Many of the sites link to one another, which may sometimes lend a recursive quality to your search.   Moreover, although the web is growing very rapidly and new information is constantly appearing;  sites also move and sometimes disappear entirely. Because the web is constantly growing and changing, this particular site is perpetually "under construction."  New sites are added, old one's deleted, and broken links repaired.  At this point, the annotations are very impressionistic.  I hope in time to improve them.  If you have contributions, corrections or other comments to offer, please let me know at bgriff@american.edu.

 Having said this, several important warnings are in order:

• Don't confuse the web and  world.  The web is huge and growing every day.  But it represents only a tiny fraction of  human knowledge.  Most of  what is available in our libraries and archives has NOT been digitally formatted; and, for a variety of reasons, is not likely to be in the near future.  Thus, the web can supplement, but not replace traditional libraries and archives.
• Web based materials must be subject to the same rigorous rules used for evaluating printed material.  Indeed, web based materials must be scrutinized even more rigorously.  After all, information that you find in a library has already gone through a rigorous selection process managed by highly trained professional librarians; but literally anyone can post material on the web.  Thus, you will need to evaluate material by asking:  who "published" the material?  when?  how credible is the source?  what bias of point of view shapes the selection and content of the material? etc., etc.
• Navigating the web can be confusing.  Many web links, including those listed below, list the same sites.  Many list one another.  The result is a recursive effect, with many loops doubling back on one another.

World War II and the Origins of Postwar America

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library -- includes a variety of resources, including links to other sites.

Franklin D. Roosevelt -- POTUS site maintained by the Internet Public Library.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal -- links to many, many web sites, including those dealing with WWII.

FDR and Foreign Affairs -- a link to part of a PBS special, The American Experience

The Franklin D. Memorial Homepage -- maintained by the FDR Memorial, this site also includes many links.

World War II Documents from the Avalon Project (Yale University)

World War II -- an online journal sponsored by historynet.com

World War II on the Web -- an extensive set of links.

Top of Page

The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan

• The Atomic Age at Fifty -- A Time-Life essay, with an especially valuable page of  Links.
• The Atomic Archive -- created by AJ software to accompany its CD ROM, The Atomic Age.
• The Avalon Project : The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- a collection of primary materials maintained by Yale University.
• "Bureau of Atomic Tourism" --it may take a bit to come to terms with a web site dedicated to atomic bomb related sites as tourist attractions; nevertheless, this page includes links to a number of museums and collections that might otherwise be missed.
• The Decision to Use the Bomb -- an excellent collection of documents, linked to the home page of the renown physicist Leo Szilard.
• Documents Relating to U.S. Foreign Policy --Hiroshima  -- an excellent collection of links, part of a larger site on U.S. International Affairs maintained at Mt. Holyoke College.  Thanks to Dustin Pickins for calling this site to our attention.
•  The Enola Gay Exhibit --in 1995, the Smithsonian Institution canceled a proposed exhibition on the atomic bomb and the end of WWII.  This site includes excerpts from the script and the layout of the exhibition. A much smaller, and studiously non controversial, exhibit was mounted in place of the intended exhibition..  For a description of this exhibition, click on Enola Gay.  Some of the principal artifacts intended for the original exhibit, loaned by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, were subsequently displayed at American University during the summer of 1995.   For more information about the controversy, point your browser to the web site organized by graduate students in library science at the University of  Maryland at College Park,  Enola Gay Perspective.
• The Hiroshima Archive -- Lewis and Clark Web site with extensive links and other sources on the use of the atomic bomb and the controversy over the Enola Gay exhibition.
• The Hiroshima City Home Page  -- includes links to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and other sites.
• The Hiroshima Project -- a huge collection of links, assembled by two European professors.
• The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum  -- web site maintained by the Nagasaki museum.
• Remembering Nagasaki -- part of a web site created by San Francisco's Exploritorium.
• Yahoo's Atomic Bomb Links -- a list of links to sites dealing with various aspects of the bomb's manufacture and use, and with the ensuing debates.

The Origins of the Cold War

• The Avalon Project : A Decade of American Foreign Policy --basic documents, 1941-49.
• CNN Cold War Special -- this web site was designed to accompany the CNN's  24 part documentary series on the Cold War, which began airing on September 27, 1998. See also, the Discovery Channel's World in Conflict series, which includes documentaries (and lesson plans) on the Korean War, the Rosenberg Case, Eisenhower and the Cold War, and Star Wars.
• The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) -- see the CWIHP virtual library for many documentary materials relating to the origins of the Cold War.
• Cold War Links -- a long list of cold war sites created by anthropologist Don Price.
• Department of State FOIA Reading Room -- this web site, and others like it, provide electronic access to some recently declassified documents, as well as guides to obtaining access to many others.
• Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy: The Cold War -- an extensive set of documents collected by Professor Vincent Ferraro at Mt. Holyoke College.
• The Harvard Project on Cold War Studies -- established under the aegis of the University's Davis Center for Russian Studies, the Harvard Project features a new journal, a book series and other activities relating to the study of the Cold War.
• The National Security Archive Home Page  -- includes documentary material on early nuclear policy.

Soviet Archives Exhibit -  by the Library of Congress, focuses on Soviet perspectives of the U.S. during the early Cold War.
• Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of US Nuclear Weapons since 1940 -- a 1998 report by the Brookings Institution.

 

Cold War Politics

• Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.
• Harry S. Truman -- POTUS site maintained by the Internet Public Library.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower -- POTUS site maintained by the Internet Public Library.
• The Cold War in Washington State -- a collection of documents and teaching aids prepared by Michael Reese of the University of Washington.
• The Cost of the Cold War -- a report by the Brookings Institution
• FBI Files -- files of FBI reports on "famous people," including Elvis, Lucille Ball, and others; released through the freedom of  information act.  See also the FBI files on Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
• Joseph R. McCarthy -- web site features audio clips of some of McCarthy's most famous speeches.
• The Rosenberg Case -- see the Discovery Channel's television show and lesson plan on the Rosenberg Case.

Cold War Culture

Anti Communism -- a web site established by the Department of History at Hanover College.

The Literature and Culture of the 1950s --an excellent collection of texts and links, part of an English class at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Fifties: A Course Syllabus -- for an honors course on the 1950s at the University of Maryland.

The Fifties: Music, Films and Television, mostly nostalgia.

The Fifties -- the History Channel's web site on the 1950s.

Cars, Consumerism and the Cold War -- an exhibition on the 1950s in Michigan.

Science Fiction Films of the 1950s --four classics, sort of.

Style o Rama -- a site devoted to fashions and styles of the 1950s, with extensive, if uneven, links to other fifties sites.

The Beats -- a web site, with extensive links, on the beats as literary and cultural rebels.  See also, the Beat Generation Archives.

See especially, Griffith, The Cultural Turn in Cold War Studies (a draft) -- an essay to be published in Reviews in American History.

 

Korea50 -- official Department of Defense web site to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Korean War. The site includes a highly selective bibliography (Bruce Cummings' critical multi-volume history is notably absent).  Much of the site is commemorative and conventionally "patriotic."  Nevertheless, its extensive links make it a valuable resource.

George C. Marshall Museum --

Douglas A. MacArthur Memorial --

 

• CIA and Assassinations: The Guatemala 1954 Documents -- declassified documents relating to the U.S. intervention in Guatemala.
• CIA Inspector General's Report on the Bay of Pigs -- the recently declassified report is available on the web site of the National Security Archive.  For the print version, see above.
• A Chronology of Cuban Affairs, 1958-1998 -- a useful, though incomplete, chronology of Cuban-US relations.
• The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962  -- extensive documents on the crisis collected by the National Security Archive.
• Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) -- contains (among other things) a great deal of  newly accessible information on the Missile Crisis.
• CIA Documents -- declassified CIA documents released under the provisions of the Freedom of  Information Act (FOIA).  See also its extensive Links to other government sources.
• Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy: The Cuban Missile Crisis -- collected by Professor Vincent Ferraro.
• Fourteen Days in October -- An outstanding site.  Probably the best for a comprehensive introduction to the Crisis.  It is rivaled only by the Cold War History Project (CWIHP) and the National Security Archive in the amount of material it presents.  It is easily navigable and contains links to other materials on the crisis.
• The John F. Kennedy Library -- includes the president's National Security directives; also links to other sites.
• The National Security Archive Home Page  --includes extensive declassified materials on U.S. policy in Central and Latin America (especially Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador).

The United States and Vietnam.

See especially  A GUIDE TO WEB RESOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES AND VIETNAM (prepared originally for a Spring 2000 class).

The Cold War Revival: 1978-1989

• Presidents of the United States( POTUS)  -- a handy reference to presidential administrations maintained by the Internet Public Library(IPO), it includes online biographies, historical documents, lists of cabinet members, notable events and some additional links. See especially the sections on Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton.
• Presidential Libraries:  The National Archives' link to all of the Presidential Libraries.  For the Clinton Administration, see The Clinton-Gore Internet Archive, part of a web site on the presidency maintained by the University of North Carolina.
• The Jimmy Carter Library -- presidential library, with links to the Carter Center.   See especially,  Related Links on Carter and the Carter Presidency.
• The Jimmy Carter Historic Site -- boyhood home, maintained by the National Park Service
• Presidential Debates: History and Transcripts of  Presidential Debates.
• George Bush -- bibliography and links organized by the University of Louisville Library.
• The Ronald Reagan Homepage -- a useful, if extremely uncritical, collection of information about the former president, including many of his most famous speeches.
• Ronald Reagan Links -- 75 links (at last count), some of which are duplicative.
• The Roots of the Reagan Revolution -- an extensive web page with text, references and links, by a Hofstra University student.
• Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of US Nuclear Weapons since 1940 -- a 1998 report by the Brookings Institution.

• Cold War International History Project -- the CWIHP web site includes extensive documentation on the Reagan policies and on the End of the Cold War.
• The Contras, Cocaine and Covert Operations -- the National Security Archive has mounted a collection of documents relating to San Jose Mercury series on the U.S., the Nicaraguan contras and the drug trade.
• Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy:  the Reagan Years -- collected by Professor Vincent Ferraro of Mt. Holyoke College.
• The Ronald Reagan Homepage -- a useful, if extremely uncritical, collection of information about the former president, including many of his most famous speeches.
• Ronald Reagan Links -- 75 links, some of which are duplicative.
• Star Wars -  see the Discovery Channel's show on Star Wars and the accompanying lesson plans.
• Department of State FOIA Reading Room --web site provides access to recently declassified documents, including many relating to U.S. policy in El Salvador.
• CIA FOIA Web site -- declassified CIA documents released under the provisions of the Freedom of  Information Act (FOIA).  See also its extensive Links

to other government sources.

New World (Dis)Order:

George Bush -- bibliography and links organized by the University of Louisville Library.

The Clinton-Gore Internet Archive, part of a web site on the presidency maintained by the University of North Carolina.

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) -- a premier, public policy think tank; see especially its project on the U.S. and the New Global Economy.

Documents Relating to Global Economic Policy -- collected by Professor Vincent Ferraro of Mt. Holyoke College.

Free Trade: A Debate -- contrasting views of U.S. trade policy, at "Intellectual Capital" site.

Foreign Affairs -- web site of the distinguished publication. See especially its unparalleled collection of  Web Links.

The Foreign Policy Project -- a collection of studies and documents on future U.S. foreign policy, developed under the auspices of the nonprofit Henry L. Stimson Center.  See especially its collection of Foreign Policy/International Relations Web Sites.

George Bush -- bibliography and links organized by the University of Louisville Library.  Note its links on Desert Storm.

The George Bush Foreign Policy Project -- organized by the Center for Presidential Studies and the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M.

Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) -- a list of  links to many private organizations concerned with contemporary foreign affairs.

The Whirlwind War -- the U.S. Army's Official History of the Gulf War.