Kim Shin-jo, the only captured member of a team of 31 North Korean commandos who came within striking distance of the South Korean presidential palace in central Seoul before they were repelled in 1968, died on Wednesday. He was 82.…
Tag: Cold War Era
Oleg Gordievsky, K.G.B. Officer Turned Double Agent, Dies at 86
Oleg Gordievsky, who was the top K.G.B. agent in London until he defected to the West in 1985 and revealed himself as a longtime double agent for British intelligence — making him one of the most highly placed Western spies…
Trump Did What Castros Couldn’t: Take Radio Martí Off the Air
Journalists from Radio Martí, the U.S. federally-funded news outlet aimed at communist Cuba, were in the middle of interviewing a Cuban activist in Miami on a recent Saturday when bleak looks suddenly came over their faces. The 40-year-old news agency,…
Trump’s Embrace of Russia Leaves Europe in Emotional Shock
For decades a core objective of the Soviet Union was to “decouple” the United States from Europe. Decoupling, as it was called, would break the Western alliance that kept Soviet tanks from rolling across the Prussian plains. Now, in weeks,…
A Europe in Emotional Shock Grapples With a New Era
For decades a core objective of the Soviet Union was to “decouple” the United States from Europe. Decoupling, as it was called, would break the Western alliance that kept Soviet tanks from rolling across the Prussian plains. Now, in weeks,…
Welcome to the Zero Sum Era. Now How Do We Get Out?
My grandfather’s idea of an Easter egg hunt involved hiding money in colorful plastic eggs sprinkled around his house in Long Island. Most held coins, but there was always one with a crisp, new $100 bill. My cousin, Billy-O, and…
Boris Spassky, Chess Champion Who Lost ‘Match of the Century,’ Dies at 88
Boris Spassky, the world chess champion whose career was overshadowed by his loss to Bobby Fischer in the “Match of the Century” in 1972, died on Thursday in Moscow. He was 88. His death was announced by the International Chess…
In Former East Germany, the Hard-Right AfD Party Finds Most of Its Support
Three and a half decades after reunification, a line runs through Germany where the Iron Curtain once stood. Instead of barbed wires and dogs, that line now divides Germans by measures like income and unemployment — and increasingly by the…