Nixon became the first American president to use the term Pe…

Nixon became the first American president to use the term People’s Republic of China. As a conservative anti-Communist, he accomplished a diplomatic feat his Democratic predecessors could not have attempted without being branded soft on communism. In Moscow the same year, Nixon and Brezhnev signed SALT I, limiting nuclear missile arsenals and barring missile-defense systems. The strategy underlying both initiatives was to

In the event of another European war, ninety-nine Americans…

In the event of another European war, ninety-nine Americans in a hundred “would today regard as an imbecile anyone who might suggest” that the United States take part in it. — Christian Century, 1935. “No nation can appease the Nazis. No man can turn a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. . . . We must be the great arsenal of democracy.”– Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940–41. The shift between these two positions is best explained by

The Pittsburgh Courier urged readers to support the war effo…

The Pittsburgh Courier urged readers to support the war effort while pressing for racial equality, publishing two interlocking Vs. The editors insisted their campaign should not be read “as a plot to impede the war effort.” The Double V campaign is best characterized as