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Three New CWIHP Publications Available

The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) is pleased to announce the release of several new CWIHP publications.

The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) is pleased to announce the release of several new CWIHP publications.

CWIHP Working Paper #42, "The Soviet's Best Friend in Asia: The Mongolian Dimension of the Sino-Soviet Split" by Sergey S. Radshenko, is based on extensive archival research in the Russian and Mongolian archives. The Working Paper is a case study in the impact of the Sino-Soviet split in Asia where smaller socialist countries were forced to choose sides between the two communist giants, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. While North Korea and North Vietnam rallied to the Chinese case of "Afro-Asian solidarity," becoming virulently anti-Soviet by 1963, the Mongolian People's Republic, despite tremendous political and economic pressure from China, unequivocally sided with Moscow. With unprecedented access to archives in Moscow and Ulaanbaatar, Radchenko traces Mongolia's difficult but steadfast course as Moscow's "best friend in Asia." CWIHP Working Paper #42 is a revised version of a paper presented by Radshenko at the GWCW/CWIHP conference on "New Evidence from Central and East European Archives on the Cold War in Asia," held in Budapest, 30 October –1 November 2003. Translated documents are provided as appendices.

CWIHP e-Dossier No. 9 presents excerpts of recently released East German intelligence documents on NATO's military planning. Stasi spies in NATO obtained actual war plans of the alliance, yet East German and Soviet leaders saw these essentially defensive plans as a cover for a forthcoming first strike—a fear that peaked in the "war scare" of 1983. The documents were obtained from the Stasi archives in Berlin for the Zurich-based "Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact" by Bernd Schäfer, a PHP associate and CWIHP Senior Scholar. Excerpts of the documents are provided as appendices to the e-Dossier.

CWIHP e-Dossier No. 10, "Poland and the Sino-Soviet Rift, 1963-1965," by Douglas Selvage (US Department of State) highlights the Polish reaction to the Sino-Soviet Split and the ouster of Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev in October 1964. The paper was first presented at the GWCW/CWIHP conference on "New Evidence from Central and East European Archives on the Cold War in Asia," held in Budapest, 30 October –1 November 2003, and is part of a forthcoming book by Selvage. Documents are provided as appendices to the e-Dossier.

CWIHP e-Dossier No. 11 presents three interpretative perspectives on the question of whether Manhattan Project scientist Robert Oppenheimer was a Soviet spy. The discussion focuses on the significance of the so-called Merkulov letter (1944), published in Jerrold L. and Leona P. Schecter's book: Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History (2002), first discussed at a Cold War International History Project seminar last year. CWIHP e-Dossier No. 11 features (a translation of) the Merkulov letter with comments by authors Jerrold L. and Leona P. Schecter, historian Gregg Herken and former intelligence analyst Hayden Peake.

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Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more