How a Government Mind Control Experiment Backfired
Historian John Lisle uncovers how Cold War paranoia, LSD, and unchecked power led the CIA to fund torture, deception, and mind control experiments on unwitting Americans.
Cold War
There's Probably No 'Smoking Gun' in the JFK or Epstein Cases. We Should Be Allowed To Look Anyway.
You don't need to uncover a vast conspiracy to find valuable revelations—and without transparency, you don't know what revelations might be there.
A Brief, Bloody History of All the Times the U.S. Caused Chaos in the Middle East
The conflict with Iran is the latest in a decadeslong series of regime change operations, long-term entanglements, and all-out wars that always seem to invite more problems.
Was the Cold War a Deception?
The American Enterprise Institute's Hal Brands and investigative journalist Gareth Porter debate the necessity of the Cold War.
McCarthyism, Past—and Present?
Clay Risen's Red Scare book wrongly frames it as an exclusively conservative hysteria.
That Time the FBI Conspired To Get George Foreman an Award for Boxing
In 1968, the feds thought that the boxing champion—and future grill salesman—could be a potent weapon against the left.
What Ronald Reagan's Fusionist Politics Teach Us About Liberty, Virtue, and Their Limits
Fusionism holds that virtue and liberty are mutually reinforcing, and that neither is possible in any lasting or meaningful way without the other.
The Indian-Pakistani Ceasefire Is What U.S. Diplomacy Should Look Like
Sitting on the sidelines let America play neutral mediator and talk down both sides.
The Cold War Broadcasting Apparatus Should Shut Down
Dissidents resisting authoritarian regimes should be independent of the United States—and so should their media sources.
5 of the Worst USAID Scandals in History
The agency's low points, from working with child sex abusers to enabling drug trafficking
Iran Hawks Are Falling for the 'Evil Wizard' Theory of Geopolitics
Assassinating enemy leaders isn’t a silver bullet for solving international conflict.
Trump Wishes Americans Stayed in Afghanistan To Fight China
The president who helped end America’s longest war now regrets leaving behind U.S. bases.
In the Hands of the Jury
Plus: A new Cold War, Pope Francis using slurs, Israeli surveillance, and more...
How Did Kissinger Become an American Citizen?
Reason has obtained an exclusive copy of Henry Kissinger's immigration files from the 1940s.
Genre-Bending Anime Spy x Family Tackles Cold War Espionage
State power and oppressive surveillance serve as the backdrop for this animated spy comedy.
Goodbye to George Santos and Henry Kissinger
Plus: an unexpected digression into the world of Little Debbie dessert snack cakes.
Henry Kissinger's Deadly Career Gives the Lie to the Myth of the Disinterested Statesman
But his cynical brand of realism did at least lead him to caution against some of America's ideological military adventures.
The U.S. Credit Rating Just Dropped. It's Time for Radical Budget Reform.
The lack of oversight and the general absence of a long-term vision is creating inefficiency, waste, and red ink as far as the eye can see.
Matt Dallek: The John Birch Society's Deep Influence on Trump's GOP
The George Washington University historian argues that the group's paranoid mindset and obsessions are front and center in the modern GOP.
Daniel Akst: The World War II Pacifists Who Changed America Forever
"Christian libertarians" Bayard Rustin and David Dellinger challenged state power and ended up leading the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam War protests.
Want To Beat China? Let in More Chinese!
More immigration from China would both hobble a geopolitical rival and make America richer and better.
Did Biden Just Commit America to Another Forever War in Ukraine?
Plus: the editors field a listener question on intellectual property.
By Shooting Down Balloon, the Expensive, Useless F-22 Fighter Finally Won a Dogfight
After $67 billion and more than 20 years, the F-22 finally won a dogfight against an unarmed, nearly immobile opponent.
Nothing About the Chinese Balloon Saga Makes Sense
Plus: The French face "le wokisme," a Tennessee "eyelash specialist license" would require 300 hours education, and more...
The Press Idolizes Politicians. Instead, It Needs To Hold Them Accountable.
Newspapers deserve a great deal of credit for the expansion of freedom over the past 200 years. But the media have lost credibility.
It Wasn't What He Wanted, But Gorbachev Allowed an Evil Empire To Collapse
Alas, the Russians never forgave him.
Cuba Liberalizes Economy as Economic Crisis and Protests Grow
The island’s communist government announced it would allow foreign investors to enter its nationalized retail industry as it faces shortages, blackouts, and new protests.
James Kirchick: How Homophobia Warped the Cold War
The Secret City author explains how panic about homosexuality led to discrimination, bad policy, and, eventually, freedom.
After the War
In the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it's time for Europe to step up and America to step back.
What Biden Can Learn from Eisenhower's 1957 State of the Union
The world's conscience had been shocked by Russia's recent invasion of a sovereign European state. Ike responded with sober, long-game containment in Europe...and more reckless escalation in the Middle East.
The Uses and Disadvantages of Soviet History for Life
It is hard to comprehend the scarcity and existential dread that was humanity's constant companion during the Cold War.
Scott Horton: U.S. Should Have Pulled Out Of Afghanistan Years Ago
The Enough Already: Time To End the War on Terror author on fixing foreign policy in the Joe Biden era.
Spy City Lives Up to Its Name with Complex Cold War Intrigue
AMC+ thriller takes viewers to paranoid, dangerous '60s Berlin.
The Queen's Gambit
The protagonist's speedy evolution into an anti–Cold Warrior is the better subplot.
Rock Legend Frank Zappa Battles Censorship, Communism, and Conformity in a New Documentary
Alex Winter's new film celebrates the Rock Hall of Famer's individualism, anti-authoritarianism, and entrepreneurship.
A Silicon Curtain Descends
Trump escalated America's war against Huawei and China. Biden should beware burgeoning technonationalism.
Alex Winter: Frank Zappa's Ultra-Individualist Legacy
The rock legend fought for free speech and self-expression in ways that appealed to dissidents in America and communist countries alike.
Taghi Amirani: How the U.S.-Backed 1953 Coup in Iran Is Still Changing Global Politics
New documentary explains why installing the shah in 1953 led to ruinous American covert operations throughout the Cold War and beyond.
Michael Shellenberger: Environmental Alarmism Is Wrong and Harmful
The Apocalypse Never author documents that things are getting greener and makes a case for nuclear power.
How Rob Long Went from Cheers to National Review to LSD
The long, strange, and unfinished trip of a sitcom-writing legend who turned right after the Cold War, co-founded a podcast empire, turned on to psychedelics, and got turned off to politics.
Escape from Earth
Was rocketry pioneer Frank Malina written out of some histories of space exploration for his political sins?
The Peace-Loving Military Robots' Plot
Friday A/V Club: That time NBC broadcast a radical Philip K. Dick fable to a 1950s audience
Meet the New President of the Foundation for Economic Education, America's Oldest Free Market Think Tank
Raised in Lithuania during the final years of the Cold War, Zilvinas Silenas wants to bring libertarian ideas to young people in the 21st century.
