HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: The official website for BBC History Magazine
date: 2025-12-10T13:04:57.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: The summer that changed everything for the Kennedys
items: The librarian who stole KGB secrets
items: It was Operation Unthinkable: Churchill's "impossible" plan to start World War 3
items: Reagan's plan to 'make America great again'
items: America in Korea: a failed occupation?
items: How the Cold War made the modern world
items: Watergate is the ultimate American conspiracy – but what if we’ve been misunderstanding it all along?
items: Iron Mountain: the conspiracy that duped America
items: Is Oppenheimer a true story? Meet the real Robert Oppenheimer, ‘father of the atomic bomb’
items: The CIA’s most unlikely Cold War weapon? A secret smuggling operation that terrified Soviet censors

The summer that changed everything for the Kennedys
type: item
date: 2025-12-10T08:00:45.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: 20th Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Leigh Straw takes listeners into the pivotal summer of 1944 at the Kennedys' Cape Cod summer home, where scandal and personal loss collided to reshape the destiny of America’s most famous political family
encoded: Historian Leigh Straw describes one pivotal summer in the life of the Kennedy family. With most of the family in their Cape Cod summer home, the summer of 1944 was marked by personal grief and political legacy. As eldest son Joe Jr flew dangerous missions in the Second World War's European theatre, and Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy scandalised her parents with an aristocratic English match, the family gathered under the looming shadow of tragedy. Talking to Elinor Evans, Straw explores how this fateful summer reshaped the ambitions of younger brother Jack and steered the family’s destiny towards the White House. Leigh Straw is the author of The Kennedys at Cape Cod, 1944: The Summer That Changed Everything (Bloomsbury, 2025). Buy it now from Amazon

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The librarian who stole KGB secrets
type: item
date: 2025-11-12T08:00:41.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: 20th Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Gordon Corera introduces Vasili Mitrokhin, a Soviet archivist whose quiet rebellion exposed the deepest secrets of the KGB
encoded: When an elderly man with a battered suitcase walked into the British embassy in Vilnius in 1992, few could have guessed what he was about to hand over. Gordon Corera tells the story of Vasili Mitrokhin, an under-the-radar Soviet archivist who copied thousands of classified KGB documents over 12 years. Speaking to Elinor Evans, he reveals how a project that began as a private rebellion against the agency he once served evolved into one of the greatest intelligence coups of the 20th century. (Ad) Gordon Corera is the author of The Spy in the Archive: How One Man Tried to Kill the KGB (William Collins, 2025). Buy it now from Amazon

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It was Operation Unthinkable: Churchill's "impossible" plan to start World War 3
type: item
date: 2025-11-11T12:01:59.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: 20th Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: In 1945, as Europe celebrated peace, Winston Churchill quietly asked his generals to plan an attack on the Soviet Union. But how close was Britain to an immediate and consecutive war?
encoded: In the summer of 1945, Europe lay in ruins. But for the first time in close to a decade, the continent was contemplating the prospect of peace. Hitler was dead, the Nazi high command had collapsed, and while the war raged on in the Pacific, bombs had at least finished dropping across Europe. It was a fresh and uneasy peace – but it was still a peace. But even as celebrations were filling the streets of Europe’s great cities, British prime minister Winston Churchill was already considering another conflict. At Churchill’s request, the British chiefs of staff had drafted a proposal codenamed Operation Unthinkable. Its goal was immense: a plan to drive the Red Army out of eastern Europe and restore the independence of the nations that had now fallen under Soviet control. Within weeks of the Second World War ending, Britain was already assessing the possibility of a third. It was, as its name implied, almost inconceivable. And yet, Churchill insisted on seeing the plans. Speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast, historian Tim Bouverie explained how the idea developed. From WW2 allies to adversaries During the war, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union had fought together against Nazi Germany. But their alliance was built on a pragmatic necessity rather than trust, or a sense of shared politics. By the time of the Yalta conference in February 1945, the cracks were already showing. Read more | The rise and fall of the Third Reich At Yalta, Churchill, US president Franklin D Roosevelt and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin agreed on a postwar settlement for Europe, including a promise that liberated countries would hold free elections. Yet, as Bouverie explains, those promises began to crumble almost immediately. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/11/GettyImages-2642765-1-b0480b2-e1762862505374.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="In the grounds of the Livadia Palace at Yalta, Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin …

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Reagan's plan to 'make America great again'
type: item
date: 2025-10-17T07:00:59.000Z
creator: Matt Elton
subject: 20th Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Phil Tinline explores why Ronald Reagan's presidency was a pivotal moment for the United States – and the extent to which we can draw parallels between the country during his 1980s tenure and today
encoded: The phrase 'Make America Great Again' is indelibly associated with President Trump – yet a very similar version of the slogan – 'Let's Make America Great Again' – was in fact used by his predecessor Ronald Reagan. What can this parallel tell us about the United States of the 1980s? And does drawing such comparisons reveal anything about the US today? Speaking to Matt Elton, author and documentarian Phil Tinline offers his take.

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America in Korea: a failed occupation?
type: item
date: 2025-09-26T08:51:29.000Z
creator: Rob Attar
subject: 20th Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Cundill History Prize
description: Professor Kornel Chang revisits the three-year US occupation of the southern half of Korea that followed the Second World War, to see if opportunities were missed to prevent the bloodshed and division that followed
encoded: For three quarters of a century, the Korean peninsula has been divided between two very different regimes that are bitterly opposed to each other. But did it have to be this way? In his book, A Fractured Liberation, which has been shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize, Professor Kornel Chang revisits the US occupation of the south of Korea between 1945-1948 to explore whether opportunities were missed for a better future. For today's episode, he shared his findings with Rob Attar. Kornel Chang is the author of A Fractured Liberation: Korea under US Occupation (Harvard University Press, 2025). Buy it now from Waterstones

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How the Cold War made the modern world
type: item
date: 2025-09-17T07:00:27.000Z
creator: Danny Bird
subject: 20th Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Vladislav Zubok debunks many of the popular beliefs about the Cold War, instead presenting an era of relentless change
encoded: For most of the latter half of the 20th century, the world was frozen in a standoff. The Cold War era was defined by the ideological fissure between capitalism, led by the United States, and communism, espoused by the Soviet Union. But in a new book, Vladislav Zubok challenges much of the accepted wisdom that has shaped popular perspectives about this standoff since 1991. Speaking to Danny Bird, Zubok discusses why Americans were far more ideological than their Soviet contemporaries; why decolonisation and the Global South became the ‘nuclear fuel’ that sustained the Cold War; and how the conflict’s conclusion in the 1990s continues to reverberate in global affairs to this day. Vladislav Zubok is the author of The World of the Cold War: 1945-1991 (Pelican). Buy it now from Amazon

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Watergate is the ultimate American conspiracy – but what if we’ve been misunderstanding it all along?
type: item
date: 2025-07-25T13:45:06.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: 20th Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Period
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: Journalist and author Phil Tinline explores how a fake 1960s document convinced millions – and reveals what it says about fear, power and belief in modern America
encoded: In 1967, a mysterious book appeared on American shelves. It seemed to confirm the darkest suspicions of a country gripped by Cold War paranoia, grappling with increasingly controversial entanglement in the Vietnam War. Titled The Report from Iron Mountain, the book claimed to be a leaked government report, the findings of a secret think tank commissioned by the Kennedy administration to explore what might happen if the world ever achieved permanent peace. The conclusions were chilling. War, the report claimed, wasn’t just inevitable – it was essential. Without it, economies would falter, governments would lose their grip on power, and society would unravel. To preserve stability, the report proposed alternatives: mass enslavement, faked alien invasions, even environmental catastrophes staged to keep the population afraid and obedient. It's because of this report, says journalist and author Phil Tinline speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast, that we’ve been getting Watergate wrong for decades. It wasn't the work of “Satanic cabals” lurking in the shadows like a demonic Illuminati. It was simply a political farce amplified by a short-lived zeitgeist. Which was made all the more galling by the fact that The Report from Iron Mountain was actually a work of fiction. How a ‘peace scare’ startled Wall Street The Report from Iron Mountain was not the work of shadowy government operatives. It was satire, authored by Leonard Lewin – a political provocation designed to question America’s military priorities and its dependence on conflict. “In early 1966, it looks for a moment like the Vietnam War is going to come to an early close, that there's going to be a peace settlement,” says Tinline, author of Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax That Duped America. “On Wall Street, the response to this prospect of peace is that the price of shares dips. It doesn't go up; it dips. That’s what's called a peace scare.” This bizarre market reaction – the fear that peace could harm the economy …

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Iron Mountain: the conspiracy that duped America
type: item
date: 2025-07-23T07:00:35.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: 20th Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Journalist Phil Tinline unpacks the impact and influence of The Report From Iron Mountain – a satirical document that unintentionally put rocket fuel under the conspiracies and paranoia of the 1960s
encoded: As the war in Vietnam spiralled out of control, US president Lyndon B Johnson was confronted by a different type of threat: a fake report so convincing that it tricked Americans into believing dangerous disinformation. But that was never the intention. Revisiting The Report From Iron Mountain, journalist Phil Tinline speaks to James Osborne, to reveal how a satirical report evolved into something far more sinister than anyone could have predicted. Phil Tinline is the author of Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax that Duped America and its Sinister Legacy (Apollo, 2025). Buy it now from Waterstones

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Is Oppenheimer a true story? Meet the real Robert Oppenheimer, ‘father of the atomic bomb’
type: item
date: 2025-07-13T16:38:11.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: 20th Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Historical people
subject: Trends-Entertainment
subject: TV interest
description: Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer tells the story of the creation of the atomic bomb, a weapon so powerful that it redefined the world order. And at the centre of its development was of the first nuclear weapon, and the paradoxes and moral questions that dogged him for the rest of his life
encoded: Few famous scientists have left quite as complex a legacy as J Robert Oppenheimer, the 'father of the atomic bomb' who reflected, in aftermath watching the raw power of the first ever nuclear test in 1945, "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Oppenheimer's moral quandaries and personal demons nestled alongside his scientific brilliance, and all are explored in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which tells the story of the Manhattan Project during the Second World War. Starring Cillian Murphy ( perhaps known to history fans for his role in Peaky Blinders) in the title role, the film follows Oppenheimer’s journey from acclaimed theoretical physicist to director of the top-secret Los Alamos laboratory, where he led team of brilliant minds in a race to unlock the destructive power of the atom. The star cast also includes Emily Blunt as Kitty Oppenheimer, Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, Robert Downey Jr as Lewis Strauss, and Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves. But is any of what we see in the film true? Read on for a full breakdown of the real history in Oppenheimer. Is Oppenheimer a true story? Yes, Oppenheimer is based on true events. The film tells the story of J Robert Oppenheimer, a real-life American physicist who played a central role in the Manhattan Project, the United States’ secret programme to develop the first atomic bomb, which began in 1942. Kitty Oppenheimer, Lewis Strauss, Jean Tatlock, General Leslie Groves – they were all real historical figures who shaped Oppenheimer's life and work. So too were the questions around his political leanings, and the intense scrutiny he endured during the post-war era. Briefed with weaponising atomic energy, the 38-year-old Oppenheimer was chosen by General Leslie Groves to head up the project’s secret research laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and oversaw the development of the world’s first atomic weapons between 1943-45. Prior to taking up the post, he had carried out research into the quantity of radioact…

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The CIA’s most unlikely Cold War weapon? A secret smuggling operation that terrified Soviet censors
type: item
date: 2025-07-06T15:00:34.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: 20th Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Period
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: In the aftermath of the Second World War, as the Soviet Union imposed ideological control across Eastern Europe, the CIA turned to an unexpected tactic: a covert smuggling operation designed to win hearts and minds
encoded: At the height of the Cold War, the US and Soviet Union vied for any advantage they could find. And between the various proxy wars and games of economic brinkmanship, the CIA unleashed its most unexpected weapon: books. Their ambitious and unusual plan was to smuggle banned literature into the heart of Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe – and by doing so, weaken the grip of Soviet ideology on people’s hearts and minds. The books chosen (from authors including George Orwell, Agatha Christie, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Albert Camus) were specifically picked for their power to challenge authoritarianism, undermine censorship and question the doctrines of totalitarian ideology. Speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast, journalist and author Charlie English lifted the lid on the scale and ambition of this extraordinary campaign, which spanned four decades and reached deep behind the Iron Curtain. Read more | Did the Cold War ever really end? “The ‘CIA Book Program’ was a long-running US intelligence operation that ran from the mid 1950s until about 1991,” English explains. “It succeeded in secretly infiltrating around ten million books into the Eastern Bloc over that period in a bid to undermine the draconian censorship regimes that existed in every East European country.” A war of words In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Soviet Union had expanded its influence across Central and Eastern Europe, establishing satellite states in East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and beyond. With that expansion came rigid political control alongside strict ideological enforcement. Enabling this control were state censorship offices which policed what could be published, read or discussed. Large swathes of Western literature were suppressed, critical thinkers were silenced and entire philosophical traditions with rich histories (from liberalism to existentialism) were denounced as dangerous. Read more | What was the Truman Doctrine? “Every East European country that …

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