Cold War Conversations

What did Jacqueline Kennedy privately believe happened in Dallas on 22 November 1963?

In the second part of Peter Lamas’s extraordinary story, he recalls the trust he developed with the former First Lady while working as her personal hairstylist.

During preparations for an event marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of President John ...

What happens when a Cuban teenager who has lost his homeland finds himself sitting across the lunch table from Fidel Castro?

Peter Lamas recalls an extraordinary childhood in pre-revolutionary Havana and a life touched by history. He describes meeting Ernest Hemingway, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

Po...

At twelve years old, Bing became a Red Guard—and for a few intoxicating months, he felt invincible.

Growing up in Mao’s Beijing, Bing was taught to worship Chairman Mao, recite the Little Red Book and attack the old order. But the Cultural Revolution soon turned against his own family.

His parents were condemned and sent to labour in...

One morning in August 1980, the noise of 10,000 shipyard workers suddenly stopped. Something extraordinary was happening.

As a young shipbuilding student, Bogdan finds himself inside Gdańsk’s Lenin Shipyard as workers down tools and the movement that will become Solidarity begins to take shape. What follows is a remarkable journey through...