Video: 'M-26-7 - The 26th of July Movement (Cuba)'
(Sunday, July 26, 1953; during the Cuban Revolution, part of the Cold War) — Fidel Castro, 26, began his revolt against Fulgencio Batista today with an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, an army facility in the city of Santiago de Cuba in eastern Cuba. Castro would oust Batista in 1959.
Video: Seamans on July 25, 1973 (at 40:41)
(Wednesday, July 25, 1973) — Robert C. Seamans, Jr., Secretary of the Air Force when the U.S. secretly bombed Cambodia in 1969 and 1970, told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that he was not told of it.
(Sunday, June 24, 1973, 6 p.m. EDT; during the Cold War) — U.S. President Richard Nixon concluded his summit with the visiting leader of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, who hailed the talks in an address on American television.
Video: 'Dr. Strangelove phone conversation U.S President'
(Thursday, June 20, 1963) — The Moscow–Washington hotline (officially, the Direct Communications Link or DCL) was authorized today by the signing of a “Memorandum of Understanding Regarding the Establishment of a Direct Communications Line” in Geneva, Switzerland, by representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States. The agreement resulted from the Cuban Missile Crisis, which made it clear that reliable, direct communications between the two nuclear powers were a necessity.
Video: 'Korean War - PART 28, End of the War, 6.25' (June 18, 1953, at 6:25)
(Thursday, June 18, 1953, by 5 a.m. local time; during the Korean War, part of the Cold War) — With an armistice agreement was all but complete, South Korea President Syngman Rhee unilaterally ordered the release of 25,000 anti-communist North Korean prisoners of war today in protest of the proposed settlement.
Video: 'Vietnam a Television History Episode 11' (June 13, 1973, at 12:19)
(Wednesday, June 13, 1973; during the Vietnam War, part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War) — U.S. National Security Advisor Henry A. Kissinger signed an “amplification and consolidation” of the Vietnam peace agreement today in Paris and said it meets all major points of concern over peace violations.
The new accord, termed “satisfactory” by Kissinger, was also signed by Hanoi Politboro member Le Duc Tho and representiatives of the Saigon government and the Viet Cong’s Provisional Revolutionary Government.
Video: 'President Nixon Addresses Vietnam POWs at the White House'
(Thursday, May 24, 1973, 6:30 p.m.-2:00 a.m. EDT; during the Vietnam War) — President Richard Nixon honored some 600 former American prisoners of the Vietnam war and their guests tonight at a gala homecoming party held in a giant tent on the South Lawn of the White House. Continue reading Nixon hosts Vietnam POWs at White House 40 years ago this hour (1973)
Video: 'Vietnam a Television History Episode 11' (May 24, 1973, at 10:23)
(Thursday, May 24, 1973; during the Watergate Scandal and the Vietnam War, part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War) — Defending the government’s right to keep secrets in the national interest, U.S. President Richard Nixon told nearly 600 returned Vietnam prisoners of war today that it is time “to quit making national heroes out of those who steal secrets and publish them in the newspapers.” Continue reading ‘Time to quit making heroes’ out of secrets thieves, Nixon says 40 years ago today (1973)
(Saturday, May 16, 1953; during the Cold War) — Associated Press correspondent William N. Oatis was released today by communist authorities in Czechoslovakia, where he’d been imprisoned for two years after being forced to confess to espionage while working as the AP’s Prague bureau chief.
Video: 'Korean War - PART 28, End of the War, 6.25' (May 13, 1953, at 5:09)
(Wednesday, May 13, 1953; during the Korean War, part of the Cold War) — Thunderjets from the U.S. Air Force’s 58 Fighter-Bomber Wing struck the Toksan Dam, near Pyongyang today causing a massive flood. Floodwaters from the breached dam destroyed ten bridges, ruined several square miles of rice crops, flooded over 1,000 buildings and rendered the Sunan Airfield inoperable.
