With wealth, charm and tactful leadership, John F. Kennedy set the standard for working toward the common good and decency in public discourse
Onlookers at a Key West, Fla., beach where the Army’s Hawk anti-aircraft missiles were positioned during the Cuban missile crisis.
Underwood Archives/Getty Images
Hugh White warns of a potential war between the US and China, drawing lessons from the first and second world wars to explore how Australia might respond to such a conflict – and where to draw a line.
A Russian military intercontinental ballistic missile launcher rolls by during the 2019 Victory Day military parade celebrating the end of the Second World War in Red Square in Moscow in May 2019.
(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
The sort of scenarios that might lead to the use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war would require a significant deterioration in Russian fortunes — and greater western involvement in the conflict.
MAD: launch of the Sarmat, or ‘Satan 2’ ICBM on April 20, 2022.
Russian Defence Ministry/ZUMA Wire
Just as Fidel Castro’s 2016 death did not transform US-Cuba ties, his brother Raul’s exit from politics is unlikely to do so. But Cuba itself is changing. Eventually, Havana and Washington will, too.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows speaks to reporters about President Trump’s positive coronavirus test outside the White House on Oct. 2, 2020.
Drew Angerer/Getty
President Trump was direct in announcing he had COVID-19. But presidents in the past have been very good at deceiving the public about the state of their health. Which direction will Trump go now?
Trump’s historic meeting with North Korea dictator Kim Jung Un on June 12, 2018, in Singapore. Trump recently told a crowd that the two leaders ‘fell in love.’
Evan Vucci/AP Photo
Meeting with heads of state has become routine for presidents, but Trump’s way with words and gestures rattles many in the diplomatic community. The biggest concern is his sweet talk to dictators.
North Korean leader Kim Jung-un inspects an outpost and Jangjedo defending force.
REUTERS/North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
In a candid 1962 conversation with a Guardian editor, President Kennedy unpacked his views on Cuba, the Soviet Union, and nuclear war. What can Obama learn from him?
Fidel Castro during a visit to Washington in 1959.
U.S. Department of State
The action by President Obama to move toward the normalization of US-Cuba relations is long overdue. The US ruptured ties with Cuba in early January 1961, under President Eisenhower, not only in the context…
Terrible beauty: Operation Castle – British test on Bikini Atoll, March 1954.
Wikimedia Commons
It was a key moment in the Cold War: 50 years ago, on August 5, 1963, US and the Soviet Union signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, underwater and in outer space (but…
A United States Air Force RF-101 Voodoo aircraft pilot photographs a Russian ship loaded with missiles while the aircraft itself casts a shadow in Port Casilda, Cuba, Nov. 6, 1962.
EPA/Defense Imagery
Fifty years ago, the United States and the Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war over Soviet missiles in Cuba. Since then, the Cuban Missile Crisis has been recognised as one of the most definitive…