US Foreign Policy Archives

Sept. 11, 1973: U.S.-Backed Coup in Chile

Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende was killed in a U.S.-backed coup.

Aug. 7, 1964: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed without a single dissent in the House of Representatives, and only two no votes in the Senate, leading to increased U.S. aggression in Vietnam.

Sept. 21, 1976: Sheridan Circle Car Bomb

Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt were killed in Washington, D.C. by a U.S.-backed Augusto Pinochet regime car bomb.

Oct. 2, 1937: Parsley Massacre

Under the orders of U.S.-backed Dominican dictator President Rafael Trujillo, the execution of more than 20,000 Haitians began in what is now known as the Parsley Massacre at Massacre River.

Image from an American Friends Service Committee traveling art exhibit called Windows and Mirrors: Reflections on the War in Afghanistan.

Oct. 7, 2001: United States and U.K. Began War in Afghanistan

The United States and United Kingdom began the war in Afghanistan.

Sample page from "Vietnam: An Antiwar Comic Book" by Julian Bond.

Oct. 28, 1964: U.S. Officials Deny Bombing North Vietnam

U.S. officials denied any involvement in the bombing of North Vietnam.

Dec. 2, 1980: Three Nuns and Lay Worker Killed in El Salvador

Three nuns and a lay worker were killed in El Salvador by members of the U.S.-backed National Guard.

Feb. 11, 1963: Howard Zinn Debates Fulton Lewis III About HUAC

Howard Zinn debated Fulton Lewis III, a journalist and member of the House Un-American Activities Committee, on the question of “Shall the House Committee on Un-American Activities Be Abolished?”

Subversives: Stories from the Red Scare

Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca.
In this mixer lesson, students meet 27 different targets of government harassment and repression to analyze why disparate individuals might have become targets of the same campaign, determining what kind of threat they posed in the view of the U.S. government.

Newspaper clipping of the Wayland Town Crier for June 1954. Headline reads: “Public Hearing on Hale is Scheduled for June 8; School Committee Makes Charges.”

June 25, 1954: Elementary School Teacher Fired in Red Scare

At the height of the anti-Communist Red Scare, Massachusetts second-grade teacher Anne P. Hale Jr. was removed from her position because of her prior membership in the Communist Party.

Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire

Book — Non-fiction. By Jonathan M. Katz. 2022. 432 pages.
This book traces a path from the first wave of U.S. overseas expansionism to the rise of fascism in the 1930s to the crises of democracy in our own time.

Teaching Activity by Jonathan M. Katz

Revolutionary Women of Texas and Mexico, illustrated book cover

Revolutionary Women of Texas and Mexico: Portraits of Soldaderas, Saints, and Subversives

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Sosa, Clark, and Speed. 2020. 352 pages.
This anthology examines female role models and subversives who stood up for their visions and ideals in Mexico and Texas.

Teaching Activity by Edited by Kathy Sosa, Ellen Riojas Clark, and Jennifer Speed

May 27, 1972: First African Liberation Day Demonstration on the National Mall

The first African Liberation Day drew some 60,000 demonstrators in cities across the United States and Canada, including one on the National Mall in Washington D. C.

Arise!: Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution

Book — Non-fiction. By Christina Heatherton. 2022. 336 pages.
This book tells the international history of radical movements and their convergences during the Mexican Revolution, reconstructing how this era's organizers found new ways to fight global capitalism.

Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard W. French. 2021. 521 pages.
This sweeping history reveals a long-concealed history of trivialization and, more often, elision in depictions of African history throughout the last five hundred years.

book cover showing sketch of woman's face with a sketch of a butterfly overlapping her.

In the Time of the Butterflies

Book — Fiction. By Julia Alvarez. 2010. 352 pages.
The story of Las Mariposas — “The Butterflies” — is about four sisters and their tragic deaths under Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

A beautiful reworking of an iconic image from Elsipogtog, by artist Fanny Aishaa. The original photo was taken by Ossie Michelin, a reporter for APTN and the woman is Amanda Polchies.

Dec. 6, 2013: First Nations Water Warriors Block Fracking

A coalition of groups set up a series of road blockades preventing gas exploration in New Brunswick, Canada.

July 18, 1890: George Washington Williams Pens Letter Exposing Atrocities in the Congo

Hoping to spark a movement in protest of the Belgian government’s role in its African colony, historian George Washington Williams wrote an open letter to Belgian King Leopold II exposing atrocities in the Congo.

Feb. 12, 1904: Report on Brutal Violence of Imperialism in the Congo

The Casement Report was delivered before the British Houses of Parliament, providing firsthand accounts of the brutal violence inflicted upon the indigenous people and the land in the Congo Free State by settler colonialists acting on behalf of Belgium’s King Leopold II.

The battlefield of Verdun is part of France's Zone Rouge, cordoned off since the end of WWI.

July 28, 1914: World War I Begins

The First World War killed roughly 20 million people. Fighting transitioned from mainly human- and animal-powered to fossil fuel-powered technologies and accessing and protecting fossil fuel supplies became part of sustaining a powerful military. The Earth and the environment have suffered ever since.

Oct. 12, 1925: U.S. Fights Panama Renters’ Strike

Protesting rising rents and unsanitary conditions, tenants in Panama City, Panama were met with swift force and violence by U.S. soldiers, with six killed during the weekend.

Promises

Film. Written and directed by Justine Shapiro, B. Z. Goldberg, and Carlos Bolado. 2001. 106 minutes.
This documentary explores the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from the eyes and experiences of Israeli and Palestinian children living in the West Bank.

La historia del pueblo de Estados Unidos para jóvenes

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn, adapted by Rebecca Stefoff with additions by Ed Morales. Translated by Hugo García Manríquez. 2023. 608 pages.
A Spanish translation of the young adult version of the best-selling A People’s History of the United States.

Visualizing Palestine

Website. Provides graphic storytelling that can help students see Palestinian reality in new ways.

The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States

Film. Directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp. Media Education Foundation. 2016. Three versions: 21 min./45 min./84 min.
This film helps students recognize how the media and politicians consistently frame “Palestinian resistance as terrorism and Israeli aggression as self-defense.”

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