How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey Across America

Description

Hours after the USSR collapsed in 1991, Congress began making plans to establish the official memory of the Cold War. Conservatives dominated the proceedings, spending millions to portray the conflict as a triumph of good over evil and a defeat of totalitarianism equal in significance to World War II. In this provocative book, historian Jon Wiener visits Cold War monuments, museums, and memorials across the United States to find out how the era is being remembered. The author’s journey provides a history of the Cold War, one that turns many conventional notions on their heads. In an engaging travelogue that takes readers to sites such as the life-size recreation of Berlin’s “Checkpoint Charlie” at the Reagan Library, the fallout shelter display at the Smithsonian, and exhibits about “Sgt. Elvis,” America’s most famous Cold War veteran, Wiener discovers that the Cold War isn’t being remembered. It’s being forgotten. Despite an immense effort, the conservatives’ monuments weren’t built, their historic sites have few visitors, and many of their museums have now shifted focus to other topics. Proponents of the notion of a heroic “Cold War victory” failed; the public didn’t buy the official story. Lively, readable, and well-informed, this book expands current discussions about memory and history, and raises intriguing questions about popular skepticism toward official ideology. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 List of Illustrations......Page 8 Introduction: Forgetting the Cold War......Page 10 PART ONE: THE END......Page 20 1 Hippie Day at the Reagan Library......Page 22 2 The Victims of Communism Museum: A Study in Failure......Page 38 PART TWO: THE BEGINNING: 1946–1949......Page 52 3 Getting Started: The Churchill Memorial in Missouri......Page 54 4 Searching for the Pumpkin Patch: The Whittaker Chambers National Historic Landmark......Page 64 5 Naming Names, from Laramie to Beverly Hills......Page 74 6 Secrets on Display: The CIA Museum and the NSA Museum......Page 89 7 Cold War Cleanup: The Hanford Tour......Page 106 PART THREE: THE 1950S......Page 120 8 Test Site Tourism in Nevada......Page 122 9 Memorial Day in Lakewood and La Jolla: Korean War Monuments of California......Page 135 10 Code Name “Ethel”: The Rosenbergs in the Museums......Page 149 11 Mound Builders of Missouri: Nuclear Waste at Weldon Spring......Page 165 12 Cold War Elvis: Sgt. Presley at the General George Patton Museum......Page 175 PART FOUR: THE 1960S AND AFTER......Page 190 13 The Graceland of Cold War Tourism: The Greenbrier Bunker......Page 192 14 Ike’s Emmy: Monuments to the Military-Industrial Complex......Page 202 15 The Fallout Shelters of North Dakota......Page 213 16 “It Had to Do with Cuba and Missiles”: Thirteen Days in October......Page 225 17 The Museum of the Missile Gap: Arizona’s Titan Missile Museum......Page 236 18 The Museum of Détente: The Nixon Library in Yorba Linda......Page 250 PART FIVE: ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES......Page 260 19 Rocky Flats: Uncovering the Secrets......Page 262 20 CNN’s Cold War: Equal Time for the Russians......Page 272 21 Harry Truman’s Amazing Museum......Page 284 Conclusion: History, Memory, and the Cold War......Page 296 Epilogue: From the Cold War to the War in Iraq......Page 308 Acknowledgments......Page 312 Notes......Page 316 A......Page 358 B......Page 359 C......Page 361 D......Page 364 E......Page 365 F......Page 366 G......Page 367 H......Page 368 J......Page 369 K......Page 370 M......Page 371 N......Page 373 P......Page 376 R......Page 377 S......Page 379 T......Page 381 V......Page 382 W......Page 383 X......Page 384 Z......Page 385