In 1972, the United Nations appointed its fourth secretary-general. He was Austrian, a seasoned diplomat who had spent decades building a reputation as one of the most capable international statesmen of his generation. His name was Kurt Waldheim, and for the next decade he led the most powerful international institution on earth. What the United … Read more
On September 2, 1944, in a small farmhouse just behind the lines in northern Belgium, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery stood over a paper map of Northwestern Europe. A single bare light bulb lit the room. In one hand he held a freshly sharpened pencil, in the other a cup of tea long gone cold. … Read more
On the evening of October 15, 1946, Hermann Göring sat on the edge of his cot in cell block C of Nuremberg prison, eating black bread. In two hours, the International Military Tribunal would read his sentence. Everyone in courtroom 600 already knew what it would be. Göring knew. The guards knew. The prosecutors had … Read more
Hermann Göring ended his life in his Nuremberg cell on the night of October 15, 1946, just hours before his scheduled execution. His death closed one chapter in history and opened another. The question of what happened to the family he left behind would unfold over decades. In the final weeks of the war, Emmy … Read more
Just after midnight on June 5, 1968, Ethel Kennedy stood behind her husband in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen, wearing a polka-dot dress. She was seven months pregnant with their eleventh child. Robert F. Kennedy had just won the California primary. He was shaking hands with a hotel worker named Juan Romero when three shots … Read more
In November 1944, on a windswept limestone ridge above the Morhange valley in northeastern France, a 22-year-old Black corporal from the docks of the Savannah River told an Army Third staff major that his calculations were wrong. The major had the rank. He had the training. He had the numbers. And General George S. Patton … Read more
In November 1944, in France, a Black soldier tried to enter a mess hall. It was not the enemy who stopped him. It was an American sergeant. The sergeant told him to use the other side. The soldier had been in France for six months. He had been in combat. He had endured the mud, … Read more
The Caldwell twins of 1840s Georgia were among the most privileged young women in the county—wealthy, educated, and the daughters of a prominent plantation owner. But beneath that surface of southern gentility, they were living a double life that would ultimately lead them to abandon everything they had ever known. By 1847, both sisters had … Read more
In April 1945, with the war in its final days, a high-ranking SS officer was captured near Munich and brought to Third Army headquarters for interrogation. His name was SS-Standartenführer Otto Brandt, a fanatical Nazi who viewed surrender as betrayal. Intelligence officers wanted information about remaining SS units and resistance plans, anything that might save … Read more
In December 1944, the Battle of the Bulge was six days old and the Allied front in the Ardennes was cracking. German Panzers were still driving west, American divisions were encircled, and the headquarters of Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower was running on cold coffee and controlled panic. Eisenhower had not slept properly in a … Read more