Henry Buhl Library: U.S. Military History: Cold War

Encyclopedias & Books

The Cold War, 1945-1991
Call Number: Ref D 839.5 .C65 1992 v.1-3
Volumes 1-2 cover leaders and important figures of the Cold War era, while volume 3 includes a chronology, concepts, events and bibliography.
Counterterrorism: From the Cold War to the War on Terror
This great starting point for research on terrorism covers counterterrorism strategies and laws since WWII, key issues, counterterrorism since 9/11, and more.
Encyclopedia of Conflicts since World War II
Provides historical background, key dates, names of participants, type of conflict, and small bibliographies for wars and conflicts fought since WWII.
Europe Since 1945
Call Number: Ref D 1051 .E9 2001 v.1-2
Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference work of some 1,700 entries in two volumes. Its scope includes all of Europe and the successor states to the former Soviet Union.
Postwar America
Call Number: Ref E 169.12 .P654 2007 v. 1-4
Provides detailed coverage of all the remarkable developments within the United States during this period, as well as their dramatic impact on the rest of the world. Covers specific persons, groups, concepts, events, geographical locations, organizations, and cultural and technological phenomena.
The Fifties in America
Call Number: Ref E 169.1 .S3 1950 v. 1-3
The Fifties in America surveys the events and people of North America during the 1950's.
The Sixties in America
Call Number: Ref E 169.1 .S3 1960 v. 1-3
The Sixties in America surveys the events and people of the 1960's. The set looks at the most important people and events in the arts, media, music and sports and covers the headline-grabbing news items of the period.
The Seventies in America
Call Number: Ref E 169.1 .S3 1970 v. 1-3
Watergate, the Vietnam War, the environmental movement, the energy crisis, the women's movement, disco. The Seventies in America brings this decade to life by examining these topics and many more.

Salem History Online This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to the Great Lives & Great Events encyclopedias as well as the Decades in America series (1920's through the 2000's), and the Defining Documents series.

American National Biography This link opens in a new window
Contains over 19,000 biographies of significant, influential, or notorious figures from American history written by prominent scholars. The American National Biography (ANB) is the successor to The Dictionary of American Biography (DAB).
Biography Reference Bank This link opens in a new window
Contains a searchable collection of over 35,000 images as well as biographical profiles, feature articles, interviews, essays, book reviews, speeches, or obituaries.
Salem History Online This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to the Great Lives & Great Events encyclopedias as well as the Decades in America series (1920's through the 2000's), and the Defining Documents series.

Suggested search terms

Cold War
United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1953
United States -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989
World politics -- 1945-1989

Journal Article Databases

America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
Covers the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present with indexing for 1,700 journals from as far back as 1910
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Contains citations and abstracts for articles from 2,300+ academic journals back to 1955 for world history (excluding US and Canada) from 1450 to present
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Archival Database of full text scholarly journal articles
Military & Government Collection This link opens in a new window
Offers full text of 300+ journals providing current news and information pertaining to all branches of the military and government.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Large collection of full-text scholarly articles and books supporting research in the humanities and social sciences.
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Covers a wide range of subject matter in both popular and scholarly periodicals.
Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 4,600 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,500 journals and nearly 10,000 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. This scholarly collection offers unmatched full text coverage of information in many areas of academic study including: animal science, anthropology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, food science & technology, general science, geography, geology, law, materials science, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, pharmaceutical sciences, physics, psychology, religion & theology, veterinary science, women's studies, zoology, and many other fields. Academic Search Complete offers critical information from many sources unique to this massive collection. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for 1,000 journals.

Journal articles are very specific.

Finding articles is easier after you have read up on your topic.

Use more than one article database.

No database searches everything.
For thorough research, use more than one database and try different search terms.

A to Z List of Journals
Always check the A to Z list to see if we have access to the journal title and date of publication you need!

Need an article that isn't full text? Access the request form below.

Document Delivery Forms

Remember, scholarship is international.

You may come across some great articles in which the titles (and thus the articles) are not in English.

So, when you can, it is a good idea to limit your searches to articles in English.

Primary Sources

Defining Documents in American History: The Cold War
Call Number: E 813 .C65 2016 v. 1-2
Offers in-depth analysis of a broad range of historical documents and historic events that shaped the Cold War conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
Defining Documents in American History: The 1950s (1950-1959)
Call Number: E 813 .A19 2016
This important resource provides students and researchers new insights into the 1950s in the U.S., through an in-depth analysis of forty important primary source documents and their lasting effect on American history.
Defining Documents in American History: The 1960s (1960-1969)
Call Number: E 841 .A19 2016
This important resource provides students and researchers new insights into the 1960s in the U.S., through an in-depth analysis of forty important primary source documents and their lasting effect on American history.
Defining Documents in American History: The 1970s (1970-1979)
Call Number: E 855 .A14 2016
This important resource provides students and researchers new insights into the 1970s in the U.S., through an in-depth analysis of forty important primary source documents and their lasting effect on American history.

Robert F. Kennedy Papers
Access papers related to the Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs, Castro, Khrushchev, and more. These documents are available via the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
Cold War International History Project
"The Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War, and seeks to accelerate the process of integrating new sources, materials and perspectives from the former 'Communist bloc' with the historiography of the Cold War which has been written over the past few decades largely by Western scholars reliant on Western archival sources."
National Security Archive
Some highlighted document collections are: CIA's Vietnam histories; JFK and the Diem Coup; Fighting the War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973; Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 40 Years Later; & Intelligence and Vietnam: the top secret 1969 State Department study.
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"An independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Archive also serves as a repository of government records on a wide range of topics pertaining to the national security, foreign, intelligence, and economic policies of the United States."
Translations of Castro's Speeches
"This database includes speeches, interviews, etc., by Fidel Castro from 1959 to 1996. All texts are in English" (from LANIC).
Wilson Center Digital Archive
The Digital Archive is a resource where students, researchers and specialists can access once-secret documents from governments and organizations all over the world. It contains newly declassified historical materials from archives around the world—much of it in translation and including diplomatic cables, high level correspondence, meeting minutes and more.

Understanding U. S. Military Conflicts Through Primary Sources
Call Number: Ref E 181 .U53 2016 v. 1-4
* Covers benchmark documents in U.S. diplomatic and military history from 14 conflicts.
Milestone Documents in American History
Includes important primary sources related to American history from 1763 to 2003.
Milestone Documents in American History, 2nd ed.
Call Number: Oversz E 173 .M62 2020 v. 1-4
Includes documents from African American history, women's history, immigration history, as well as 21st-century issues ranging from terrorism to campaign finance to LGBTQ rights. Vol. 1 1619-1831. -- v.2 1832-1898. -- v.3 1901-1956. -- v.4 1957-2019.
Milestone Documents of American Leaders
Call Number: Oversz E 173 .M62 2009 v.1-4
Milestone Documents of American Leaders features important full-text sources written by presidents, jurists, legislators and other influential people who helped shape the nation.

Military & Government Collection This link opens in a new window
Access to journal and magazine articles, books, government documents, speech transcripts, etc. relating to the military and government. Both primary and secondary sources are available here.

Presidential Libraries Websites

American Presidency Project
Call Number: Search HENRY by President as AUTHOR for call numbers
Search the papers of the presidents from George Washington through Joe Biden. Users can search by president, date, keyword, document type, and more.
Foreign Relations of the United States
Volumes since the Truman administration are available online from the Department of State, along with some volumes pre-Truman. 150 volumes in all. Users can browse volumes or by administration.

Search by Author to find

Major Players

Dean Rusk
Robert McNamara
Henry Kissinger
William Westmoreland
William J. Fulbright
Martin Luther King, Jr.
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard M. Nixon
Daniel Ellsberg
Clark Clifford
Ho Chi Minh
Ngo Dinh Diem
Vo Nguyen Giap

Reporters

Bernard Fall
David Halberstam
Morley Safer
Walter Cronkite

Search Across Multiple Titles

The New York Times (1851-current) (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Coverage dates: 1851-2007
Coverage dates: 1851-current
Readers' Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing to over 500 magazines from 1890 to 1982 to support cultural and historical studies.

Individual Journals & Magazines

Time
Coverage: 1923 - Present.
Vital Speeches of the Day
Coverage: 1934 - Present
The Nation
"An unabashedly left-wing publication." Coverage: 1865 -- Present (1 month embargo)
The New Republic
Covers "opinion on politics and the arts." Considered to be "solidly middle-of-the-road." Coverage: 1914 -- Present
Harper's
Access the Harper's Archive, 1850 - present. Full text availability.
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Harper’s is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S., beginning in June 1850 when it was launched as Harper's New Monthly Magazine
Congressional Digest
Coverage: 1921 - Present
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Coverage: 1890-Present via JSTOR (2008 - Present is available via Sage)
Atlantic (sometimes called Atlantic Monthly)
Coverage: 1857 - Present Full-text beginning in 1993 (earlier years available on microfilm).
US News and World Report
Coverage: 1933 - Present. Full-text beginning in 1990 (earlier years available on microfilm).
Current History
Coverage: 1914-2004 (on microfilm)

Suggested search terms

Cold War
United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1953
United States -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989
World politics -- 1945-1989

Simply, add "primary source" to your search using the Note field.

Visit the locate primary sources page for a refresher.

HENRY
The Library Catalog

Listed below and on the tab to the right are events and/or ideas from the Cold War Era.

These can be used as keywords when beginning your research or to help you decide which events you would like to focus on.

Nuremberg War Crimes Trials (1945-1946)
Korean War (1950-1953)
Death of Stalin (1953)
U.S. Civil Rights Movement (1950s-1960s)
Cuban Revolution, 1959
Suez Crisis, 1956-1957 (Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal)
Hungarian Revolution
The Space Race with Sputnik the opening salvo (1957)
De-colonization and Rise of Independent States in Africa beginning 1960
Six-Day War, 1967 (Israel against Egypt et al.)
Prague Spring and the Czech Invasion (1968)
US landing on the moon (1969)
Vietnam War (American involvement: 1961-1975)
Yom Yippur War (aka Arab-Israeli War, aka the October War; 1973)
Nicaraguan revolution (1979-1990)
Berlin Wall (1961)
Castro takes over Cuba (1959)
U2 Affair (1960-1962)
the Cuban missile crisis (1962)
President Kennedy assassinated (1963)
Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy assassinated (1968)
the Afghanistan War (Sovet occupation of Afghanistan, 1979-1989)
the oil crisis and OPEC (Oil Producing and Exporting Countries) (1973)
Nixon goes to China (1971)
Nixon and Watergate (and impeachment) (1972-1974)
Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT I, 1972, SALT II, 1979)
Iranian Hostage Crisis (1979-1981)
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster (1986)

the Truman Doctrine
the Marshall Plan (1948-1951)
the Berlin Airlift (1948-1949)
NATO (est.1948), SEATO (1954-1976), and the Warsaw Pact (est. 1955)
United Nations (est. 1945)
the CIA and the National Security Council established (1947)
Radio Free Europe (est. 1950) and Radio Liberty (est. 1951)
Voice of America (est. 1948) civil defense and bomb shelters "duck and cover" (1952-late 1950's)
McCarthyism (1950-1954)
de-Stalinization, under Khrushchev (1956-1961)
Nixon and détente with the Soviet Union (late 1960's - very early 1980's)
John Foster Dulles and brinkmanship (1953-1959, as Sec. of State under Eisenhower)
Mao and the Cultural Revolution in China (1965-1968)
Lech Walesa and solidarity in Poland (1980-1989)
Tiananmen Square uprising (1989)
Reaganomics (1980-1988) and Thatcherism (1979-1990)
Star Wars (SDI = strategic defense initative) ; Announced 1983 by Reagan; died of natural causes by end of Reagan's second administration
Gorbachev and his themes of perestroika and glasnost (1985-1989)