Hidden History

Episode 119: Part 1 of 2. Throughout the 1950s, the CIA, through a number of secret fronts, provided funding and publicity for abstract modern art in the United States. Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko became arrows in the Cold War quiver, as the Agency turned them, and scores of other modern artists into unwitting agents of American propaganda. How and why did the CIA accomplish this, and what does it mean for the relationship between modernism and politics?

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Sources and Further Reading

How MoMA and the CIA Conspired to Use Unwitting Artists to Promote American Propaganda During the Cold War: Link

Art For Art’s Sake: Link

Modern art was CIA 'weapon': Link

How the CIA Secretly Used Jackson Pollock to Fight the Cold War: Link

The New American Painting, 1959: Link

The new American painting, as shown in eight European countries, 1958-1959: Link

An Era-Defining 1930s Mural of American Excess and Industry Is Revived: Link

Dickstein, Morris. Dancing in the dark: A cultural history of the Great Depression. WW Norton & Company, 2009.

Alfred Barr, ‘Introduction’, in The New American Painting, 1959: Link

The CIA and the Cultural Cold War Revisited: Link

Episode 118: Part 2 of 2. The American War in Afghanistan was defined by its cruelty, inhumanity, and futility. This episode takes a look at the history of Afghanistan in the 21st century, consumed by the shadow of America’s longest war.

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Sources and Further Reading

The Other Afghan Women: Link

The Kill Team Photos: Link

The CIA’s Afghan Death Squads: Link

US Marine sniper unit photographed with 'Nazi SS' flag: Link

The Taliban Peace Deal Might Have Been Had Many Years and Thousands of Lives Ago: Link

Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over: Link

Obama's Pentagon Covered Up War Crimes in Afghanistan, Says Amnesty International: Link

US threatens to arrest ICC judges if they pursue Americans for Afghan war crimes: Link

Years later, a flattened Afghan village reflects on U.S. bombardment: Link

Spy in Disguise: Link

The Informants: Link

FACTSHEET: THE NYPD MUSLIM SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM: Link

THE NOT-ABOUT-IRAQI-OIL IRAQI OIL MAP: Link

The U.S. War in Afghanistan: Link

Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan: Link

Training Quick and Staffing Unfinished, Army Units Brace for Surging Taliban: Link

In Reversal, Obama Says U.S. Soldiers Will Stay in Afghanistan to 2017: Link

US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies': Link

U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies: Link

Times Investigation: In U.S. Drone Strike, Evidence Suggests No ISIS Bomb: Link

Episode 117: It’s known as “The Graveyard of Empires,” and its history certainly lives up to the nickname— as news about Afghanistan is plastered across television screens throughout America, let’s take a look at the history of the country so many know so little about. Part 1 of 2.

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Sources and Further Reading

The Other Afghan Women: Link

The Kill Team Photos: Link

The CIA’s Afghan Death Squads: Link

US Marine sniper unit photographed with 'Nazi SS' flag: Link

The Taliban Peace Deal Might Have Been Had Many Years and Thousands of Lives Ago: Link

Remembering the Saur Revolution: Link

The Taliban indoctrinates kids with jihadist textbooks paid for by the U.S.: Link

Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over: Link

Geopolitics, profit, and poppies: how the CIA turned Afghanistan into a failed narco-state: Link

Life of the Amir Dost Mohammad Khan of Kabul: Link

“If She Escapes She Will Publish Everything”: Lady Sale and the Media Frenzy of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1842): Link

The Saur Revolution and After: Link

The Causes of the Second Anglo-Afghan War, a Probe into the Reality of the International Relations in Central Asia in the Second Half of the 19th Century: Link

Government and Society in Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir ‘Abd Al-Rahman Khan: Link

Storm-333: KGB and Spetsnaz seize Kabul, Soviet-Afghan War 1979: Link

Episode 116: On July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes, an American cruiser, sailed into Iranian waters and launched a surface to air missile at Iran Air Flight 655, which it supposedly mistook for a fighter jet. Out of the 290 on board non survived. What were the events that led up to July 3rd, and how did the American government respond?

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Sources and Further Reading

George HW Bush and Ali Akbar Velayati address the United Nations: Link

The 8th Minute: The 'Forgotten' US Shootdown of Iranian Airliner Flight 655: Link

July 4, 1988 CBS News - Downing of Iran Air Flight 655 & Reagan & Ayatollah's Responses: Link

REAGAN APOLOGIZED TO IRAN FOR DOWNING OF JETLINER: Link

Iran Air Flight 655 and Beyond: Free Passage, Mistaken Self-Defense, and State Responsibility (Paywall): Link

The Downing of Iran Air Flight 655: Highlighting the Need for International Adjudication of Damages (Paywall): Link

Storm Center: The U.S.S. Vincennes and Iran Air Flight 655: Link

Iran remembers 290 passengers of Iran Air flight 655: Link

Episode 115: Throughout the Cold War, the United States, through the CIA, funded, supplied, and protected a vast continental network of right-wing death squads that spanned South America. This genocidal collaboration between the CIA and six US-backed dictatorships was known as Operation Condor. In its wake, it left 80,000 dead, and 400,000 more disappeared into secret prisons. Learn about the life and legacy of Operation Condor in this week’s episode.

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Sources and Further Reading

Reviewed Work: State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years (Paywall): Link

Argentina and “Los Desaparecidos”: Link

Kissinger backed dirty war against left in Argentina: Link

The Chicago Boys in Chile: Economic Freedom's Awful Toll: Link

My Case Against Pinochet: Link

Terror on Embassy Row, Revisited: Link

‘This was not an accident. This was a bomb.’: Link

The Regime of Alfredo Stroessner (Paywall): Link

How Paraguay's 'Archive of Terror' put Operation Condor in focus: Link

Episode 114: On November 14, 1974, a labor activist and chemical worker named Karen Silkwood left a union meeting and set out to blow the whistle to a reporter from the New York Times. She was never seen alive again. Who killed Karen Silkwood?

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Sources and Further Reading

Museum remembers Karen Silkwood: Link

The Killing of Karen Silkwood: The Story Behind The Kerr-McGee Plutonium Case, Second Edition: Link

Public Health and the Law, the Case of Karen Silkwood: Link

Lamar University, notable alumni: Link

Forty years later, Silkwood's children reflect: Link

Nuclear Fuel Plant Mystery- Nature Magazine, 1975: Link

Karen Silkwood: Disillusioned: Link

Karen Silkwood Was Right in Plutonium Scandal- Rolling Stone, 1977: Link

Malignant Giant: The Nuclear Industry’s Terrible Power and How It Silenced Karen Silkwood: Link

The Life and Accidental (?) Death of Karen Silkwood: Link

Episode 113: Throughout the Cold War the CIA organized, funded, and supplied a network of secret armies across Europe. Recruited from fascist anti-Communist circles, these groups wove a vast web domestic terrorism— carrying out bombing campaigns, massacres, military coups, and more, all in the name of freedom, democracy, and keeping the Left out of office. Learn more about the infamous and insidious Operation Gladio in this week’s episode.

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Sources and Further Reading

Evolution in Europe; Italy Discloses Its Web Of Cold War Guerrillas: Link

Three jailed for 1969 Milan bomb: Link

Terrorists 'helped by CIA' to stop rise of left in Italy: Link

The Explosion of Italian Terrorism and the Piazza Fontana Massacre as Seen by the United States: Link

50 years since the Piazza Fontana bombing and Italy is still facing-up to its ‘years of lead: Link

Italian Neofascism: The Strategy of Tension and the Politics of Nonreconciliation: Link

Western State-Sponsored Terrorism and the Strategy of Tension: Link

CIA Organized Secret Army in Western Europe: Link

Greece: Answering to History: Link

William Blum, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II

United States and NATO inspired 'psychological warfare operations' against the 'Kurdish communist threat' in Turkey: Link

Turkey's "Deep-State" and the Ergenekon Conundrum: Link

Episode 112: On May 31, 1889, a 60 foot wall of water tore through the city of Johnstown, destroying everything in its path. In the end, over 2,000 lay dead, and all so some rich guys could catch a couple fish.

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Sources and Further Reading

Revisiting the Timing and Events Leading to and Causing the Johnstown Flood of 1889: Link

DISASTER TOURISM AND THE MELODRAMA OF AUTHENTICITY: REVISITING THE 1889 JOHNSTOWN FLOOD: Link

Official History of the Johnstown Flood: Link

Dam-Breach hydrology of the Johnstown flood of 1889–challenging the findings of the 1891 investigation report: Link

South Fork Dam: Link

An overview of the 1889 tragedy: Link

Statistics about the great disaster: Link

Henry C Frick, World Heritage Encyclopedia: Link

Capital, Labor and Lawyers: The Changing Roles and Rising Influence of the Pittsburgh Bar during the Gilded Age: Link

Episode 111: On November 28, 1978, former City Supervisor Dan White snuck into San Francisco City Hall and assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first widely known openly gay politician in America. Who was Harvey Milk, rise through the ranks of city politics, why was he assassinated, and what was the infamous “Twinkie Defense” employed at his trial?

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Sources and Further Reading

Dan White's audio confession after killing Harvey Milk & George Moscone: Link

Official biography of Harvey Milk: Link

Forty years after his death, Harvey Milk's legacy still lives on: Link

The Last Words of Harvey Milk [Full Audio Clip]: Link

The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk: Link

San Francisco Voters Information Pamphlet, General Election, 1976: Link

How The 1975 Community Congress Reshaped San Francisco Politics: Link

40 years ago, San Francisco adopted historic gay rights law: Link

Daniel James White Trial: 1979: Link

The Legacy of Dan White: Link

Harvey Milk, Hero and Martyr: Link

The Times of Harvey Milk: Link

Episode 110: It’s been 36 years since the Philadelphia Police Department dropped two bombs on the roof of a house in West Philadelphia, killing 11 people, including five children, in an attempt to destroy the environmentalist Black liberation group MOVE. What were the events of that led up to the MOVE Bombing, and has anyone ever faced any consequences for this act of state terror?

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Sources and Further Reading

On a Move- website of the MOVE Organization: Link

The day Philadelphia bombed its own people: Link

I'm From Philly. 30 Years Later, I'm Still Trying To Make Sense Of The MOVE Bombing: Link

PHILADELPHIAS CHIEF SAYS HE WANTED FIRE TO BURN: Link

The day police bombed a city street: can scars of 1985 Move atrocity be healed?: Link

MOVE Bombing at 30: "Barbaric" 1985 Philadelphia Police Attack Killed 11 & Burned a Neighborhood: Link

LET THE FIRE BURN: Link

'This is huge': black liberationist speaks out after her 40 years in prison: Link

MOVE Documentary 1978 Confrontation Video - Shootout: Link

Thirty Years Later, MOVE Still Hurts: Link

William Richmond, fire commissioner: Link

Philadelphia discovers the cremated remains of MOVE bombing victims after a city health official's resignation: Link

Remains of children killed in MOVE bombing sat in a box at Penn Museum for decades: Link