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January 17. On this day in 1893, U.S. profiteers, businessmen, and Marines overthrew the kingdom of Hawaii in Oahu, beginning a long string of violent and disastrous government overthrows around the world.

January 16. On this day in 1968, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin founded the Youth International Party (the Yippies), just one day before President Lyndon Baines Johnson gave his State of the Union Address asserting that the U.S. was winning the war in Vietnam.

January 13. On this day in 1991, Soviet Special Forces attacked a Lithuanian television and radio tower, killing 14 and wounding over 500 as tanks drove through crowds of unarmed civilians guarding the tower in defense of Lithuanian broadcasting independence.

January 7. On this day in 1932, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Stimson delivered the Stimson Doctrine.

January 5. On this day in 1968, Antonin Novotny, the Stalinist ruler of Czechoslovakia, was succeeded as first secretary by Alexander Dubcek, who believed socialism could be achieved.

January 4. On this day in 1948, the nation of Burma (also known as Myanmar) freed itself of British colonialism and became an independent republic.

Mark Dworkin is, together with Melissa Young, an award-winning documentary film director, and the director of an important new film called Plane Truths. You can find Mark and Melissa at movingimages.org and this movie at planetruths.org. Plane Truths looks at the increased activity at the U.S. Navy base on Whidbey Island in Washington state -- activity that is making life unbearable for locals and wildlife — collateral damage in the ever increasing militarization of society.

Peter Kuznick is Professor of History at American University, and author of Beyond the Laboratory: Scientists As Political Activists in 1930s America, co-author with Akira Kimura of Rethinking the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Japanese and American Perspectives, co-author with Yuki Tanaka of Nuclear Power and Hiroshima: The Truth Behind the Peaceful Use of Nuclear Power, and co-editor with James Gilbert of Rethinking Cold War Culture. In 1995, he founded American University’s Nuclear Studies Institute, which he directs. In 2003, Kuznick organized a group of scholars, writers, artists, clergy, and activists to protest the Smithsonian’s celebratory display of the Enola Gay. He and filmmaker Oliver Stone co-authored the 12 part Showtime documentary film series and book both titled The Untold History of the United States.

Aida Touma – Sliman is a Member of Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, and Chairwoman of the Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality. She joins us from Israel but recently toured the United States. Her lengthy resume includes three years as editor in chief of Al-Ittihad, the only Arabic daily newspaper in Israel, and for the past 9 years she has served as secretary of the World Peace Council. Touma - Sliman will be speaking at the No U.S. / NATO Bases conference in Dublin in November.

Hawes Spencer is a journalist who has reported for the New York Times, NPR, the Hook, and other publications. He has taught journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University and James Madison University. For over two decades, Hawes Spencer edited two weekly newspapers in Charlottesville, Virginia, both of which he co-founded: C-ville Weekly and The Hook. As the editor of the Hook, his staff delivered 149 awards from the Virginia Press Association during its nine-year run. His new book is called Summer of Hate: Charlottesville, Virginia. Hawes Spencer lives, as I do, here in Charlottesville, Virginia. We discuss his new book.