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October 22, 2020

Interview with Süha Umar

Süha Umar is a Turkish Ambassador (Rtd.) He served as Head of the Turkish Delegation to ACRS.

November 27, 2020

Interview with Yezid Sayigh

Yezid Sayigh is a former Palestinian diplomat. He served as an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to ACRS. 

December 15, 1980

Resolution on Policy Guidelines and Missions for the Struggle against American Spies in the New Situation

A resolution on combatting “American spies." The document calls for Public Security to re-interview all confirmed or suspected “CIA” agents being held in re-education camps and to conduct careful reviews of the enormous volume of documents captured by Communist forces when they took over South Vietnam in 1975 in order to identify and arrest any “stay-behind” agents of the Americans as well as former “CIA” agents who had still managed to evade detection and arrest.

July 2, 1957

Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy in the Senate, Washington, D.C., July 2, 1957

On July 2, 1957, US senator John F. Kennedy made his perhaps best-known senatorial speech—on Algeria.

Home to about 8 million Muslims, 1.2 million European settlers, and 130,000 Jews, it was from October 1954 embroiled in what France dubbed “events”—domestic events, to be precise. Virtually all settlers and most metropolitan French saw Algeria as an indivisible part of France. Algeria had been integrated into metropolitan administrative structures in 1847, towards the end of a structurally if not intentionally genocidal pacification campaign; Algeria’s population dropped by half between 1830, when France invaded, and the early 1870s. Eighty years and many political turns later (see e.g. Messali Hadj’s 1927 speech in this collection), in 1954, the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) launched a war for independence. Kennedy did not quite see eye to eye with the FLN.

As Kennedy's speech shows, he did not want France entirely out of North Africa. However, he had criticized French action already in early 1950s Indochina. And in 1957 he met with Abdelkader Chanderli (1915-1993), an unaccredited representative of the FLN at the United Nations in New York and in Washington, DC, and a linchpin of the FLN’s successful international offensive described in Matthew Connelly’s A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria’s Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era (2002). Thus, Kennedy supported the FLN’s demand for independence, which explains its very positive reaction to his speech.

And thus, unlike the 1952-1960 Republican administration of Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) that officially backed the views of NATO ally France and kept delivering arms, the Democratic senator diagnosed a “war” by “Western imperialism” that, together with if different from “Soviet imperialism,” is “the great enemy of … the most powerful single force in the world today: ... man's eternal desire to be free and independent.” (In fact, Kennedy’s speech on the Algerian example of Western imperialism was the first of two, the second concerning the Polish example of Sovietimperialism. On another, domestic note, to support African Algeria’s independence was an attempt to woe civil-rights-movement-era African Americans without enraging white voters.) To be sure, Kennedy saw France as an ally, too. But France’s war was tainting Washington too much, which helped Moscow. In Kennedy’s eyes, to support the US Cold War against the Soviet Union meant granting Algeria independence. The official French line was the exact opposite: only continued French presence in Algeria could keep Moscow and its Egyptian puppet, President Gamal Abdel Nasser, from controlling the Mediterranean and encroaching on Africa.

June 17, 2020

Interview and Discussion with Andrzej Olechowski

Discussion with Polish Minister Andrzej Olechowski about his life and Poland in the 1990s.

March 10, 1956

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1956, No. 09 (Overall Issue No. 35)

This issue features a political report from Zhou Enlai, which discusses the Five-Year Plan, the transformation of Chinese intellectuals, the United States, and Taiwan. It also conveys instructions from the Department of Higher Education, the Ministry of Health, the Sports Committee, and the New Democracy Youth League (later the Communist Youth League) to further develop sports in colleges and universities. Other sections cover various administrative concerns, including the division of districts in Shanghai, the establishment of Guixi Tong Autonomous Prefecture in Guangxi, and the transfer of towns from Jilin Province to Inner Mongolia.

August 19, 1955

Proposal of the USSR Ministry of Higher Education on Providing Assistance to the Chinese People’s Republic in Training Specialists for Work in the Area of the Peaceful Use of Atomic Energy

The CPSU CC agrees to assist the PRC with nuclear energy training.

August 8, 1944

Harriman's notes on Mikolajczyk and Stalin Meeting

Stanislaw Mikolajczyk gives Harriman points discussed during a meeting he had with Stalin about Polish affairs.

May 17, 1944

Professor Oscar Lange’s Report on his Meeting with Stalin, Submitted to President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Stettinius

Prof. Oscar Lange sends a briefing to the President and Secretary of State about his meeting with Stalin where they discussed Polish Politics.

June 21, 1961

Reception of Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq Abd el Wahab Mahmoud by Comrade N. S. Khrushchev

On June 20, 1961, Nikita Khrushchev, Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, held a farewell meeting with Abd Elwahab Mahmoud, the departing Ambassador of Iraq to the Soviet Union. The discussion reflected on Mahmoud’s tenure in the USSR and the strained relations between Iraq and the Soviet Union under General Qasim's government. Khrushchev expressed regret over Mahmoud's departure, noting the deterioration in Soviet-Iraq relations. He criticized General Qasim for persecuting communists and patriots who supported Iraq’s revolution, comparing Qasim's actions unfavorably to Lenin's strategic leadership during the Russian Revolution. Khrushchev also discussed broader ideological themes, emphasizing the superiority of the socialist system, Soviet progress in education and industrial production, and the country’s long-term economic and cultural development program. Mahmoud acknowledged the challenges in Iraq, expressing optimism that Qasim’s rule was temporary and that Iraq would eventually realign with democratic and progressive forces. He emphasized the Iraqi people's desire for friendship with the USSR. The conversation concluded with Khrushchev praising Mahmoud’s work as ambassador and offering his best wishes for Mahmoud's future, with advice to share the USSR's perspectives with Qasim if it would not harm him personally.

This document summary was generated by an artificial intelligence language model and was reviewed by a Wilson Center staff member.

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