Cold War

Look to Ebenezer: Historical Hope as Advent Turns into Christmas
Look to Ebenezer: Historical Hope as Advent Ends and Christmas Begins

This remembrance helps develop a confident, enduring Christian hope that is more than wishful thinking and leads to real-world action.

Where the Iron Curtain Begins - Cold War - Soviet Union - Berlin
Where the Iron Curtain Begins

In 1961, Lee Edwards wrote from Germany, “If the United States and its allies do not stand firm, the concentration camp will soon add another two million inmates who presently live in West Berlin.”

Christians and the Soviet Union: A Cautionary Episode
Christians and the Soviet Union: A Cautionary Episode

Christians should not allow themselves to be swept along on the tides of popular resentment and feeling, but should plant their feet firmly on the rock of fact and of Christian love. Only thus will the truth be discerned amidst the babels of conflicting opinions.

Niebuhr on Anti-Americanism and Moral Leadership
Niebuhr on Anti-Americanism and Moral Leadership

“We have,” said an exuberant campaign orator in the recent campaign, “the moral leadership of the world. The whole world trusts in our devotion to freedom and expects us to save mankind from totalitarianism.” That is how we see ourselves, at least in our more complacent moods. The world does not see us as we see ourselves.

Let Us Not Ignore the Facts Which Give Hope: An Advent Series
Let Us Not Ignore the Facts Which Give Hope: An Advent Series

We are in a battle with despair these days. One cannot but regret interpretations which weigh the struggle on the side of defeat, especially when one’s own judgment is that such interpretations leave out great areas of fact which give one the right to cherish hope.

Countering the Russian-Communist Drive for Power in 1946 - John C. Bennett
Countering the Russian-Communist Drive for Power in 1946

“The resistance to Russian expansion in Europe is right. The spectacle of American progressives supporting Wallace in opposing that resistance brings dismay to most European democrats.”

Colin Powell’s Iraq Legacy

We don’t yet know Iraq’s future, but Powell as a Christian would agree that there’s always hope.

Reinhold Niebuhr vs. Henry Wallace

Keynoting a “Beat Dewey” rally at Madison Square Garden on September 12, 1946, Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace warned Americans against the Truman administration’s “get tough with Russia” policy. Reinhold Niebuhr responded.

Patient Foreign Policy and the “Long Pull”
Patient Foreign Policy and the Cold War “Long Pull”

The following two articles appeared in Christianity and Crisis on September 16, 1946. They both reflect on America’s relations with the Soviet Union post-World War II and try to develop a Christian approach to this challenge.