How We Forgot the Cold War

by Wiener, Jon

• ISBN13: 9780520271418
• ISBN10: 0520271416
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-10-15
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Hours after the USSR collapsed in 1991, Congress began making plans to establish the official memory of the Cold War. Conservatives dominated the proceedings, spending millions to portray the conflict as a triumph of good over evil and a defeat of totalitarianism equal in significance to World War II. In this provocative book, historian Jon Wiener visits Cold War monuments, museums, and memorials across the United States to find out how the era is being remembered. The author's journey provides a history of the Cold War, one that turns many conventional notions on their heads. In an engaging travelogue that takes readers to sites such as the life-size recreation of Berlin's "Checkpoint Charlie" at the Reagan Library, the fallout shelter display at the Smithsonian, and exhibits about "Sgt. Elvis," America's most famous Cold War veteran, Wiener discovers that the Cold War isn't being remembered. It's being forgotten. Despite an immense effort, the conservatives' monuments weren't built, their historic sites have few visitors, and many of their museums have now shifted focus to other topics. Proponents of the notion of a heroic "Cold War victory" failed; the public didn't buy the official story. Lively, readable, and well-informed, this book expands current discussions about memory and history, and raises intriguing questions about popular skepticism toward official ideology.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vii
Introduction: Forgetting the Cold War	p. 1
The End
Hippie Day at the Reagan Library	p. 13
The Victims of Communism Museum: A Study in Failure	p. 29
The Beginning: 1946-1949
Getting Started: The Churchill Memorial in Missouri	p. 45
Searching for the Pumpkin Patch: The Whittaker Chambers National Historic Landmark	p. 55
Naming Names, from Laramie to Beverly Hills	p. 65
Secrets on Display: The CIA Museum and the NSA Museum	p. 80
Cold War Cleanup: The Hanford Tour	p. 97
The 1950s
Test Site Tourism in Nevada	p. 113
Memorial Day in Lakewood and La Jolla: Korean War Monuments of California	p. 126
Code Name "Ethel": The Rosenbergs in the Museums	p. 140
Mound Builders of Missouri: Nuclear Waste at Weldon Spring	p. 156
Cold War Elvis: Sgt. Presley at the General George Patron Museum	p. 166
The 1960s and After
The Graceland of Cold War Tourism: The Greenbrier Bunker	p. 183
IkeÆs Emmy: Monuments to the Military-Industrial Complex	p. 193
The Fallout Shelters of North Dakota	p. 204
"It Had to Do with Cuba and Missiles": Thirteen Days in October	p. 216
The Museum of the Missile Gap: Arizona's Titan Missile Museum	p. 227
The Museum of Détente: The Nixon Library in Yorba Linda	p. 241
Alternative Approaches
Rocky Flats: Uncovering the Secrets	p. 253
CNN's Cold War: Equal Time for the Russians	p. 263
Harry Truman's Amazing Museum	p. 275
Conclusion: History, Memory, and the Cold War	p. 287
Epilogue: From the Cold War to the War in Iraq	p. 299
Acknowledgments	p. 303
Notes	p. 307
Index	p. 349
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