US Foreign Policy Archives

July 18, 1890: George Washington Williams Pens Letter Exposing Atrocities in the Congo

Hoping to spark a movement in protest of the Belgian government’s role in its African colony, historian George Washington Williams wrote an open letter to Belgian King Leopold II exposing atrocities in the Congo.

Feb. 12, 1904: Report on Brutal Violence of Imperialism in the Congo

The Casement Report was delivered before the British Houses of Parliament, providing firsthand accounts of the brutal violence inflicted upon the indigenous people and the land in the Congo Free State by settler colonialists acting on behalf of Belgium’s King Leopold II.

The battlefield of Verdun is part of France's Zone Rouge, cordoned off since the end of WWI.

July 28, 1914: World War I Begins

The First World War killed roughly 20 million people. Fighting transitioned from mainly human- and animal-powered to fossil fuel-powered technologies and accessing and protecting fossil fuel supplies became part of sustaining a powerful military. The Earth and the environment have suffered ever since.

Promises

Film. Written and directed by Justine Shapiro, B. Z. Goldberg, and Carlos Bolado. 2001. 106 minutes.
This documentary explores the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from the eyes and experiences of Israeli and Palestinian children living in the West Bank.

La historia del pueblo de Estados Unidos para jóvenes

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn, adapted by Rebecca Stefoff with additions by Ed Morales. Translated by Hugo García Manríquez. 2023. 608 pages.
A Spanish translation of the young adult version of the best-selling A People’s History of the United States.

The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States

Film. Directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp. Media Education Foundation. 2016. Three versions: 21 min./45 min./84 min.
This film helps students recognize how the media and politicians consistently frame “Palestinian resistance as terrorism and Israeli aggression as self-defense.”

Israelism

Film. Directed by Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen. Tikkun Olam Productions. 2023. 84 minutes.
Examines young Jews who are fundamentally changing not just their attitudes about Israel, Palestine, and Palestinians, but about their own role in the world, and coming to see themselves as solidarity activists.

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017

Book — Non-fiction. By Rashid Khalidi. 2020. 320 pages.
Examines the modern history of Palestine as a colonial war waged against an Indigenous population in order to force them to unwillingly relinquish their homelands.

Ida in the Middle

Book — Fiction. By Nora Lester Murad. Illustrated by Kate Cosgrove. 2022. 223 pages.
A coming of age story that explores identity, place, voice, and belonging through a Palestinian-American girl named Ida.

Pentagon Papers collage | Zinn Education Project

Camouflaging the Vietnam War: How Textbooks Continue to Keep the Pentagon Papers a Secret

By Bill Bigelow

In the Academy Award-winning documentary Hearts and Minds, Daniel Ellsberg, who secretly copied and then released the Pentagon Papers, offers a catalog of presidential lying about the U.S. role in Vietnam: Truman lied. Eisenhower lied. Kennedy lied. Johnson “lied and lied and lied.” Nixon lied.

Ellsberg concludes: “The American public was lied to month by month by each of these five administrations. As I say, it’s a tribute to the American public that their leaders perceived that they had to be lied to; it’s no tribute to us that it was so easy to fool the public.”

In June of 1971, Ellsberg surrendered to federal authorities at Post Office Square in Boston. Forty-two years later, few of the historical secrets that Ellsberg revealed — especially those that focus on the immediate post-World War II origins of U.S. involvement in Vietnam — appear in the school curriculum.

Dec. 2, 1980: Three Nuns and Lay Worker Killed in El Salvador

Three nuns and a lay worker were killed in El Salvador by members of the U.S.-backed National Guard.

book cover showing freedom riders protesting near a bus

A Young People’s History of the United States: Revised and Updated

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn, adapted by Rebecca Stefoff with additions by Ed Morales. 2022. 544 pages.
A young adult version of the best-selling A People’s History of the United States, ideal for 6th through 9th grade students.

The Shock Doctrine (Book - Non-fiction) | Zinn Education Project

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Book — Non-fiction. By Naomi Klein. 2008. 720 pages.
Klein demonstrates how shock has been used by global elites to push through a radical agenda of privatization and "free trade."

April 17, 1965: Largest Anti-War Protest

One of the largest anti-war protest was held in Washington, D.C.

July 30, 1975: Massacre in El Salvador

Dozens of high school and university students in a peaceful protest were killed and injured by the U.S. backed Salvadoran police and National Guard.

July 26, 1950: No Gun Ri Massacre

During the No Gun Ri Massacre, the U.S. Army ordered that all Korean civilians traveling and moving around the country must be stopped.

Grenada education poster| Zinn Education Project

Grenada: ‘A Lovely Little War’

By Bill Bigelow

Anti-bullying curricula are the rage these days. But the official history curriculum teachers are provided often celebrates, or at least excuses, bullying among nations. Well, at least when the United States is the bully.

A good example is the U.S. invasion of Grenada — Operation Urgent Fury, as it was called by the Reagan administration — launched on Oct. 25, 1983. Grenada made an unlikely target of U.S. military might. Its main product was not oil but nutmeg. Its naval fleet consisted of about 10 fishing trawlers. Grenada’s population of 110,000 was smaller than Peoria, Illinois. At the time of the invasion, there was not a single stoplight in the entire country. So what put Grenada in the crosshairs of the Reagan administration?

Sept. 21, 1976: Sheridan Circle Car Bomb

Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt were killed in Washington, D.C. by a U.S.-backed Augusto Pinochet regime car bomb.

Image from an American Friends Service Committee traveling art exhibit called Windows and Mirrors: Reflections on the War in Afghanistan.

Oct. 7, 2001: United States and U.K. Began War in Afghanistan

The United States and United Kingdom began the war in Afghanistan.

Subversives: Stories from the Red Scare

Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca.
In this mixer lesson, students meet 27 different targets of government harassment and repression to analyze why disparate individuals might have become targets of the same campaign, determining what kind of threat they posed in the view of the U.S. government.

A Revolution of Values

Teaching Activity. By Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 3 pages.
Text of speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Vietnam War, followed by three teaching ideas.

History Textbooks: “Theirs” and “Ours”: A Rebellion or a War of Independence?

Teaching Activity. By John DeRose. Rethinking Schools. 4 pages.
Analysis of textbook passages from different countries, videos and books are used to explore different perspectives about the same event in history, i.e. "Philippine-American War" vs. "War of Philippine Independence."

A depiction of two panels from The Great Wall of Los Angeles, a mural by Judy Baca. These panels show depictions from the Mexican-American War.

U.S. Mexico War: “We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God”

Teaching Activity. Lesson by Bill Bigelow and student reading by Howard Zinn. Rethinking Schools. 21 pages.
Interactive activity introduces students to the history and often untold story of the U.S.-Mexico War. Roles available in Spanish.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Rethinking the Vietnam War | Zinn Education Project

Rethinking the Teaching of the Vietnam War

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools. 8 pages.
A role play on the history of the Vietnam War that is left out of traditional textbooks.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Teaching the Hidden Story of Japanese Latin Americans During WWII

Teaching Activity. By Moé Yonamine. Rethinking Schools. 18 pages.
Poetry, photography, and text are used in this role play to teach about the seldom told history of Japanese Latin American incarceration during WWII.

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