James Kirchick on The Secret History of Gay Washington

national security cold war us state department

James Kirchick with Juliette Sellgren


November 4, 2022
James Kirchick is the author of two books: Secret City and The End of Europe. Today, he talks to us about the intertwined history of gays in Washington DC and the history of the cold war and national security.

He explains how and why he came to write this book, along with how homosexuality became conflated with communism. Why were there so many gay men in the state department? What is the relationship between the history of the cold war and the history of gay Americans? What’s so significant about that relationship? Listen to find out!




Want to explore more?
Thomas Firey, Life, Liberty, and M*A*S*H, at Econlib
Nathan Goodman, The War That Never Ends, a review of Manufacturing Militarism at Econlib
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