Foreign affairs and diplomacy

What’s the context? The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 9 - 10 November 1989

Posted by: Professor Patrick Salmon, Posted on: 7 November 2014 - Categories: Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series

"I stood in the square talking to East Germans and asked them what they were going to buy. They said first of all, Südfrüchte . . . tropical fruit, a very understandable thing because they didn’t have nearly as much …

Wartime in Paris: an Ambassador tweets

Posted by: Dr Richard Smith, Posted on: 2 September 2014 - Categories: First World War, Foreign Office Historians

Dr Richard Smith reveals an exciting new Twitter project by the FCO Historians In 1914 Sir Francis Bertie held the plum posting in the British Diplomatic Service—the ambassadorship to Paris. Not only did it carry a yearly salary of £11,500 …

What’s the Context? President Richard M. Nixon announces his resignation, 8 August 1974

Posted by: Gill Bennett, Posted on: 8 August 2014 - Categories: Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series

‘The most powerful government ever to fall as a result of American covert action was the administration of Richard Nixon’ Christopher Andrew, For The President’s Eyes Only

If Twitter had existed in 1914: tweeting a crisis

Posted by: Dr Richard Smith, Posted on: 7 August 2014 - Categories: First World War, Foreign Office Historians

Diplomacy, and the Foreign Office, played a key role as events unfolded in the run-up to the First World War. For this reason FCO Historians wanted to mark the event but in an innovative way, and joined up with the Digital …

‘The lamps are going out…’: tweeting the July Crisis

Posted by: Dr Richard Smith, Posted on: 16 June 2014 - Categories: First World War, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians

Sunday 28 June 1914 was warm and sunny, and most Londoners were enjoying a day of rest. One exception was the resident clerk at the Foreign Office who was on duty to deal with any unexpected crisis that might occur. …

What’s the Context? D-Day, 6 June 1944

Posted by: Gill Bennett, Posted on: 6 June 2014 - Categories: Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series

"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies" - Churchill to Stalin at the Teheran Conference, November 1943

What’s the Context? 4 April 1949: the signature of the North Atlantic Treaty

Posted by: Gill Bennett, Posted on: 4 April 2014 - Categories: Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series

How the West was won 65 years ago today the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in the State Department auditorium in Washington. An organisation was born—NATO—that remains a cornerstone of Western defence up to the present day. In 1949 there …

The Silver Greyhound - The Messenger Service

Posted by: Keith Mitchell, Posted on: 25 March 2014 - Categories: Civil service, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, The National Archives

Everyone likes the opportunity to travel in their job; especially if you are asked to go overseas, and sometimes you may choose to take your work home with you. This is a long established practice for many occupations. But the …

What’s the context? 22 January 1924: Britain’s first Labour government takes office

Posted by: Gill Bennett, Posted on: 22 January 2014 - Categories: Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series

Ninety years ago today, the British political mould was shattered by the election of the first Labour government. After an inconclusive election on 6 December 1923 that the ruling Conservatives lost but nobody won, Ramsay MacDonald took office as both …

‘We shall fight on the beaches’: 3 things you never knew about Churchill’s most famous speech

Posted by: Professor Richard Toye, Posted on: 2 December 2013 - Categories: Foreign affairs and diplomacy, No 10 guest historian series, Prime Ministers and No. 10, Second World War

Ask anyone to name Winston Churchill’s best-known speech and nine times out of ten they will answer: We shall fight them on the beaches. It’s not an exact quotation – Churchill did not include the word ‘them’ – but the …