Cold War Chronicles is a reference library of the definitive guide to the conflict that shaped the modern world. Every article on this site is written or rewritten by a named member of the editorial team and reviewed against a set of internal standards before publication. The team is small on purpose: we are five working historians, not an anonymous content operation, and every page carries a byline and a last-reviewed date.
Our editorial standards
The site follows four non-negotiable rules. First, no claim of any consequence goes on a page without attribution to a named scholar or a primary source. Second, every major topic names the historians who have shaped the historiography — the goal is to make a reader aware that there is a conversation, not just a settled fact. Third, every article distinguishes between what is established and what is contested or revised. Fourth, dates, numbers, casualty figures, and treaty texts are checked against the underlying sources; figures that are genuinely uncertain are reported as ranges, not as single numbers.
Sources and citations
Each in-depth article on the site closes with a "Key sources" section naming the scholarly works that drove the writing. We prefer recent, peer-reviewed scholarship where it exists, and the most authoritative primary documents where it does not. A small number of canonical external resources — the Wilson Center's Cold War International History Project, the National Security Archive at George Washington University, the Digital Archive of the Atomic Heritage Foundation, the Presidential Libraries, and Wikipedia for quick lookups — are linked in-line where they add value.
Where the historical record is genuinely contested, we say so. The Rosenberg case, the causes of the Korean War, the wisdom of the Vietnam intervention, the responsibility for the breakdown of detente in 1979, and the relative weight of structural and contingent factors in the Soviet collapse are all live debates among specialists, and our articles try to make that visible without pretending to a false neutrality.
Review process
A new article or a major revision is read twice before publication: first by the relevant senior editor for factual accuracy and source coverage, then by the editor-in-chief for tone, structure, and consistency with the rest of the site. Minor edits and link updates are made on an ongoing basis. Every page shows the date it was last substantively reviewed.
The team
Samuel Okafor
Editor-in-Chief
Historian of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. PhD, University of London. Former fellow at the Wilson Center Cold War International History Project.
Maria Vogel
Senior Editor, Nuclear History
Science historian specializing in nuclear weapons policy and arms control. Previously a researcher at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
David Chen
Senior Editor, Asia and the Pacific
Specialist in Cold War history in East and Southeast Asia. Author of two monographs on the Korean War and Vietnam War era.
Rachel Mendes
Senior Editor, Espionage and Intelligence
Intelligence historian and former archivist at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Co-editor of three declassified-document collections.
Thomas Bauer
Senior Editor, Europe
Specialist in the history of divided Europe, NATO, and the European integration project. PhD, Humboldt University of Berlin.
Contact and corrections
We welcome corrections, suggested sources, and pointers to recent scholarship. Errors are fixed promptly and the last-reviewed date is updated. Reach the editorial team through the site's repository on GitHub (open an issue or pull request on the page in question).
Last updated: 2026-06-13