You know, history is a great teacher. One must read history, though.
And quite often the happenings as related by participants are different than the talking points distributed at the time.
And then time, with it's inevitable access to more papers, documents and participants adds dimension and richness to our understanding.
It's too bad that you regard reading history as someone "telling me how to think". Rarely, if ever, is anything the way the blogs and headlines present it.
A mind which is pried open by events conflicting with ideology is a frightened mind at first. Uncomfortable. But you're going to have to take my word for it.
Or read history.
Arf