Cold War
Détente
Following years of growing strains between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two superpowers engaged in an era of détente diplomacy from 1969-1979. Amplified by the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the “thawing out” of Cold War tensions by Presidents Richard Nixon and ...read more
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was an attempt in 1948 by the Soviet Union to limit the ability of the United States, Great Britain and France to travel to their respective sectors of the city of Berlin, which lay entirely inside Russian-occupied East Germany. Alarmed by the new U.S. policy ...read more
Arms Race
An arms race occurs when two or more countries increase the size and quality of military resources to gain military and political superiority over one another. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union is perhaps the largest and most expensive arms race in ...read more
President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to African diplomat
In the conclusion to an extremely embarrassing situation, President Dwight D. Eisenhower offers his apologies to Ghanian Finance Minister, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, who had been refused service at a restaurant in Dover, Delaware. It was one of the first of many such incidents in ...read more
President Carter calls for Olympics to be moved from Moscow
On January 20, 1980, in a letter to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and a television interview, U.S. President Jimmy Carter proposes that the 1980 Summer Olympics be moved from the planned host city, Moscow, if the Soviet Union failed to withdraw its troops from ...read more
Gorbachev accepts ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles
In a dramatic turnaround, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev indicates that he is willing to negotiate a ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles without conditions. Gorbachev’s decision paved the way for the groundbreaking Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with the ...read more
How 'Project Blue Book' Production Designers Evoked the Golden Age of UFOs
To transport “Project Blue Book” viewers into the top-secret world of the U.S. government’s Cold War-era U.F.O. investigations, production designer Ross Dempster and his team were tasked with conjuring a moment in time—from scratch. The drama series, in its first season on ...read more
U.S. hockey team makes miracle on ice
In one of the most dramatic upsets in Olympic history, on February 22, 1980, the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of college players, defeats the four-time defending gold-medal winning Soviet team at the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. The Soviet squad, ...read more
Berlin Wall opened for first time
More than two years after the Berlin Wall was constructed by East Germany to prevent its citizens from fleeing its communist regime, nearly 4,000 West Berliners are allowed to cross into East Berlin to visit relatives. Under an agreement reached between East and West Berlin, ...read more
For 40 Minutes in 1971, It Seemed the End Was Near
What would happen if the United States were about to be hit by nuclear weapons? Hopefully, the government would provide some warning through the federal alert system. But that system hasn’t always been in place—and it hasn’t always worked. For over 40 minutes on February 20, ...read more
The Sex Party-Loving Soviet Spy Who Infiltrated the CIA
In the early 1980s, Karl F. Koecher and his wife Hanna lived a gold-plated life in New York City’s swish Upper East Side. They drove a new, blue BMW and lived in a luxury co-op alongside the tennis star Ivan Lendl and the comedian Mel Brooks. Hanna was a diamond dealer, blue-eyed ...read more
Why the Berlin Airlift Was the First Major Battle of the Cold War
Almost as soon as World War II ended, the question of what to do with a defeated, destroyed Germany threatened to drive a wedge between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies. At Potsdam in 1945, the Big Three (the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union) agreed to ...read more
North Korea Once Captured and Detained the Crew of a U.S. Spy Ship for 11 Months
The January 1968 capture of the U.S.S. Pueblo during a spy mission in international waters cost the life of one American sailor and began a grueling 11-month imprisonment for the other 82 Americans aboard. While the Pueblo crew was remembered for their bravery and defiance, ...read more
Military-Industrial Complex
The military-industrial complex is a nation’s military establishment, as well as the industries involved in the production of armaments and other military materials. In his 1961 farewell address, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously warned the public of the nation’s ...read more
Freedom of Information Act
The Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966, giving the public the right to access records from any federal agency. FOIA plays an important role in keeping government transparent and accountable, and has been used to expose a ...read more
How America Jump-Started Iran’s Nuclear Program
For several decades, the U.S. has sought to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons. But ironically, the reason Iran has the technology to build these weapons in the first place is because the U.S. gave it to Iran between 1957 and 1979. This nuclear assistance was part of a ...read more
How the Castro Family Dominated Cuba for Nearly 60 Years
For nearly 60 years, the Castro family controlled Cuba. But in April 2018, it was announced that the island nation long dominated by the specter of its former dictator, Fidel Castro, and his family will get a new leader. On April 19, 2018, the 86-year-old Raúl Castro will step ...read more
Was the Soviet Union’s Collapse Inevitable?
“We’re now living in a new world.” On Christmas Day 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev shocked the world with these words, announcing the dissolution of the Soviet Union and his resignation from its top post. After more than 40 years of the world seeming to teeter on the ...read more
The Surprising Human Factors Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Great events do not always have great causes. One of history’s biggest surprises is how sometimes a series of small, seemingly insignificant events can suddenly add up to momentous change. That’s how it happened with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the point-of-no-return moment in ...read more
Why the U.S. Has Spent 200 Years Flip-Flopping Between Isolationism and Engagement
What does the United States want to be to the world? And what would the world like? A welcoming beacon of democracy? A partner in trade and security? A wary, but distant ally? Or a fortress that has pulled up its drawbridge? For America’s allies and foes alike, the messaging of ...read more
The California Activists Who Scared the Soviets Away From the 1984 Olympics
The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics have been the first Games in 34 years that Russia has not, technically, attended. After a years-long doping scandal, the International Olympic Committee stripped Russia of 41 medals and formally banned them from this year’s games, leaving ...read more
Why Are North and South Korea Divided?
North and South Korea have been divided for more than 70 years, ever since the Korean Peninsula became an unexpected casualty of the escalating Cold War between two rival superpowers: the Soviet Union and the United States. A Unified Korea For centuries before the division, the ...read more
The Wrong Number That Launched the Santa Tracker
When the dreaded red phone rang inside the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) operations center on the last day of November in 1955, the mood at the nerve center of America’s nuclear defense grew nervous. At a time when the Cold War raged and Soviet fighter jets routinely ...read more
We’ve Been Talking About World War III Since Before Pearl Harbor
Ever since people began to speculate about “World War III,” its very name has implied its own inevitability. We talk about it not only as something that might happen, but something that will. And it’s been on our minds for a very long time. The phrase seems to have emerged during ...read more