48 Fun Facts About Cold War

What years did the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union largely span?

The Cold War is usually dated 1947-1991: from Truman's March 1947 speech to Congress announcing the Truman Doctrine to the Soviet Union's dissolution in December 1991.

Which individual is credited with first using the term 'Cold War' in an article published in 1945?

The term 'Cold War' was first used by the English writer George Orwell in an article published in 1945. It was later popularized in the United States by Bernard Baruch in 1947.

In which journal did the pseudonymous 'X Article' introducing 'containment' to US policy appear in July 1947?

The 'X Article' ran in Foreign Affairs in July 1947, signed with the single letter 'X' at the State Department's insistence; its call for 'long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment' named a whole era of policy.

At which university did George C. Marshall deliver the June 1947 address proposing US aid for European recovery?

Marshall spoke at Harvard's commencement on 5 June 1947; Congress enacted the resulting European Recovery Program in April 1948.

What nickname did German children give the Berlin Airlift planes that dropped candy on tiny parachutes?

Berliners called the airlift planes 'Rosinenbomber', raisin bombers. Pilot Gail Halvorsen's candy drops grew into 'Operation Little Vittles', which dropped about 23 tons of sweets on tiny parachutes by 1949.

What military alliance did the US, Canada and several Western European nations form in 1949?

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in 1949 as a defensive military alliance to protect member countries from the spread of communism and the power of the Soviet Union.

What was the Soviet-led defence alliance formed in May 1955 after West Germany joined NATO called?

The Warsaw Pact was signed in the Polish capital on 14 May 1955 by eight states, a week after West Germany joined NATO; Albania stopped taking part in 1961 and formally withdrew in 1968.

In which two countries had the US deployed Jupiter missiles in 1961, as Khrushchev cited over Cuba?

Jupiter missiles were based in Italy and Turkey from 1961. As part of the settlement ending the October 1962 standoff, Washington secretly agreed to remove the Turkish missiles, and both deployments were gone by 1963.

In which city did Reagan and Gorbachev hold their October 1986 summit that nearly abolished nuclear weapons?

The Reykjavík summit of 11-12 October 1986, held at Höfði House, ended without agreement, but the ground covered there fed directly into the INF Treaty signed in December 1987.

In what year did the Berlin Blockade begin, marking one of the first major crises of the Cold War?

Stalin ordered rail and barge traffic into the city blocked on 24 June 1948, and the Western Allies answered by supplying their sectors entirely by air for almost a year.

In 1968 Soviet-led forces invaded Czechoslovakia to crush which reform movement?

The Prague Spring, Alexander Dubček's 'socialism with a human face', began in January 1968; on the night of 20-21 August Soviet troops, joined by Polish, Hungarian and Bulgarian forces, invaded and crushed it.

What was the primary goal of the 1947 US doctrine pledging support for 'free peoples' resisting 'armed minorities or outside pressures'?

To prevent the spread of communism was the aim, and Congress voted $400 million for Greece and Turkey two months after the president's speech.

On what date in 1961 did East Germany begin building the Berlin Wall?

13 August 1961 was the day; Kennedy, holidaying at Hyannis Port, was not told until noon.

Which of these conflicts is widely considered a major proxy war of the Cold War, with Washington and Moscow backing opposite sides?

The Vietnam War saw Washington back the South while Moscow and Beijing supplied the North; it was the second of the Indochina wars.

What 13-day confrontation in October 1962 is considered the closest the Cold War came to nuclear war?

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet nuclear missiles deployed in Cuba, which is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to nuclear conflict.

Who was First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964?

Nikita Khrushchev was First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, having come out on top of the power struggle that followed Stalin's death.

Which 1975 agreement, signed by 35 states, recognized Europe's post-war borders as inviolable?

The Helsinki Accords, the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, were signed on 1 August 1975 by 35 states including the United States, Canada and the Soviet Union.

In what year was the Berlin Wall thrown open, leading ultimately to German reunification?

On 9 November 1989 spokesman Günter Schabowski's bungled press-conference answer, that new travel rules applied 'immediately, without delay', sent crowds to the crossings that same night; Germany reunified in October 1990.

Along which line of latitude was Korea divided into Soviet and American zones in 1945?

Two US officers, Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel, picked the 38th Parallel in Washington in August 1945; it split the peninsula roughly in the middle, and the 1953 armistice line runs close to it.

On which Berlin bridge was U-2 pilot Gary Powers swapped for spy Rudolf Abel in 1962?

The swap took place on the Glienicke Bridge on 10 February 1962. Further exchanges followed there, and the crossing between Potsdam and West Berlin earned the nickname 'Bridge of Spies'.

Who is credited with coining 'Iron Curtain' for the division of Europe?

Winston Churchill said it at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on 5 March 1946, with Truman in the audience: 'From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.'

What did the Cold War nuclear doctrine abbreviated MAD stand for?

Mutually Assured Destruction held that a full-scale nuclear attack would guarantee the attacker's own annihilation; Defense Secretary Robert McNamara made 'assured destruction' official US doctrine in the mid-1960s.

What was the first US satellite, launched in early 1958 in answer to Sputnik?

Explorer 1 went up on 31 January 1958 atop a Juno I rocket and carried James Van Allen's Geiger counter, which detected the radiation belts later named for him.

What was the primary reason East Germany built the Berlin Wall in 1961?

To prevent East Germans from defecting to the West: before the Wall about 3.5 million, a fifth of the population, had already left, a drain the state could not sustain.

What term describes the easing of US-Soviet tension in the 1970s?

Détente is French for 'relaxation'; the era of summits and arms treaties unravelled in the late 1970s and was declared dead after the Soviet invasion of December 1979.

The SALT I agreement signed in May 1972 froze the number of what at existing levels?

New submarine-launched launchers were allowed only if an equal number of older land-based or submarine launchers were dismantled; a companion treaty capped anti-ballistic missile systems.

What was the purpose of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the 1983 proposal nicknamed 'Star Wars'?

SDI was meant to defend against ballistic missile attack with space- and ground-based interceptors; critics borrowed the 'Star Wars' nickname from the film, and the program was reorganised as the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization in 1993.

Who was the last leader of the Soviet Union before its dissolution in 1991?

Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary in March 1985 and resigned as Soviet president on 25 December 1991, the day before the Soviet Union formally ceased to exist.

Which slogans, meaning 'openness' and 'restructuring', defined late-1980s Soviet policy?

Glasnost loosened censorship enough that most Soviet citizens first learned about Stalin's atrocities in the late 1980s, while perestroika tried to restructure the planned economy.

Which Soviet foreign minister assured Kennedy on 18 October 1962 that the weapons in Cuba were defensive?

Andrei Gromyko, Soviet foreign minister from 1957 to 1985, met Kennedy in the Oval Office on 18 October 1962; Kennedy already had U-2 photographs of the missile sites in his desk and did not let on.

What was the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961?

A failed US-backed attempt to overthrow the Cuban government: Brigade 2506, some 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched from Guatemala and Nicaragua, surrendered on 20 April.

Sputnik 1 was launched in October 1957 during which worldwide scientific programme?

Sputnik 1 went up on 4 October 1957 during the International Geophysical Year, the July 1957 to December 1958 programme for which both superpowers had promised to orbit a satellite; it lifted off from Site 1/5 at Tyuratam, later Baikonur.

Which US President delivered the famous 'Ich bin ein Berliner' speech in West Berlin in 1963?

John F. Kennedy spoke on 26 June 1963 to about 120,000 people from the steps of Rathaus Schöneberg; the story that he accidentally called himself a jelly doughnut is an urban legend that arose decades later.

What name, taken from its best-known advocate, is given to the Second Red Scare?

McCarthyism takes its name from Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin; Truman told reporters in March 1950 that McCarthy was 'the greatest asset the Kremlin has', and the label outlived the senator's 1954 censure.

In which city was the Non-Aligned Movement formally established in 1961?

The first Non-Aligned summit met in Belgrade in September 1961, hosted by Tito; Nasser, Nehru, Nkrumah and Sukarno joined him as founders, building on principles agreed at the 1955 Bandung Conference.

What was the 'U-2 Incident' in 1960?

The U-2 Incident occurred on May 1, 1960, when a U.S. U-2 spy plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, was shot down over Soviet airspace, causing a major diplomatic crisis.

Which event is most often cited as the symbolic end of the Cold War?

The fall of the Berlin Wall came on the night of 9 November 1989, after East Germany announced its citizens could cross freely; reunification followed on 3 October 1990.

Which country's premier Imre Nagy declared withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact on 1 November 1956?

Hungary's premier Imre Nagy announced neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact on 1 November 1956; Soviet tanks crushed the uprising days later, and Nagy was tried in secret and executed in June 1958.

Which Cold War idea held that if one country in a region fell to communism, its neighbours would follow?

Eisenhower gave the Domino Theory its name at a 7 April 1954 press conference, likening Southeast Asian states to 'a row of dominoes' that would topple in turn; the idea underpinned US intervention in Vietnam.

Who became the first human in space, completing one orbit of Earth for the Soviet Union on 12 April 1961?

Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1 flight was his only trip to space; three months later he was mobbed on a visit to London and Manchester.

What was the direct US-Soviet communication link set up in 1963 to prevent accidental nuclear war called?

The Moscow-Washington Hotline was agreed in Geneva in June 1963 and went live that August. Despite the 'red telephone' of popular imagination, it was never a telephone line: the first version ran on teleprinters.

Which country experienced a Soviet invasion in 1979, becoming a major proxy conflict of the Cold War?

Some 700 Soviet troops in Afghan uniforms seized Kabul's key buildings on 27 December 1979, and the war dragged on for more than nine years.

What was Kennedy's advisory committee during the October 1962 Cuban missile standoff called?

The ExComm, the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, met in the White House Cabinet Room; Kennedy secretly taped its sessions on machines he switched on himself.

What was the Western name for the Berlin Wall crossing at Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße?

Checkpoint Charlie was reserved for Allied personnel and foreigners; in October 1961 American and Soviet tanks faced off there for sixteen hours.

Who wrote the 1946 'Long Telegram' from Moscow that shaped the US policy of containment?

George F. Kennan's 5,363-word cable of 22 February 1946 argued the Soviet regime was inherently expansionist; a year later he restated the case in print under the pseudonym 'X'.

Which US intelligence agency was created in 1947 and ran Cold War covert operations?

The CIA was created by the National Security Act, which Truman signed on 26 July 1947; the same law set up the National Security Council and a unified military establishment that became the Department of Defense.

Which leader demanded 'tear down this wall!' in a June 1987 speech at the Brandenburg Gate?

Ronald Reagan delivered the line on 12 June 1987 with the Wall directly behind the podium; State Department and NSC drafts had tried to cut it as too provocative.

The 1959 'Kitchen Debate', held in a model kitchen at an American exhibition in Moscow, was between which two leaders?

Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev argued through interpreters at the opening of the American National Exhibition in Sokolniki Park on July 24, 1959.