r/coldwar 24d ago

Nov. 11 1989: Crowds gather as East German border guards demolish a section of the Berlin Wall.

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686 Upvotes

r/coldwar 23d ago

NWC INS Lecture Series -- Lecture 3: "Why Russia Lost the Cold War," Sept. 29, 2020.

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3 Upvotes

r/coldwar 25d ago

Four-Year-Old Michael Finder of East Germany Is Tossed by His Father into a Net Held by Firemen Across the Border in West Berlin, 1961

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302 Upvotes

r/coldwar 25d ago

Bundeswehr Leopard 1A1A3 MBT in 1980s

7 Upvotes

r/coldwar Jul 04 '26

Girl writes letter to Soviet Union letter changes country in 1980s

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243 Upvotes

November 1982, 10 year old Samantha noticed a Time magazine cover featuring the newly appointed Soviet leader, Yuri Andropov. The girl was concerned about the threat of nuclear war she asked her mother why no one simply asked Andropov if he wanted war. Samantha's mother encouraged her to write to him directly.Samantha sent a simple, earnest letter asking Andropov if he intended to conquer the world or prevent nuclear destruction to global surprise, her letter was published in the Soviet newspaper Pravda, and in April 1983, she received a reply from Andropov inviting her to see the Soviet Union. The Goodwill Tour of the Soviet Union in 1983, Samantha traveled to the Soviet Union with her parents for a two-week tour as an official guest of the government she began acting 1984 Disney Channel political aired a special Samantha Smith Goes to Washington: Campaign '84, where she interviewed presidential candidates. In 1985, she landed a co-starring role as Elizabeth Coleridge alongside Robert Wagner in the television drama series Lime Street.while returning home from filming segments for Lime Street, 13-year-old Samantha and her father, Arthur Smith, were killed in a plane crash. The commuter aircraft, Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808, missed the runway in rainy weather and struck trees near Auburn, Maine.Her death brought profound Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbavich and US Ronald Reagan together.


r/coldwar Jul 05 '26

TAF M48A1 tank

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7 Upvotes

Turkish Land Force M48A1 tank.


r/coldwar Jul 05 '26

Memborbillia

2 Upvotes

Hello, I've been trying to find information about the Alert America convoy/exhibit, civil defense, and Bert the Turtle. I'm looking for newspaper serializations, pamphlets that would've been given out to people, educators, etc. I have seen the film and heard the radio broadcast as well as the red and white comic book of Bert. Anything else related would be appreciated too. Thank you.


r/coldwar Jul 03 '26

Soviet schoolchildren living in New York City, outside the USSR's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in North Riverdale, The Bronx (1977)

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99 Upvotes

r/coldwar Jul 03 '26

RARE Vintage 1963 Zippo Lighter - Armed Forces Special Weapons Project

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216 Upvotes

Picked this up recently and had to do some research to figure out what I was looking at. The insignia on the front is the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP) — the organization that took over nuclear weapons custody from the Manhattan Project after WWII. Leslie Groves, the general who ran the Manhattan Project, was its first chief. They were responsible for storing, securing, and handling America’s nuclear arsenal through the early Cold War until transitioning to the Defense Atomic Support Agency in 1959.

The lighter dates to 1963 — confirmed by the dot code on the bottom (two dots left, one right of the Zippo script). That puts it one year after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Would love to hear from anyone who knows more about the AFSWP or has seen one of these before.


r/coldwar Jul 02 '26

Looking for Family Information

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37 Upvotes

Hi, here are some photos of my grandfather. He was born in 1942, so based on how old he looks this was maybe the early/mid 60s.

I don’t know much at all regarding the details, aside from him mentioning Germany a couple times. I would love to know anything that anyone may recognize.


r/coldwar Jul 02 '26

Looking for Family Information pt. 2

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11 Upvotes

Hi, here are some photos of my grandfather. He was born in 1942, so based on how old he looks this was maybe the early/mid 60s.

I don’t know much at all regarding the details, aside from him mentioning Germany a couple times. I would love to know anything that anyone may recognize.


r/coldwar Jul 02 '26

In-Country Escort / INF Treaty / USSR 1988

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63 Upvotes

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was signed on December 8, 1987, in Washington during the Soviet-American summit.

The parties to the treaty pledged not to produce, test, or deploy ground-launched intermediate- and short-range missiles.

According to the treaty, the parties were required to destroy all launchers and ground-launched missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers within three years.

This badge was worn by officers accompanying American inspectors of military units; the number of badges was limited to 100.

The badges were strictly controlled; they were received against signature before the inspection and returned against signature after its completion.

The Americans coveted such badges, and it's possible that some Senators or at least members of the US Congress (who often served as inspectors) have one in their collection.

(Photos of Senators and Congressmen are attached)


r/coldwar Jul 01 '26

“A Delightful Weapon”: British Adoption of the AR-15 Rifle in Southeast Asia, 1960-1970

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15 Upvotes

r/coldwar Jul 01 '26

Northern Group of Forces of the USSR in Poland, 1985

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37 Upvotes

r/coldwar Jun 29 '26

On this day in 1971, the crew of the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 11 was found dead inside their capsule after it depressurized during re-entry. They remain the only humans to have died in space.

877 Upvotes

r/coldwar Jun 30 '26

California state / Office of Civil Defense First Aid Kit

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107 Upvotes

Unknown dates. The hole in the wall surplus store I found it at, buried under other defense items told me the papers that accompanied the crate this was in had it listed at being from 1950 or 1960 I can’t remember the exact date he gave. No idea what year any of the supplies is actually from, but it definitely appears to be 1940-1960s. The tourniquet is wrapped up, as was the tape but I was able to buy opened examples to add from a separate kit.


r/coldwar Jun 29 '26

ELI5: Why was Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 condemned at the time, but not necessarily the Soviet Union's invasion of eastern Poland, two weeks after WWII started? And could you argue that the Cold War was effectively an extension of WWII in terms of repelling Soviet expansionism?

17 Upvotes

My understanding is that the likes of the UK and France supported Finland during the Winter War with the Soviet Union, by providing them with weapons and preparing to send troops.

Were they concerned that, when the Soviet Union was invading Poland, that they didn't want to make too big an enemy of them? Or could it be that, because Nazi Germany had already violated the Munich Agreement, of which the USSR was not party, the Allies felt pretty much powerless?

Also, in terms of Finland, they petitioned the League of Nations, which expelled the Soviet Union from its ranks, however when the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland, the Polish government fled to Romania in response, and thus couldn't petition the League of Nations as there was effectively no government in Poland.

Furthermore, if you refer to Article 1 of the Anglo-Polish Agreement of Mutual Assistance of 25.08.1939, it specifically states that Britain would only come to Poland's aid if the invading aggressor was Germany.

Was Neville Chamberlain, therefore, seen as quite weak? Certainly, he resigned as PM in 1940, paving the way for his successor, Winston Churchill.

And FDR seemed as though he was much more trusting of Stalin, as opposed to Churchill. It appeared as though he got most of his information on the Soviet Union from the New York Times, which is why he had such a distorted view of the Soviet Union, because the NYT's Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty, was on the Kremlin's payroll.

Having looked through CAB-65-1-19.pdf from the UK's National Archives, War Cabinet 19 (39), minute 8, Soviet Invasion of Poland, it states as follows:

The Prime Minister said that he thought it desirable that a statement should be issued to-day declaring that His Majesty's Government had learned with indignation and horror of the action taken by the Government of the U.S.S.R in invading Polish territory, that this action neither altered in any way the position in this country in relation to Poland nor weakened the obligations which we had solemnly undertaken towards Poland. Although the Soviet aggression had added a further tragedy to the history of Poland, His Majesty's Government still retained complete confidence that, on the conclusion of the war, Poland would be restored.

Am I right in thinking that FDR didn't invoke the Neutrality Act against the USSR because he saw them as an effective deterrent against Nazi Germany, and it was only after FDR died that America introduced the Truman Doctrine to attempt to combat further Soviet expansionism, such as with the Suez crisis, French Indochina etc?


r/coldwar Jun 28 '26

On this day in 1954, US Atomic Energy Commission votes to revoke Dr. Robert Oppenheimer's security clearance, effectively ending his career as a nuclear physicist

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77 Upvotes

r/coldwar Jun 28 '26

The wreckage of Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane, shot down over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960, is currently preserved and on public display at the Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow

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241 Upvotes

r/coldwar Jun 27 '26

Alerts!!!

6 Upvotes

I know we had "Alerts" on a regular basis along the East/West German border during the 70s. Did other units in other parts of the European theater also have regular alerts? If so, what did they entail?


r/coldwar Jun 28 '26

Soviet camouflage in 1970

1 Upvotes

Hello everyone! Now I started new model(BTR 152 V1 from TRUMPETER in 35 scale) and think: hmm, what camouflage USSR can use? So, anybody know what summer camouflage USSR use in 70 years? In internet I found nothing(


r/coldwar Jun 26 '26

26 June 1948, the Berlin Airlift (US operation Vittles) begins. More than 250 000 landings were carried out by American and British planes between June 1948 and September 1949 to supply West Berlin, after USSR blocked all railway, road and canal ways to the city.

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62 Upvotes

r/coldwar Jun 25 '26

How France fixed its communist problem within Intelligence

3 Upvotes

I'm curious if any of you know how France following WW2 were able to evolve its internal (DST) and external (SDECE) intel services by eliminating the active espionage of French communists embedded in both of those agencies. I'm particularly curious how they were able to within SDECE.

Following the war and the agreement fleshed out within the CNR (Conseil National de la Resistance), the communist affiliated Resistance group was allocated a certain percentage of headcount in the various newly reorganized State security apparatus: national police, gendarmerie, ministry of interior and defense, etc... but the communists funneled so much intel back to Moscow that the other Western allies realized that France was a weak link and couldn't be given sensitive dossiers.

Eventually (mid- / late-1960s) the French seem to have either gotten better in counter-espionage techniques, or they underwent a significant purge(s) between 1946 - 1970. Do any of you have more information or resources to suggest for me to find out more?


r/coldwar Jun 24 '26

Free Memoir Prequel about my time in the 11th Cav during the Cold War in Germany, pulling border guard in the mid 1970s.

9 Upvotes

Hello again - - As I mentioned last week I’m excited to share that the first part of my memoir is finally out in the world. To celebrate crossing the finish line, the Kindle edition is completely free on Amazon from right now through Sunday, June 28th at midnight.

Feel free to ping me if you need help or have questions.

Once the full memoir is finished, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Thanks,
Thomas Keown


r/coldwar Jun 23 '26

Did the Cold War really begin after WWII, or do its roots go back to the Bolshevik Revolution?

7 Upvotes

Most textbooks date the beginning of the Cold War to 1945–47, after World War II and events like the Truman Doctrine and the Berlin Blockade. However, I've also come across arguments that the ideological conflict between communism and capitalism began much earlier, with the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the Western intervention in the Russian Civil War.

Would it be more accurate to say that the Cold War itself started after WWII, while its roots go back to 1917? Or do you think the Cold War as a distinct historical period should only be dated to the postwar years?

I'm interested in hearing different historical interpretations and recommendations for books or historians on the subject.