Questions tagged [cold-war]
The Cold War was a continuing state of political and military tension from the 1940s to the early 1990s between the Western world, led by the United States and NATO allies, and the Communist world, led by the Soviet Union, its satellites and allies. The Cold War never saw direct military action, since both sides' nuclear weapons would have guaranteed "mutual assured destruction". Cycles of relative calm were followed by high tension and the threat of war.
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Did Stalin believe Israel would go communist?
In Anne Applebaum's recent book Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956, she claims the USSR supported the new state of Israel and states
Stalin believed Israel would quickly join the ...
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Did NATO promise Gorbachev not to accept membership applications from former Warsaw Pact nations?
There have been several claims that there was an agreement between NATO and USSR at the end of the Cold War. This agreement supposedly required NATO to reject any membership applications from the ...
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What was the legal status of an East German once he had reached West Germany?
Cold War histories usually state something like "any German able to reach West Germany was automatically granted West German citizenship" to explain how easy it was to go from East to West, if only ...
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Austria and Iron Curtain during Cold War
Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech from 1946 contains the following famous passage:
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain
has descended across the Continent. ...
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What was the Soviet reasoning for developing their Airborne Forces (VDV) into a powerful military branch?
The Soviet Airborne Forces (the VDV, or the Воздушно-десантные войска, or the Aerial Descent Force as a more precise translation) were one of the more prestigious units in the Soviet military (see '...
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What are the origins of the "totalitarian genes" theory?
What are the origins of the infamous "totalitarian genes" theory that alleged that Russians, Serbs, Belorussians had genes favoring totalitarianism and autharitarian government, so to protect ...
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Why didn't the US and USSR jam each other's early-warning radar?
Radar jamming refers to rendering a radar system ineffective by saturating it with noise, typically by bombarding it with a high-intensity signal on the radar's operating frequency(es) in order to ...
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How was titanium transported from Soviet Union to Area 51 for Oxcart?
Oxcart was one of its kind, a sophisticated aircraft designed during the Cold-War era. Its body was made up of titanium. Titanium was only found in substantial quantities in the then Soviet Union. The ...
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How and why was the boundary between West and East Berlin decided to be where it was?
I have been trying to find detailed explanations (and, if available, references in English or German about it) to the following about the division of Berlin into West and East sides after WW2:
how ...
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How were the West Berlin air corridors negotiated?
This grew out of a question I asked on the Politics SE, which I'm moving here because it's tangential to that question.
As far as I can tell, after World War 2, the Western powers negotiated air ...
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Why was Eisenhower chosen to be Supreme Allied Commander in Europe?
Dwight D. Eisenhower "Ike", graduated from West Point in 1915 ranked 61st in a class of 164 better known for his abilities on the football field than in the classroom. Upon graduation from ...
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Were Soviet warships allowed to use the Panama canal?
During the Cold War, were Soviet naval vessels allowed to use the Panama canal?
I'm aware that no Soviet warships happened to use the canal during the Cold War. Was there a rule aganst them ...
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Was the population of Moscow wildly overstated during the Cold War?
The science fiction author Robert Heinlein was a socialist in his youth, but became a strident anticommunist during the Cold War. In 1960, he and his wife Virginia went as tourists to the USSR, and he ...
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What are the main reasons historians give for the Soviet Union's collapse?
(I thought that How and Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse? is a good question so would like to rephrase it a bit but the question was too far gone to edit)
The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 with ...
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How did Churchill and Stalin intend to translate the percentages in the "Percentages agreement"?
In "percentages agreement", Stalin and Churchill allegedly divided Southeastern Europe to sphere of influences of the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. According to Churchill's account quoted by ...
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1985 magazine cover about Strategic Defense Initiative - Who is Darth Vader?
Here is a the cover of the French magazine "Science&Vie", dated February 1985.
The lead article, "La Paix des Étoiles" (Star Peace) is obviously about the Strategic Defense Initiative. February ...
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Was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan one of the major reasons that led to the fall of Soviet Union?
Was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan one of the major reasons that led to the fall of Soviet Union?
That is what the world history teacher told me.
Please show your sources.
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Why was the Soviet Marine Infantry disbanded in 1947?
According to Peter Antill,
The naval Infantry performed a number of important landings in both World Wars including raids against the Turks around the Black Sea and the capture of Sakhalin Island and ...
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How high was the morale of non-Soviet Warsaw Pact states' armies and governments in the '80s?
Does anyone with any relevant expertise know the general mood of the armies during the time? Is there documentation of any concerns from high ranking Soviet military officers, or of their Warsaw Pact ...
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What became of the plan to partition Angola?
At the height of the war between UNITA rebels and the MPLA government of Angola there was - I recall - for a time a plan to fully partition Angola and create two countries. UNITA would have the ...
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What was Yugoslavia doing in the Angolan Civil War?
I was looking through Wikipedia (a mixed quality source) about the military history of Yugoslavia, when I noticed this odd listing of Yugoslavia as one of the combatants in the Angolan Civil War (1975-...
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How did Ceaușescu survive the condemnation of the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968?
According to Wikipedia the communist leader of Romania (member of the Warsaw Pact) said that the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact forces is a "grave error". How could he "get away" with ...
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What are some major military successes the Soviet Union achieved against the Western World?
What are some major military successes achieved by the former Soviet Union against the Western World that shook the US and its Cold War allies?
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What access did people in the Warsaw pact countries have to Western television and radio?
Did people in socialist East Germany and Central Europe really watch Western television as casually as Westerners did, during the cold war? Were there laws against it? Were TV and radio receivers ...
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Did former SS-member Alois Brunner advise Syria on organizing it's Intelligence Service?
Alois Brunner was a Nazi, member of the Waffen-SS and assistant to Adolf Eichmann. After WWII he lived, more or less well hidden, in western Germany until he went to Syria in '54, aided by the BND.
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Were there films or literature that lampooned Mutual Assured Destruction made by non-Americans?
Dr. Strangelove is a 1964 film by American director Stanley Kubrick that lampooned Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).
In the 1960's was this film a phenomenon singular to America, or were there ...
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What is the historicity of the film "Revolution.com - USA: The Conquest of the East"? [closed]
This is a Russian version of a French film from mid-2000s "Revolution.com"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3QxDgft148
French version with Spanish subtitles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
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Why did the Soviet Union take the risk of deploying missiles to Cuba, which precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis? [closed]
During the Cuban Missile Crisis both sides risked further escalation into a WW3. However, under MAD, Wikipedia says:
By the time of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, both the United States
and the ...
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