Cold War in the News -- History

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Welcome to Berlin's Stasi-themed bar
A security camera over the door, an interrogation table in the corner, ID cards for regulars: Stasi-themed bar Zur Firma ("the Company") opened in Berlin near the former East German Ministry of State Security. The owners call it satire, "a themed restaurant," but those spied on by the Stasi are likely to find the bar much less amusing. East German youth group shirts and plates with the Stasi symbol hang on the wall, and a mock security camera monitors the entrance. Black red and gold signs promote East German cooking with the slogan: "Come to us, or we'll come to you."
by spiegel.de :: 2008-08-10 :: East Germany

Secrets of East German leader Erich Honecker's nuclear bunker revealed
The bunker in which East German leaders hoped to survive a nuclear war is to open to the public for the first time. But visitors to the long secret underground location have only 3 months to see the site before it is sealed forever. Bunker 17/5001, 25 miles north of Berlin, is a chilling reminder of Cold War tensions that threatened mutually assured wipeout in the face-off between the US and USSR. Berlin Bunker Network will be leading tours at the bunker: 15GBP per person, or 80GBP for a longer tour through the tighter passages. Thomas Bergmann says that an virtual tour of the bunker, drawn from 1500 high definition photos, will be made available within 2 years.
by telegraph.co.uk :: 2008-08-05 :: Cold War Bunkers & Shelters

Burlington Underground Cold War City
A 35 acre subterranean Cold War City lies 1000 feet beneath Corsham. Built in the late 1950s, this huge city complex was designed by Government personnel in the event of a nuclear strike. A former Bath stone quarry the city, code named Burlington, was to be the site of the main Emergency Government War Headquarters - the hub of the Britain's alternative seat of power outside London. Over a kilometre in length, and boasting over 60 miles of roads. Blast proof and entirely self-sufficient the secret underground site could house up to 6,000 people, in complete isolation from the outside world, for up to 3 months.
by latimes.com :: 2008-07-31 :: Cold War Bunkers & Shelters

CIA keeps its spy museum hush-hush
When the CIA's gadget gurus need a new piece of technology to satisfy the demands of agents in outpost in the war on terror, they often walk into the past. It's all down the hall in the CIA Museum, where technological fantasies of the Cold War are taking on new relevance in the fight against terrorists. A smaller option for remote surveillance? Maybe there's a way to adapt that old "Insectothopter", a robotic dragonfly developed in the 1970s to fly tiny listening devices through open windows in heavily guarded buildings. "We're revisiting technologies all the time..." says Toni Hiley, the museum's curator.
by usatoday.com :: 2008-07-31 :: Cold War Museums, Memorials

US planned nerve gas attack on Australian troops in the 1960s
The U.S. planned to gas Australian troops in experiments with two of the most lethal nerve gases ever formulated. Top secret files have revealed that even as the world was outlawing chemical weapons at the height of the Cold War, Washington sought Canberra's permission to test sarin and VX gas in remote Queensland. The documents reveal that American military scientists wanted to bomb and spray 200 "mainly Australian" troops with the deadly nerve agents in the 1960s. The request was rejected by PM Harold Holt, at the time when the two nations were involved in Vietnam War and in plans for war against China were drawn up.
by nzherald.co.nz :: 2008-07-13 :: Uncategorized Cold War News

Retro dictionary of communist words and expressions in Hungary
Want to learn how people in Hungary behind the Iron Curtain lived, what they drank and smoked in the communist era and what worried them? A new "retro dictionary" or mini encyclopedia of words and expressions from the communist-era which ended in 1989 seeks to recall memories, building on a nostalgia for the last decades of communism when Hungary was the "happiest barrack" in the communist bloc. "We carried out an internet poll and words were pouring into my email box which people think of with nostalgia. Among these there are of course words which do not bring back pleasant memories at all," said Gabor Kiss.
by reuters.com :: 2008-07-13 :: Cold War Homefront - Daily Life

A Brief History of the Cold War - Chronology of key Cold War events
1947: The Truman Doctrine: The US offers assistance to countries threatened by communism. US Secretary of State George C. Marshall reveals a huge aid program for the reconstruction of WWII-torn Europe (Marshall Plan). 1948: The Communists take power in Czechoslovakia. 1948: The Soviet blockade of West Berlin begins on June 24. Supplies are transported to the city by the Americans in the Berlin Air Bridge action. On May 12, 1949, Stalin ends the blockade. 1949: On August 29, the Soviets blow up their first atomic bomb. After winning the civil war, the Communist Party under Mao Zedong sets up the People's Republic of China.
by spiegel.de :: 2008-07-01 :: Uncategorized Cold War News

Cold War workers who were exposed to radioactive materials rally for compensation
Former Cold War workers gathered in Oak Ridge to demand help for workers made sick from exposure to hazardous materials in the government's nuclear weapons facilities. The U.S. Department of Labor responded with data that 41,322 people have received $3.8 billion since the department took over responsibility for these claims in 2004. Activist Janet Michel, who suffers from autoimmune disease after working in Oak Ridge's uranium enrichment plant, championed the compensation program a decade ago and reforms 6 years later. She says changes are still needed: "There's too much death and there's too much denial."
by nwsource.com :: 2008-07-01 :: Cold War Homefront - Daily Life

Cold War in the News is an edited review of hand-picked Cold War related news and articles.