Cold War in the News -- History

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A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry
The first rule of Site R is: You do not talk about Site R. Or, as the security guidance about the Pentagon's nuclear war bunker (AKA Raven Rock Mountain Complex, or RRMC) states: "Avoid conversations about RRMC with unauthorized personnel." The other two rules are: "Do not confirm or deny information about RRMC to reporters or radio stations," and "Do not post RRMC information on web pages." In "A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry" we start off in the American southwest and journey all the way to Iran in search of a better understanding of nuclear weapons and warfare.
by wired.com :: 2008-06-18 :: Cold War Bunkers & Shelters

Cold War myths - The Berlin Airlift
With the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift the myths about its accomplishments re-emerge. 60 years after UK and US aircrafts began to fly supplies to West Berliners facing a Soviet blockade, even some news programs have repeated the claim that the airlift - that never provided everything West Berliners needed - saved the city from starvation. While the airlift delivered 2.3m tons of supplies, this amount failed to meet West Berlin's food needs, and the planes never even tried to supply coal to heat homes. The Western victory came despite the fact that the airlift never reached its purpose: to fully supply West Berlin.
by iht.com :: 2008-06-18 :: East Germany

Bob Ballard: Titanic search was cover for secret Cold War submarines mission
The man who located the wreck of the Titanic has revealed that the discovery was a cover story to camouflage the real task of examining the wrecks of 2 Cold War nuclear submarines. When Bob Ballard pinpointed the wreckage of the Titanic in 1985 he had already finished his main task of finding out what happened to USS Thresher and USS Scorpion. Both sank during the 1960s, killing over 200 men and giving rise to fears that at least one of them had been sunk by the USSR. Ballard has admitted that he located and inspected the wrecks in top secret missions before he was allowed to search for the Titanic.
by timesonline :: 2008-06-12 :: Cold War Weapons and Vehicles

One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nucleur War
In 1962 Americans became aware of the chance of the Third World War, when Soviet missiles were spotted 90 miles from Florida. America's nuclear advantage had failed to deter Nikita Khrushchev from setting up missiles in Cuba. On Black Saturday, October 27, 1962, the world came close to nuclear apocalypse. The countless books and films dedicated to that event show the fascination of imagining catastrophic destruction. Can this book tell us anything new? Michael Dobbs thinks so: He has interviewed Soviet veterans, drawn new maps, and plotted more accurate positions of Soviet and American vessels.
by timesonline :: 2008-06-12 :: Cold War Leaders

"Candy Bombers" recalls forgotten hero, kids of Berlin Airlift
In June 1948, the Soviet Union started squeezing the life out of Berlin, blocking access into the ruined capital of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. An airlift set up by the U.S. military saved the city. Pilot Andrei Cherny, who made parachutes out of hankies and loaded them up with chocolate, tells this story in "The Candy Bombers." --- (Q) Was resistance strong to the airlift: we were saving people (nazis) who were murdering us until April 1945. (A) "The Air Force people like Curtis LeMay or General Vandenberg thought that was a terrible idea. They said the American Air Force is not there to be delivering food," says Cherny.
by bloomberg :: 2008-05-23 :: East Germany

Test flights for restored Cold War Vulcan bomber
A restored Cold War bomber is doing further test flights over the East Midlands. The Vulcan aircraft needs a permission from the Civil Aviation Authority if it is to be allowed to appear at a series of air shows. A previous test flight was spoilt by a false alarm fire alert that forced the plane to land early. Organisers hope the bomber will fly in 18 air shows over the summer, but say a major sponsor still needs to be discovered. 20,000 people worldwide have chipped in to the restoration project.
by bbc :: 2008-05-10 :: Cold War Weapons and Vehicles

Cold War photographer Burt Glinn dies at 82
Burt Glinn, a photographer and former president of the Magnum photo agency, died aged 82. He was one of the first Americans to join Magnum, the group of photographers that included Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson. A spontaneous photographer, he covered some of the greatest events of the cold war. On New Year's Eve 1958, he flew to Cuba to see Fidel Castro's weeklong trek across the island to take power in Havana. In 1959, late to a photo shoot, he took his best-known photo, an unconventional one of the Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev showing the back of his head as he stares up at the Lincoln Memorial.
by nytimes :: 2008-05-10 :: Uncategorized Cold War News

British planners feared tea shortage after nuclear attack
Never mind the radiation: British planners worried there would be a dramatic shortage of tea after a nuclear attack, declassified documents revealed. The shortfall of the staple British beverage would be "very serious" if the country were to come under attack with atomic and hydrogen bombs, said a memo from 1954-1956. "The tea position would be very serious with a loss of 75% of stocks and substantial delays in imports and with no system of rationing it would be wrong to consider that even one ounce (28 grams) per head per week could be ensured... No satisfactory solution has yet been found."
by afp :: 2008-05-10 :: Nuclear War

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