The Nazis conquered France in six weeks, in one of the most spectacular military victories in history. Had the Soviet Union gone to war with the West in the early 1960s, it also planned to blitz France. But unlike the Germans, the Soviets planned to do it in a week, according to the Warsaw Pact’s…
Category: Cold War Files
Cold War Files: The Showdown That Almost Happened Over Bangladesh in 1971
In 2016, the United States backed India’s application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group — but didn’t support Pakistan’s. This marked an extraordinary turning point in the United States’ relationship with these historical adversaries. In 1971, the United States sent part of its Seventh Fleet to threaten war with India on Pakistan’s behalf. The reasoning behind the…
Cold War Files: The Cold War’s Deadliest Battleground
When young Americans are taught about the Cold War, we learn that it was exactly that — a decades-long standoff based on the threat of war, one without mass casualties, tanks and guns. Sure, there were spies, assassinations and intrigue, but even history teachers who cover proxy wars tend to leave out one whopping chapter:…
Military Weapons From the Past: The British EM Series – The First Bullpup Design from the 1950’s
By late 1947 the British Army’s Armaments Design Department had designed three principal rifles for the Infantry Personal Weapon program. The new rifles got their official designations in January 1948. They were Stanley Thorpe’s EM-1, the EM-2 designed by Capt. Kazimierz Stefan Januszewski and the EM-3, the latter the brainchild of Major J.E.M. Hall, an…
Cold War Files: Codename – Chilbom
Shortly after 9:30 on the morning of September 21, 1976, a light blue Chevy Chevelle carrying three passengers moved along Washington, D.C.’s Embassy Row, merging into the flow of commuter traffic around Sheridan Circle. The man in the driver’s seat was Orlando Letelier, an economist and fellow at a left-leaning think tank, the Institute of…
Espionage Files: The Most Dangerous Spy You’ve Never Heard Of
Programming note: Explore untold stories of American spies: CNN Original Series “Declassified” airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT only on CNN. (CNN)She put American combat troops in harm’s way, betrayed her own people and handed over so many secrets that experts say the U.S. may never know the full extent of the damage. Ana Montes…
Cold War Files: The Russian “Alfa” Attack Sub
The Soviet Union began the Cold War well behind the United States in submarine technology. Although the Soviets acquired several of the most advanced German submarine types towards the end of the war, the United States had amassed a wealth of experience in submarine and antisubmarine practice from the Pacific War and the Battle of…
Cold War Files: The Secret US/UK Plan To Bomb Middle East Oil Facilities
Recently uncovered documents shed further light on an ultra-secret plan, devised by the British and American governments, to destroy oil facilities in the Middle East in the event the region was invaded by Soviet troops. The documents, published on Thursday by George Washington University’s National Security Archive, were found in the British government archives and…
Cold War Files: 10 Sinister Groups Behind the Cold War’s Craziest Conspiracy
In 1972, a fascist named Vincenzo Vinciguerra detonated a car bomb in the Italian town of Peteano. As Vinciguerra had planned, the attack was initially blamed on left-wing extremists. Years later, Vinciguerra explained his motives: “Our movement is pledged to target . . . ordinary people, to create conditions of anarchy. The resulting state of fear will mobilize public…
Cold War Files: The Best Attack Subs of the Cold War
Putting 20th century ship killers to the test History’s three great submarine campaigns include the First Battle of the Atlantic, the Second Battle of the Atlantic, and the U.S. Navy’s war against Japanese commerce in World War II. The contestants fought these campaigns through asymmetrical means, with submarines doing battle against aircraft and surface escorts….