These Photos Document Events From the Cold War That You Might Not Know
By James K. F. Dung, SFC, Photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
For those of us that were old enough to remember the Cold War, it was a time of tension and conflict that thankfully never escalated into a full-blown war.
From the 1940s until 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Cold War kept people in the East and the West on the edge of their seats.
But at no time was the Cold War more frightening than in the 1960s, when the Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba went sideways, the Cuban Missile Crisis nearly brought us to nuclear war, and the Vietnam War escalated.
Those well-known events happened amongst other lesser known events as well. Here's a few that you might not know about.
1960 - The Soviet Union Shoots Down a U-2 Spy Plane, Capturing Its Pilot
By NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The United States had been flying U-2 spy planes (like the one shown above) over Russia for awhile by the time 1960 rolled around.
The high-altitude planes were tasked with photographing missile positions to determine if the USSR was pointing its missiles at U.S. targets.
But even though the U-2 could fly at an altitude of 70,000 feet, in 1960, the USSR successfully shot the plane down over Russia and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
By CIA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The wreckage of the highly sophisticated aircraft was made into a public exhibition, which Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited, as shown in the image above.
Though the USSR eventually released Powers, the United States was forced to admit that it had engaged in espionage.
1960 - Khrushchev Threatens to Bury the United States
By derivative work: Militaryace (talk) Nikita_Khrusjtsjov.jpg: Credit: John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library (Nikita_Khrusjtsjov.jpg) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
In a fiery speech at the United Nations on September 23, 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev threatened to "bury" America.
Naturally, he believed that communism was the future for all, and that the United States and capitalism needed to be contained.
The speech, ironically, was given in the United States at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
1961 - Kennedy Focuses on World Events in His Inaugural Address
Traditionally, newly-elected presidents focus on domestic issues - at least in part - in their inaugural addresses.
However, when Kennedy took office on January 20, 1961, he felt the world was in such a perilous state that he used his entire speech to talk about world issues.
Perhaps the most stirring part of his speech was the following line, warning the Russians that he viewed his job as one to defeat them in the Cold War:
"Let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, uphold any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
You can watch Kennedy's full speech in the video above by CBS.
1961 - The Space Race Begins, and Americans Fear for Their Lives
By SiefkinDR (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
On April 12, 1961, Americans watched in horror as news reports indicated that the Soviet Union was the first country to put a man into outer space.
The pilot, Yuri Gagarin, orbited the Earth in under two hours in the craft shown above, demonstrating to the world that humankind was entering a new phase of travel and exploration.
Of course, with tensions already high between the East and the West, Americans were concerned that if the USSR could put a man into space, that they could easily launch a nuclear weapon into space to attack anywhere in the U.S.
1962 - A Soccer Field Causes Panic That Led to the Cuban Missile Crisis
By CIA (Image Transferred from en.wikipedia) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The United States kept close eyes on Cuba, a communist stronghold just off the coast of Florida, throughout the Cold War.
In September 1962, a CIA consultant spotting something concerning - a soccer field.
As he put it, "Cubans play baseball, Russians play soccer."
Given that assessment, the CIA determined that the Russians must be on the island, and President Kennedy immediately sent orders to dispatch U2 flights over the island nation. The image above shows Russian missile installations on the island.
By Central Intelligence Agency from Washington, D.C. (1962 Cuba Missiles) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Given that Kennedy had tried - and failed - to overthrow Cuba's leader, Fidel Castro, just a year earlier in the Bay of Pigs invasion, he wanted hard proof that there were Russian troops in Cuba.
Even more concerning was whether the USSR had missiles in Cuba, which, if that were the case, would put about 30 million Americans in the danger zone.
As it turned out, there were Soviet missiles in Cuba - something that Nikita Khrushchev only acknowledged later.
Kennedy imposed a blockade of the island, and in late October 1962, told the world that the Soviet missiles there posed a threat to the United States.
By USN [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
In response, Khrushchev sent 25 Russian ships toward Cuba, sending the world into a panic that World War III was about to begin.
However, at the last moment, the Russian ships turned around, and Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles if Kennedy promised not to invade Cuba.
1963 - President Kennedy Wanted Out of Vietnam
By Abbie Rowe, National Park Service [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
In his first years in office, President Kennedy often saw Vietnam as a secondary issue to the threats of communism in Cuba and the USSR.
And once the South Vietnamese government was overthrown just a few weeks before Kennedy's trip to Dallas, Texas, he became even more resolved to get the U.S. out of the conflict.
Of course, it was his trip to Dallas on November 22, 1963, that ended his life.
By James K. F. Dung, SFC, Photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
In his stead, President Johnson actually did the opposite of what Kennedy wanted - he escalated the involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam.
In 1963, there were 16,300 American troops in Vietnam. By 1968, more than 538,000 American troops were fighting.
Via CNN