In 1945 the USSR presented the U.S. Ambassador with a carved replica of the U.S. Seal. It hung in his office for 7 years before it was discovered to have a small listening device embedded. It was one of the first “bugs” of the Cold War.
The most successful intelligence operation in the Cold War…
The most successful intelligence operation in the Cold War was emptying supplies of Soviet Union toilet paper, forcing them to use documents, and retrieving these documents after use.
During the Civil Rights Movement, the Soviet Union…
During the Civil Rights Movement, the Soviet Union purposely inflamed racial tensions by mailing forged threats from the KKK to black neighborhoods.
In the mid-1980’s the Soviet KGB launched…
In the mid-1980’s the Soviet KGB launched “Operation INFEKTION,” aimed at making people believe that the United States invented HIV.
In the 70s the US tapped an underwater comm line located…
In the 70s the US tapped an underwater comm line located between two USSR harbors using navy divers deployed from a submarine. Submarines returned with divers every month to retrieve the tapes, and the Soviets never found out despite having a network of sonar sensors.
Reagan and Gorbachev agreed to pause the Cold War…
Reagan and Gorbachev agreed to pause the Cold War in case of an alien invasion.
During the Cold War the CIA spent $3.8B to construct a ship….
During the Cold War the CIA spent $3.8B to construct a ship with a 16,000ft underwater claw arm in order to retrieve a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine.
The CIA’s concern over soccer fields along the coast of Cuba…
The CIA’s concern over soccer fields along the coast of Cuba led to the Cuban Missile Crisis. In September 1962, a CIA analyst noticed the fields and became concerned because, as he put it, “Cubans play baseball, Russians play soccer.”
The Tsar Bomba, the single most physically powerful device ever used…
The Tsar Bomba, the single most physically powerful device ever used, had a mushroom cloud over 7 times the height of Everest. The shockwave circled the earth 3 times and caused windowpanes to be partially broken at distances of 900 km (560 mi). The original design was twice as large.
In 1953 a newspaper boy was paid with a coin which he found…
In 1953 a newspaper boy was paid with a coin which he found to be hollow and contain a coded message. He gave it to authorities but the code could not be deciphered. Years later, a Russian spy in the U.S. defected and during his interrogation was shown the coin and code. The message was […]