Cold War Story Briefs

To the great surprise of the world, including the United States, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb on August 29, 1949.

In this U.S. Air Force photo, we see four C-123s spraying defoliant in September of 1965.

Meet Laika, the first living creature to fly in space 60 years ago, on November 3, 1957. Learn what really happened to her.

This image depicts the R-12 / SS-4 "Sandal" Soviet-made missile. It was a key component of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

When the Bolsheviks came to power, during the Russian Revolution, they were led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

In 1968, the idea of Glasnost (openness and transparency within government institutions) and Perestroika (restructuring of Soviet economic and politic...

If the real name of Rudolf Abel, a main character in "Bridge of Spies," is William ("Willy") Fisher, then who was the real Rudolf Abel?

This video clip contains historical footage of the trial of downed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. The three-day trial took place in August of 1960.

Francis Gary Powers was tried as an American spy after the Soviets shot-down his U-2 while Powers was flying near Sverdlovsk, Russia.

Francis Gary Powers was flying a Lockheed U-2 over Soviet territory when he was shot-down by a surface-to-air missile on May 1, 1962.

This is the type of aircraft - a U-2 "spy plane" - which Major Richard S. Heyser flew over Cuba when his photos revealed the the USSR was placing miss...

Following World War II, a Cold War developed between America and the Soviet Union. During that time, the U.S. and the U.K. continued to enjoy their ''...