No name is more synonymous with the Cold War battle for intelligence between the United States and the Soviet Union than Frances Gary Powers. The May 1960 shoot down of a U-2 over the Soviet Union removed the veil of secrecy of the airplane’s existence and chilled already frosty relations between geopolitical competitors. The pilot’s
After WWII the Soviet Union found itself confronted with a new and largely unanticipated problem: the aircraft carriers of the US Navy. They were the chief defense of the sea lanes to our forces disputing the superior Red Army’s potential control of western Europe, as well as a force for “power projection,” capable of strategic
By Martin J. Bollinger, World Ship Society Ltd, Windsor. UK. (2012). Reviewed by Ingo Heidbrink, Ph.D. Russian or to be more precise Soviet maritime history seems to be one of the most overlooked topics in global maritime history. Of course there is an explanation for this, the obvious language barrier many scholars are facing and
By Norman Polmar (Editor’s note: This is the twelfth in a series of blogs by Norman Polmar, author, analyst, and consultant specializing in the naval, aviation, and intelligence fields. Follow the full series here.) In 1991 the U.S. Naval Institute published my book Submarines of the Russian and Soviet Navies 1718—1990, written in collaboration with
By Norman Polmar (Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of blogs by Norman Polmar, author, analyst, and consultant specializing in the naval, aviation, and intelligence fields. Follow the full series here.) In the spring of 1970 I was working at my desk when the phone rang. I was an employee of the
Twenty-five years ago there were a series of bumping incidents in the Black Sea between two Soviet frigates and the cruiser Yorktown (CG 48) and the destroyer USS Caron (DD 970). The incidents occurred as the American ships conducted an “innocent passage” of Soviet territorial waters near the Crimea. NHF historian Dr. David Winkler wrote
The George Washington University Cold War Group (GWCW), The Center for Cold War Studies (CCWS) of the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the LSE IDEAS Cold War Studies Programme of the London School of Economics and Political Science (CWSP) are pleased to announce their 2013 International Graduate Student Conference on the Cold War,
Fifty years ago, the world held it’s breath. When Navy reconnaissance jets and U-2 spy planes confirmed the existence of Soviet nuclear missile bases under construction in Cuba, the United States demanded their removal and instituted a naval quarantine of the island. The 13 days at the end of October 1962 came to be called
October marks 50 years since the tense standoff between the United States and Soviet Union that came to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the summer of 1962, the Soviets began moving nuclear missiles and nuclear-capable bombers to bases in Cuba, within easy striking distance of targets within the continental United States. Following
by Norman Polmar and Michael White. Naval Institute Press, 2010. 173 pp. Reviewed by Captain James B. Bryant, U.S. Navy (Retired) The year 1968 was bad for submarines. In January the Israelis and the French lost their diesel-electric powered submarines Dakar and Minerve at sea with all hands and a submerged grounding badly damaged the
