Cold War

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From war games flagged as reality to solar storms, here are some of the world's most intense close calls in recent history.

From a dollhouse with a nuclear bunker to an atomic energy lab with real uranium, some of these toys from the ‘50s and ‘60s have us scratching our heads.

How well do you remember how history played out at the end of World War II?

The nuclear anxiety of the 1950s led to two unlikely strategies: ducking under school desks and taking advice from a cartoon turtle.

A shocking discovery was made at a nuclear facility: wasp nests contaminated with radiation.

Tens of thousands of fallout shelter signs, with three yellow triangles in a black circle, are visible on building façades today. They serve as grim reminders of the hottest flashes of the Cold War. So why are they still around?

Sometimes the military systems put in place to avert nuclear annihilation worked a little too well.

The lyric “Vamos a la playa, todos con sombrero / El viento radiactivo, despeina los cabellos” translates to “Let’s go to the beach, everyone in a sombrero / The radioactive wind, messes up the hair.”

On January 31, 1958, the United States became a space-faring nation with the Explorer-1 satellite.

The Vietnam War was a highly controversial conflict. We break down some of the most common questions about the war, from why the U.S. entered the conflict to who ultimately won.

McCarthyism advertised itself as a response to national security threats created by the Cold War, including Soviet espionage. But the movement was bigger than Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Ed Helms (‘The Hangover,’ ‘The Office’) helps Arturo unfurl a daring escape from one of the Cold War’s most eccentric double agents: Oleg Gordievsky.

Soviet spy Rudolf Abel might have never been caught were it not for a Russian turncoat and a newspaper delivery boy who thought he’d been stiffed.

The U.S. and USSR employed spies, quelled internal dissent, made allies abroad, and stockpiled nuclear weapons in this proxy war.

Almost as soon as it was introduced—and for generations after—the Presidential Fitness Test was absolutely traumatizing to students who had to endure it. Here’s how the program started—and ended.

For years, Sting’s 1985 anti-war song “Russians” seemed to be something of an afterthought. But it made a lasting impression on two future filmmakers and a pair of summer blockbusters released more than 30 years apart.

No, spies aren't all focused on national security. Yes, the CIA did deploy a mission called Operation Acoustic Kitty.

In 1989, Jim Henson's 'Fraggle Rock' became the first American television series to air in what was then still the Soviet Union.

In 1968, when the CIA needed help with an audacious Cold War operation, officials decided that eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes would be the perfect man for the job.