The Cold War: Home

"Struggle for world power carried on between Eastern and Western nations during the post-World War II years of ostensible peace. “Cold war” differs from “hot war”in the matter of violent conflict. In a hot war, actual military hostilities occur. No such hostilities occur in a cold war, but it is the nature of the concept that a cold war can erupt into a hot war at any time. In the historical struggle between the West, led by the United States, and the Soviet Union and its satellites in Eastern Europe, no hot war ever developed ... "

"This [book] captures the events and personalities of the era, while also inspiring critical thinking about this still-controversial period. Cold War: The Essential Reference Guide is intended to introduce students to the tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States that dominated international affairs in the second half of the 20th century."

"180 chronologically arranged essays on important Cold War events, from 1945 through the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991."

"After World War II, the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its satellite states began a decades-long struggle for supremacy known as the Cold War. Soldiers of the Soviet Union and the United States did not do battle directly during the Cold War. But the two superpowers continually antagonized each other through political maneuvering, military coalitions, espionage, propaganda, arms buildups, economic aid, and proxy wars between other nations ... "

Access a range of primary and secondary sources from the time of JFK's presidency.

"The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is one of the US federal government's main intelligence-collecting organizations. President Harry Truman established the CIA in 1947 to provide the United States with vital international data that would strengthen the country's national security."

"We give U.S. leaders the intelligence they need to keep our country safe. As the world’s premier foreign intelligence agency, the work we do at CIA is vital to U.S. national security. We collect and analyze foreign intelligence and conduct covert action. U.S. policymakers, including the President of the United States, make policy decisions informed by the information we provide ... "

"The CIA evokes images of clandestine activity, spies hiding in corners and covert overthrow of unfriendly government regimes. However, when Truman established the organization in 1947, he envisioned something much different -- a sort of daily newspaper, informing him of developments around the world that could impact American policy. Yet even during Truman’s own presidency, the CIA did evolve to become much more than a news agency for the President as covert operations began in earnest early in the agency’s history ... "

This article investigates a series of cold war events in which the CIA were involved. It highlights the CIA's failure at this time and how its politicisation contributed.

"In the early 1990s, Senator Patrick Moynihan campaigned for the abolition of the CIA. The brilliant campaigner thought the US Department of State should take over its intelligence functions. For him, the age of secrecy was over ... "

"... the C.I.A. expanded rapidly, as did its
influence over the making of American foreign policy ... Historians have only recently begun to chart this influence, and its relationship to politics in Washington ... "

"Controversy over the performance of the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War has raged since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union. From its origins in 1947, the Agency had, as one of its major missions, the responsibility of analyzing and explaining the intentions and capabilities of the Soviet Union to US policymakers. It was a daunting task. A tightly controlled society, the Soviet Union presented CIA analysts with major challenges as they struggled to make sense of its political, economic, military, and scientific developments. CIA was not always correct in its analysis but the Agency, over the decades, made a unique contribution in helping US policymakers understand America’s major adversary ... "

"Given the sensitive nature of its work and the length of time before they can be declassified, most CIA records are retained by the agency for a longer period of time than for most other agencies. Even after the records are transferred to the National Archives, many remain classified for a long period of time." This link will take you to a list of records that are available.

Search this reading room for information about the CIA during the Cold War and beyond.

Access the Wilson Center's Digital Archive. The Centre's featured collections include a focus on People, Places and Topics. Click on each of these menus to be directed to more.

"Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents ("the world's largest nongovernmental collection" according to the Los Angeles Times), leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, public interest law firm defending and expanding public access to government information, global advocate of open government, and indexer and publisher of former secrets."

Search the Library's Online Collections Research Files.

"Collections are from US secretaries of state, individual activists and propagandists, and many émigré groups involved in the ideological struggle. Important subsets are collections relating to “citizen diplomacy,” in which individuals and organizations acted to defuse international tensions, particularly the danger of nuclear conflict; records of organizations on the front lines, such as the Free Europe Committee (later RFE/RL), involved in broadcasting and other activities aiming to penetrate the Iron Curtain; and papers relating to the role of the Third World in the confrontation."

"The manuscript archives at the Library contains many documents that may be useful to students and researchers working on historical papers." Search a list of topics include McCarthyism / the Red Scare.