10 Obscure And Strange Cold War Tales

The Cold War was a period of great tension, and with all the posturing, stockpiling, and military maneuvering by the US and the Soviet Union, there came a rich history of obscure stories and eyebrow-raising tales. While the standoff between the superpowers was very much conventional, some of their top secret projects and undercover missions were incredibly bizarre.

10 The Military Liaison Missions

After the end of World War II and the division of Germany into four occupation zones, the Western Allies and the Soviets signed a series of agreements, allowing a small number of military personnel from each side (usually less than two dozen) to deploy in each other’s occupation zones. These soldiers would monitor the other side and ostensibly facilitate better relations between the superpowers. Hidden History: An Exp... Donald Jeffries Best Price: $9.86 Buy New $14.70 (as of 04:30 UTC - Details)

However, these so-called “Military Liaison Missions” ended up being used by both sides to spy on the other. Instead of engaging in traditional espionage activities like assassination or the passing of information, two-man teams would move around the occupation zones, armed with binoculars, cameras, and night vision goggles. Using this equipment, the teams would observe enemy troop dispositions and movements.

These missions also had another important purpose. The spy teams would alert their commanders if the other side was starting to prepare for war. On the NATO side, the missions ended when the Soviets pulled out of East Germany in 1990. But despite the wide-ranging diplomatic powers of the people involved, the job was dangerous. Both an American and French Liaison officer lost their lives, the former to a trigger-happy Russian sentry, and the latter during a staged “accident.”

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9 US Spy Balloons

After World War II and the development of various new plastics, high-altitude ballooning became a real possibility. And naturally, government officials were quite eager to militarize these new balloons. In the ‘50s, the US Air Force initiated Project Mogul, a secret project that sought to use balloons in order to lift sensors into the upper atmosphere. These sensors would then pick up on sound waves from nuclear testing.

Although no waves were ever detected, Project Mogul gave the military the idea to build reconnaissance balloons that could fly over the Soviet Union. Project Moby Dick, Mogul’s successor, trailed the balloons with sensors, a tactic which actually worked. Moby Dick’s successor, Project Genetrix, became operational in 1956. Family of Secrets Russ Baker Best Price: $1.93 Buy New $8.85 (as of 05:45 UTC - Details)

Four balloon launch sites were set up in Western Europe and Turkey, and recovery aircraft and ships were based out of Japan and Alaska. Pre-set timers would trigger the activation of signaling beacons in each balloon. This way, recovery crews could easily find them. Of the more than 400 balloons launched, around 10 percent were recovered.

Although the balloons returned useful information, it was discovered that their flight patterns were so haphazard that intelligence finds were a matter of luck. The program was shut down when the CIA’s new high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, the U-2, became operational.

8 The Black Helicopter Wiretap

In March 1972, negotiations to end the Vietnam War had begun, but Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wanted to know whether the North Vietnamese would negotiate in good faith. The CIA knew of a vulnerable spot on a phone line used by the North Vietnamese, but getting into enemy territory to plant a wiretap would require a very sneaky means of transport.

Well, it just so happened that the Hughes Corporation had been developing a quiet helicopter since 1968. It was originally intended for US police departments that wanted to keep complaints about helicopter noise to a minimum. The Devil’s Ches... Talbot, David Best Price: $3.67 Buy New $41.00 (as of 10:40 UTC - Details) When the American military heard about this creepy chopper, they contracted the Hughes Corporation to make a helicopter that was as quiet as possible, and soon, the CIA was Hughes’s most clandestine customer.

The two OH-6A helicopters that were rebuilt for the CIA were cutting edge machines. They were fitted with electronics and external fuel tanks, and they were fine-tuned with specifically modified engines that could produce double the power of that on a normal OH-6. And of course, the choppers were painted black.

On December 5, 1972, one of these super-quiet helicopters, carrying two commandos, flew into North Vietnam. The team successfully planted the wiretap in the dead of night and managed to escape the country. The helicopters were never used again, but the CIA managed to get enough intelligence from the wiretap that Kissinger was able to negotiate with the North Vietnamese . . . but in the end, it was all for naught.

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