cold war

The Soviets bring down a CIA U-2 spy plane on May 1, 1960, intensifying the Cold War. Captured in Russia, pilot Francis Gary Powers is interrogated for more than a hundred days and imprisoned for nearly two years.

For baby boomers who grew up in the Cold War era, the latest headlines  - about the Russian annexation of Crimea and Vladmir Putin's America-bashing speech - bring up uncomfortable memories. Who doesn't remember that childhood fear of being herded into a flimsy bomb shelter with incoming Russian…

Notable events from our shared experience

In 1961, a Washington lawyer named Steuart Pittman was tapped by President John F. Kennedy's administration for a singularly unpleasant job: getting Americans to prepare for a nuclear Armageddon.