Cold War

During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Soviet sub B-59 was hit by U.S. depth charges; its captain prepared a nuclear torpedo launch. All three senior officers had to agree, but Vasili Arkhipov alone refused. His no is credited with preventing Nuclear war.

During the Cold War, the CIA spent about $20 million on "Acoustic Kitty," implanting a microphone, battery and antenna inside a live cat to spy on Soviet diplomats. In its first field test, a taxi hit the cat near the Soviet Embassy. The CIA shut it down as impractical.

Iceland won all three "Cod Wars" (1958–1976) against Britain by threatening to leave NATO and ally with the Soviet Union. Leveraging its geopolitical value during the Cold War, these victories established the precedent for today's 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

In 1983, during the Cold War, a Soviet Union early warning system detected 5 US missile launches. Officer Stanislav Petrov judged it a false alarm — reasoning the US would launch everything if starting a nuclear war. He was right: the satellite had mistaken sunlight for launch flashes.