“I grew up reading the classic novels of Cold War espionage, and I studied Russian history and Soviet foreign policy.” WarReadingNovelPolicyGrewColdGrew UpClassicSovietForeign PolicyCold WarEspionageRussian History Author:Daniel Silva
“The Cold War philosophy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), which prevented the former Soviet Union and the United States from using the nuclear weapons they had targeted at each other, would not apply to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran. For him (Ahmadinejad), Mutual Assured Destruction is not a deterrent, it is an inducement.” WarStatesPhilosophyPresidentUnitedUnited StatesColdWeaponsDestructionMadUnionsNuclearFormerIranMutualSovietNuclear WeaponsCold WarSoviet UnionAssuredDeterrent Author:Bernard Lewis
“I don't worry about superpower confrontation. You know, I lived through the Cold War days, and where everybody was worried about a Soviet Union armed to the teeth. I think we're going to get along fine with Russia, and I don't see them as internationally ambitious.” ThinkingKnowsWarWorryFineColdUnionsRussiaTeethWorriedSovietAmbitiousCold WarSoviet UnionConfrontationSuperpower Author:George H. W. Bush
“Happy hour is slightly different in the Soviet Union. There are no ice cubes or orange-peel twists in the vodka. Also, it lasts all day.” DifferentWarLastsHoursColdUnionsIceSovietCold WarSoviet UnionOrangeTwistsVodkaCubesHappy Hour Author:P. J. O'Rourke
“The only law we broke was the Brezhnev doctrine that once a country is in the Soviet bloc it cannot be overthrown.” WarCountryLawColdDoctrineBrokeSovietCold WarBrezhnev Author:Jack Kemp
“It is no coincidence that when the thugs tried to wrest control over Grenada, there were 30 Soviet advisors and hundreds of Cuban military and paramilitary forces on the island.” WarForceMilitaryColdIslandsSovietCold WarCoincidenceCubanThugAdvisorsGrenada Book:Ronald Reagan Source: Ronald Reagan
“I would rather have the United States as the world's policeman than the Soviet Union as the world's jailer.” WorldWarStatesUnitedUnited StatesColdUnionsSovietCold WarSoviet UnionPolicemenJailer Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“The most cost-effective move we could make in defense spending would be to shift the focus of CIA operations, giving this agency the directive to make trouble for the Soviet Union.” GivingWarWould BeMovingFocusTroubleColdCostUnionsSpendingDefenseOperationsAgencySovietCold WarSoviet UnionCiaDefense Spending Author:John P. Wheeler III
“With all this talk about the supposed strain in relations [with the Soviet Union], there is an inference that somehow it is our fault. But we didn't kill Russian civilians by shooting down a civilian airplane. We didn't attempt to conquer an adjacent country to ours. We didn't walk out on negotiations and refuse to give a date for when we would resume.” GivingWarCountryWalksColdRelationUnionsFaultsRefuseConquerShootingSovietAirplaneCold WarSoviet UnionNegotiationStrainCiviliansResumesInference Author:Ronald Reagan
“The reason why there is now no communist government in Paris is because in the circumstances of 1945 the Soviet army was not able to reach French soil.” WarReasonGovernmentAbleColdCircumstancesArmyReason WhyParisSoilCommunistSovietCold War Author:Joseph Stalin
“It is a modern tragedy that one of the Soviet Union's most intelligent and realistic leaders has served and died during the administration of the most ill-informed and dangerous man ever to occupy the White House.” MenWarHouseWhiteLeaderModernDangerousColdTragedyDiedIntelligentUnionsIllAdministrationWhite HouseRealisticSovietCold WarSoviet UnionDangerous ManModern Tragedy Author:George McGovern
“As I look back at the span of the Cold War in those early days, in the '50s, for example, there was a great deal of Soviet propaganda here in the United States, but it was clumsy, and it was anchored to a lot of ideological support in certain circles in America itself.” LooksWarStatesAmericaCertainUnitedDealsUnited StatesSupportExampleColdCirclesPropagandaSovietCold WarIdeologicalClumsySoviet Propaganda Author:Alexander Haig
“To most people in the UK, indeed throughout Western Europe, space exploration is primarily perceived as 'what NASA does'. This perception is - in many respects - a valid one. Superpower rivalry during the Cold War ramped up US and Soviet space efforts to a scale that Western Europe had no motive to match.” PeopleDoeWarSpaceEffortColdPerceptionEuropeWesternScalesMotiveExplorationSovietCold WarSpace ExplorationSuperpowerRivalryNasaWestern Europe Author:Martin Rees
“I think during the Cold War in America at least, there was a division; there was the Soviet government and there were the oppressed people, who were not represented by this government. That was a massive oversimplification of what the true situation was there. There were certainly many people who were completely and fully alienated from the government.” PeopleThinkingWarGovernmentAmericaSituationColdMassiveDivisionSovietOppressedCold WarOversimplification Author:Joe Weisberg
“Kennedy was significantly different than Eisenhower before him, and different from Johnson after him. So those three years were the beginning of a détente with the Soviet Union, a new feeling for peace, a seeking out of a new ally with the Soviet Union - the end of the Cold War, as Kennedy called it in his American University speech.” YearsDifferentWarEndsFeelingsThreeColdSpeechUnionsUniversitySeekingAlliesSovietThree YearsCold WarSoviet UnionJohnsonAmerican UniversitiesNew Feelings Author:Oliver Stone
“JFK was leading the world, leading the United States into a new position with the Soviet Union. He was calling for the end of the Cold War. He would have been reelected in 1964 because he was vastly popular.” WorldHas BeensWarEndsStatesUnitedUnited StatesPositionColdCallingUnionsSovietCold WarSoviet UnionNew Position Author:Oliver Stone
“[2015] it's a time that there's a clash of ideologies, similar to the Cold War. I think that a story like this has been waiting to be told, and I think it's a fresh look at the whole earth-shattering business of the collapse of the Soviet Union.” ThinkingLooksHas BeensWarWholeStoriesEarthWaitingColdUnionsIdeologySovietCollapseCold WarSoviet UnionClashShattering Author:Steven Knight
“The Soviet assumption that all other political life-forms and beliefs were inherently and immutably hostile was the simple and central cause of that Cold War.” WarFormPoliticalBeliefCausesSimpleColdAssumptionSovietCold WarHostilePolitical Life Author:Robert Conquest
“The Soviet Union began by banishing God. The United States began as a community of people who wanted to worship God as they chose. . . Man does not live by bread alone. Those in the United States whose desire to create a strictly secular society is as strong as Lenin's was should study this Cold War lesson closely. Communism was defeated by an alliance spearheaded by 'one nation under God.'” PeopleMenShouldDoeWarStatesWantedDesireStrongNationsCommunityUnitedUnited StatesStudyColdLessonsWorshipUnionsBreadCommunismLive BySovietSecularDefeatedCold WarSoviet UnionAlliancesWorship GodOne Nation Under GodSecular Society Author:Richard M. Nixon
“When the whole discussion of "developing a national idea" hastily began in post-Soviet Russia, I tried to pour cold water on it with the objection that, after all the devastating losses we had experienced, it would be quite sufficient to have just one task: the preservation of a dying people.” PeopleIdeasWholeWould BeWaterLossDyingColdTasksRussiaDevelopingPostsDiscussionSufficientJust OneSovietPreservationObjectionsSoviet RussiaCold WaterDevastating Loss Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“During the Cold War era, the issue was the containment of Soviet influence, and we tolerated many an authoritarian regime as long as they were useful to us in this respect.” LongWarIssuesInfluenceColdErasSovietRegimesCold WarContainment Author:Zalmay Khalilzad
“I'm worried that too many people, both in politics and out, don't appreciate the seriousness of the threat to American security and the evil of the enemy that faces us -more evil or as evil as Nazism and probably more dangerous than the Soviet communists we fought during the long Cold War.” PeopleLongWarFacesEvilEnemySecurityDangerousColdAppreciateThreatWorriedCommunistSovietCold WarSeriousnessNazism Author:Joe Lieberman
“The Western world doesn't really give enough credit to the importance in history of the Soviet invasion and the subsequent war in Afghanistan. For us it was a sideshow of the Cold War. For the Islamic world it was an unprovoked infidel invasion of a Muslim country not unlike Iraq.” WorldGivingWarCountryEnoughColdImportanceWesternIraqCreditIslamicAfghanistanSovietCold WarInvasionWestern WorldInfidelSideshows Author:Michael Scheuer
“NASA was invented as a response to Cold War steps. There are those who presumed that we went to the moon because we're explorers. We went to the moon because we were at war with the Soviet Union. And so when it became clear that they (Soviet Union) were not going to the moon, we're done with the moon.” WarDoneStepsClearColdMoonUnionsResponseSovietCold WarSoviet UnionNasaExplorers Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
“My 40 years in the foreign service and the careers of many of my friends became associated with the fall of the Soviet Empire and the putting in order of what came after - the building of a Europe whole, free, and at peace. It`s hard to recall today how improbable victory in the Cold War appeared.” YearsWarHardWholeTodayOrderFallCareersBuildingColdVictoryMy FriendsEuropeEmpiresSovietRecallsCold WarImprobableForeign Service Author:Daniel Fried
“In fact, we haven't ever really recalibrated our foreign policy commitments since the end of the Cold War. We still have alliances throughout Asia and across Europe that were devised to tame the Soviet Union, which, last time I checked, ceased to exist more than 20 years ago. Today, of course, we have a commitment to go to nuclear war with Russia in case Russia invades Latvia. To me, that's complete and utter nonsense. There ought to be a reconsideration of our posture in every region of the world.” WorldYearsStillsWarEndsFactsTodayLastsCoursesCasesHavensPolicyColdOughtCommitmentEuropeYears AgoUnionsNuclearRussiaNonsenseRegionsSovietForeign PolicyLast TimeCold WarAsiaSoviet UnionAlliancesPostureNuclear WarReconsiderationLatvia Author:Kevin Gutzman
“I came up during the cold war, and during the cold war it was always possible with the then Soviet Union - the Russian leaders behaved carefully and predictably. They didn't engage in nuclear saber rattling. They were able to work with us and align their interests where possible.” WarAbleInterestLeaderColdUnionsNuclearSovietCold WarSoviet Union Author:Ashton Carter
“Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!” SidesColdSovietCold WarYou Like ItCall Of DutyBuryingModern WarfareModern Warfare 2Cuban Missile Crisis Author:Nikita Khrushchev
“I remember when the Cold War ended, how quickly the United States was swept by a nationalistic fervor and turned against Saddam Hussein. As soon as we lost our age-old enemy, the Soviet Union, we instantly created a new one.” WarStatesAgeRememberLostUnitedEnemyUnited StatesColdUnionsSovietCold WarSoviet UnionSaddamRemember WhenHusseinFervorNationalistic Author:Connie Zweig
“We had a world dominated by the Soviet Union on the one hand, and the Americans on the other hand. They called it the Cold War. But it wasn't cold. I am someone who comes from the third world. In the third world, the cold war wasn't cold. Millions had been killed. It was a proxy war.” WorldWarHandsMillionsColdThirdsUnionsSovietCold WarSoviet UnionThird WorldProxy Author:Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“Those who remember Washington's cold war culture in the 1980s will recall the shocked reactions to Reagan's intervention. People interested in foreign policy were astonished when in 1985 he met alone at Geneva - alone, not a single strategic thinker at his elbow! - with the Soviet Communist master Gorbachev.” PeopleWarRememberCulturePolicyMastersColdMetsReactionsCommunistThinkerSovietForeign PolicyRecallsCold WarShockedInterventionStrategicElbowsGenevaGorbachev Author:Russell Baker
“I do think, from the other side, that George W. ush was somewhat of an innocent in his thinking about what Ronald Reagan did during the Cold War and by bringing democracy to Eastern Europe. I think he believed that he could do the same thing by bringing democracy - or Midland, Texas, really - to the Middle East. I truly think he felt it was possible. "I want to do for the Middle East what Reagan did for the Soviet Union."” ThinkingWarDemocracyColdInnocentSovietCold WarSoviet UnionEastern Author:Josh Brolin
“In the past, foreign intervention was obviously a major problem. Foreign domination, or if not domination, interference. But that has ended. There is no foreign domination; there is minimal foreign interference. The Cold War has ended. The Soviet Union no longer exists. The United States is showing minimal and diminishing interest in the Muslim world. They now have to confront their own problems. The old excuses are gone. The old justifications are gone and therefore the anger of people is turning increasingly against their own rulers.” PeopleWorldWarProblemPastInterestColdExcuseSovietRulersJustificationCold WarSoviet UnionDominationInterference Author:Bernard Lewis
“Even during the years of the Cold War, the intense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, we always avoided any direct clash between our civilians and, most certainly, between our military.” YearsWarStatesUnitedUnited StatesMilitaryColdDirectUnionsIntenseSovietCold WarSoviet UnionAvoidedCiviliansConfrontationClash Author:Vladimir Putin
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” GovernmentWould BePresidentHistoryTearsWallColdSpeechEuropeMeetingsConservativeCommunismPresidentialMemorableSovietAmerican HistoryUnited States Of AmericaCold WarSoviet UnionAmerican PoliticsBerlinGreat AmericanFamous WomenAmerican GovernmentAmerican PresidentEastern EuropeUs PresidentPresidents DayBerlin WallQuipGreat PresidentsGorbachevGreat PoliticalPolitical HistoryUs PresidentialModern EraInspirational PresidentialAmerican WarBlockadesGreat ConservativeLast StandGreatest Political Author:Ronald Reagan
“Already liberals are trying to rewrite the history of the Cold War to remove Reagan from its core, to make him a doddering B-movie actor who happened to be standing there when the Soviet Union imploded. They have the media, the universities, the textbooks. We have ourselves. We are the witnesses.” TryingWarActorsHappenedMediaColdStandingUnionsUniversityCoreWitnessRemoveSovietCold WarSoviet UnionTextbooksStanding ThereMovie Actors Author:Ann Coulter