Was anybody here alive during the cold war ?

[Massimo2002]

And if so what was it like ?

 

[an anarchist]

“Was anyone here alive during the Cold War” brother the median age around here is probably 55+ a regular senior community. I think you and me and perhaps 2 other members weren’t around when the Cold War happened

 

[Stevicus]

I was younger during the Cold War. The music was better.

 

[Viker]

And if so what was it like ?

Yes. The music was better. It's like, the Soviet Union died and good music died sometime after. Proof that really decent popular music likely was a Soviet plot.

 

[Heyo]

The US were still seen as the good guys by the majority.
The neo-Nazis still pretended to be communists (and were behind a wall).
I didn't suck at geography.
And the music was better, much better.

 

[John53]

I had hair and was skinnier

 

[McBell]

The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, that started in 1947, two years after the end of World War II, and lasted until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.​

Cold War - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

​

​

I was around for about 25 years of it

 

[SalixIncendium]

I was also around for 25 years of it. I don't imagine it was much different from now to a civilian save the music already mentioned in this thread (though I don't fully agree, as the heyday of the grunge era aligned pretty closely with the end of the Cold War, and there was great music produced by bands like Alice In Chains, Tool, Nirvana, and Soundgarden, STP, Pearl Jam, and others), but having served in the Air Force from 1983-1987, based on my training and exercises that I'm not at liberty to discuss, I would venture to say that tensions between the US and the Soviet Union were pretty high.

 

[Jedster]

I was here for most of it.
I remember as a kid we were told about the '4 minute warning' sirens telling us that Russians had launched missiles. We had 4 minutes to 'hide'.
I was terrified for a few years until I discovered girls and music.
Yes the music was better.
I didn't know until reading the link that it continued unto 1992.

Four-minute warning - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Mock Turtle]

Born in 1945 so alive for all of it. It probably wasn't such a threat during my early childhood, hence why there were never any drills or even mention of such at school (from my memory), and it was only later - possibly after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis - that the threat loomed large. That incident was sufficiently worrying. I had only recently started work, in the centre of London, and because there had been an ultimatum and brinkmanship involved, it was rather a relief when an announcement came over the works Tannoy that the Soviets had backed down. It was only later that we found out how close we came to nuclear weapons being used. The threat mostly stayed there until the USSR broke up in the early 1990s. I was on holiday (in Thailand I think) when the Berlin Wall came down.

Possibly Putin was affected by this and might instigate another 'ultimatum' event - expecting a favour to be returned so that his side will not back down again - such is pride.

 

[ChristineM]

Yes, in the UK I'd just started uni so it was quite intense at times. Lech Wałęsa was the man .
And I then it ended...

I remember the UK having a 4 minute warning to hide somewhere if the USSR launched atomic weapons. Luckily it was never needed

 

[David1967]

I was younger during the Cold War. The music was better.

I was a teen during the eighties. I remember people concerned about nuclear war with the Soviet union, especially after the movie 'The Day After' came out. I was working in a grocery store after school at the time and I remember customers saying that nuclear war was inevitable, it was just a matter of when... but the music was indeed amazing.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, that started in 1947, two years after the end of World War II, and lasted until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

I was around for about 25 years of it

When you offer a cut-n-paste, please acknowledge your source.

 

[McBell]

When you offer a cut-n-paste, please acknowledge your source.

Fixed

 

[Stevicus]

I was a teen during the eighties. I remember people concerned about nuclear war with the Soviet union, especially after the movie 'The Day After' came out. I was working in a grocery store after school at the time and I remember customers saying that nuclear war was inevitable, it was just a matter of when... but the music was indeed amazing.

Yes, I remember "The Day After," along with quite a number of movies and TV shows which project some sort of nuclear war or other catastrophic disaster.

It's kind of funny, though, since I was a little kid when I saw "Planet of the Apes" for the first time - and at that age, I really didn't know about the Cold War or nuclear weapons or any of that. But I did know about the Statue of Liberty. In the final scene showing Charlton Heston pounding the sand and yelling "You blew it up," I thought he was referring to the apes, believing that the apes had blown up the Statue of Liberty (or at least the bottom half of it). My dad explained it to me and told me about the Cold War, nuclear weapons, the USSR, etc.

After that, I found the Cold War somewhat fascinating. I checked out books and atlases from the library to learn more about it, as it wasn't really addressed much in school (at least not as a formal part of the curriculum). I wanted to find out how many missiles we had, how many the Russians had, and other aspects of the balance of power. I also wanted to find out about Russia itself and why they were pointing missiles in our direction. I was also an avid fan of the TV show M*A*S*H in which the subject of war and communism was often discussed.

Such as in this dialogue from the episode "Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde":

• Hawkeye : Why are we here?
  Major Franklin Marion Burns : I believe I just explained that. Captain.
  Hawkeye : No, I'm... I mean... what... uh... what's the war about? Why... what do... whaddo, whaddo... how did it start?
  Major Franklin Marion Burns : The communists, Pierce. And don't try to make fun of this. This is serious business.
  Hawkeye : I'm not making fun, Frank. I'm trying to figure this out. What... why should Nor- uh... North Korea want to take over America? Is it something we said? Something we didn't say?
  [enlisted man snores]
  Major Franklin Marion Burns : Let me tell you something, Pierce. These godless communists have run their own countries right into the ground while we've been building the highest standard of living in the world. Half of these people over here have never even seen a bathroom, and believe you me, they want one.
  Hawkeye : They do?
  Major Franklin Marion Burns : You bet your life they do. And if they can't get our bathrooms by subversion, they'll get them by war.
  Hawkeye : They can have mine. I'd be glad to keep my legs crossed until after the war.

Of course, back then, people used to make fun of chauvinistic militarists like Frank Burns.

 

[RestlessSoul]

I remember watching the end of communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall on television. It was quite a surreal time, because my generation had grown up thinking that Europe would be divided into East and West for all of our lives. With hindsight, the collapse of the Soviet Union meant liberation for Eastern Europe, but for us in the West it marked the triumph of capital over labour, and has come at considerable cost to working class people. Both the French and Russian revolutions effectively replaced one tyranny with another, but they also served notice to the ruling classes of Europe, of what could happen if they ignored the interests of the common people.

 

[PureX]

The music went to $h!t, the economy went to $h!t, the hippies all started using cocaine and became corporate CEOs, Reagan played John Wayne to get elected and then let the insane young neo-cons run the country while the Soviet economy collapsed trying to build missiles as fast as U. S. military greed machine.

And it's been mostly downhill from there.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

It really is a very strange question ...

... something akin to: Has anybody here actually seen a live stegosaurus?

 

[Twilight Hue]

And if so what was it like ?

I was in the military toward the end of the Cold War prior to that i obviously was just a kid, but I still remember parts of it when the USSR was at its height of power.

I still remember the political needle at 12:00 which indicated how close our two countries were toward a nuclear war which of course was averted by Kennedy.

 

[Estro Felino]

I was very little.
I was born in 1985 but I vividly recall all the people who cried out of joy when the Berlin Wall fell.
I still feel like crying because I know what all of Europe went through because of that awful Cold War...and because of so much turmoil, and antagonism between Socialists and Christian Democrats.
It was a nightmare...
And when the symbol of hatred fell...being smashed down by pickaxes ... I remember everyone was happy, in Europe.

That is why... they will never succeed in erecting a new wall, ANY MORE.
NEVER MORE!!!!!!!