The Cold War Vault

Tales from the most dangerous decades in history. Declassified stories that take you beyond the textbooks and into the Vault.

EP56: Doom Inflation -the Doomsday Clock

Recently, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the minute hand of the "Doomsday Clock" to 90 seconds to midnight. Since 1947, the clock has been a symbol of existential dread. But has it outlived its purpose?

03-26
35:54

A SHOW UPDATE and Cuban Missile Crisis Project Report

This is a short one. It's a show update for the new YouTube series on the alternate end of the Cuban Missile Crisis on this 60th Anniversary. And a little speculation on how things might have been. I have lots to share on the new channel https://www.youtube.com/@coldwarvault  The new series is just a start. Come see what I'm building there and subscribe.  And come to Patreon.com/coldwarvault for more material, early releases and a direct line to my ear.  --DJ

11-03
13:34

EP54: Movies of the Cold War AFTERMATH

The final installment of the series on cinema of nuclear war brings us to the uncertain world of the "aftermath." From immediate effects to decades after, who knows what the world after a nuclear war will be like? Movies of the Cold War have made an attempt to figure it out. 

08-10
01:07:56

EP53: Movies of the Cold War STRIKE

In the third episode of this series of nuclear war on film, we look at the moment the missiles land and how it was depicted through the decades of the Cold War--from survival to hopeless destuction.

06-14
46:20

EP 52: Movies of the Cold War LAUNCH

This is the second part of a series about the films of the Cold War. This time we go beyond escalation to launching the war. What kinds of glitches and mistakes might have caused the balloon to go up and how it was represented in the movies.

03-08
44:51

EP51: Movies of the Cold War ESCALATION

In this series we'll break down the greatest films of the Cold War and see each phase of a conflict through the lens of the movies. The first episode is "escalation." What do films have to say about the period leading up to the war? What lessons can be learned about the fears of the public and the intentions of the filmmakers? This is episode 1 of a four part series. 

01-20
01:15:16

EP50: Aliens in the Sound Channel

We start with whales and end with aliens on this episode of the Cold War Vault. By exploring geophysicist Maurice Ewing's contributions to the national defense in submarine warfare, we will go on a journey that takes us to the darkest depths, to Roswell, New Mexico, and on to other unsolved mysteries of the skies and the seas.

11-16
45:44

EP49: An Interview with John McEuen

John McEuen was a founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and in 1977 was invited on a musical tour of the Soviet Union. On this episode, John McEuen recounts some stories about the tour and thoughts on what the Soviet Union was like in those days.

09-28
37:32

EP48: The Taiwan Crisis of 1958

Recently uncovered documents reveal how close the 1958 Taiwan Crisis came to going nuclear. Important context to have in the current world.

08-17
49:12

EP47: Sleeper Agent with Ann Hagedorn

An interview with author Ann Hagedorn about an early Cold War espionage ring and the American-born spy who escaped to the Soviet Union--but only after stealing secrets from the Manhattan Project. Sleeper Agent by Ann Hagedorn was released on 20 July 2021.  

07-22
35:26

EP46: Mishaps and Missile Men Part2

In this episode we'll look at the most serious mishaps at NORAD during the most tense days of the War Scare years and compare the very similar crisis faced by Stansilav Petrov in the Soviet Union in 1983. 

05-31
40:14

EP43: Mishaps and Missile Men part 1

A techno-thriller, exploring the technological background of many of the nuclear near misses and close calls of the Cold War. Inferior computer systems and common sense battled it out for the survival of human kind. 

04-17
34:45

EP44: 1983 Part 4 - The 1984 Addendum

Could it have been that the most dangerous year of the Great War Scare wasn't 1983 with Able Archer, but 1984, when the danger receded into the mechanisms of the Soviet intelligence apparatus? Yes it could. For nearly a full year, the Soviet Union continued to operate on the assumption that the United States was going to launch a surprise attack. And the U.S. didn't seem to have a clue.

01-16
34:36

EP43: 1983 Part 3 - Able Archer

In part three of the 1983 series, we go deeper into what Exercise Able Archer actually was and why it scared the Soviet Union. After all this, was the war scare real? Recently released documents answer the question. 

12-18
45:00

EP42: 1983 Part 2 - The Hammer and the Nail

The second part of the series on the Great War Scare goes into even more incidents and accidents that heightened tensions in advance of the events of Autumn Forge 1983. Reagan's rhetoric, the Star Wars Program, Operation RYaN, and the shootdown of KAL 007 all play a role in setting the stage for the real drama...and the real danger.

11-08
41:09

EP41: 1983 Part 1 - The War Scare

We explore the 1981-83 nuclear war scare, what caused it, and what almost set the missiles flying during the Able Archer 83 exercise. This episode offers some background, and an introduction to Operation RYaN, the Soviet effort to predict a U.S. first strike. Very dangerous days. This time on the Vault. 

10-22
36:47

EP40: Cults of Personality

The stories we tell about ourselves are all fiction. Especially when you are the god-king of a cult of personality. Doing research on a few interesting stories, these outrageous characters needed a little narrative. These aren't all, of course, just a few little tales I wanted to tell. Papa Doc Duvalier, the infamous Turkmenbashi, and the changing Cult of Kim.

09-22
50:00

EP39: Lessons in Imagined Disasters, Part 2 - Doomtown

Doomtown. Ah, my home address. This time, we look at the rise and fall of civil defense in the United States, with all of the virtual nuclear wars at the center. From irradiating cans of peaches to tens of millions of Americans evacuating the cities, the civil defense project truly was a lesson in imagined disaster. 

08-16
44:24

EP38: Lessons in Imagined Disasters, Part 1 - CoG

In Part 1 of this series, the Vault looks at early attempts by the U.S. federal government to save itself in the face of nuclear war. What started out as a hopeful scheme was eventually abandoned when the Soviet weapons technology outpaced the ability of the government to survive. 

07-28
39:40

EP37: The Moscow Youth Festival of 1957

In this episode we discover Moscow’s “Summer of Love” of 1957, when Khrushchev, 30 years ahead of his time, attempted a social and cultural “opening.” Nothing embodied this more than the Sixth Festival of Youth and Students, a cultural and political free for all that descended on Moscow for two weeks in July and August and forever changed the sociopolitical landscape of the Soviet Union, no matter how hard later leaders tried to suppress what the Festival had unleashed.

07-09
43:55

J Bee

I miss your shows!

11-13 Reply

Donald McBrayer

Excellent pod 👍

09-11 Reply

Pablo Fernández Vallejo

It is hard to find another podcast that combines this level of depth and narrative quality. Thank you Dr Kinney! Consider putting up a Patreon account ;) Cheers from Argentina!

12-30 Reply

Kathrin Gabriel-Jones

Thank you for this podcast! I love how you allow the individuals' story to be present within the history; in this time when the world seems to lean ever more toward a preposterous precipice, your podcast reminds us that we can learn from history but only if we are willing to open our eyes to see and our ears to hear. Thank you for this work Dr. Kinney!

04-19 Reply

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