A popular image persists of Albert Einstein as a loner, someone whoavoided the hustle and bustle of everyday life in favor of quiet contemplation. Yet Einstein was deeply engaged with politics throughout his life; indeed, he was so active politically that the U.S. FBI kept him under surveillance for decades, compiling a 2000-page secret file on his political activities. His most enduring scientific legacy, the general theory of relativity -- physicists' reigning explanation for gravity and the basis for nearly all our thinking about the cosmos -- has likewise been cast as an austere temple standing aloof from the all-too-human dramas of political history. But was it so? This talk focuses on one of the most sensitive tests of general relativity ever conducted -- the "time delay test" -- and explores its surprising linkages to the politics and technologies of the Cold War.