A matter that has become topical again in recent weeks... A short history of the so-called "hot line", a communications system that linked the leaders of the erstwhile USSR and the US, set up in the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis, to reduce the possibility of an "accidental" nuclear war between the two superpowers. The hot line came into being one year after the ... Read full entry

Charlie Wilson's War Texas congressman Charlie Wilson manages to win the cold war, or at least play a hand in ending the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, in the late 1980s. More a case of winning the battle but losing the war as history went on to show. A banner reading "Charlie Did It!" can be seen at both the beginning and end of the ... Read full entry