he Cold War, or the “war that wasn’t,” lasted from 1947 to 1991. The two main powers, the United States and the USSR, never actually attacked each other—instead, they flexed their muscles to intimidate one another, causing events like the arms race and the space race, and spurring proxy wars like the Vietnam War and the Korean War. Nevertheless, the two countries prepared themselves for an eventual battle, one that never happened.
Historian and author Robert Grenville has immortalized some now-deserted sites of the conflict in his new book, Abandoned Cold War Places. In it, he compiles photographs of places built for or touched by the war, like an aircraft graveyard and decaying military housing.
“The book is a curated tour of the detritus left behind by both sides around the world during the Cold War—almost half of the twentieth century,” Grenville says. “The idea was to convey an impression of the scale of the confrontation and the legacy that endures to this day.”
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