10 Unsolved Mysteries from the Cold War

The four decades of ideological confrontation between the democratic West led by the United States and the communist bloc led by the Soviet Union was an era of tension and proxy wars when the threat of nuclear annihilation loomed large over humanity. Behind every move of the superpowers were unseen forces at work. Plots and counterplots, deception, and secrecy were all aimed at outwitting and outmaneuvering the enemy. It was a shadowy, conspiratorial world that unsurprisingly left us with a legacy of unsolved riddles.

This list looks at ten of the most intriguing puzzles left behind by the Cold War.

Related: Top 10 Cold War Propaganda Films On Nuclear Fallout

10 Shot Down over the Baltic

On April 8, 1950, the NATO air base at Copenhagen reported that a U.S. PB4Y-2 Privateer reconnaissance aircraft with 10 men on board had gone missing. Three days later, the Soviets revealed that they had shot down a plane that attempted to intrude into Soviet airspace. The U.S. insisted that the “Turbulent Turtle,” as the plane was called, was on a routine flight from West Germany to Denmark.

In 1975, it was belatedly admitted that the plane was on a “special electronic search project mission” for Soviet radar stations. That much was cleared up, but the fate of the crew remains a mystery. The official position of the USSR was no one survived the crash over the Baltic Sea 15 miles (24 km) from the Latvian coast. The recovery of the plane’s intact lifeboats, however, indicated a soft landing and the possibility of survivors. The men were well-drilled in such situations.

In 1956, a State Department document referred to former detainees who had “conversed with, seen, or heard reports concerning United States military aviators” in the Gulag. A former Lithuanian inmate in a Soviet prison claimed he spoke with an American intelligence officer being held there named “Robert.” Was this Lt. Robert Reynolds, one of the crew? The increasing number of similar reports prompted the military to reopen the case.

The Soviets would not budge from their position that no one survived the crash. The U.S. maintains that the airmen were captured and imprisoned in the Gulag until their deaths. The uncertainty remains.^[1]

9 The Stalin Note

Was he bluffing, or wasn’t he? Historians are still debating Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s intentions when he sent a curious handwritten note to Western leaders proposing, in 1952, the reunification of East and West Germany. The future of Germany was of paramount concern to the Western Allies and the Soviets, as it had the potential to shape the balance of power in post-war Europe. The Soviets saw a divided Germany as a buffer against Western influence.

Stalin’s letter calling for a unified but neutral Germany was, therefore, a bolt from the blue. The Allies tried to make sense of it, and the debate began. Stalin’s true intent mystified them. Some saw it as a golden opportunity, but more suspicious leaders cautioned that it might just be a clever ploy. Was Stalin simply buying time to prepare the Soviet Union for a conflict with the West? Was the note designed to sow disagreements among the democracies? It might all be part of a deeper plan for ultimate Soviet hegemony in Europe. On the other hand, it might be a genuine offer to de-escalate tensions.

We might never know. Those who were cynical about Stalin’s intentions won out and rejected the offer. What if the West had accepted? A united Germany would not have waited until 1989. There would have been no wall. Europe and the world would have been much more stable. But would a neutral, powerful Germany have threatened the peace once again? Or would it have been a key player in Europe’s recovery and progress?

The intriguing “what ifs” abound, and historians will likely debate the Stalin Note for a long time.^[2]

8 The Disappearance of Paul Whipkey

By all accounts, 1st Lt. Paul Byron Whipkey was a model soldier—intelligent, brave, and disciplined. So when the 26-year-old told his friends at Fort Ord, California, on July 10, 1958, that he was going to town to get a drink, no one suspected that would be the last they would ever see of him. Whipkey never returned.

Five weeks later, his car was found in a desolate area of Death Valley, 400 miles (644 km) from Ft. Ord. It was in perfect condition and had Whipkey’s suitcase, dog tags, and personal belongings. His bank account remained untouched since he disappeared. Strangely, the Army didn’t show much curiosity about what happened to Whipkey, assuming he would eventually return, so they conducted a superficial investigation and declared him AWOL. An Army hearing in 1982 concluded that Lt. Whipkey “may have wandered out into the desert… and succumbed in the extreme heat; and that the shifting sands have made it a near impossibility to find, or recover, his remains.”

The Army enigmatically added that “his unauthorized absence… is excused as unavoidable… that his death was incurred in the line of duty, not due to his own misconduct.” It raised suspicions that the military knew more than it was letting on. Paul’s brother Carl, carrying on his own investigation, discovered that his brother had flown five atomic test missions. Was he exposed to lethal radiation or another type of new weapon? Did he know of the military use of human guinea pigs? Was he used in a clandestine secret operation and killed by other spies?

The FBI destroyed all their files on the case in 1977, so the answers will likely remain forever buried.^[3]

7 The Case of Alger Hiss

In one of the most controversial Cold War espionage cases, State Department official Alger Hiss was found guilty of perjury in lying about his involvement in a Soviet spy ring before World War II. Crucial to his conviction was the testimony of a confessed courier for the ring, Whittaker Chambers, who alleged that Hiss had handed him State Department documents to turn over to Moscow.

Hiss served three years of a five-year prison sentence, was released in 1954, and died in 1996, still proclaiming his innocence. In 2007, author Kai Bird claimed there was new evidence suggesting that the real spy was another U.S. official named Wilder Foote, not Hiss. Meanwhile, Hiss’s stepson Timothy Hobson said that Chambers never visited his stepfather’s home, where he stayed while recuperating from an injury, on the date he claimed. Hobson said that a vindictive Chambers invented the spy story after Hiss rebuffed his sexual advances.

Relevant documents in the publicly accessible Russian archives never mention Hiss or Chambers. The KGB documents referring to their State Department source only call him by the alias “Ales.” The clear references to Hiss in KGB files only total five pages. In the intercepted VENONA cables between Moscow and its overseas outposts, Hiss was unambiguously referenced, which actually points to his innocence since no agent or handler would ever say “Bond—James Bond” and divulge his true identity instead of using a code name.

Even after Hiss was convicted, the FBI was still conducting an investigation into the mysterious Ales, suggesting it had doubts he was Hiss. Ales had attended the Yalta Conference in 1945 before proceeding to Moscow; Hiss was at Yalta, but so were Foote and seven others from the State Department.

Were Ales and Hiss the same person? There seems to be enough reasonable doubt to question this conclusion. Perhaps the Alger Hiss case is one big miscarriage of justice.^[4]

6 Was Stalin Murdered?

Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953, of a massive brain hemorrhage due to hypertension and atherosclerosis of the blood vessels. So goes the official account, which is still repeated in history books. Yet at the back of this assertion hovers the suspicion that Stalin was actually murdered by one of his inner circle. But who?

Stalin had been having serious health issues since the 1940s and suffered a series of strokes, prompting his personal physician to advise rest from affairs of state. The ever-paranoid Stalin suspected a plot to put him away (a tactic he himself used on Vladimir Lenin) and sent his doctor to prison as a spy. He did, however, spend more time in his dacha outside Moscow, where he would often invite his four closest associates — Georgy Malenkov, Lavrenti Beria, Nikolai Bulganin, and Nikita Khrushchev—over for dinner and a movie. If Stalin was murdered by poison, one of these four was most likely the culprit.

Stalin had always reminded them that they were all expendable. Now, with rumors of a new wave of fresh purges reminiscent of the Great Terror of the 1930s swirling, they might have been fearful for their lives, a compelling motive for murder. On the night of February 28, all four suspects had the usual dinner with Stalin. At 10:30 p.m. the next night, Stalin was discovered unconscious in his room, where he had closeted himself all day.

Summoned to the dacha, the Big Four delayed calling a doctor until seven a.m. the next day, with Beria even advising not to panic as Stalin was merely asleep. Was the delay deliberate on their part to hasten their boss’s end? Of them all, Beria is the strongest suspect. He was in immediate danger of being purged. He picked the doctors who tried in vain to revive Stalin and told them what to write on the medical records. The day after, he dismissed all of Stalin’s bodyguards, two of whom later committed suicide, at least according to the official version. Beria also removed all papers, even the furniture and dishes, from the dacha. Most damning of all, he had allegedly whispered to Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, “It was I who saved you all from Stalin.”

But without documentation or solid evidence, all we will ever have is speculation on the guilt—or innocence—of Lavrenti Beria.^[5]

5 The Death of Dag Hammarskjold

Shortly after midnight on September 17-18, 1961, a chartered plane carrying UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), killing 14 of the 15 people on board, including Hammarskjold. The lone survivor succumbed a few days later.

Hammarskjold was en route to negotiate peace between the newly independent Congo and secessionists of the breakaway Katanga region. An initial inquiry blamed the crash on pilot error, but disturbing eyewitness accounts of another plane firing upon Hammarskjold’s SE-BDY could not be dismissed. Early on, it was suspected that the crash was not an accident. Before he died, the only survivor told of seeing sparks in the sky before the crash. Former president Harry Truman cryptically remarked that the Secretary-General “was on the point of getting something done when they killed him.”

But who were “they”? There is no shortage of suspects who didn’t want Katanga reunited with Congo. Congo was aligned with the Soviets, and it was in the interests of European mining firms to keep mineral-rich Katanga separate to safeguard their concessions. The KGB, CIA, and the British MI6 were all actively looking after their own interests in the region.

Conspiracy theories and rumors abounded. Armed men in combat fatigues were reportedly seen scouring the crash site before authorities arrived. Hammarskjold’s body allegedly had bullet wounds. A bomb had reputedly been smuggled on board the plane. A CIA report pointed a finger at the KGB. A Belgian pilot said he accidentally hit the plane as he fired warning shots to divert it from Ndola. It was also suggested that Hammarskjold was killed by the Soviets for a reason unrelated to the Congo — his opposition to their plan for a three-man executive council to run the UN Secretariat.

In the face of such conflicting claims, it may be a long time before the families of the victims see closure.^[6]

4 Was Oswald a Spy?

Hundreds of books have been written on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a dizzying compendium of conspiracy theories, enigmas, and speculations ranging from the logically possible to the insanely wild. One of the mysteries surrounds the assassin himself, Lee Harvey Oswald, and his links to the KGB.

It is well-known that Oswald, a former Marine, defected to Russia in 1959. Academic researcher Edward Jay Epstein amassed credible circumstantial evidence of Oswald’s work for the Soviets. Even as a Marine stationed in Japan, Oswald frequented the expensive Queen Bee nightclub in Tokyo, known as a hangout of intelligence agents. His fellow soldiers couldn’t explain how Oswald could afford $100-a-night dates at the Queen Bee with his Marine salary.

Epstein claims that while in the USSR, Oswald divulged his knowledge as a radar controller of the U-2 spy plane to the Soviets, which later enabled them to shoot down Francis Gary Powers in 1960. The KGB helped Oswald prepare a false diary of his Russian sojourn to convince American intelligence that Oswald’s motives for returning to the U.S. were credible.

Did Oswald remain a spy upon his return? Epstein is less persuasive here. Before Dallas, Oswald was in Mexico City to meet a KGB official in charge of espionage and assassinations. But was the KGB behind Kennedy’s murder? This assumes the killing was meticulously planned. Yet Oswald found a job at the Texas Book Depository by chance, long before it was known that the presidential motorcade would pass by. Oswald simply saw the opportunity and took it.

Not only the KGB but also the CIA is suspected of using Oswald. JFK expert Jefferson Morley claims that Oswald was involved in a secret operation by the CIA three months before the assassination. It was aimed at infiltrating U.S. supporters of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and perhaps creating a pretext for a U.S. invasion of Cuba.

It may be a long time before we can unravel these tangled links between the KGB, CIA, and Lee Harvey Oswald—if ever.^[7]

3 Was Yuri Nosenko a KGB Plant?

One of the reasons the KGB’s involvement in the Kennedy assassination is dismissed is the allegations made by former KGB officer Yuri Nosenko, whose defection in February 1964 made him an important asset. He turned out to be the one who considered Oswald’s asylum application but rejected him for being “too unstable.” Nosenko’s credibility was enhanced by accurate information he shared about other intelligence agents compromised by the KGB. In the estimation of the FBI, at least.

Nosenko was suspicious of the CIA. However, the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover also had a prized informant called Fedora, whose statements corroborated Nosenko’s. Hoover could not bring himself to admit that Nosenko may be a double agent because that would make Fedora a plant, too. But another KGB defector, Anatoly Golitsyn, had warned that Western intelligence agencies were crawling with moles and that every KGB defector was a plant. Of Nosenko, he told the CIA, “This is the one I warned you about. This is the man who has come to discredit me.”

Nosenko was placed in solitary confinement for five years and subjected to hostile interrogation, but he didn’t break. He was released in 1969 and finally exonerated in 1978. But former CIA chief of counter-intelligence Tennent Bagley wasn’t satisfied. He drew up a report listing all the inconsistencies and false claims Nosenko made about his life, career, and espionage operations. “Many readers will conclude…that Nosenko was a phoney, sent by the KGB to deceive a gullible CIA,” said a Washington Post review.

If Nosenko was a plant, was he lying about rejecting Oswald? Was the KGB actually involved in Dallas, and was Nosenko sent to defuse American suspicions and avert nuclear war? The questions are as tantalizing as ever.^[8]

2 The Loss of K-129

In February 1968, a formidable nuclear-armed submarine of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, the K-129, left its base in Kamchatka on a mission ostensibly to gather intelligence on American listening posts in the Pacific. She was supposed to transmit news to Moscow of her arrival at the midpoint of her journey, but the transmission never came. The Soviets scrambled to find the missing submarine but came up with nothing.

What happened to K-129? Its division commander believed it was rammed and sunk by the sub USS Swordfish, which had radioed to the base that it had an “accident” at sea and returned to port with a broken periscope. But the Americans insisted that the Swordfish was 200 nautical miles from K-129 at the time she vanished and that its periscope had been damaged by ice packs in the Sea of Japan.

The U.S. Sound Surveillance System had detected a bang as if from an explosion in the waters near Hawaii, and the submarine sent to investigate finally found the wreckage of the K-129 in August. The Navy, with the help of the CIA and billionaire Howard Hughes, plucked the K-129 off the ocean floor with a giant claw. Examination of the remains only deepened the mystery as to why it exploded and sank. There are many theories, but the most interesting—and alarming—is that K-129 was a rogue submarine attempting a nuclear strike to trigger World War III.

This theory builds on the fact that only two out of the sub’s three nuclear torpedoes were recovered from the wreckage. The third nuclear device is still missing. Or is it? In his book Red Star Rogue, author Kenneth Sewell paints a conspiracy in which rogue KGB commandos take over the sub to launch an attack on Hawaii—a second Pearl Harbor—and make it appear that China did it. This would provoke a war with the U.S. when China would be destroyed, the U.S. weakened, and the USSR would become dominant. But Ukrainian captain Vladimir Ivanovich Kobzar realized the commandos had no authorization from Moscow and supplied them with the wrong launch codes. Launching with the wrong codes detonated the warhead, blowing up the ship. Kobzar had sacrificed his sub, his men, and himself to stop a nuclear war.

Few accept this rather far-fetched theory, but in the cat-and-mouse maneuvering of the Cold War, who knows? It is only a reminder that the world might have been close to Armageddon many times in that era of confrontation, and we were unaware of it.^[9]

1 The Isdal Woman

On November 29, 1970, a man and his two daughters, on a hike in the Isdalen (Ice Valley) area of Norway, stumbled upon the charred remains of a young woman on the rocky ground. She was burned beyond recognition, and items that appeared to belong to her—jewelry, pieces of clothing, purse, scraps of paper—were arranged around her in a ceremonial fashion. Anything that might have helped identify her was missing. She was dubbed the “Isdal Woman,” and to this day, her identity remains a mystery.

Police were also unable to explain the circumstances surrounding her death despite an abundance of clues. Many have interpreted those clues and come up with different theories, and one that has a certain degree of probability is that the Isdal Woman was a spy. In the atmosphere of the Cold War, it was a likely scenario, and many clues do have a smell of cloak-and-dagger about them.

The woman had traveled all over Norway using eight fake passports and stayed at multiple hotels, registering under different aliases. Often, she would change rooms, kept to herself, and seemed to be on guard against something — or someone. In her possession were several wigs and what appeared to be a coded logbook of places she had visited.

The composite sketches reconstructing the woman sent out by the police were recognized by a fisherman who said he saw her at Stavanger during the exercises of the naval squadron and top secret trials of the Penguin missile at the Ulsnes naval base. Coincidence? Shortly after, in December, police suddenly announced the case was closed, saying the woman had committed suicide. Many didn’t buy it and speculated that the intelligence community wanted the case hushed up due to its wider implications.^[10]