During the Cold War (1947-1991), due to ideological opposition, national security considerations, and the complexity of propaganda warfare, many historical events were indeed deliberately concealed, selectively reported, or distorted by relevant countries. These behaviors had a profound impact on the understanding of international relations. The following are some typical cases and their distorting or masking effects on international relations： --- ### **1. Behind the scenes of the Cuban Missile crisis (1962)** -**Public narrative**: The crisis was described as the “peak moment” of direct confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States forced the Soviet Union to withdraw missiles through a maritime blockade, demonstrating the toughness and rationality of the Kennedy administration. -**Concealment of facts**: The United States and the Soviet Union reached a secret agreement. The United States promised to withdraw missiles against the Soviet Union from Turkey in exchange for the Soviet Union's withdrawal of missiles from Cuba. This key detail was not fully disclosed until after the end of the cold war. -**Impact**: Concealment weakens people's understanding of the nature of “lose-lose compromise” in the crisis, strengthens the narrative of “unilateral victory of the United States”, and obscures the gray area of the great power game in the nuclear crisis. --- ### **2. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan (1979) and the U.S.-backed Mujahideen** -**Public narrative**: The Soviet Union declared that its intervention was an “internationalist obligation” at the request of the legitimate Afghan government, while the United States condemned it as “imperial expansion.” -**Concealment of facts**: The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) provides weapons and funds to Afghan mujahideen through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI), and even condones the rise of extreme Islamic militants (such as Bin Laden and his supporters). This strategy was regarded as a “necessary means” against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, but its long-term consequences (such as the spread of terrorism) were deliberately downplayed. -**Impact**: The Western public has long been unaware of the association between the United States' actions in Afghanistan and the later Al Qaeda organization, which has led to a lag in awareness of the cost of the Cold War proxy war. --- ### **3. The "Beibu Gulf Incident” in the Vietnam War (1964)** -**Public narrative**: The United States claimed that the North Vietnamese army attacked American ships in Beibu Gulf, which became the direct reason for Congress to pass the "Tokyo Bay Resolution" to authorize full participation in the war. -**Distortion of facts**: Subsequent declassified documents show that the so-called “second attack” was most likely misjudged or fabricated by the US military to rationalize the escalation of the war. The Johnson government used this incident to incite domestic anti-communist sentiment. -**Impact**: The incident became a turning point in American public opinion in support of the war, but the concealment of the truth led to a decline in public trust in the government, which intensified the later anti-war movement. --- ### **4. Western “Appeasement” of the Suppression of Events in Eastern Europe** -**Case **: During the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 and the “Prague Spring” in 1968, the Soviet Union used force to suppress the democratization movement in Eastern European countries. -**Concealment and distortion**: Although the West condemned the Soviet Union, the United States did not take substantial intervention (for example, during the Hungarian Revolution, the United States implied through the “red telephone” that it would not interfere in the Soviet sphere of influence). This kind of ”acquiescence" is handled low-key by both parties to avoid direct conflict. -**Influence**: Eastern European countries' expectations of the “liberators” of the West have been shattered, but the Cold War narrative still maintains the “Free world vs. The simple opposition of ”totalitarianism" obscures the realistic logic of geopolitical politics. --- ### **5. Espionage and Information manipulation of Defectors** -**Cambridge Wujie**: The Soviet Union's high-level spy network in the British intelligence service (such as Kim Philby) has not been revealed for a long time. In order to cover up intelligence failures, the British government delayed for decades before revealing part of the truth. -**U-2 reconnaissance aircraft incident (1960)**: After the pilot Bowers was shot down by the Soviet Union, the United States initially denied engaging in espionage, but was forced to admit it until Khrushchev showed evidence of the wreckage, which seriously damaged the trust of the United States and the Soviet Union. -**Impact**: The delay in the disclosure of the truth about intelligence warfare has led to the public's illusion of “transparency” in the cold war and underestimated the actual impact of espionage on international relations. --- ### **6. Systematic distortions in propaganda Warfare** -**Both sides operate**： -**United States**: Exaggerate the Soviet military threat (such as the fictional “missile gap”) and render the “domino theory” to rationalize intervention. -**Soviet Union**: Cover up domestic economic problems, blame all protests on “Western subversion”, and selectively report on racial conflicts in the United States and the failure of the Vietnam War to shape the image of “the decline of capitalism”. -**Influence**: The public's perception of each other's society seriously deviates from reality, exacerbating the irreconcilability of ideology. --- ### **7. "Invisible Intervention” in Third World Countries** -**Case**： - **Chilean Coup d'etat (1973)**: The U.S. CIA funded the opposition to overthrow the democratically elected left-wing President Allende and supported the Pinochet military government, but the U.S. government has long denied direct involvement. -**Civil war in Angola**: The United States and the Soviet Union supported opposing factions separately, but downplayed the cruelty of proxy wars and simplified the conflict into “freedom vs. A symbol of ”communism". -**Impact**: The complex history of the third world has been simplified into a binary narrative of the cold war, covering up the long-term trauma caused by the intervention of great powers on the ground. --- ###**Conclusion: How distorted history affects the present**