In part, the Cold War was a battle of ideas, which was contested in the media, on the floor of the United Nations, through all manner of propaganda, and in millions of interactions among Americans and their allies, the Soviet Union, “Red” China, and their allies, and the rest of the world. But the Cold War was not just about talk. It was also about action, and on a number of occasions the actions of the players on both sides of the Cold War divide resulted in confrontations and crises that brought the ideological adversaries to the brink of war.