The military industrial manufactures and secret service organisations played pivotal roles in the Cold War as they worked to encourage the continuation of the cold war. Both influenced the Cold War by by maintaining an atmosphere of tension, uncertainty, and suspicion between the superpowers for the duration of the Cold War.
This can be seen through the actions of the secret services for each superpower; the KGB (USSR), and CIA (USA). It was due to their activities which allowed for the continuation of the Cold War, and the Cold War remaining Cold. Each secret service organization used spies on one another to gather intelligence. Intelligence refers to information gathered secretly on an enemy. This effectively contributed to increasing the climate of fear and tension between the superpowers during the CW era. This was officially undertaken through the spying tactics of espionage and covert operations.
Espionage characterized the Soviet Union, as they used agents to pose as government diplomats, trade unionists or press officials.
English: US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Gen...
English: Map of the Commonwealth of Independent St...
English: USSR stamp, S. Smith, 1985, 5 k. Русс...Such undercover agents were present in all major Western intelligence agencies. Intelligence obtained included enemy plans for attack, scientific developments, and other information which could be used against the enemy. The CIA reacted to this through counter-espionage. They too placed 'moles' in the KGB, and they too spied on the Soviet Union.
When these undercover operations were exposed, it served to 'add fuel to the fire', encouraging each side to spy further and publicly humiliate the enemy. The most notable example of this is when the American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet air space in 1960. The Soviets publicly accused the Americans of spying. However, the US denied that was its purpose. They were forced to acknowledge that it was in fact a spy plane when the captured pilot, Gary Powers, confessed so...