Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Cold War

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Cold War Wiki Project Wikipedia WikiProject Cold War is part of the Cold War WikiProject, an effort to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to the Cold War on the Wikipedia. This includes but is not limited to the people, places, things, and events, and anything else associated with the Cold War. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
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Please place any discussion regarding the Cold War history WikiProject here. Crested Penguin 06:20, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Namespace

the cold war was very meanl. Why is this not in the Wikipedia: namespace? Shinhan 10:23, 4 June 2007 (UTC) This is just a temp page. Crested Penguin 23:41, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Userboxes

I have made a couple of userboxes for WikiProject Cold War as I have noticed there isnt any. They are Here. Let Me know what you think. Djmckee1 - Talk-Sign 12:51, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, there is one --
This user is member of the Cold War Wikiproject.




I also updated the userbox with the blue on blue --
This User Contributes to WikiProject Cold War





Maybe we could also have a userbox in red/yellow and another in red/white/blue, or a double box with the colors of the two flags or something, or a box with just the two flags, one on one side, and the other on the other side. That might be fun!

Hires an editor 16:01, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Here's a couple more with the flags
This user contributes to WikiProject Cold War
This user contributes to WikiProject Cold War




Hires an editor 15:55, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wiki Cold War

In case no one here has noticed, the polarization of the Cold War is alive and well here in Wikipedia in numerous arbitrations and mediations (all leading nowhere), where Eastern European (oriented) editors take a dim view of Soviet actions and history and (primarily, but not limited to) Russian (oriented) editors claim the Soviet Union never occupied anyone, e.g., if you suggest the Soviets did not liberate the Baltics and Eastern Europe, you can find yourself being labeled a Holocaust denier.

I would (strongly) suggest a project development plan which accommodates this swirling black vortex of Wiki-editor-time without getting sucked into it as well. (Perhaps even turn the vortex into an opportunity.) —  Pēters J. Vecrumba 21:19, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, as with everything else here in/at Wikipedia, do you have references for this kind of behavior? If your allegations are true, then this is something that must be addressed. Hires an editor 22:09, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
I'll look to oblige by the end of the week. —  Pēters J. Vecrumba 14:21, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

    There are two major categories of "Cold War" activity: the first involves Soviet actions leading to WWII, Soviet conduct during the war, and Soviet liberation/occupation of the Baltics and Eastern Europe after the war. A sub-category of that is who was, and wasn't a "Nazi." Terms like "ethnofascist POV pusher" are used freely against Eastern European editors and (apparently) tolerated. The other major category is the frozen conflict zone (Transnistria, South Ossetia, et al.) where paid editors (William Mauco and Des Grant re: Transnistria) have tried to hijack Wikipedia for propaganda purposes in support of the regimes there.
    Let's start of with a few representative articles illustrative of the Wiki-Cold War:

  • Occupation of Latvia arbitration, evidence page — an excellent overview of positions, parties, and patterns of accusation and response (with most of the key players in the Baltic arena), remember to read talk and workshop
  • Mediation cabal on occupation of the Baltic states — a representative example of use of WP:OR and derisive comments against proponents of Soviet occupation
  • "Entitled to POV" — in a nutshell, Cmapm accuses Digwuren of POV pushing, insisting that "at the same time I have a right to cite an alternative POV, that they voluntarily joined the Soviet Union"--problem being, no one has yet to date produced a single shred of reputable evidence to support that "viewpoint" (that the Baltics joined the Soviet Union willingly and legally)--yet many are those that insist it be given equal time in the name of "neutrality", that is, those who say "occupation" are POV, those who espouse the Soviet "viewpoint" are "neutral"
  • Soviet Invasion of Poland feature article candidate talk — initiated not to discuss candidacy, but to make accusations of canvassing
  • "Children are dying because of you" accusation — an editor (confirmed as Des Grant, publisher of the Tiraspol Times) masquerades under his nom de plume of Mark Street, "editor" of the Tiraspol Times, accuses anti-Transnistrian Wikipedia forces of murdering Transnistrian children. Both he, User:MarkStreet/User:Mark us street and User:William Mauco were finally banned for extensive use of sockpuppets to bolster their positions
  • Transnistria talk archive — an informative discussion on Tiraspol Times as propaganda, Transnistria as a country, etc.
  • even my own talk page--sadly, I am not an uninvolved party, viz., this exchange with an admin, Khoikhoi, threatening to block me; you can read the diffs or the article in context to draw your own conclusions, either way re: Fântâna Albă massacre talk — discussing my "insults" of a fellow editor (allegedly vituperative exchanges aside, I should mention Irpen is the only editor from the "other" side with whom I have any communication)

    We then have the Wiki-editor-internecine-war-of-attrition. Unfortunately, the only victims in this war appear to be the editors who don't tow the "Soviet glory" line, try to contribute, are then set upon, and then finally leave in disgust. Editors who quickly come to mind are User:Peteris_Cedrins (an extraordinary loss, though still occassionally comments), and User_talk:Constanz (similarly fed up, left completely). Here we have Mauco attacking Peteris Cedrins: Suspected sock puppet Cedrins.
    A general sampling of editor skirmishes (talk pages need to be read as well, and are often more informative as to positions):

    If you like, I can also go back and find a similar list for Transnistria, suffice to say there are Wiki-lines drawn with respect to the frozen conflict zone territories as well. It would take me some more time to go through the other territories where I haven't had any Wiki-involvement aside from the occasional read (so, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh). That would likely take me longer than a week to respond, though. —  Pēters J. Vecrumba 20:39, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

It's a lot to go through if you're coming at it from the outside; on the other hand, it's an opportunity for a fresh persepective. The "classic" Cold War is over, but that it continues to live on in Wikipedia--as an instance of popular consciousness reflecting divisions in the larger global stage--is a phenomenon of tremendous significance. —  Pēters J. Vecrumba 14:46, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The main Cold War article

I'd like some consensus on reducing the size of the main article so we can improve its quality. Less is more. We need to figure out a way to be more selective about the information there, what's really the most important, and yet make sure it's coherent and complete. There's too much supporting detail about things, such as the "origins of the term" section. There was a part about how it was used back in 13th Century Spain (I reverted that away as part of another change), and it is interesting, but not really relevant. We could probably do a complete article just on that. I'm sure that there are other examples.

Also, I'm not a big fan of the bullet points at the beginning of the article. Hires an editor 13:03, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

(replied here, moved to main page discussion) —  Pēters J. Vecrumba 22:04, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
There does seem to be some wailing and gnashing of teeth in the main article discussion page! —  Pēters J. Vecrumba 22:04, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Difference between this and a Cold War task force?

Hello. Can I ask the reasoning as to why this is a project and not a task force of the Military History Wikiproject? Seems like there will be potential for considerable, if not full, overlap. Oberiko 18:42, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Because when the project was proposed it was decided that this project would deal with, as it were, the entire Cold War era, not just the military aspects, and on that basis making it a task force of a group focused on the military aspects did not seem entirely appropriate. John Carter 18:49, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] collaboration of the history projects

Hi, I'm newly appointed coordinator of the Wikipedia: WikiProject History. I was coordinator of the Wikipedia: WikiProject Military History before. My scope is to improve the cooperation among the different history projects andf use the synergy of a common infrastructure to improve article quality. One idea would be to merge small project into a larger wikiproject history with a common infrastructure and the small projects continuing independently as task forces of this project. What are your suggestions? Greetings Wandalstouring 15:12, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Post-Colonial Leaders set nomination for Version 0.7

Hi, I've just made this set nomination for the planned Version 0.7 DVD release. As I was tagging I kept seeing the Cold War template on pages, so I though people here might like to comment here. This is designed to be a list of important leaders from around the world during the period at the end of colonialism and the rise of many independent states. We'd appreciate your opinions! Thanks, Walkerma 06:10, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge

How about considering a merge of this project with Wikipedia:WikiProject International relations to bolster both projects - it's worked for the UN group. Mikebar 18:00, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New logo

Hi what do you think about changing the project logo to a .svg image depicting two tanks(one red and one blue), and snowing in the background. --Andersmusician VOTE 04:00, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Extraordinary rendition

Hi does anyone have any sources for Extraordinary renditions carried out by anyone durring the cold war. This includes the middle east and africa. (Hypnosadist) 19:42, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Stranded Pakistanis, Biharis or Bihari Muslims?

Yes all three exist, carrying different project-banners for WikiProject Ethnic groups, WikiProject Cold War, WikiProject Pakistan and WikiProject Bangladesh. I have proposed a merger of all three, but what would the title be? As soon we can decide on the title, I can volunteer to do the merging. I am posting to all of the WikiProjects for a solution, but it would be better to have a centralized discussion. Aditya(talkcontribs) 13:19, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Does scope include Survivalism related articles

I was wondering if the scope of the Cold War wiki-project includes survival topics like Survivalism, Retreat (survivalism), etc. which seem to have grown out of cold-war fears? AliveFreeHappy (talk) 21:02, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Sure, why not? I think it should go more under culture, rather than political/military, which is the main focus of this article. Maybe put something in Culture during the Cold War article? Hires an editor (talk) 22:29, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Prague Spring

The Prague Spring article was just awarded Good Article status. Any chance we can round up a bunch of you Cold War experts to help make it and Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968) Featured Articles for the 40th anniversary? - TheMightyQuill (talk) 02:30, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Samantha Smith

Hi, just to let you know that Samantha Smith, an article within this project's scope, is at featured article review. Please see Wikipedia:Featured article review/Samantha Smith if interested. Cheers! J Milburn (talk) 17:58, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Politics

The cold war was not about the conflicts around the world that it created, that would be a hot war. The cold war was a time period where Democracy, led by the Americans, was fighting Communism, led by the Soviet Union. There was not a shot fired at the other by either of those two nations, but it seems that this project is focusing mainly on the war aspects of the cold war, such as the Korean war, and the Vietnam war, these happened during the cold war, and as a result of the cold war, but they should not be central to the project, we should look to improve the articles about political climates during the war, not just conflicts that were set alight by the war. That is just my opinion, if anyone agrees, contact me on my talk page. Tom.mevlie (talk) 07:47, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

You might want to make this point on the Cold War talk page, instead of here, as that article may in fact do what you are saying. The project, though, does not focus exclusively on the "hot" parts of the Cold War, it also takes some interest in the other aspects, such as politics, and economics, and the like. The Cold War Template should be a good reflection of important Cold War events and themes. And last of all, since agreement (or not) is topic specific, it should go on the topic discussion pages, so that others interested in the topic can have their say. Hires an editor (talk) 21:50, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
personally I think you should focus more on the beginning of the war, such as with Hoovers report[1]--Stor stark7 Talk 01:05, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Piotrus at Morgenthau plan

Piotrus (talk · contribs) is in apparent collaboration with Molobo (talk · contribs). I don't think that it is right for administrators to behave as he has done in the article Morgenthau Plan. Molobos edits are heavily contested in the Morgenthau plan, see the article talk page, and he simply selects to revert back to include all of Molobos edits. And don't even bother to explain himself at talk.--Stor stark7 Talk 01:01, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] This is Not a Test

Just FYI I have created an article on the famous Cold War-era nuclear war film This is Not a Test (1962 film). Unfortunately there aren't many online sources related to this film beyond catalogues for its DVD release. As such I fear the deletionists might be quick to nominate it for AFD. If anyone can provide additional information about this film, as well as sources (i.e. references in Cold War history books, etc), that would be much appreciated. 23skidoo (talk) 03:26, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Requesting Cold War article move

It has been proposed that 1983 nuclear war scare be moved back to Able Archer 83. All editers are invited to participate in the discussion on this matter on the talk page for 1983 nulcear war scare. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.41.166.59 (talk) 06:03, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Continental Air Command

I am a new user and have made some minor changes in the section below the listing of CONAC installations - basically concerned with explaining some of the reorganizations of Troop Carrier wings that occured in the 1960s. I would appreciate comments and additional input on the entry. CLDWARHIST (talk)CLDWARHISTCLDWARHIST (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 20:55, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Cold War Era USAF Units

I would like to do some work on the USAF unit history pages - is anyone currently working on these or have any interest in them? CLDWARHIST (talk) 20:57, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Request for Peer Review

I have requested a peer review of the CIA main article, in order to gain some new perspective on the page. I invite anyone interested to please contribute their thoughts. Please find the peer review page for it here. Thanks! (Morethan3words (talk) 10:15, 15 May 2008 (UTC))