I often hear the phrase "height of the Cold War."  Is there indeed an officially designated,paramount event of the Cold War?

 James Waigand, Portland, Oregon

 "HEIGHT OF THE Cold War" i s a colloquialism used to describe a period of unspecified length. But when I think of the tensest moments, I think of two big phases. The first was a time of rising animosity during the 1950s and mid-1960s. It began with the Berlin Blockade of 1948, increased heavily during the Korean War, and reached a p e a k after the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and the first few years of the Vietnam War. Things seemed to calm down in the 1970s, with Ni xo n exploiting the Sino- Soviet split, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the détente with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. There was a second period of high tension during the early 1980s, although that cooled more quickly.

 Michael Hankins, curator of post-World War II

military aviation, National Air and Space Museum