Q 01/05

Which country's entry into NATO in May 1955 prompted the Soviet bloc to sign the Warsaw Pact days later?

A) Franco's Spain

B) West Germany

C) Switzerland

D) Finland

Answer · why

B) West Germany

West Germany joined NATO in early May 1955, and the Warsaw Pact was signed within days. Soviet leaders feared a rearmed German army only a decade afte...

Q 02/05

Which period of liberal reform in Czechoslovakia ended when half a million Warsaw Pact troops invaded in August 1968?

A) The Prague Spring

B) The Velvet Revolution

C) The Polish October

D) The Singing Revolution

Answer · why

A) The Prague Spring

The Prague Spring lasted from January to August 1968, when Warsaw Pact tanks rolled in to end it. The only formal change to survive was a federal stat...

Q 03/05

The 1989 Soviet policy of letting Warsaw Pact states choose their own path was jokingly named after which singer?

A) Elvis Presley

B) Bing Crosby

C) Frank Sinatra

D) Dean Martin

Answer · why

C) Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra's hit My Way inspired the label, coined by a Soviet spokesman in October 1989. He told reporters that every country could now decide for...

Q 04/05

Against whom did the Warsaw Pact carry out its only direct military actions during the whole Cold War?

A) NATO border garrisons

B) Its Balkan neighbours

C) Breakaway Soviet republics

D) Its own member states

Answer · why

D) Its own member states

Its own member states were the only targets: Soviet troops crushed Hungary's uprising in 1956, and Pact armies invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968. The riv...

Q 05/05

A British general compared the Soviet Union's 1954 bid for NATO membership to which unlikely scenario?

A) A burglar joining the police

B) A fox guarding the henhouse

C) A wolf minding the sheep

D) An arsonist joining the firemen

Answer · why

A) A burglar joining the police

A burglar joining the police was how Hastings Ismay, NATO's first secretary general, put it. Moscow's offer was turned down, and the Warsaw Pact was f...