I know there had to be casualties. I am not talking about spies but actually people in military uniforms. I know jets where shot down and i think i read about submarine attacks but is there a rough figure?
Well the Korean War and the Viet Nam War were wars directly related to the Cold War. Would you include them in your query?
No. Do not count deaths by an indirect 3rd party or country.
I seem to remember in the mid-'90s a lot of USAF records were declassified from the Cold War re: various espionage-related flights (radiation sniffing, photoreconnaissance, border-testing), and at least several dozen Air Force personnel were acknowledged as having been killed or missing. Some, it’s thought, were captured and disappeared into the gulag after being interrogated.
There were Soviet pilots flying North Korean fighters during the Korean war, but only a few hundred, if memory serves.
I’ve often thought about this and figured that there must have been quite a number we’re not aware of. From reading a lot of the historical submarine books I get the feeling that the close shadowing didn’t always end well, but then I figure how do you cover up something like that. For example, everybody knows about Thresher and Scorpion. Could we really lose a sub without it becoming public?
Do you have any links - I’m not doubting your veracity but would like to read more.
tim
Google didn’t turn up much. Take these what they’re worth:
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1881
Indicates between 50 and 70 in the decade from 1950 and 1960 were shot down in recon planes.
This site http://www.bu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate/Burrows040501.html
indicates 130 persons were shot down over time. This figure includes incidents off China and N Korea.
Warning: PDF in Elendils Heir post is around 7mb.