The balance of Terror

During the Cold War, both sides engaged in an unbridled arms race. The world's security teetered on a very unstable equilibrium. A “balance of Terror” between the two blocks took hold.

Nuclear terror

The circular cinema screen reminds visitors that the principle of nuclear deterrence was above all rooted in a reciprocal terror that had taken hold since 1945.

The films on display here show how civilians and soldiers on both sides prepared themselves for a nuclear attack.

Educational films shown in schools, clips of maneuvers in case of a nuclear attack, propaganda films, etc. were without exception intensely frightening. Fear of the nuclear bomb had now become a deep-rooted psychosis and an incredible political instrument.

Weapons of the Cold War

MIG-21

Conventional weapons were developed at an unprecedented rate and nuclear weapons with increasingly terrifying powers of destruction were stockpiled on both sides. Discover the imposing silhouette of a real MIG-21, the symbolic Soviet fighter jet that was widely used during the Cold War, and a French nuclear warhead installed on the Albion Plateau launch site up until 1996.

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