Sensory Warfare in the Global Cold War

Name: Sensory Warfare in the Global Cold War
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ISBN: 9780271097411

Partition, Propaganda, Covert Operations

Bodo Mrozek (Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History)

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English

Pennsylvania State University Press
20 January 2026

Chemical & biological weapons

Series: Perspectives on Sensory History

The longest political conflict of the twentieth century, the Cold War, was carried out on the human senses—and through them. Largely conducted through nonlethal methods, it was a war of competing cultures, politics, and covert operations.

While propaganda reached targets through vision and hearing, sensory warfare also exploited taste, touch, smell, and pain. This volume is the first to explore the sensory aspect of the Cold War and how this warfare changed contemporary perception of the war.

The authors highlight the global dimension of sensory warfare, examining battlegrounds around the world and across different phases of the conflict, including “cold” and “hot” warfare—both covert and overt. Case studies highlight the role of taste in Western food deliveries to Eastern Europe; olfaction in Poland, at the Iron Curtain, and in the Vietnam War; sonic warfare in Berlin, in Romania, and at the China-Taiwan “aquatic frontier”; vision in the Maoist Cultural Revolution, Spain, and the Soviet-Afghan war; haptics in the German military; and drugs, pain, and sensory deprivation in intelligence operations in both Hungary and the United States. In its wide-ranging treatment, this volume offers an illuminating new perspective on the Cold War and deepens our understanding of the sensory aspects of current and future conflicts.

Sensory Warfare in the Global Cold War will be of interest to students and scholars of sensory studies, Cold War studies, twentieth-century history, and military history. In addition to the editor, the contributors to this volume include Cyril Cordoba, Mark Fenemore, Walter E. Grunden, Dayton Lekner, José Manuel López Torán, Markus Mirschel, Victoria Phillips, Carsten Richter, Andreea Deciu Ritivoi, Christy Spackman, and Stephanie Weismann.

Edited by: Bodo Mrozek (Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History)
Imprint: Pennsylvania State University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 363g
ISBN: 9780271097411
ISBN 10: 0271097418
Series: Perspectives on Sensory History
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 20 January 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Sensory Warfare in the Global Cold War Part I: Seduction, manipulation, othering 1. Chocolate Paratroopers and Eisenhower Packages for Eastern Europe: Nourishing Partition Through Colors and Taste Victoria Phillips 2. Between Soir de Paris and Red Moscow: Olfactory Front Lines in Polish Perfumery Stephanie Weismann 3. Beyond the Bamboo Curtain: Sensing the Chinese Cultural Revolution Cyril Cordoba 4. Sensual Sirens: Gendering Berlin’s Cold War Telephony Mark Fenemore Part II: Partition, propaganda, sensory borders 5. Breaking the Aquatic Sound Barrier: Hearing Yourself and Your Enemy Across the Taiwan Strait Dayton Lekner 6. Listening to the Voices of Exile: Radio Free Europe in Romania Andreea Deciu Ritivoi 7. Hearing Korea, Seeing Cuba: NO-DO as Sonic and Visual Propaganda in Francoist Spain José Manuel López Torán 8. The Smell of the Berlin Wall: Olfactory Border Management at the Inner-European Frontier Bodo Mrozek Part III: Mind control, covert operations, overt warfare 9. Hallucinated Sensations: Brainwashing and Mind Control in Psychochemical CIA Experiments Walter E. Grunden 10. To Inform and Deceive: Sensory Approaches in the Military Propaganda of Cold War Germany Carsten Richter 11. Sniffing the Enemy: Chemical Detection During the Vietnam War Christy Spackman 12. Heroes at the Hindu Kush: Seeing the Afghan War Through the Soviet Lens Markus Mirschel List of Contributors Index

Bodo Mrozek is a historian and a senior researcher at the Berlin Center for Cold War Studies. He is the author of Jugend – Pop – Kultur: Eine transnationale Geschichte, also published in French as Histoire de la pop: Quand la culture jeune dépasse les frontières (années 1950–1960).

Reviews for Sensory Warfare in the Global Cold War: Partition, Propaganda, Covert Operations

“Sensory Warfare in the Global Cold War would be valuable reading for scholars of the Cold War, sensory studies, and propaganda. It forces us to reconsider what it means to experience a ‘cold’ conflict and how states marshal the full sensorium in pursuit of power. By making a persuasive case for the importance of sensory perception in geopolitical history, the book opens the door to new methodological possibilities and scholarly inquiries.” —Thomas C. Rust H-Diplo “Despite the breadth of the global history it covers, Sensory Warfare in the Global Cold War remains tightly fixated throughout on the issues proposed in the introduction – especially partition, borderlands, and propagandist manipulations of sensation. That close focus serves the book well and creates an edition suited for graduate seminars on the Cold War, Historical Theory, and Sensory Studies. Also, the highly innovative topics of the chapters make the work relevant for anyone interested in discussions of how the powers that be, regardless of ideology, attempt to control material and epistemic borders through manipulation of the senses.” —Andrew Kettler The Senses and Society