Mystery Writers of America Presents Ice Cold: Tales of Intrigue From the Cold War

INTRODUCTION BY JEFFERY DEAVER AND RAYMOND BENSON

RAYMOND: Hey Jeffery, I’m really pleased to be coediting this MWA anthology with you. I think we’ve got some great authors and terrific stories that explore many aspects of what we commonly refer to as the “Cold War.” The process has been great fun.

JEFFERY: Hi, Raymond. Yes, this project has been a big treat for me. And you’ve hit on one of the most compelling elements of the book — the many different takes our contributors have on that era. The stories range from classic espionage to subtle psychological drama of the decades that saw huge change in America… and the rest of the world.

RAYMOND: Seeing that we’re both around the same age — meaning we’re old farts — we can actually remember that tense period in the early 1960s when the Cold War was really causing some anxiety. I recall doing the “duck and cover” drills in elementary school and not totally understanding what they were for. I thought they were fun — you got to take time out from class to practice jumping underneath your desk a few times.

JEFFERY: And how reassuring to learn that six inches of fiberboard and metal could ward off the overhead blast and radiation from a thermonuclear bomb. Your comment brought back a very real memory of the Cuban Missile Crisis standoff. I was in middle school outside of Chicago and a teacher told my class to be particularly diligent in ducking and covering, since we were not far from Argonne National Laboratory in DuPage County — sure to be targeted by the Soviets. You’re a Chicagoan, too; do you also remember the Nike missile sites in the area?

RAYMOND: I didn’t come to Chicagoland until the early nineties; I grew up in West Texas, where everyone would have rather been dead than Red. But I’m sure my experience in the classroom was similar to yours at that time. And, yes, there is an old Nike missile site not far from my current home in Chicago’s northwest suburbs. It looks like the remains of a forgotten World’s Fair. Seriously, one of the structures resembles a broken-down amusement park ride. I think, though, my full realization and understanding of the Cold War came with my discovery of James Bond — first through the films, which really didn’t address the Cold War much, and Ian Fleming’s novels, which did.

JEFFERY: Apart from a few Twilight Zone TV series episodes, Bond was my first fiction exposure to the Cold War. I was more a fan of the books than the movies and so, yes, I had a real sense of how the Cold War could set the stage for a thriller. From Russia, With Love is the quintessential Cold War Bond novel for me. Of course, it’s a bit ironic that you and I, as the only two American authors to write James Bond continuation novels, chose not to set our 007 tales during the Cold War. That’s one of the reasons I was delighted to participate in this project, Ice Cold.

RAYMOND: I agree with you about From Russia, With Love. Actually, my directive from the Fleming people was to make my books “more like the current movies,” which, at that time, were the Pierce Brosnan action extravaganzas. But back to America’s reaction to the Cold War… You know, it seems to me that the U.S. was much more freaked out about it than other countries, even England. There were some serious overreactions to the situation. Senator Joe McCarthy’s rhetoric in the fifties, and the Hollywood blacklisting in the late forties and all through the fifties, were terribly misguided. When you look at the list of Hollywood actors, writers, and directors who were blacklisted, your jaw drops. I actually played around with the idea of writing a blacklist story for this anthology, but ultimately rejected it because I couldn’t shape it into a mystery or thriller — it was, simply, pure tragedy.

JEFFERY: Yes, that insanity ruined lives forever. I remember my disappointment at learning that some musicians and filmmakers whom I admired turned in their colleagues at Congressional hearings; I never looked at them the same — but since I wasn’t in their shoes, it’s easy to cast judgments, I suppose. It’s curious how we think of the Cold War in terms of nuclear or conventional military confrontation, which was certainly true (just ask anyone in Eastern Europe or who lived within missile-range of Cuba), but the blacklist is a reminder that there were more subtle consequences, like paranoia, anxiety, and derailed or destroyed political and social movements. I think our authors tapped into these two sides of the Cold War era very well.

RAYMOND: There were also a bunch of “Red Scare” movies made in the late forties and the fifties… Ever seen I Married a Communist or Invasion USA? Today they’re wonderful and unintentionally humorous relics of the era. But the ultimate Cold War movie — and one that puts everything in perspective today and which was amazingly ahead of its time (1964), is Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. It captures the paranoia, the insanity, and the absurdity of the Cold War long before intelligent and sensible people in this country accepted it as such. Alas, we don’t have any black comedies in our collection, but we do have some exciting mysteries and thrillers that paint varied portraits of that significant time in world history. I’d like to thank Barry Zeman for the idea of bringing the two of us together to coedit the anthology, Larry Segriff at Tekno Books for initial copyediting, Lindsey Rose at Grand Central, Margery Flax, all of the MWA members who worked hard to submit stories — and I’m sorry we couldn’t use everyone’s — and all the authors who have contributed to the collection.

JEFFERY: Dr. Strangelove is my favorite Kubrick film (yes, even over 2001!). And take a look at the YouTube of Tom Lehrer, the comic songwriter (and mathematician), performing his “We Will All Go Together When We Go.” It’s further proof that irony and wit were alive and well during that dark time… Ah, Raymond, I think we could continue this dialogue forever but I suppose we better get on to some other projects. Let me add my heartfelt thanks to all of those you mention above — especially our contributors, whose stories truly bring to life a complex and edgy time in world history.