WI Soviet spy overflights.

MacCaulay

Banned
I imagine this could be a job for the first versions of new aircraft, a stripped down Bison bomber overflying Scotland or Alaska in 1954-5 and new Mig25s overflying Florida from Cuba in 1970-1, before the defences adjusted to the new capability.

The other one that's obvious in my mind is Northern Canada. The Soviets were already pretty big on pushing as far south from the polar region as they could, which is why the USAF and (former) RCAF/RCN created the DEW line.

There's also a logical reason for this: ingressing Soviet bombers would have to go across northern Canada to get to the US, so knowing the defenses of that area in detail would be vital. I know they played cat-and-mouse up there for awhile, but there wasn't ever anything like "There's a Bear flying over Nunivuk!" or anything.

Churchill’s “Jaw-jaw better than War-war” being the key here.

I completely agree. Both sides liked having their cars and their televisions. They didn't want to end that by throwing nuclear weapons around for a political point.
 
Highly unlikely to occur at all. The US and British spy flights was motivated by Soviet (and later Chinese) secrecy. After 1945 the Soviet Union closed up like a clam, and remained that closed at least until Stalins death. Not that the Soviet Union was especially open before or after that. This secrecy regarding everything motivated the different spying attempts - while the Soviets could buy a newspaper and read about tests of the new US/British bomber.

True, but thats not quite the same as seeing it for yourself especially of you're paranoid (which you would be if the rival was regularly overflying your military sites).

But there's another motivation, the need to counter-lunge in the fencing of the Cold War. I imagine the regular overflights of the USSR kept the Soviets on the back foot, giving the US/Brits the initiative in the Cold War. If the USSR could mount a few when the fleeting opportunity appeared it would momentarily give them the initiative and cause the west to react for a change.
 
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