According to assistant secretary of defense Elizabeth King, "the Cold War was not actually a war, but was a continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition[.]"  But for those killed, wounded, or missing and their families, the Cold War was very real.  "Political conflict, military tension, and economic competition" did not kill them; enemy bullets and explosives did.

The events unfolding in Ukraine demonstrate the deadliness and ruthlessness of the Russian war machine.  For decades during the Cold War, a period defined as September 2, 1945 to December 26, 1991, service members kept that threat at bay.

President John F. Kennedy's 1963 State of the Union address, shortly after the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, honored three service members who were killed by enemy action during the Cold War:

We are proud ... of Major Rudolf Anderson who gave his life over the island of Cuba. We salute Specialist James Allen Johnson who died on the border of South Korea. We pay honor to Sergeant Gerald Pendell who was killed in Viet-Nam. They are among the many who in this century, far from home, have died for our country.

Over the years, the Pentagon has resisted numerous efforts to create a Cold War Service or Victory Medal.  In a 2011 letter, it argued that the cost was prohibitive and its creation duplicative with those of other decorations, diluting the significance and prestige of existing decorations.

Recognizing our service members and veterans should not depend on the cost of issuing a medal.  Instead, to save money, the Pentagon authorized a Cold War Recognition Certificate for military and civilian personnel serving during the Cold War.

The duplicative recognition argument rings hollow when seeing the number of medals created over the past 20 years for operations in the Middle East.  Since 9/11, DoD has created five medals: the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) Expeditionary Medal, GWOT Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and Inherent Resolve Medal.  Ten years earlier, the Southwest Asia Service Medal was created and permission given to wear the foreign decorations Kuwait Liberation Medal-Kuwait and Kuwait Liberation Medal-Saudi Arabia — eight medals for the same region in a 30-year span.  No one at DoD questioned the similarity between the existing Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and the new GWOT Expeditionary Medal or the existing National Defense Service Medal and the new GWOT Service Medal.

Due to DoD's post–Vietnam era "budgetary constraints" and its Award Austerity Program, not even the National Defense Service Medal was authorized from 1974 to 1990.  During that time, terrorist bombings, murders, and kidnappings of service members occurred, but the Global War on Terror did not start until terrorists actually hit the Pentagon.

More than 200 airmen were shot down while spying on the Soviet Union and other adversaries.  Three incidents alone account for the deaths of 58 airmen.

At sea, attacks on the USS Liberty and USS Pueblo killed 35 sailors and wounded 171 more.

The Korean DMZ Conflict (1966–74) resulted in approximately 43 soldiers killed and 111 wounded.

It is disturbing how the DoD bureaucracy categorizes these deaths in casualty databases, to prevent provoking our adversaries.  Soldiers who were killed by a Red Army Faction car bomb in 1972 and those bludgeoned and hacked to death by the North Korean soldiers in 1976 are listed as "Non-Hostile Dead."  Soldiers operating in or near the Korean DMZ who inadvertently stray into North Korea and are killed by enemy fire or mines are "Accidents." 

Major Arthur Nicholson, shot and killed by a Soviet Army guard while conducting intelligence activities in East Germany, is a "Homicide."

Former secretary of the Navy Dr. Donald C Winter, in October 2006, remarked:

Many Americans died in operations that remain, even to this day unacknowledged — that entailed heroism and loss that have yet to be revealed to a grateful nation.

We should remember and honor those whose sacrifice brought about a victorious conclusion to the Cold War, to the enormous betterment of the United States and the world.

Cold War veterans' service contributed to the collapse of the repressive Soviet regime and the opening of the "Iron Curtain," resulting in freedom for millions, should account for more than a certificate.

In comparison, service members who helped secure the southern border received the Armed Forces Service Medal.  It is time to end the stigma and disparate treatment Cold War veterans receive.

Image: PxHere.