Four decades. Three assignments. One enduring question.
Cold War Correspondent
A Newsroom Across Four DecadesFive Cents
You are a newspaper reporter. Pick your decade, and every headline you write shapes a nation gripped by fear. Guard the country. Guard its freedoms. Guard your byline. You cannot always do all three.
Press Ctrl+Shift+T at any time to unlock Teacher Mode.
Choose Your Assignment
Each decade is a complete, standalone posting — roughly 10–15 minutes of real history, real trade-offs, and no easy answers.
How To Play
🛡 Security
⚖ Liberties
🤝 Trust
💼 Career
Each decade you choose puts you through 8–10 major, real historical flashpoints — chosen to show how bias and distrust took hold during the Cold War — plus a short epilogue. Each choice shifts four resources: National Security, Civil Liberties, Public Trust, and your Career. There is rarely a "correct" answer — only trade-offs, the way real reporters faced them.
Your numbers stay confidential as you play — you won't see exact stats after every choice. Instead, your editor calls you in for a Field Report at a few key moments to show how your reporting has shaped things so far. Focus on the history and the trade-offs, not on gaming the meter.
Between big events you'll hear rumors to weigh, and play short minigames: Fact Check, Propaganda Detector, Timeline Builder, and the Evidence Board. After every decision, a "What Really Happened" box gives you the real history. At the very end, you'll get your full record — plus an educated guess at what would really have happened to a reporter like you.
Controls: click/tap a choice, or press 123. Press Enter or Space to continue. Press Esc to pause. Your progress saves automatically, decade by decade.
Accessibility
Colorblind-friendly palette Uses a distinct, high-contrast palette for resource bars.
Subtitles for sound cues Shows text descriptions of sound effects.
Reduce motion Minimizes animations and transitions.
Text size
Sound effects
Press Badges
The National Ledger
🗂️Your standing with Security, Liberties, Trust & Career is confidential — the editor will call you in for a Field Report at key moments, and for your full record at the end of your career.
Final Edition
Paused
📋 Teacher Mode
Jump to any scene, review endings, or reset the save.