Seven years ago the fall of the USSR and the subsequent opening of Soviet archives brought hard facts to the formerly-speculative field of Cold War studies.

Last night a handful of Cold War experts gathered at the ARCO Forum of the Institute of Politics (IOP) to discuss some of the revelations produced by this new data.

Baird Professor of History Emeritus Richard Pipes was adamant about the lesson to be learned from what he considers a 74-year polarization of World politics.

"We learned that if you are challenged and threatened and hold firm ground, you win," Pipes said.

About 200 students, academics and community members crowded the stairwells and balconies of the IOP to listen to the discussion, moderated by Marvin Kalb, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

While information obtained from the newly-opened archives has been plentiful, academics do not share a consensus on what insights the information provides.

One point of conflict among panelists was identifying the most perilous point of the Cold War.

Hannes Adomeit, a senior fellow at the Stifung Wissenschaft und Politik, in Ebenhausen, Germany, said the Cuban Missile Crisis was "by far the most dangerous confrontation."

But Carol R. Saivetz, executive director of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, said the 1973 war in the Middle East was by far "the closest we ever came" to armed confrontation.

Other panelists posited that armed confrontation was never truly a threat during the Cold War.

Pipes said the Cold War involved "a lot of bluffing." He added that he didn't think "we were ever close to war."

Regardless, there seemed to be consensus among the panelists that armed conflict was believed to be an eminent threat during the days of the Cold War itself.

"What they are saying totally belies our perception of [the Cold War] at the time," said Jeremy Issacs, a producer of Cold War documentary series. "War on a massive scale was a real possibility."

Marie E. Murray, an audience member who lived through the Cold War in Germany, said she concurs.

"We lived with the fear [of war], whether or not it was really there," she said.

Panelists also provided new insights into the beginning and end of the Cold War.

"The Cold War was imbued in the whole communist system," Pipes said, arguing that it began not after World War II, but in 1917 after the success of the Russian Revolution.

Adomeit said the end of the Cold War occurred as the Soviets slowly realized that "the paradigm on which they were basing policy neither explained nor predicted anything."

Student reactions to the forum were mixed.

"I enjoyed the forum," said Erik A. Beach '02. "It brought about new ideas that I wasn't aware of."

Yet, Beach also said the forum "seemed relatively one-sided and biased towards traditional American viewpoints [which place that brunt of the blame on the Soviets]."

The forum was held in conjunction with a 24-part documentary series on the Cold War which began airing on CNN Sunday night and will continue airing weekly until its completion. Additional information on the series can be found at www.cnn.com/coldwar.