A closer look
While the USA and the USSR were pointing thousands of nuclear warheads at each other, they somehow agreed to leave a massive continent of ice completely alone. The 1959 Antarctic Treaty is one of the most bizarre diplomatic miracles of the Cold War. Both superpowers quietly realized that fighting over frozen wastelands was strategically useless, so they aggressively de-militarized the continent, banning nuclear testing and military bases to ensure Antarctica remained a bizarre, peaceful utopia strictly for scientists.
