During the 1970s and 1980s the arrival of submarines armed with nuclear Trident missiles at the naval base in Bangor, Washington was depicted as a strategic necessity by the US Government and the Navy to keep pace with the military developments of the Soviet Union.

In 1991, the collapse of the Soviet Union signaled the end of the Cold War and changed the landscape of international relations, especially between former adversaries. Shortly after the dissolution, private individuals from the United States and Russia collaborated on a historic step to repair relations damaged by nearly fifty years of tension.