Cold War

"We are in grave danger from the Communists. Our freedom, our very way of life is at risk."

- President John F. Kennedy

The Cold War was a conflict spanning from the end of the Second World War in 1945, to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Call of Duty: Black Ops is the only Call of Duty game to take place during this period so far.

Operation 40
Call of Duty: Black Ops mostly revolves around the Cold War (with the only mission not being in the Cold War era being "Project Nova"), and starts out in the level "Operation 40" during 1961, where the player and his squad (consisting of Bowman, Woods, and the player) have orders to assassinate Fidel Castro, with help of Cuban rebels. The mission goes wrong and the squad, along with Carlos, have to evacuate the city via plane, but when Carlos says they will not have enough time for take-off with the enemy vehicles blocking the runway, Mason jumps off the plane and destroys the vehicles, only to be captured and sent to Vorkuta.

Baikonur
In Baikonur, Mason and his team (along with Grigori Weaver) have to destroy Soyuz 2 before it launches. During the mission, Weaver gets compromised and has his eye jabbed out with a knife by Kravchenko. Mason and the team eventually find Weaver and destroy the rocket, and set out on killing Nazi Scientists and Dragovich. The scientists are killed, but Dragovich has not been confirmed as dead, so the team leaves.

Khe Sanh
The team (accompanied by Hudson) then go to Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, and are attacked by Vietnamese soldiers and have to defend Khe Sanh with Marine forces. The American soldiers start to push back the Vietnamese and gain the upper hand against them, and are successful in defending Khe Sanh.

Hue City
The American forces then head out to Hue City, Vietnam, and have to locate a defector and his intel. Mason's team then go through a Vietnamese office building and locate the intel, then fight to the landing zone with the help from air support. The American forces eventually reach the landing zone and escape with the intel, after destroying an enemy ZSU gun emplacement and holding off a Vietnamese counter-attack on the landing zone.

Kowloon City
The CIA team, consisting of Jason Hudson and Grigori Weaver are sent to Kowloon City, Hong Kong, to interrogate Dr. Clarke, who had stabilized Nova 6. Spetsnaz forces then come and attack the CIA team. The team moves throughout the buildings in Kowloon City and when they reach a steep and slippery rooftop, Clarke slips and is shot in the head while dangling from the roof. Hudson and Weaver escape Kowloon City, however, and then head to Mount Yamantau in the Ural Mountains.

DMZ
Mason's team and the Marines then head out to DMZ, Vietnam, where they were shot down. The team then has to clear the village and destroy enemy anti-aircraft guns. The Americans then clear out the north part of the village and go through rat tunnels, where Mason finds intel on Nova 6 and escapes the tunnel, which was rigged to blow up by Kravchenko.

Laos (Crash Site)
The American forces attack around the city of Laos, and Mason's team take a boat and attack the Vietnamese forces from a river. After the team destroys the enemy forces around the river they moved up and investigate a crashed plane that they figured out had contained Nova 6. All of the sudden, Vietnamese forces attack the crash site and the team has to defend it. The team defends it until the plane falls down a high hill and is captured by Kravchenko and Dragovich.

Mount Yamantau
The CIA team at Mount Yamantau has the orders to destroy a communication station. After the team destroys the station, they move out and invade a Nova 6 facility, where they receive a video transmission from Friedrich Steiner. While in the facility, it gets attacked by Spetsnaz forces and the team escapes while an avalanche buries the entire facility.

Laos (Payback)
After being captured by Dragovich and his men, Mason's team are sent to play Russian Roulette. Bowman went first, and is killed after refusing to play, then Woods played and survived, then Mason played, and he took the weapon and killed the forces in tunnels. After they escape the tunnels, Woods and Mason take an enemy Hind, and they proceed in the Hind to an area with a large cave and frees the American POWs. Woods and Mason proceed until they find Kavchenko, who hits Mason with a chair and beats him until he is stabbed by Woods. Kravchenko then pulled the pin on a grenade and jumped out a window with Woods, killing them both.

Rebirth Island
With Woods and Bowman dead, Mason heads out to Rebirth Island to kill Steiner. Mason creeps through shadows and kills anybody between him and Steiner. Meanwhile, about 20 minutes earlier, the CIA team is fighting through the streets to Steiner's lab. The Spetsnaz spray Nova 6 on the streets and the American forces use their gas masks to survive. Once the team finally reaches Steiner's lab, they are shocked to see that Mason is there at Rebirth killing everybody. Weaver and Hudson attempt to stop Mason before he kills Steiner, but Mason shoots Weaver in the leg and kills Steiner. Now Mason was the CIA's last hope.

Revelations and Redemption
After being brought to interrogation by the CIA, Hudson let's Mason free, but Mason punches Hudson and walks through the Pentagon until finally realizing what happened to him at Vorkuta. Hudson catches up with Mason and tells him what really happened—that Reznov was dead, he had been brainwashed, and was the only one who could translate the message encoded in the numbers—and so Mason agrees to translate the numbers and says that they are being broad-casted from a ship called the Rusalka.

The team then assaults the Rusalka via helicopters, and then lands after clearing the landing zone and attacking it. They move through the ship looking for where to broadcast the numbers and then find out that there was more to the ship under it, so Mason and Hudson dive down to stop the broadcast and kill Dragovich. While down there, Mason finds the station and shuts down the broadcast, and also kills Dragovich afterwards. After arising to the surface (after destroying the Rusalka), Weaver says to Mason that they have won, but Mason replies that they have only won for now.