Cold War is a twenty-four episode television documentary

Television documentary

Documentary television is a genre of television programming that broadcasts documentaries.* Documentary television series, a television series which is made up of documentary episodes....

 series about the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 that aired in 1998. It features interviews and footage of the events that shaped the tense relationships between the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

The series was produced by Pat Mitchell

Pat Mitchell

Pat Mitchell is the current President and Chief Executive Officer of The Paley Center for Media in New York City and the former President and CEO of Public Broadcasting Service ....

 and Jeremy Isaacs

Jeremy Isaacs

Sir Jeremy Isaacs is a British television producer and executive, winner of many BAFTA awards and international Emmy Awards. He was also General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden .-Early life:...

, who had earlier in 1973 produced the World War II documentary series The World at War

The World at War (TV series)

The World at War is a 26-episode British television documentary series chronicling the events of World War II. It was produced by Jeremy Isaacs, narrated by Laurence Olivier and has a score composed by Carl Davis...

in a similar style. Ted Turner

Ted Turner

Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...

 funded the series as a joint production between the Turner Broadcasting System

Turner Broadcasting System

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. is the Time Warner subsidiary managing the collection of cable networks and properties started and acquired by Robert Edward "Ted" Turner starting in the mid-1970s. The company has its headquarters in the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia. TBS, Inc...

 and the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, and was first broadcast on CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 in the United States and BBC Two

BBC Two

BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

 in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Writers included Hella Pick

Hella Pick

Hella Pick CBE is a British journalist of Austrian descent.Hella Pick was born in Vienna, Austria into a middle-class Jewish family. Her parents divorced when she was three years old and she was raised by her mother. Following Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938 and a visit from the Gestapo,...

, Jeremy Isaacs

Jeremy Isaacs

Sir Jeremy Isaacs is a British television producer and executive, winner of many BAFTA awards and international Emmy Awards. He was also General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden .-Early life:...

, Lawrence Freedman

Lawrence Freedman

Sir Lawrence David Freedman, KCMG, CBE, PC, FBA, FKC is Professor of War Studies at King's College London, and was a foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair...

, Hugh O'Shaughnessy

Hugh O'Shaughnessy

Hugh O'Shaughnessy is an Irish journalist who has worked for over 40 years for major British newspapers including The Observer, The Independent, the Financial Times and most frequently The Guardian. He has also published a number of books focusing on Latin America. He was a friend of Salvador Allende...

 and Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....

. Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...

 was the narrator, and Carl Davis

Carl Davis

Carl Davis CBE is an American born conductor and composer who has made his home in the UK since 1961. In 1970 he married the English actress Jean Boht....

 (who also collaborated with Isaacs with The World at War) composed the theme music. Each episode would feature historical footage and interviews from both significant figures and others who had witnessed particular events.

After the series had been broadcast on TV it was released as a set of twelve (NTSC) or eight (PAL) VHS

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 cassettes. The series has never been released on DVD

DVD-Video

DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...

. The mini-site dedicated to the series, which was located at cnn.com/ColdWar, has disappeared in 2009. A reason given for the site taken off by a CNN representative was that its 10 year agreement to the information was up.

Cold War episodes

Each episode lasts approximately 45 minutes.

1. Comrades (1917–1945) Both the United States and the Soviet Union drifted apart after the Russian Revolution of 1917

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

, the Russian Civil War

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

 and the Paris Peace Conference

Paris Peace Conference, 1919

The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...

. Diplomatic and extensive trading relationships were established under Roosevelt, but relations soured following the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States and eastern Poland

Soviet invasion of Poland

Soviet invasion of Poland can refer to:* the second phase of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 when Soviet armies marched on Warsaw, Poland* Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939 when Soviet Union allied with Nazi Germany attacked Second Polish Republic...

. After Hitler broke the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact the Western powers worked closely with the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 during the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Distrust reemerged as Stalin's plans for placing Eastern Europe in the Soviet Union's sphere of influence became apparent towards the war's end, and came to the fore at the Potsdam Conference

Potsdam Conference

The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 16 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States...

, just before the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

. Interviewees include George F. Kennan

George F. Kennan

George Frost Kennan was an American adviser, diplomat, political scientist and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War...

, Zoya Zarubina, Hugh Lunghi and George Elsey

George Elsey

George Elsey was a military advisor to Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman. A commander in the U.S...

. The pre-credits scene shows the US Congress nuclear bunker at The Greenbrier

The Greenbrier

The Greenbrier is a Forbes four-star and AAA Five Diamond Award winning luxury resort located just outside the town of White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States....

, and introduces the television series by explaining how for several decades the world was close to a nuclear holocaust.

2. Iron Curtain (1945–1947) The wartime allies demobilise - the United States enjoys its economic strength and resurgence while Britain and the rest of Europe is exhausted. A new series of purges takes place in the Soviet Union, and is ravaged by famine

Soviet Famine of 1947

The last major famine to hit the USSR "began in July 1946, reached its peak in February–August 1947 and then quickly diminished in intensity, although there were still some famine deaths in 1948." It was triggered by a bad harvest caused by drought in 1946. However, the surplus stocks in the hands...

. Germans are expelled from territories now given to Poland by the Soviet Union, and differences emerge over Germany's post-war rehabilitation. Stalin increases his grasp on Eastern Europe, although does not intervene on the side of the Communists in the Greek Civil War

Greek Civil War

The Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...

. Britain's power influence goes into decline, weakened from the war and a severe winter. Food shortages threatening stability throughout Europe. The United States begins to adopt with a more assertive foreign policy, countering Soviet influence in Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 and Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

. Interviewees include Lord Annan, Sir Frank Roberts

Frank Roberts (diplomat)

Sir Frank Kenyon Roberts, GCMG, GCVO was a British diplomat. He played a key role in British diplomacy in the early years of the Cold War, and in developing Anglo-German relations in the 1960s....

 and Paul Nitze

Paul Nitze

Paul Henry Nitze was a high-ranking United States government official who helped shape Cold War defense policy over the course of numerous presidential administrations.-Early life, education, and family:...

. The pre-credits scene features Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

's 1946 "Iron Curtain

Iron Curtain

The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...

" speech in Fulton

Fulton, Missouri

Fulton is a city in Callaway County, Missouri, the United States of America. It is part of the Jefferson City, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 12,790 in the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Callaway County...

 in the United States, which set the tone for confrontation.

3. Marshall Plan (1947–1952) For both altruistic and self-serving purposes, the United States provides massive grants of aid to the countries of Europe in the form of the Marshall Plan

Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...

. Stalin, concerned that the intent of the Marshall Plan is to weaken Soviet influence in Europe, prevents countries in its orbit from participating, and establishes the rival Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Communists come to power through a coup

Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948

The Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 – in Communist historiography known as "Victorious February" – was an event late that February in which the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia, ushering in over four decades...

 in Czechoslovakia in 1948. Tito, while originally aligned to the Soviet Union, adopts a more independent foreign policy and eventually switches to receiving Marshall Aid Assistance. The CIA and the Catholic Church conspire to help oust the Italian Communist Party

Italian Communist Party

The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...

 and its coalition allies in the 1948 Italian election. The Marshall Plan has the effect of modernising European economies and societies, bringing Western Europe closer together, and closer to the United States. Interviewees include Vladimir Yerofeyev

Vladimir Yerofeyev

Vladimir Ivanovich Yerofeyev is a Russian professional football coach.-External links:*...

, Gianni Agnelli

Gianni Agnelli

Giovanni Agnelli , better known as Gianni Agnelli , was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce, and 16.5% of its industrial investment in research...

 and Giulio Andreotti

Giulio Andreotti

Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...

. The pre-credits scene portrays the squalor in post-war Italy, and Truman delivering his Truman Doctrine

Truman Doctrine

The Truman Doctrine was a policy set forth by U.S. President Harry S Truman in a speech on March 12, 1947 stating that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere...

 speech of 1947.

4. Berlin (1948–1949) By 1947, the United States placed as a high priority the revival of the German economy, an approach opposed by the Soviet Union. After the introduction of a Deutsche Mark the Soviet Union began to allow increasingly stringent checks on passenger and cargo flows travelling to the French, British and Aemrican sectors of Berlin, located in the heart of East Germany. This ultimately led to a blockade

Berlin Blockade

The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and the first resulting in casualties. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under Allied...

 on all rail and road transport linking West Berlin, but an extensive airlift operation (Operation Vittles) allowed the city to survive. The Communists were however successful in staging a putsch in the Berlin municipal government, eventually leading to the divisions of both Berlin and Germany. Interviewees include Gail Halvorsen

Gail Halvorsen

Colonel Gail Halvorsen is a retired career officer and command pilot in the United States Air Force known as the original Candy Bomber or the "Rosinenbomber" in Germany. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah...

, Sir Freddie Laker and Clark Clifford

Clark Clifford

Clark McAdams Clifford was an American lawyer who served United States Presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter, serving as United States Secretary of Defense for Johnson....

. The pre-credits scene shows the Berlin airlift in operation.

5. Korea (1949–1953) Korea after the Second World War was occupied by both the Soviets and the Americans, who respectively installed Kim Il-sung

Kim Il-sung

Kim Il-sung was a Korean communist politician who led the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death...

 and Syngman Rhee

Syngman Rhee

Syngman Rhee or Yi Seungman was the first president of South Korea. His presidency, from August 1948 to April 1960, remains controversial, affected by Cold War tensions on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere. Rhee was regarded as an anti-Communist and a strongman, and he led South Korea through the...

 as leaders. With Soviet support, North Korea

North Korea

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

 invaded the South in 1950, pushing the unprepared South Korean and US forces back to Pusan. The world responds, both to combat communism and demonstrate support to the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

. After landing at Inchon

Battle of Inchon

The Battle of Inchon was an amphibious invasion and battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations . The operation involved some 75,000 troops and 261 naval vessels, and led to the recapture of the South Korean capital Seoul two...

 and liberating Seoul, United Nations forces advance into North Korea. This unsettles Mao Tse Tung, who on Stalin's request sends Chinese forces into Korea and pushes the UN back. Eventually both sides are more or less at stalemate

Stalemate

Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....

 in the centre of Korea. After countless talks, eventually an armistice is signed. Communism was contained, but Korea would remain divided. Interviewees include Lucius D. Battle

Lucius D. Battle

Lucius Durham Battle , known as Luke Battle, was a career Foreign Service officer who served with distinction in Washington, Europe and the Middle East.-Early life:...

, Paik Sun Yup

Paik Sun Yup

General Paik Sun-yup is a Korean military officer of Manchukuo and the Republic of Korea. He is known for his service during the Korean War and the first 4-star general in the history of ROK Armed Forces...

 and John Glenn

John Glenn

John Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...

. The pre-credits scene shows a battle in progress - the first "hot war" of the cold war.

6. Reds (1948–1953) The fears the leadership of both sides had were projected inwards towards their own people. In the United States the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Tydings Committee

Tydings Committee

The Subcommittee on the Investigation of Loyalty of State Department Employees, more commonly referred to as the Tydings Committee, was a subcommittee authorized by in February 1950 to look into charges by Joseph R...

 carried out investigations into alleged Communist sympathisers in US public life, in particular the State Department and Hollywood. In the Soviet Union a personality cult emerged around Stalin, and a repressive police environment and comprehensive surveillance kept the population fearful. In response to Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

's maverick foreign policy, Stalin inspired the Prague Trials to warn Eastern European leaders not to stray away from emulating the Soviet model. Repression in the Soviet Union peaked with the investigations into the so-called Doctors' Plot

Doctors' plot

The Doctors' plot was the most dramatic anti-Jewish episode in the Soviet Union during Joseph Stalin's regime, involving the "unmasking" of a group of prominent Moscow doctors, predominantly Jews, as conspiratorial assassins of Soviet leaders...

, just before Stalin's sudden death in 1953. Interviewees include Arthur Kinoy

Arthur Kinoy

Arthur Kinoy , was an attorney and progressive civil rights leader who became a professor of law at the Rutgers School of Law—Newark. He was one of the founders of the Center for Constitutional Rights and successfully argued before the Supreme Court of the United States.-Education:Kinoy was born on...

, Ralph de Toledano

Ralph de Toledano

Ralph de Toledano was a major figure in the conservative movement in the United States throughout the second half of the 20th century.-Early years:...

 and Boris Pokrovsky

Boris Pokrovsky

Boris Alexandrovich Pokrovsky was the operatic stage director of the Bolshoi Theatre between 1943 and 1982...

. The pre-credits scene shows a Russian labour camp and its victims.

7. After Stalin (1953–1956) Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...

 becomes Soviet leader after the death of Stalin. Khrushchev rolls back a number of oppressive measures that existed under Stalin, restores relations with Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

 and redirects resources to consumer needs. In a secret speech

On the Personality Cult and its Consequences

On the Personality Cult and its Consequences was a report, critical of Joseph Stalin, made to the Twentieth Party Congress on February 25, 1956 by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. It is more commonly known as the Secret Speech or the Khrushchev Report...

 to the Soviet leadership he condemns Stalin's ruthless rule. West Germany is allowed to rearm, provoking the formation of the Warsaw Pact

Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...

. Khruschev still wants Eastern Europe to remain within the Soviet orbit - he sends in troops to quell revolts in East Germany

Uprising of 1953 in East Germany

The Uprising of 1953 in East Germany started with a strike by East Berlin construction workers on June 16. It turned into a widespread anti-Stalinist uprising against the German Democratic Republic government the next day....

, Poland

Poznan 1956 protests

The Poznań 1956 protests, also known as Poznań 1956 uprising or Poznań June , were the first of several massive protests of the Polish people against the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland...

 and, most significantly, Hungary. Interviewees include Anatoly Dobrynin

Anatoly Dobrynin

Anatoly Fyodorovich Dobrynin was a Russian statesman and a former Soviet diplomat and politician. He was Soviet Ambassador to the United States, serving from 1962 to 1986 and most notably during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was appointed by Nikita Khrushchev....

, Charles Wheeler

Charles Wheeler (journalist)

Sir Charles Cornelius Wheeler CMG was a British journalist and broadcaster. Having joined the BBC in 1947, he became the corporation's longest serving foreign correspondent, serving in the role until his death...

 and Sergei Khrushchev

Sergei Khrushchev

Sergei Nikitich Khrushchev , son of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, now resides in the United States where he is a Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.-Career:...

. The pre-credits scene shows life in Soviet Union under Stalin's personality cult.

8. Sputnik (1949–1961) As a consequence of the atomic spies

Atomic Spies

Atomic Spies and Atom Spies are terms that refer to various people in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada who are thought to have illicitly given information about nuclear weapons production or design to the Soviet Union during World War II and the early Cold War...

, the Soviet Union joined the nuclear club, and the two superpowers compete to develop their nuclear arsenels. Russia's launching of Sputnik further hightened a sense of vulnerability in the United States, and results in the rapid development of nuclear-armed missiles, and defence-related education. Blamed for a perceived missile gap

Missile gap

The missile gap was the term used in the United States for the perceived disparity between the number and power of the weapons in the U.S.S.R. and U.S. ballistic missile arsenals during the Cold War. The gap only existed in exaggerated estimates made by the Gaither Committee in 1957 and United...

, Eisenhower is replaced by John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 as US President. The Soviet Union is seen to have taken a solid lead in the space race

Space Race

The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...

 after Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961....

's successful return to Earth. Interviewees include Joseph Rotblat

Joseph Rotblat

Sir Joseph Rotblat, KCMG, CBE, FRS , was a Polish-born, British-naturalised physicist.His work on nuclear fallout was a major contribution to the agreement of the Partial Test Ban Treaty...

, Boris Chertok

Boris Chertok

Boris Evseyevich Chertok is a prominent Soviet and Russian rocket designer, responsible for control systems of a number of ballistic missiles and spacecraft. Author of a four-volume book Rockets and People, the definitive source of information about the history of the Soviet space program.-Books...

, Andrew Goodpaster

Andrew Goodpaster

Andrew Jackson Goodpaster was an American Army General. He served as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe from July 1, 1969 and Commander in Chief of the United States European Command from May 5, 1969 until his retirement December 17, 1974...

, Herbert York

Herbert York

Herbert Frank York was an American nuclear physicist. He held numerous research and administrative positions at various United States government and educational institutes.-Biography:...

 and Gherman Titov

Gherman Titov

Gherman Stepanovich Titov was a Soviet cosmonaut who, on August 6, 1961, became the second human to orbit the Earth aboard Vostok 2, preceded by Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1...

. The pre-credits scene features the first Soviet nuclear test in 1949.

9. The Wall (1958–1963) West Germany, and West Berlin, become more affluent, prompting a surge of East Germans to cross the borders in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, kept open under the Four Power Agreement on Berlin

Four Power Agreement on Berlin

The Four Power Agreement on Berlin also known as the Berlin Agreement or the Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin was agreed on 3 September 1971 by the four wartime allied powers, represented by their Ambassadors...

. Khrushchev's demands that the Americans, British and French leave Berlin are opposed, and prospects for a peaceful resolution are dashed after the Soviets pull out of the Paris Summit in 1960 as a response to the U-2 incident. Overnight on August 12, 1961 East German police and military units divided the city of Berlin, and work commenced on building the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...

. Initial tensions

Berlin Crisis of 1961

The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was the last major politico-military European incident of the Cold War about the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of post–World War II Germany. The U.S.S.R...

 culmulate in a stand-off between US and Soviet tanks. Kennedy visits Berlin in June 1963 and delivers his Ich bin ein Berliner

Ich bin ein Berliner

"Ich bin ein Berliner" is a quotation from a June 26, 1963, speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. He was underlining the support of the United States for West Germany 22 months after the Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall as a barrier to prevent movement...

speech. Interviewees include Anatoly Gribkov

Anatoly Gribkov

Anatoly Ivanovich Gribkov was at Soviet Army High Command during the Cold War era. Gribkov was born in the village of Dukhovoye , Russian SFSR on March 23, 1919, to father Ivan Vasilyevich Gribkov and mother Serafima Kuzminichna Gribkova...

, Valentin Falin

Valentin Falin

Valentin Mikhaylovich Falin is a former Soviet diplomat and politician. Born in Leningrad he graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1950. From 1951–1958 he worked at the USSR Foreign Ministry. From 1971 – 78 he was the Ambassador of the USSR to the German Federal...

, Stefan Heym

Stefan Heym

Helmut Flieg was a German-Jewish writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym. He lived in the United States between 1935 and 1952, before moving back to the part of his native Germany which was, from 1949–1990, German Democratic Republic...

, Egon Bahr

Egon Bahr

Egon Karl-Heinz Bahr is a German SPD politician.The former journalist was the creator of the "Ostpolitik" promoted by West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, for whom he served as Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office from 1969 until 1972...

, Raymond L. Garthoff

Raymond L. Garthoff

Raymond L. "Ray" Garthoff is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a specialist on arms control, intelligence, the Cold War, NATO, and the former Soviet Union. He is a former U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria, and has advised U.S. State Department on treaties. He has a B.A. from Princeton in...

 and Conrad Schumann

Conrad Schumann

Hans Conrad Schumann was an East German soldier who famously defected to West Germany during the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.-Early life:...

. The pre-credits scene features East Berliners seeking to flee into the West.

10. Cuba (1959–1962) Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...

 comes to power following the Cuban Revolution

Cuban Revolution

The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...

. Cuba aligns itself with the Soviet Union and the government starts nationalising American interests, resulting in the United States imposing an economic boycott, and the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion

Bay of Pigs Invasion

The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...

. Following the detection of Soviet medium range missiles stationed in Cuba, the United States imposes a blockade on the island, and the Soviet Union mobilises for war. The Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...

 is eventually resolved through secret negotiations, in which the United States and the USSR agree to withdraw missiles from Cuba and Turkey respectively. Interviewees include Fidel Castro, Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...

, Pierre Salinger

Pierre Salinger

Pierre Emil George Salinger was a White House Press Secretary to U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson...

 and Theodore Sorensen. The pre-credits scene has interviews of Fidel Castro, Robert McNamara

Robert McNamara

Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, during which time he played a large role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War...

 and Anatoly Dobrynin

Anatoly Dobrynin

Anatoly Fyodorovich Dobrynin was a Russian statesman and a former Soviet diplomat and politician. He was Soviet Ambassador to the United States, serving from 1962 to 1986 and most notably during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was appointed by Nikita Khrushchev....

 explaining how close they felt the world was to a nuclear holocaust.

11. Vietnam (1954–1968) After losing the Battle of Dien Bien Phu

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist revolutionaries. The battle occurred between March and May 1954 and culminated in a comprehensive French defeat that...

 the French leave Vietnam. A stream of refugees flee to the south after the Communist north institute a harsh land reform program

Land reform in Vietnam

Land reform in Vietnam was a program of land reform in North Vietnam from 1953 to 1956. It followed the program of land reform in China from 1946 to 1953....

. The north, with Soviet military assistance, seeks to reunify the country by using the Viet Cong to destabilise the South, prompting American intervention which escalates after the Gulf of Tonkin

Gulf of Tonkin

The Gulf of Tonkin is an arm of the South China Sea, lying off the coast of northeastern Vietnam.-Etymology:The name Tonkin, written "東京" in Hán tự and Đông Kinh in romanised Vietnamese, means "Eastern Capital", and is the former toponym for Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam...

 incident. American casualties mount in an increasingly unpopular and seemingly purposeless war that was difficult to wage successfully. President Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

's stature is reduced following the Tet Offensive. The bombing of North Vietnam

Operation Rolling Thunder

Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained US 2nd Air Division , US Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 2 March 1965 until 1 November 1968, during the Vietnam War.The four objectives...

 is interspersed with peace negotiations, which prove fruitless. Interviewees include Robert Macnamara, William Westmoreland

William Westmoreland

William Childs Westmoreland was a United States Army General, who commanded US military operations in the Vietnam War at its peak , during the Tet Offensive. He adopted a strategy of attrition against the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the North Vietnamese Army. He later served as...

, Nguyen Vo Giap, Bui Diem

Bui Diem

Bùi Diễm was South Vietnam's ambassador to the United States under President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. He played a key role in the last desperate attempt to secure US$700 million in military aid to defend South Vietnam against the North in 1975...

, Jack Valenti

Jack Valenti

Jack Joseph Valenti was a long-time president of the Motion Picture Association of America. During his 38-year tenure in the MPAA, he created the MPAA film rating system, and he was generally regarded as one of the most influential pro-copyright lobbyists in the world...

 and Clark Clifford

Clark Clifford

Clark McAdams Clifford was an American lawyer who served United States Presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter, serving as United States Secretary of Defense for Johnson....

. The pre-credits scene portrays the destruction caused by the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

.

12.MAD (1960–1972) The United States nuclear strategy

Nuclear strategy

Nuclear strategy involves the development of doctrines and strategies for the production and use of nuclear weapons.As a sub-branch of military strategy, nuclear strategy attempts to match nuclear weapons as means to political ends...

 of counterforce

Counterforce

In nuclear strategy, a counterforce target is one that has a military value, such as a launch silo for intercontinental ballistic missiles, an airbase at which nuclear-armed bombers are stationed, a homeport for ballistic missile submarines, or a command and control installation...

, intended to counter a Soviet conventional attack by targeting military facilities, is discredited following the Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...

. Instead Defence Secretary McNamara adopts the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), with the belief that the targeting by the superpowers of each others' cities would deter a nuclear war. Both sides step up nuclear testing

Nuclear testing

Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...

 and acquire more nuclear weapons, in particular submarines capable of unleashing retaliation should the opponent strike first. The Soviets choose to follow a more defensive doctrine and introduce anti-ballistic missiles, which the United States seek to counter with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles. The arms race remains expensive, controversial and, as demonstrated in the Palomares incident, not without risk. However some small promise of arms control comes from the SALT

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks

The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty refers to two rounds of bilateral talks and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union—the Cold War superpowers—on the issue of armament control. There were two rounds of talks and agreements: SALT I and SALT...

 Treaty. Interviewees include Russell E. Dougherty, William Kaufmann

William Kaufmann

William Weed Kaufmann was an American nuclear strategist and adviser to seven defense secretaries, who advocated for a shift from the strategy of massive retaliation against the Soviet Union in the event of a nuclear strike.Kaufmann was born in Manhattan on November 10, 1918 to Charles and...

 and Harold Brown

Harold Brown (Secretary of Defense)

Harold Brown , American scientist, was U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1977 to 1981 in the cabinet of President Jimmy Carter. He had previously served in the Lyndon Johnson administration as Director of Defense Research and Engineering and Secretary of the Air Force.While Secretary of Defense, he...

. The pre-credits scene has McNamara explaining how MAD was the foundation for deterrence

Deterrence theory

Deterrence theory gained increased prominence as a military strategy during the Cold War with regard to the use of nuclear weapons, and features prominently in current United States foreign policy regarding the development of nuclear technology in North Korea and Iran. Deterrence theory however was...

.

13. Make Love Not War (1960s) The United States entered the 1960s] with strength and self-confidence. Kennedy increased arms production, bringing an economic boom to California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Rising expectations led to the civil rights movement

Civil rights movement

The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...

 growing stronger, despite the rough response from authorities which regarded them as Communist inspired. More of America's youth became increasingly hostile to the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, and embraced new counterculture

Counterculture

Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...

 and permissive definitions of the American ideals of freedom. Fractures in America's society became increasingly violent, and the latter half of the 1960s brought race riots

Mass racial violence in the United States

Mass racial violence, also called race riots can include such disparate events as:* attacks on Irish Catholics, the Chinese and other immigrants in the 19th century....

, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...

 and the Chicago Convention protests. With the political left appearing divided and radicalised, Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

 is voted into office. Interviewees include Irwin Allen Ginsberg, Bobby Seale

Bobby Seale

Robert George "Bobby" Seale , is an activist. He is known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with Huey Newton.-Early life:...

 and Eugene McCarthy

Eugene McCarthy

Eugene Joseph "Gene" McCarthy was an American politician, poet, and a long-time member of the United States Congress from Minnesota. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 1971.In the 1968 presidential election, McCarthy was the first...

. The pre-credits scene shows The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 touring the United States.

14. Red Spring (1960s) Likewise the Soviet Union started the decade with growing openness and optimism

Khrushchev Thaw

The Khrushchev Thaw refers to the period from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s, when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were partially reversed and millions of Soviet political prisoners were released from Gulag labor camps, due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization and...

. There was also an emerging cohort of youth with no memory of the privations and purges of the past, and who had a taste for Western music and fashion that alarmed the established order. Khrushchev sought, with limited success, to make the Soviet consumer economy more affluent, and he initiated housing construction and the poorly organised Virgin Lands Campaign

Virgin Lands Campaign

The Virgin Lands Campaign was an initiative by Nikita Khrushchev to open up vast tracts of unseeded steppe in the northern Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic and the Altay region of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, started in 1954....

. Khrushchev's erratic leadership style, his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis and a poor 1963 harvest eventually led to his removal from power. Czechoslovakia had an even more profound transformation under Alexander Dubček

Alexander Dubcek

Alexander Dubček , also known as Dikita, was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia , famous for his attempt to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring...

, who introduced human rights and free market reforms. However the Prague Spring

Prague Spring

The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...

 was opposed by Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev  – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...

, and was ended abruptly

Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

On the night of 20–21 August 1968, the Soviet Union and her main satellite states in the Warsaw Pact – Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic , Hungary and Poland – invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in order to halt Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring political liberalization...

 in 1968. Interviewees include Miloš Forman

Miloš Forman

Jan Tomáš Forman , better known as Miloš Forman , is a Czech-American director, screenwriter, professor, and an emigrant from Czechoslovakia. Two of his films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, are among the most celebrated in the history of film, both gaining him the Academy Award for...

, Vladimir Semichastny

Vladimir Semichastny

Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny was the head of the KGB from November 1961 to April 1967....

, Vasil Biľak

Vasil Bilak

RSDr. Vasiľ Biľak is a former Slovak Communist leader of Rusyn origin.Vasiľ Biľak was originally a tailor...

 and Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko is a Soviet and Russian poet. He is also a novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, actor, editor, and a director of several films.-Early life:...

. The pre-credits scene show Khrushchev and Czechoslovak leader Antonín Novotný

Antonín Novotný

Antonín Novotný was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1968, and also held the post of President of Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1968. He was born in Letňany, now part of Prague....

 demonstrating solidarity in 1964, in contrast to the Soviet Union ruling by brute force four years later.

15. China (1949–1972) Following the Chinese Revolution Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...

 aligns China firmly with the Soviet Union. China becomes the recipient of Soviet aid, supports Communist movements worldwide and confronts the United States in Korea and in the Taiwan straits. Domestically China experienced upheaval and disaster with the post-revolution land reforms, the Great Leap Forward

Great Leap Forward

The Great Leap Forward of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China , reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern...

 and the Cultural Revolution

Cultural Revolution

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...

. A range of factors, including Khrushchev's apparent acceptance of co-existence with the capitalist West and his refusal to share Soviet nuclear technology with China, led to the Sino-Soviet split

Sino-Soviet split

In political science, the term Sino–Soviet split denotes the worsening of political and ideologic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...

 and eventual conflict

Sino-Soviet border conflict

The Sino–Soviet border conflict was a seven-month military conflict between the Soviet Union and China at the height of the Sino–Soviet split in 1969. The most serious of these border clashes occurred in March 1969 in the vicinity of Zhenbao Island on the Ussuri River, also known as Damanskii...

. Both sides become deeply distrustful of the other, particularly after China develops nuclear weapons. Sensing an opportunity to contain the Soviet Union, in 1972 the United States suddenly and unexpectedly moves to reestablish ties with China. Interviewees include Wu Ningkun

Wu Ningkun

Wu Ningkun , born in 1920, Yangzhou, China, is Professor Emeritus of English at the Institute of International Relations in Beijing, where he has taught since 1956. During the 1980s, he held Visiting Fellowships at Cambridge University, Northwestern University and the University of California. In...

, Marshall Green

Marshall Green

Marshall Green was a United States diplomat whose career focused on East Asia. Green was the senior American diplomat in South Korea at the time of the 1960 April Revolution, and was United States Ambassador to Indonesia at the time of the Transition to the New Order...

, Liu Binyan

Liu Binyan

Liu Binyan was a Chinese author and journalist, as well as a political dissident.Many of the events in Liu's life are recounted in his memoir, A Higher Kind of Loyalty.-Early life:...

, Stepan Chervonenko

Stepan Chervonenko

Stepan Vasilievich Chervonenko was the Soviet ambassador to Peking in 1961 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 . Chervonenko is known for his role in suppressing the Prague Spring of 1968. Spouse Людмила Сергеевна Чиколини , a historian.-References:...

 and Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger

Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...

. The pre-credits scene shows Nixon's visit to China

1972 Nixon visit to China

U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China was an important step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. It marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC, who at that time considered the U.S. one...

, only six years after the Cultural Revolution

Cultural Revolution

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...

.

16. Détente (1969–1975) Nixon builds closer relations with China and the USSR, hoping to leverage an honourable US exit from Indochina. The Soviet Union is fearful of a US-Chinese alliance, but summits between Nixon and Brezhnev lead to a relaxation of tensions and concrete arms control agreements. Willy Brandt

Willy Brandt

Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....

's Ostpolitik

Ostpolitik

Neue Ostpolitik , or Ostpolitik for short, refers to the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republic beginning in 1969...

strategy also normalises West German relations with East Germany, the USSR and Poland. Although deeply unpopular domestically, US bombing of Cambodia and Hanoi

Operation Linebacker II

Operation Linebacker II was a US Seventh Air Force and US Navy Task Force 77 aerial bombing campaign, conducted against targets in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during the final period of US involvement in the Vietnam War...

 succeeds in bringing North Vietnam to the negotiating table, leading to the Paris Peace Accords

Paris Peace Accords

The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 intended to establish peace in Vietnam and an end to the Vietnam War, ended direct U.S. military involvement, and temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam...

 in 1972. Deeply resented by South Vietnam, the Accords ultimately fail to prevent Saigon's fall three years later. In 1975 reapproachment continued with the Helsinki Accords

Helsinki Accords

thumb|300px|[[Erich Honecker]] and [[Helmut Schmidt]] in Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe held in Helsinki 1975....

, which enshrined human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 and territorial integrity, and the symbolic Apollo–Soyuz Test Project. Interviewees include Melvin Laird, Valeri Kubasov

Valeri Kubasov

Valeri Nikolayevich Kubasov was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on two missions in the Soyuz programme as a flight engineer: Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 19 , and commanded Soyuz 36 in the Intercosmos programme. On 21 July 1975, Soviet Soyuz module landed in Kazakhstan at-5:51pm and Valeriy Kubasov was the first...

, Winston Lord

Winston Lord

Winston Lord is a United States diplomat and leader of non-governmental foreign policy organizations...

, John Ehrlichman

John Ehrlichman

John Daniel Ehrlichman was counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon. He was a key figure in events leading to the Watergate first break-in and the ensuing Watergate scandal, for which he was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury...

 and Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford

Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...

. The pre-credits scene shows a Soviet cartoon demonstrating the futility of the arms race.

17. Good Guys, Bad Guys (1967–1978) Under détente the superpowers continued their rivalry, but carefully avoided direct conflict by courting allies in the developing world. Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 moved closer to the United States after the Six Day War, while Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 erratically maintained its ties with the USSR. During the subsequent Yom Kippur War

Yom Kippur War

The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...

 the United States reluctantly supplied aid to Israel, but when it became apparent the Egyptian Army was on the verge of destruction the Soviet Union threatened to intervene. The United States held its ground, brought the two warring sides to the negotiating table, and demonstrated it was the preeminent power in the Middle East. In Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

 the Cuban-backed MPLA manages to retain power, staving off attacks

Angolan Civil War

The Angolan Civil War was a major civil conflict in the Southern African state of Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with some interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. Prior to this, a decolonisation conflict had taken...

 from the CIA-backed FNLA, the South African-backed UNITA

UNITA

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the Angolan War for Independence and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war .The war was one...

 and foreign mercenaries. Cuba also intervenes in the Ogaden War

Ogaden War

The Ogaden War was a conventional conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia in 1977 and 1978 over the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. In a notable illustration of the nature of Cold War alliances, the Soviet Union switched from supplying aid to Somalia to supporting Ethiopia, which had previously been...

, defending Marxist Ethopia from Somalia. Interviewees include Saad El Shazly

Saad El Shazly

Saad Mohamed el-Husseiny el-Shazly ‎ was an Egyptian military personality. He was Egypt's chief of staff during the October War...

, Abba Eban

Abba Eban

Abba Eban was an Israeli diplomat and politician.In his career he was Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister, Education Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and ambassador to the United States and to the United Nations...

, Simcha Dinitz

Simcha Dinitz

Simcha Dinitz was an Israeli statesman and politician. He served as Director General of the Prime Minister's office and political advisor to Prime Minister Golda Meir from 1969–1973, before becoming the Israeli Ambassador to the United States from 1973 to 1979...

, Holden Roberto

Holden Roberto

Holden Álvaro Roberto founded and led the National Liberation Front of Angola from 1962 to 1999. His memoirs are unfinished.-Early life:...

, Pik Botha

Pik Botha

Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha is a former South African politician who served as the country's foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era...

 and Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

. The pre-credits scene shows a group of Africans watching a film possibly about Communism, with the narrator noting American fears of Soviet expansionism in the post-colonial world.

18. Backyard (1954–1990) The United States saw the emergence of leftist movements in different Latin American countries as threatening to its commercial interests, and secretly plotted with military strongmen and middle class interests concerned with the land reforms and nationalisation policies of new governments. In Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

 Jacobo Árbenz

Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán

Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as Defense Minister of Guatemala from 1944–1951, and as President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954....

 was ousted

Operation PBSUCCESS

The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état was a covert operation organized by the United States Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, the democratically-elected President of Guatemala....

 by a CIA-inspired coup in 1954. Similarly US meddling in Chile's economic and political spheres weakened Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....

 grip on power, and he was ultimately deposed by his own military in 1973. The United States sent troops to the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

 in 1965 and Grenada

Grenada

Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...

 in 1983, and trained and supported various acquiescent juntas, including a brutal regime in El Salvador

El Salvador

El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

. In Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

 the United States secretly supported the Contras

Contras

The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...

 against the leftist Sandinista government; eventually military actions and economic sanctions push Nicaraguans into voting for anti-Sandinista politician Violeta Chamorro

Violeta Chamorro

Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro is a Nicaraguan political leader, former president and publisher. She became president of Nicaragua on April 25, 1990, when she unseated Daniel Ortega...

 in 1990. Interviewees include Frank Wisner

Frank Wisner

Frank Gardiner Wisner was head of Office of Strategic Services operations in southeastern Europe at the end of World War II, and the head of the Directorate of Plans of the Central Intelligence Agency during the 1950s....

, Hortensia Bussi

Hortensia Bussi

thumb|Bussi in Brussels in 1984Mercedes Hortensia Bussi Soto de Allende was the widow of Chilean President Salvador Allende. She was married to him from 1940 until he was deposed and assassinated in 1973, serving as First Lady of Chile from 1970 to 1973...

, Nikolai Leonov

Nikolai Leonov

Nikolai Sergeyevich Leonov is a Russian nationalist politician and was a senior KGB officer and Latin America expert in the USSR. In 1953, at the age of 25, Leonov was posted to Mexico City, where he learned Spanish at the Autonomous University. In the course of the sea voyage, he met Raúl Castro,...

, Violeta Chamorro

Violeta Chamorro

Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro is a Nicaraguan political leader, former president and publisher. She became president of Nicaragua on April 25, 1990, when she unseated Daniel Ortega...

 and Daniel Ortega

Daniel Ortega

José Daniel Ortega Saavedra is a Nicaraguan politician and revolutionary, currently serving as the 83rd President of Nicaragua, a position that he has held since 2007. He previously served as the 79th President, between 1985 and 1990, and for much of his life, has been a leader in the Sandinista...

. The pre-credits scene explains that although the USSR avoided intervening in the region, following the Cuban Revolution

Cuban Revolution

The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...

 Castro and Che Guevara

Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...

 sought to spark "100 Vietnams" across Latin America by initiating guerilla movements.

19. Freeze (1977–1981) Carter's ambitious proposals for total multilateral nuclear disarmament are rejected by Brezhenv; his championing of human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 does not win favour either. The Helsinki Accords

Helsinki Accords

thumb|300px|[[Erich Honecker]] and [[Helmut Schmidt]] in Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe held in Helsinki 1975....

 encourage writers to establish Charter 77

Charter 77

Charter 77 was an informal civic initiative in communist Czechoslovakia from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, and Pavel Kohout. Spreading the text of the document was...

 in Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

. The visit of Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

 revitalises Polish nationalism, while in the Soviet Union high profile dissidents and refusenik

Refusenik

Refusenik originally referred to citizens of the former Soviet Union who were refused permission to emigrate.Refusenik or refusnik may also refer to:*An Israeli conscientious objector, see Refusal to serve in the Israeli military...

s gains popular attention. The Soviets continue a conventional arms race, draining resources from a demoralised consumer economy. SALT II is signed, to the consternation of many Europeans because of the Treaty's "double track"

NATO Double-Track Decision

The NATO Double-Track Decision is the decision of NATO from December 12, 1979 to offer the Warsaw Pact a mutual limitation of Medium-range ballistic missiles and Intermediate-range ballistic missiles combined with the threat that in case of disagreement NATO would deploy more middle range nuclear...

 provisions concerning the deployment of new SS-20 and Pershing II missiles. Carter's failure to exercise American resolve and strength over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Iran hostage crisis

Iran hostage crisis

The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian...

 and an oil shock

1979 energy crisis

The 1979 oil crisis in the United States occurred in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. Amid massive protests, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, fled his country in early 1979 and the Ayatollah Khomeini soon became the new leader of Iran. Protests severely disrupted the Iranian oil...

 ultimately costs him the 1980 elections, and the United States decisively swings to a more confrontational foreign policy under Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

. Breznhev successfully leans on Polish leader Wojciech Jaruzelski

Wojciech Jaruzelski

Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski is a retired Polish military officer and Communist politician. He was the last Communist leader of Poland from 1981 to 1989, Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985 and the country's head of state from 1985 to 1990. He was also the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's...

 to crack down on the Solidarity movement. Interviewees include Jeane Kirkpatrick

Jeane Kirkpatrick

Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick was an American ambassador and an ardent anticommunist. After serving as Ronald Reagan's foreign policy adviser in his 1980 campaign and later in his Cabinet, the longtime Democrat-turned-Republican was nominated as the U.S...

, Lech Walesa, Václav Havel

Václav Havel

Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...

 and Helmut Schmidt

Helmut Schmidt

Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt is a German Social Democratic politician who served as Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Prior to becoming chancellor, he had served as Minister of Defence and Minister of Finance. He had also served briefly as Minister of Economics and as acting...

. The pre-credits scene shows the United States basking in confidence during its bicentennial

United States Bicentennial

The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to the historical events leading up to the creation of the United States as an independent republic...

, with the narrator noting détente would shortly be over.

20. Soldiers of God (1975–1988) Nur Mohammad Taraki comes to power in Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 and attempts to modernise the country on Marxist-Leninist lines, provoking a rebellion from more traditional powerbrokers in the country. The Soviets are initially reluctant to intervene militarily, but respond after Taraki is violently replaced by Hafizullah Amin

Hafizullah Amin

Hafizullah Amin was the second President of Afghanistan during the period of the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan....

 who is considered to be destabilising influence. The Soviets invade Afghanistan

Soviet war in Afghanistan

The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...

, and soon find themselves unprepared facing a hostile army of mujahideen

Mujahideen

Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...

 insurgents, secretly armed by the Americans who see the war as an opportunity to wear down the Soviet Union. To achieve mobility in Afghanistan's rugged terrain the Soviet Union uses helicopters, but are twarted by Stinger missiles

FIM-92 Stinger

The FIM-92 Stinger is a personal portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile , which can be adapted to fire from ground vehicles and helicopters , developed in the United States and entered into service in 1981. Used by the militaries of the U.S...

. Atrocities are committed by Soviet and mujahideen forces. Eventually Soviet forces would leaves Afghanistan under the terms of the Geneva Accords, but bloodshed would continue with rival mujahideen forces fighting each other. Interviewees include Caspar Weinberger

Caspar Weinberger

Caspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger , was an American politician, vice president and general counsel of Bechtel Corporation, and Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 21, 1981, until November 23, 1987, making him the third longest-serving defense secretary to date, after...

, Artyom Borovik

Artyom Borovik

Artyom Genrikhovich Borovik was a prominent Russian journalist and media magnate. He was the son of a Soviet journalist, Genrikh Borovik, who worked for many years as a foreign correspondent in the U.S.-Journalism:...

 and Zbigniew Brzezinski. The pre-credits scene shows a battle in progress and presents the views of the superpowers - the Soviet Union did not want to lose face by being defeated in a proxy war

Proxy war

A proxy war or proxy warfare is a war that results when opposing powers use third parties as substitutes for fighting each other directly. While powers have sometimes used governments as proxies, violent non-state actors, mercenaries, or other third parties are more often employed...

.

21. Spies (1944–1994) Throughout the Cold War both sides sought intelligence about their opponents using spies

HUMINT

HUMINT, a syllabic abbreviation of the words HUMan INTelligence, refers to intelligence gathering by means of interpersonal contact, as opposed to the more technical intelligence gathering disciplines such as SIGINT, IMINT and MASINT...

, satellites

Spy satellite

A spy satellite is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications....

 and other means. For political reasons, scientists working on the Manhattan Project

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...

 provided nuclear secrets to the Soviets. British agents George Blake

George Blake

George Blake is a former British spy known for having been a double agent in the service of the Soviet Union. Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and fled to the USSR...

 and Kim Philby

Kim Philby

Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...

 passed on to the Soviet Union the identities of Western intelligence assets, and the presence of the Berlin Tunnel. Conversely, Soviet Colonel Oleg Penkovsky

Oleg Penkovsky

Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky, codenamed HERO ; April 23, 1919, Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, Soviet Russia, – May 16, 1963, Soviet Union), was a colonel with Soviet military intelligence in the late 1950s and early 1960s who informed the United Kingdom and the United States about the Soviet Union...

 gave the West vital details of Soviet nuclear vulnerabilities. Intelligence services are also used to silence dissent, in particular in East Germany. After the Cold War an investigation revealed the Soviet Union had been aware of a number of double agents operating in its midst from information provided by a CIA mole

Mole (espionage)

A mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government. In some usage, a mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector becomes a spy only after gaining access...

, Aldrich Ames

Aldrich Ames

Aldrich Hazen Ames is a former Central Intelligence Agency counter-intelligence officer and analyst, who, in 1994, was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia...

. One such agent, Oleg Gordievsky

Oleg Gordievsky

Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky , CMG , is a former Colonel of the KGB and KGB Resident-designate and bureau chief in London, who was a secret agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1974 to 1985.-Early career:Oleg Gordievsky attended the Moscow State Institute of International...

, managed to flee the Soviet Union, but Adolf Tolkachev

Adolf Tolkachev

Adolf Georgievich Tolkachev Адольф Георгиевич Толкачёв was a Soviet Union electronics engineer who provided key documents to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency over the years between 1979 and 1985...

 and Dmitri Polyakov

Dmitri Polyakov

Dmitri Fyodorovich Polyakov was a Soviet Major General, a high-ranking GRU officer, and a prominent Cold War spy who revealed Soviet secrets to the Central Intelligence Agency...

 were arrested, tried and executed. Interviewees include Markus Wolf

Markus Wolf

Markus Johannes "Mischa" Wolf was head of the General Intelligence Administration , the foreign intelligence division of East Germany's Ministry for State Security . He was the MfS's number two for 34 years, which spanned most of the Cold War...

, Ted Hall, Oleg Kalugin

Oleg Kalugin

Oleg Danilovich Kalugin , is a former KGB general. He was a longtime head of KGB operations in the United States and later a critic of the agency.-Early life and the KGB career:...

, George Blake

George Blake

George Blake is a former British spy known for having been a double agent in the service of the Soviet Union. Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and fled to the USSR...

, Yuri Modin

Yuri Modin

Yuri Modin was the KGB controller for the "Cambridge Five" from 1944 to 1955, during which period Donald MacLean was said to have passed atomic secrets to the Soviets. In 1951 Modin arranged the defections of Maclean and Guy Burgess...

 and Aldrich Ames

Aldrich Ames

Aldrich Hazen Ames is a former Central Intelligence Agency counter-intelligence officer and analyst, who, in 1994, was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia...

 (who was serving a life sentence). The pre-credits scene shows Polyakov being arrested by the KGB.

22. Star Wars (1981–1988) Reagan's 1983 "Evil Empire

Evil empire

The phrase evil empire was applied to the Soviet Union especially by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who took an aggressive, hard-line stance that favored matching and exceeding the Soviet Union's strategic and global military capabilities, in calling for a rollback strategy that would, in his words,...

" speech sets the tone for a more aggressive US posture against the Soviet Union, and the costly arms race is renewed. He hopes that space-based anti-missile systems known as Strategic Defense Initiative

Strategic Defense Initiative

The Strategic Defense Initiative was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic...

 (SDI) could render nuclear weapons obsolete, but the Soviet Union is concerned of upsetting the MAD

Mutual assured destruction

Mutual Assured Destruction, or mutually assured destruction , is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of...

 paradigm that had kept the world safe. Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...

 assumes power in the Soviet Union, setting to reform the Soviet economy

Perestroika

Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...

 and encourage greater openness

Glasnost

Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...

. He bonds well with both Reagan and Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

, charismatic to Soviet sensibilities, but the SDI issue prevents arms control agreements being made in Geneva Summit

Geneva Summit (1985)

The Geneva Summit of 1985 was a Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. It was held on November 19 and 20, 1985, between U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev...

 or Reykjavík

Reykjavik Summit

The Reykjavík Summit was a summit meeting between U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Secretary-General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, held in the famous house of Höfði in Reykjavík, the capital city of Iceland, on October 11–12, 1986...

. The weakness of the Soviet system is revealled by the Chernobyl

Chernobyl

Chernobyl or Chornobyl is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, in Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. The city had been the administrative centre of the Chernobyl Raion since 1932....

 disaster and Mathias Rust

Mathias Rust

Mathias Rust is a German aviator known for his illegal landing on May 28, 1987 near Red Square in Moscow. As an amateur pilot, he flew from Finland to Moscow, being tracked several times by Soviet air defence and interceptors...

's Red Square stunt. Knowing the Soviet Union could not compete with SDI without the economic welfare of its people being severely curtailed, whose exposure to popular culture and foreign media has led to raised expectations, Gorbachev eventually agrees to a landmark agreement, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is a 1987 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. Signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev on December 8, 1987, it was ratified by the United States Senate on May 27, 1988 and...

. Disarmament commences, under the maxim of doveryai, no proveryai. Interviewees include Donald Regan

Donald Regan

Donald Thomas Regan ,was the 66th United States Secretary of the Treasury, from 1981 to 1985, and Chief of Staff from 1985 to 1987 in the Ronald Reagan Administration, where he advocated "Reaganomics" and tax cuts to create jobs and stimulate production.-Early life:Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts,...

, Sir Charles Powell, Roald Sagdeev

Roald Sagdeev

Roald Zinnurovich Sagdeev is a Soviet and Russian expert in plasma physics and former director of the Space Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was also a science advisor to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Sagdeev graduated from Moscow State University. He is a member of the...

 and Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...

. The pre-credits scene shows an advertisement for Reagan's 1984 election campaign.

23. The Wall Comes Down (1989) Gorbachev makes clear Eastern European countries were free to determine their own destinies. In Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 Solidarity enters into negotiations

Polish Round Table Agreement

The Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, Poland from February 6 to April 4, 1989. The government initiated the discussion with the banned trade union Solidarność and other opposition groups in an attempt to defuse growing social unrest.-History:...

 with the Government, and would end up winning a landslide election. In Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 the Government chooses to symbolically reinter Imre Nagy

Imre Nagy

Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary on two occasions...

, and open its frontier with Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, which is then crossed by increasing numbers of holidaying East Germans. Erich Honecker

Erich Honecker

Erich Honecker was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic as General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1971 until 1989, serving as Head of State as well from Willi Stoph's relinquishment of that post in 1976....

 refuses to implement reforms, despite subtle pressure from Gorbachev and growing protests across East Germany. The bloody end to dissent in China

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...

 is never far from the minds of protesters. Just as protests reach a peak

Monday demonstrations in East Germany

The Monday demonstrations in East Germany in 1989 and 1990 were a series of peaceful political protests against the authoritarian communist government of the German Democratic Republic that took place every Monday evening.- Overview :...

, Soviet forces in East Germany are stood down, and Honecker is replaced by an unimpressive Egon Krenz

Egon Krenz

Egon Krenz is a former politician from East Germany , and that country's last Communist leader...

. As a concession travel restrictions are lifted but the new regulations are miscommunicated, and the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...

 is suddenly and irrevocably breached by masses of East Germans. In the momentum, the fate of communism in East Germany is sealed. Interviewees include Miklós Németh

Miklós Németh

Miklós Németh served as Prime Minister of Hungary from November 24, 1988 to May 23, 1990. He was one of the leaders of the Socialist Workers' Party, Hungary's Communist party, in the tumultuous years that led to the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe.As Prime Minister, Németh took...

, Egon Krenz

Egon Krenz

Egon Krenz is a former politician from East Germany , and that country's last Communist leader...

 and George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...

. The pre-credits scene includes Gorbachev explaining that by 1989, force alone could not secure the world.

24. Conclusions (1989–1991) Gorbachev and Bush meet at Malta

Malta Summit

The Malta Summit consisted of a meeting between U.S. President George H. W. Bush and U.S.S.R. leader Mikhail Gorbachev, taking place between December 2-3 1989, just a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was their second meeting following a meeting that included then President Ronald...

 in December 1989 to consider the recent dramatic events. Only the previous week the Communist government resigned

Velvet Revolution

The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...

 in Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

; and shortly Nicolae Ceaușescu

Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...

 would be deposed and executed in the bloody Romanian Revolution. Gorbachev permits German reunification

German reunification

German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

 and removes Soviet troops from Europe, but fails to secure financial support from the West. As the Soviet economy collapses, Gorbachev faces opposition from both reformers and handliners. Sharing their abhorence of Soviet disintegration, Gorbachev brings in hardliners to his government and cracks down on the Lithuanian independence movement. However they later turn on Gorbachev and stage a coup. Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...

 is instrumental in rallying the public and military to defeat the coup. Sidelining Gorbachev, Yeltsin sets the course for Russia to leave the Soviet Union by establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States

Commonwealth of Independent States

The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....

. The Soviet Union ends on 25 December 1991, and in his Christmas Day address Bush announces the Cold War is over. The cost of the Cold War is considered in retrospect. Interviewees include Mircea Dinescu

Mircea Dinescu

Mircea Dinescu is a Romanian poet, journalist and editor.He was born in Slobozia, the son of Ştefan Dinescu, a metalworker and Aurelia . Dinescu studied at the Faculty of Journalism of the Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy, and was considered a gifted young poet during his youth, with several poetry...

, Alexander Rutskoy

Alexander Rutskoy

Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoy is a Russian politician and a former Soviet military officer. Rutskoy served as the only Vice President of Russia from 10 July 1991 to 4 October 1993, and as the governor of Kursk Oblast from 1996 to 2000...

 and Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...

. The pre-credits scene features Bush and Gorbachev explaining how uncertain the world had suddenly become.

External links

• The Cold War over CNN's Cold War, Richard Pipes, Robert Conquest and John Lewis Gaddis debate the accuracy of the series in this Hoover institute publication.
• Twenty-Four Lies About the Cold War, review in Commentary, March 1999.