All language subtitles for h.u.s03e02.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR:
History is not an exact science.

It is never set in stone.

As time passes knowledge of the past
is refined and evolves...

But by definition existing ideas
have thick skins

and are hard to shift.

To understand the realities
of the world

you sometimes have to shake them up

and decipher the facts by looking
at them another way.

Posterity has made
the Soviet Union out

to be the instigator
of the cold war...

and yet.

The 14th of April 1945.

America is in mourning.

Its President Franklin Roosevelt
has just died.

Elected and re-elected
four times in a row,

against all the odds he stood firm
against Nazi tyranny,

despite the terrible illness
which finally killed him.

(DARK MUSIC)

Attending the ceremonies
was a small,

unremarkable looking man
who was totally unprepared

to succeed him...

his Vice President, Harry Truman...

You Harry Truman,
will solemnly swear...

Ill informed about
how the war was going,

he didn't know how to stop it
and still had no clear vision

of the world thereafter.

He confided,
"Pray for me, my friends.

I feel as though the moon,

the stars and all the planets have
just fallen on my head."

In the Spring of 1945,
Nazi Germany had just collapsed.

But Japan was holding out
and the battles waged

by the Americans in the Pacific
could still last for months.

America needed the Red Army
to get it over with...

Stalin still ruled over
the biggest country in the world,

and claimed the biggest share
of the victory in Europe.

With his Marshall's epaulettes
and with his triumphant Generals

alongside him the Master
of the Kremlin inspired respect...

On the other hand,

Harry Truman
was surprisingly humble.

With his easy-going manner,
he personified the self-made man,

risen to power by dint of hard work
and force of circumstances.

Come late to politics as Senator
for Missouri after a career

as a men's tailor,

he soon had to put
on a president's suit

if he wanted to command respect.

'The Manhattan Project'
gave him the chance.

(DARK MUSIC)

As soon as his advisors informed him
that the Atomic bomb was ready,

Truman did everything
to crank up the trials

with a view to his first meeting
with Stalin in Potsdam

in the Berlin suburbs.

(AIRPLANE WHOOSHES)

The German capital
had been destroyed

by hundreds of air raids

whereas one single nuclear explosion
could soon produce

the same devastating effect.

On the 16th July 1945,

the first trial of The Bomb
was conclusive.

Truman took his British ally
into his confidence.

Winston Churchill said
as soon as he arrived,

he was a changed man.

He was quick to put the Russians
in their place.

Overnight the apprentice President
became the most powerful man

in the world.

Stalin remained stone faced.

He had only one thing in his mind,

that Truman should respect
his predecessor's promise.

To guarantee that the USSR should
have a sphere of influence

in the territories liberated
by the Red Army

in exchange for its assistance
in defeating the Japanese.

(BOMB EXPLOSION)

But now, the Americans could do
without the Soviets.

A short time ago,

and American airplane
dropped one bomb on Hiroshima

and destroyed usefulness
to the enemy.

In this short speech,
criticised when it was broadcast,

the President could barely conceal
his elation.

We have spent more than $2 billion

on the greatest scientific gamble
in history.

And we have won.

On the 6th and 9th of August

the two bombs dropped
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

hastened the surrender
of the Japanese Empire.

It was clear proof that Truman
was not a man to back away.

When he learned
of the Japanese disaster,

Stalin was furious,
Blackmail by Bomb,

that is American politics!

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC)

Three days later,
Stalin invited Dwight Eisenhower,

Commander in Chief
of the Normandy landings,

to stand at his side,
for five hours,

watching the demonstration
of Soviet power.

As the good soldier that he was,

Eisenhower submitted
to the ceremonial,

a flamboyant production
that could so easily

be interpreted
as a show of strength.

The march past of a whole people,

disciplined in the extreme
and always in battle order,

gave a glimpse of the risks
of a split

between the two countries.

After four years fighting
against a common enemy,

Americans and Soviets found
themselves facing each other

across the divide
between the territories

they were occupying,
between East and West.

Never had the two powers
seemed so close

and yet at the same time
so different.

Despite their rivalry,

each of them still wanted to believe
in the durability

of that Great Alliance
born of the War

and sealed in the blood of battle.

Everyone hoped it would continue
after the Victory celebrations.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

On 24th October 1945,
in San Francisco,

50 countries, including the USSR

gathered behind
the United States of America,

to ratify
the United Nations Charter.

Convinced
of its own messianic destiny,

Truman's America positioned
itself at the head

of a world-wide struggle for peace.

War has not failed to address

this supreme chain

to establish a worldwide rule
of regime to create,

an enduring peace
under the guidance of God.

The USSR was not fooled,

despite the sacrifices
of the Red Army,

Peace had finally been achieved
thanks to a Bomb that only Truman

had the power to use.

A new world was still to be built.

From the Atlantic to the Urals,

the allied armies were still
in occupation.

And Stalin intended
to keep his soldiers

as long as possible
in the Eastern Europe

that he had liberated.

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC)

In his view,

the USA were doing the same thing
in all of Western Europe...

Paris had become
a gigantic American Base.

Cabaret artist Maurice Chevalier

adapted his repertoire
for the occasion.

# If the Sandman
Brought me dreams of you

# I'd want to sleep
My whole life through

# For you brought
A new kind of love to me... #

Never in their history
had so many American troops

been in a foreign land
for such a long time.

Admired as defenders
of the free world,

they were kept in place in France,

Germany, the UK, Austria, Italy,

Czechoslovakia, Korea,
China and now in defeated Japan.

Like Asia,
Europe danced to the American tune.

Eisenhower inherited a post
as Governor of Germany...

the Commander of American troops
in the Pacific,

Douglas MacArthur

was in charge of the occupation
of Japan.

On the vestiges of the ancient world
America stamped its mark.

But Truman feared competition
from another philosophy,

communism.

It already held sway in Poland,

Romania, Bulgaria, Albania,
and Yugoslavia.

It occupied part of Germany
and of Austria.

It was fomenting civil war
in Greece...

And also in China,

where Truman's envoy,
General Marshall,

was trying in vain
to reconcile Mao's communists

and Tchang Kai-check's nationalists.

(CROWD CHEERING)

The war had already
helped communism win its spurs.

It had nourished
the dreams of peoples

who wanted a different way of life.

It had given hope to those
who suffered.

(RUSSIAN MUSIC)

On 5th January 1946,

exasperated by such expansion,

the American president wrote,

I'm tired of mollycoddling
the Russians.

If we don't use them
with an iron hand,

another war is on its way.

For Washington the proof
was in the portrait of Stalin,

father of the people,

brandished like an icon
in every procession.

But Stalin was more concerned
with the reconstruction of the USSR,

emerging from its war with Nazis,

bloodless and amputated
of a quarter of its resources

and of 20 million of its citizens.

To pick itself up,

the Soviet Union was counting
on its planned economy

and the inexhaustible supply
of labour from the Gulags.

Countless prisoners,
condemned for treason

when they were released
from the Nazi camps

simply carried on their captivity
in the service of their country.

But on the ruins
of Poland or Ukraine,

even though they were in zones
under soviet influence,

reconstruction
could well be capitalist...

On the verge of famine,

the two countries
only survived thanks to food aid

from the United Nations...

70% financed by America.

Stalin took a very dim view
of these American presents

as a foretaste of the West's bounty.

In February 1946, at the Bolchoi,

he declared that the URSS
didn't need American help

to pick itself up.

Our system is better than any other.

In the film of his speech,
all that remains.

is endless applause.

But an American diplomat in post
in Moscow

was quick to over-interpret
what he said.

In a long telegram
he called on the West

to stand together to contain
the threat of Russian expansion.

"To contain",

the phrase would become
the watchword

of American foreign policy.

# It's better to miss you... #

At the beginning of 1946,

America was patiently awaiting
the return of its 'boys'.

These sons, fathers, husbands

were returning
in ever greater numbers...

even if there were still millions
of them all over the world.

# It's broken down... #

There was peace once more,

the danger from communism
was a distant problem,

demobilisation was essential,
inevitable.

As after the Great War,

the Americans could go back
to their isolationist tradition.

And that worried
the American President...

He had to change public opinion...

So, he invited to Fulton Missouri,
his former stronghold as senator,

the 3rd man
of the Potsdam Conference,

Winston Churchill,

until recently
British Prime Minister.

Welcomed as a prophet
he was to predict the next war

that would strike America
and the free world.

From step in the baltic

to tries in the adriatic,

and I curtain has descended
across the continent.

Behind that line,

by all the capitalism
of the ancient states of central

and Eastern Europe.

And all our centric

in one form or another,
that can travel from Moscow.

We may all have been spared

the miseries Hitler
let loose upon mankind,

but no one would listen.

One by one, we were all sucked
into the awful world war.

We surely, ladies and gentlemen.

I put it to you.

Surely, we must not let
that happen again.

(APPLAUSE)

Churchill implied that Stalin
was another Hitler.

Truman, seated on the left,
applauded...

Strength is the only thing
the Russians understand he added.

But not everyone
in his entourage shared this view.

The Trade minister, Henry Wallace,

publicly expressed his indignation,

denouncing what he called
"this escalation of fear."

Dear Harry, as you requested,

here is my resignation.

I shall continued
to fight for peace.

I am sure that you approved

and we'll join me
in that great demo.

In January 1947,

Secretary of State James Byrnes,

who had convinced the President
to bomb Hiroshima,

resigned in his turn.

He was replaced by a military man,
General Marshall.

He had learned the lesson
from his failure in China.

With Truman, he worked out a plan
to contain communism,

an aid for reconstruction proposed
to all of Europe,

including the East.

Why must the United States
so great a load

and not the Europe.

The answer is simple.

The United States
is the only country

in the world today,

which has the economic power

and productivity to provide
this supply

to the people
of these countries

to continue to eat, to work,
and to survive the winter.

The Marshall Plan
was in fact dollar diplomacy,

designed to counteract
extreme poverty,

since Washington was convinced
that communism was developing

in that very direction.

France, too, received its share
under this clumsy scheme.

Mister ambassador,

it gives me great pleasure to be
able to hand you these checks.

Which totalled $31,400,000.

Thank you.

Mr Secretariat,

it is with deep emotion

that I received this token
of the general

of the American government
and people.

It's strengthen the tags
which unite our two countries.

In all, the equivalent
of 170 billion dollars

in today's money
were dedicated to Europe.

The sum might seem colossal,

but America
wasn't really paying the bill.

The aid was for the most part
provided in the form

of materials 'made in the USA'.

For industrialists
with well-filled order books,

for their employees and the families
whose income was increasing,

the end of isolationism
was bringing in big money.

By fighting with non-military
means against the communists,

the country was getting rich
and cultivating its image

as a pacific and selfless nation.

The Cold War had just been invented.

The signing of this act
is a momentous occasion

in the world's quest
for enduring peace.

This measure is America's answer

to the challenge facing
the free world today.

America must show the example.

So the president redefined
his entire foreign policy

with this in mind.

The Truman doctrine,
interventionist, global, messianic,

was formulated on 12th March 1947
and designated an external enemy,

greatly exaggerated at the time,
the Red Peril.

Two weeks later,

a parliamentary commission brought
the fight within the country.

The all-powerful
Director of the FBI,

J Edgar Hoover, opened hostilities.

Communist party
of the United States

is a fifth column
if they ever loved one.

It is far better organised
than where the next is,

in occupied countries
prior to their capitulation.

They are seeking to weaken America.

Their goal is the overflow
of our government.

Politicians, professional soldiers',
intellectuals,

and artists were interviewed
from 1947 onwards.

"He said he'd make
a dust-bowl out of my plan."

It was an opportunity
to settle scores.

Like, Walt Disney, about a union man
who called a strike in his studios.

I believe that at that time
Mr Sorrell was a communist

because of all the things
that I have heard

and...and have seen
his name appearing

on a many of the Commie
front things.

Association with any organisation.
We have to stop.

Hundreds more were put
on the black-lists,

like this scriptwriter
who was challenged.

Are you a member
of the communist party?

Or have you ever been
a member of the communist party?

Once rid of these real
or imagined communist artistes,

Hollywood could carry on exporting
its films all over the world...

rather like the goods distributed
by the Marshall Plan.

(CROWD SINGING)

At the instigation
of Soviet Big Brother,

all the Eastern European
states refused it.

In 1947,
the counterattack was organised,

the demonstrators denounced
the risk of American colonisation.

(CROWD SINGING)

In France and Italy,
strikes broke out.

Anti-communism gave rise
to increasingly violent

anti Americanism.

Stalin had his back to the wall.

Up against the diplomacy
of the bomb and the dollar,

the time was ripe for him
to erect a rampart

against the influence of the West.

In February 1948, Czechoslovakia,

tempted momentarily
by the Marshall Plan,

fell into the Communist camp,
under pressure from the Kremlin.

There remained one gap
in the wall, Berlin.

Since the fall of Nazism,

Germany and its capital
were shared by the Allies.

The French,
the British and the Americans

were at the gates
of the Soviet Union,

which they crossed every day
to reach West Berlin.

Adopting an American initiative,

their zones
and sectors of occupation

had just been merged.

Two years after
Churchill's prophecy,

the "Iron Curtain"
became a reality.

Germany and the whole of Europe

then found themselves divided
into two blocs,

one of which was under
American influence,

the other which rejected it.

In order to consolidate
the Western bloc,

Truman issued a new currency,

the Deutschmark...

that the West-German
population rushed,

through the rain, to exchange
for their old banknotes.

Capitalism was hard up against
the Soviet-occupied zone.

For Stalin it was a provocation.

On the 24th June 1948,

he retaliated by closing all land
access to the German capital.

Cut off from the world,
Berliners suffered shortages.

There were revolts against
the Communist authorities,

who retaliated.

For Stalin,
this blockade was a test.

Would the Americans
react militarily?

Not at all!

The bombers which overflew Berlin
dropped only food and coal.

Truman once again showed
his determination

to stand up to the USSR.

The "airlift" turned the Americans
into saviours.

Recent enemies of the Germans,

their pilots became heroes
to the Berliners.

The newspapers popularised
the expression "cold war",

a struggle for influence,
with no dead and no wounded.

At the end of the year 1948,

the president campaigned
for a second term.

The dramatic international
situation served

as a backdrop to his re-election.

Carried aloft by the enthusiasm
of his supporters,

in spite of his detractors,
he won the vote,

but only by a whisker...

One paper even got it wrong.

Here he is waving
the newspaper headline,

imitating a radio announcer
who predicted his defeat.

Well the president is a million
votes ahead in the popular vote,

but we have yet to hear from-

(LAUGHTER)

And we are very sure that when the
country vote comes in

Mr Truman will be defeated by
another-

(LAUGHTER)

Now, I like to

(LAUGHTER)

This unexpected re-election
was the start of a new direction.

Officially, the aim was still
to contain communism.

But curbing
it was no longer sufficient,

it had to be pushed back.

For Truman,
the USSR had to understand

what the Americans were capable of

if the stand-off continued
in Berlin.

In April 1949,

the signature
of the North Atlantic Treaty

marked a new level
in the escalation.

In preparation for the creation
of NATO the following year,

the armies of twelve western
European countries joined together

under American command.

America puffed out its chest.

Not without good reason.

The following month,
after a year of tension

and 3,00,000 airlift sorties,

Stalin reopened access
by land and water.

On the 12th of May 1949,
the blockade of Berlin was lifted.

While nothing seemed predestined
to keep this war cold,

Truman had showed his strength
without firing a single shot.

To all appearances,
Stalin had thrown in the towel.

Then suddenly...

(BOMB EXPLOSION)

The first Russian atomic bomb
exploded in the Kazakhstan desert.

A new balance of power
was established.

People thought communism
had weakened,

but it had never been so strong.

On the first of October 1949,

it was the turn of China
to fall in line.

Mao came to power
at the end of a long civil war

which he had waged alone.

(SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

500 million souls
joined the communist camp

in a single day.

Even Stalin couldn't believe it.

(CROWD SINGING)

On the occasion
of his seventieth birthday,

celebrated with great ceremony,

he invited this man,

to whom he had given
such meagre support,

to sit beside him on the rostrum.

(CROWD SINGING)

Only himself and Mao know it.

But appearances are deceptive.

For Washington
and all its relations,

it was the alliance
of two conspiratorial dictators.

It would take only a spark
for everything to go up in flames,

and the finger would point
to Stalin as the unique cause.

Productions inspired or ordered
by the American government

stigmatised the Soviets,
always portrayed as devils.

And watch out for the fog and mist.

It's radioactive packed with poison
and it moves fast.

From the nuclear threat,
taken very seriously,

to ludicrous scenes of invasion,
Hollywood,

America's dream machine
made the most of it.

The Communist,
rapist and lawbreaker,

was the new bogeyman.

We are the Comms,
we are the Comms.

In films like this one,

Oscar winner
for the best documentary,

the designated enemy
could hold his own

with the diabolical Nazis
of yesteryear.

To Germany,
the voter had his choice of Hitler?

Hitler?

Or Hitler?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

In communist Russia
the same system,

the one party system.

It's either Stalin, Stalin, Stalin,
or Stalin.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

America was in a red funk.

The whole country set out
on a veritable crusade.

On the first of February 1950,

senator Joseph McCarthy announced
the names of 57 so-called communists

who had infiltrated
the heart of government.

He accused the president
of not doing enough.

He called him weak.

We should remember
the practically every issue

which we face today
is in extricably interwoven

With the communist issue.

Arrests of militants, sympathisers,

spies, real or imagined,
ran into thousands.

The Rosenbergs,
accused of sharing intelligence

with the enemy,
ended up in the electric chair.

After three years of applying
the Truman doctrine,

aimed at containing the propagation
of the red peril,

the president was overwhelmed

by the overkill
of what he himself had initiated.

His party reproached him
for whipping up the paranoia,

whereas other voices called
for an even more radical line.

Korea to defend itself.

Peaceful coexistence with Moscow
was no longer possible.

From being only European,

the communist menace
had become world-wide.

In Asia,
a new crisis had just blown up.

United Nations Organisation
was on high alert.

On the 25th of June, 1950,

pro-soviet North Korea invaded
its Southern neighbour,

which was pro-American.

The presence of Russian weapons
was evidence of USSR intervention.

Gentlemen,
we face a serious situation.

We'd hope we face it
in the cause of peace.

Only reason for the action

which was taken on advice of all
the brains that I could muster,

and I was hoping, always hoping

that we finally arrive
at the peace in the world,

which we anticipated
when we created the United Nations.

That's the only reason
for the action.

Thank you very much.

Stalin supported
only half-heartedly

the Korean offensive,

mainly by the supply of arms.

But Truman once again
suspected him of hegemony.

Straight away,
the Western bloc was mobilised.

Bursting with pride under
the iron rule of General McCarthy,

the "boys" went back to combat
like lambs to the slaughter,

convinced they were fighting
a just war,

in the cause of peace.

We are finding in Korea

for our own national security
and survival.

The progression is successful
in Korea,

we can expect it to spread
throughout Asia and Europe

and to this hemisphere.

With the Korean war,

the United States became
the legitimate spearhead

of the new world order.

On the initiative of UNO,

NATO
and all its western bloc allies,

America mobilised
its "defenders of the free world"

in a ruthless battle
against the North Koreans

and 3,00,000 Chines sent by Mao.

This time
the East-West confrontation

took the form of armed conflict.

In an onslaught
of unprecedented violence.

A quagmire
into which America was sinking.

On the 30th November 1950,

Truman announced
he was ready to take

whatever measures necessary
to end the conflict,

including the use of the Bomb.

Called for by Stockholm,

more than 500 million signatures
demanded an absolute ban

on this weapon

which had already devastated Japan.

Pablo Picasso united them
around a symbol,

the dove of peace.

The communist world
had become immense,

dozens of nations wanted to believe
in a different future

from the one promised
by the Americans.

And never mind if,
East of the iron curtain,

under tyrannical regimes,

the promises of a better future
were far from being kept.

Stalin had the Bomb

but these pacifists were convinced
he would never use it.

At the beginning of 1951,
General MacArthur,

anxious to wind up the war
in Korea,

put pressure on Truman to carry out

his threat of using
the nuclear solution.

But the danger of a Soviet response
had become too great.

For the first time,
the president drew back, he refused.

MacArthur denounced
the climb-down in the newspapers.

Truman fired him without ceremony

and went on television
to explain himself.

I fellow Americans,

I wanna to talk
to you plainly tonight

about what we're doing in Korea

and about our policy
in the far east.

A number of events
have made it evidence

that General MacArthur
did not agree with that policy.

I have therefore considered
it essential

to relive General MacArthur,

so that there would be
no daughter confusion

as to the rail purpose,
the name of our policy.

In the simplest terms,

what we're doing in Korea is this,
we're trying to prevent a third war.

The third world war
did not happen.

But the struggle for supremacy
would carry on.

Truman tripled
the American defence budget

and launched a research programme
into the H-bomb,

which was theoretically
a thousand times more deadly

than the Hiroshima bomb.

Tested on American soil,

its destructive potential
was immense.

The arms race against
the USSR ramped up yet again...

Even though
the nuclear threat prevented

any direct confrontation.

In the space of four years,

the American propaganda budget leapt
from 20 to 115 billion dollars,

the equivalent of the amount
mobilised in wartime

In the early fifties,

Hollywood sent out its cowboys
to fight off the redskins,

likened to the Soviets
in their thirst for conquest.

When soft power is your policy,
you have to win hearts and minds.

The Soviet Union did just that.

Tours of the Red Army Choir...

the Bolshoi ballet...

and the Moscow circus sent a message
to the West

of a peace-loving Russia.

Sporting competitions
became the new arena

for the war of influence waged
by the two giants.

In the summer of 1952,

the Helsinki Olympic Games marked
the return of a Russian delegation,

for the first time
since the Revolution of 1917.

(SUSPENSE MUSIC)

In the same year, 1952,

Truman announced that

he would not contest
the next election.

Unpopular, cast aside by his party,

the President had gone too far
or not far enough.

He was up against a military man,

General Eisenhower was elected
by dint of criticising

the feebleness of his predecessor,

whose legacy
he would nevertheless take on.

(APPLAUSE)

And America chose
as its president...

a real war leader.

In 1953, the Korean war,
with two million victims,

finally came to an end.

The same year, Stalin died.

Around the embalmed
body of the dictator

focussed the myth
of his sole responsibility

in the declaration
of the Cold war...

That idea survives to this day,
carefully orchestrated,

by all of Truman's successors.

But Stalin's death
did not bring an end

to the East-West confrontation.

The Cold War
was to last another 40 years.

Four decades, marked by periods
of detente and of stress,

which in the end
saw the United States

installed as the world's policeman,

without ever smoothing out
the tensions.

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