Original subtitles

-(projector whirring) -(jazz music playing)

NARRATOR: Since that first postwar Christmas of 1945,

They'd had plenty of fun.

They'd fallen in love

and gotten married.

They had cherished their children

who in turn had fallen in love.

-(dramatic music plays) -And yet...

A Third World War could break out at any time.

The Apocalypse!

(rumbling)

("Cry Baby" playing)

From 1945 until 1991,

the Eastern bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union,

and the West, headed by the United States, are at daggers drawn.

In August 1945, to put an end to World War II,

the United States, for the first time in history,

drops two atom bombs

that kill or irradiate 100,000 human beings in one second.

("Cry Baby" continues playing)

The atom bomb is now the real threat.

In 1947, American scientists invent a way to evaluate the risk of nuclear war.

They call it the Doomsday Clock.

If the clock's hands ever reach midnight,

it will mean disaster.

This virtual clock often hits five minutes to 12:00.

(all laughing)

How did people manage to live with the permanent tension

that is the foundation of our world today?

(guns cocking)

How did this balance of terror

spark off dozens of deadly regional conflicts...

-(helicopter whirring) -...from Indochina to Korea

and from Vietnam to Afghanistan?

(gunfire)

Wars that we will relive here,

through archive footage, some colorized,

and home movies and photos.

It all begins with the big rift

between East and West.

(all cheering)

On May 8th, 1945, the French celebrate the end of the war in Europe.

The American soldiers have only one thing in mind.

Going home.

(all cheering)

But they know they may still be shipped off to Japan,

who has yet to surrender.

(bell tolling)

Moscow, June 24, 1945.

Time on the Kremlin clock is set by Stalin,

the master of Russia,

which is called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics...

the USSR.

(all cheering)

Stalin hails himself as the sole winner of World War II,

even though he owes his victory

to the sacrifice of 25 million Soviet lives

and $200 billion dollars of Western aid.

(band playing drums)

The First World War gave birth to Communism.

The Second places it in a position of power.

(army marching)

Stalin has just seized

over two million square kilometers of European territory

and its 100 million inhabitants,

imposing Communist rule everywhere.

Stalin and his military chiefs of staff have drawn up plans

for invading the rest of Europe.

This scheme would be backed up with a power takeover

by the local Communist parties.

Stalin is also counting on the great Western powers

being paralyzed by uprisings in their colonies.

In Berlin, landlocked by the Soviet-occupied zone,

Stalin meets with the Allied leaders to take stock after Germany's surrender.

The meeting is held in Potsdam,

a suburb of Berlin that has suffered less damage than most of the city.

The American and British delegates

are able to admire the results of their air raids,

of the Russian artillery,

and Hitler's suicidal tenacity.

The aftermath of war.

And only weeks after the end of Nazi Germany,

mounting apprehension sets in.

Will this meeting of the great alliance be able to maintain peace?

Stalin arrives on July 17, 1945,

for two weeks of summit meetings.

In Potsdam, maximum security is provided

by an army of 17,000 officers and men of the NKVD,

the Soviet political police.

One of its chiefs, close to Stalin, is Lavrentiy Beria.

Stalin refers to him as "the head of our Gestapo"

or "our very own Himmler,"

a sinister allusion to Hitler's police.

The Secret Service that protects the American president

is also fully mobilized.

This is the first trip overseas for Harry Truman,

President Roosevelt's successor.

It is also President Truman's first meeting

with one of World War II's great heroes, Winston Churchill,

who has just sent him a long telegram warning him against Stalin.

Churchill writes,

"An iron curtain has been drawn down by the Russians all along their front.

We do not know what is going on behind."

(indistinct conversation)

Truman sizes up his opponent.

Stalin has public opinion behind him.

He is the Father of Nations.

More importantly,

he has 20,000 tanks and five million soldiers at his command.

This is the main question for President Truman:

How can Stalin be stopped? And where?

Will the oceans protect America?

Does America have the means to protect Europe?

Truman has only one card to play:

The nuclear option.

He delayed the conference

until he knew the results of the world's first atom bomb testing.

Day after day,

Stalin weighs in heavily on each decision being made during the conference.

Nobody dares argue with him on the fate of Germany,

which will be split in two.

Or the unfortunate Baltic states, recently annexed by Stalin.

Asia is another key issue at the Potsdam conference.

America is dominating the Japanese in the Pacific.

In China, Stalin supports Mao Zedong's Communists

against the American-backed nationalists of General Chiang Kai-shek.

What will become of Indochina,

a French colony still occupied by the Japanese?

The United States imposes the future disarming of Japanese troops

on either side of the 16th parallel

by the Chinese nationalists in the north and the British in the south.

France isn't consulted on the matter,

not having been invited to the Potsdam Conference.

Will these arrangements be sufficient to ward off a new conflict?

This marks the beginning of ongoing tension

between the Soviets and the Americans.

Just before the Conference ends, on July 24th, 1945,

President Truman reveals to Stalin

that the United States has successfully tested a new weapon,

without specifically calling it an atom bomb,

which is a state secret.

Stalin doesn't blink.

He knows exactly what Truman is referring to,

thanks to his efficient network of Soviet spies

inside America's secret research facilities.

Stalin must have the bomb as soon as possible!

He sends Beria to identify which factories in the Soviet zone of Germany

are still in working order,

and to steal uranium from Bulgaria or Poland.

Soviet scientists work day and night to develop the bomb,

helped by Communist sympathizers in the West.

On August 2nd, Stalin leaves the Potsdam Conference.

Speaking to Truman about this new weapon, he says,

"Use it well against Japan."

The Americans drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945.

Stalin immediately declares war on the crippled remnants of Japan.

He can now help himself to the lands conquered by Japan,

including industry-rich Manchuria and the northern part of Korea,

which he places under Communist rule.

The Americans take control of the south, up to the 38th parallel.

Washington widely publicizes the first footage

of the devastation wrought by the nuclear weapon.

(jubilant music playing)

MALE NEWSCASTER: Hiroshima,

seen from the air after the atomic bomb blast

That virtually erased this city on the Earth.

Nagasaki, target for the second atomic bomb!

(plane engine whirring)

NARRATOR: What effect does this cataclysm have in 1945 on Paris,

a city still suffering but starting to come back to life?

The table talk is all about the Communists,

whom everyone admires.

They have 150 members of parliament

and five ministers in the provisional government

led by General de Gaulle.

De Gaulle has the job of rebuilding the country and restoring its strength,

which is partly founded on its colonial empire.

(crowd cheering)

The maps on every schoolroom wall have taught the French

that their empire stretches across continents.

The French are proud of their 19th Century conquests

and had flocked to the famous colonial exhibition of 1931.

Colonization and decolonization will lead to the Indochina War...

(explosion)

...followed by the clash between East and West in the Vietnam War.

Spanning 30 years,

this endless conflict will claim over three million lives.

This major Cold War crisis has a face,

that of the man who goes by the name of...

Ho Chi Minh.

How did this man, the leader of the Indochinese Communists,

start these wars in the name of independence?

He was born in 1890.

His real name is Nguyen Sinh Cung.

He is a brilliant student.

The son of a local official

who was dismissed by the French authorities.

In 1911, he sails around the world, campaigning against injustice.

In 1920, at the Socialist convention in Tours,

where the French Communist Party is born.

Ho Chi Minh denounces what he refers to as "the oppression" in Indochina.

He shouts, "Comrades, save us!"

He writes articles for newspapers such as L'Humanité and Le Paria,

and draws his own anti-colonialist caricatures.

In 1923, he is summoned to the Soviet Union,

to be trained with other foreign Communists.

In Moscow in 1924, at the Congress of the Comintern,

the Soviet organization that campaigns to spread communism,

he declares...

"Comrades, it was patriotism that led me towards Lenin!

We must focus on colonial problems."

In 1930, the Comintern sends him to China

to recruit the founding members of the Communist Party of Indochina,

with the help of Mao Zedong, who has started his Long March to power.

From then on,

Ho Chi Minh is known to the French police as a "revolutionary agitator."

His police file,

registered under the alias of Nguyen Ai Quoc,

describes him as measuring, "1 meter 62, thin,

with a domed forehead and prominent ears."

The French sentence him to death in absentia

for revolutionary activity.

He writes...

"We are nothing but dirty Negroes and dirty Annamites,

good for no more than pulling rickshaws

and receiving baton blows from our administrators."

But who are these French people living in Indochina?

These colonists?

Some of them are business owners,

but most are civil servants, shopkeepers, teachers, and their families.

In 1939, there are barely 50,000 of them,

compared to 20 million Indochinese,

mostly peasants working in the paddy fields.

(plane engine whirring)

Over the past century,

the French have conquered a territory one and a half times the size of France,

and established a protectorate

over the kingdoms of Laos, Cambodia and Annam.

They have colonized the fertile plains of Cochinchina,

and mined the mineral wealth of the Tonkin province.

In Annam, the central province,

the colonists cultivate poppy

to produce the medicinal opium that contributes to the wealth of Saigon,

the major city of the south.

This is a time of large-scale weddings in full uniform.

Robert Pila, son of a family of silk traders,

marries Gillette de Boisboissel,

daughter of Cochinchina's military commander-in-chief.

1940, France is defeated.

Japan, an ally of Germany, settles in Indochina,

but leaves a compliant French administration in place.

The situation benefits Ho Chi Minh,

who secretly returns via the north, after a 30-year exile.

He wants to organize the fight for independence.

He hides out in the forest near the Chinese border,

near a river that he christens the "Lenin."

(birds chirping, squawking)

He plans his strategy.

He chooses the pseudonym Ho Chi Minh,

meaning He who enlightens,

to seem more like a spiritual leader.

He founds a resistance movement,

which he names League for the Independence of Vietnam,

in Vietnamese Việt Nam Ðộc Lập Ðồng Minh Hôi,

or Viet Minh for short.

This name doesn't fool other separatists

who are not Communists.

(crowd cheering)

Those who join his cause are able militants

such as Vo Nguyen Giap,

a 30-year-old history teacher,

who turns out to be a formidable war leader.

In three years,

Giap has indoctrinated and raised a proper little army

to combat the French colonial power and the Japanese fascists.

(gunfire)

Throughout 1944,

the Americans help Giap and Ho Chi Minh by dropping arms and ammunition

and parachuting in so-called "military advisors."

They will later regret this.

(plane engine whirring)

The Americans are counting on this guerrilla war

against the Japanese.

1945.

The Viet Minh's zone of influence is growing steadily.

Many people from Tonkin join up.

Ho Chi Minh explains,

"Our people were subjected to the double yoke

of the French and the Japanese.

Their sufferings and miseries increased.

More than two million of our fellow citizens

died from starvation."

For Ho Chi Minh, history is about to change gears.

On March 9th, 1945, he gets an amazing piece of news.

The Japanese are arresting French officials

and killing or disarming French soldiers.

Japan, under growing threat from the Americans,

is wiping out the French army

before it can seize the opportunity to regain control of Indochina.

And in August 1945,

Ho Chi Minh leaves from his jungle stronghold

when he hears about America's nuclear attacks on Japan.

He believes this is his historic moment.

Nobody is running Indochina anymore.

The Chinese and the British, who are to replace the Japanese,

haven't yet arrived.

He will take the chance of his life.

He appears in Hanoi, in broad daylight, on September 2nd, 1945,

and demands independence for Tonkin...

and Annam...

and Cochinchina.

Together they will be renamed Vietnam.

Laos and Cambodia also demand their independence.

(crowd cheering)

In Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh stirs up the crowd.

(cheering continues)

He has the crowd wave the Viet Minh's red flag

with its gold star...

and also the American flag

along with Truman's portrait,

but the new president is less sympathetic to the separatists.

On that same day, September 2nd, 1945,

Japan signs a declaration of surrender aboard the US battleship Missouri.

France is represented by General Leclerc,

the man who helped liberate Paris with his Second Armored Division.

De Gaulle puts him and his Division

in charge of restoring French sovereignty over Indochina.

The victor of the Pacific,

General Douglas MacArthur,

doesn't mince words about reconquering Indochina.

He tells Leclerc,

"Bring troops and more troops. As many as you can."

In Saigon, in the days following the declaration of independence,

worried French colonists flocked to the Information Center.

What will become of them?

Colonists arm themselves to protect the waiting lines

outside the few stores that have remained open.

The offices that still function begin handing out ration tickets.

But, one long month

after Ho Chi Minh's declaration of independence,

in the midst of a monsoon...

(thunder rumbling)

...on October 5th, 1945, General Leclerc arrives in Saigon.

He has full military authority to take back Indochina.

(bugle playing)

The first thing Leclerc does is contact the British,

who have just arrived but are already out of their depth.

In an act of colonial solidarity,

the British have provided the ships to transport the first 30,000 men

who will constitute Leclerc's army.

In theory, the men are all volunteers.

But some had joined up towards the end of the war to fight the Japanese

and have ended up in Indochina.

(crowd cheering)

Once the euphoria of the colonists' welcome has worn off,

they are struck by the terrible heat,

the clouds of mosquitoes, poisonous insects

and ferocious jungle animals.

Leclerc sends his tanks to take back Cochinchina.

First, they must cross a gigantic swamp near Saigon,

the Plain of Reeds.

General Leclerc selects Colonel Massu to lead the operation.

Massu is a legendary warrior and adventurer.

But he is soon forced to admit he's in trouble.

(indistinct conversation)

The Viet Minh has destroyed bridges and cut roads overnight

by digging trenches across them.

Tank crews have to double as road workers.

These men have been trained for large, armored campaigns.

This kind of warfare is unknown to them.

Le Monde's correspondent in Indochina, Philippe Devillers, writes,

"We'd be driving along a road

when suddenly a man would fall...

(gunshots)

(explosion, machine gun rattling)

...and no one could tell where the shot had come from.

After they fired, the Viets would hide underwater

and breathe through bamboo tubes."

The Viets.

That's how the French refer to the Viet Minh fighters.

They have other, worse names for them, too.

Most of them are peasants. They are very young.

There are also mines hidden in the bamboo groves

and poisoned traps.

In just a few weeks, 300 French troops are put out of action.

(machine gun rattling in distance)

The soldiers are anxious.

This war can't be won without intelligence...

but not a single villager will provide any information.

The Viet Minh are not actually that strong in Cochinchina.

Ho Chi Minh needs the support of other separatists,

even if it means getting rid of them later on.

The man he and Giap choose to lead the guerrilla units

in this region is Nguyen Binh.

(indistinct conversation)

Binh is not a Communist, but he is fanatically anti-French.

To the peasant laborers, the young and the old,

Nguyen Binh promises land.

To the landlords, he writes,

"I belong to no party. I fight for the homeland."

Violence leads to more violence.

General Leclerc deems it wise to set some limits.

In a memo to his soldiers, he specifies,

"Keep the right balance.

Do not see a dangerous bandit in every Annamite.

-(inaudible conversation) -Do not be too lenient, either.

But no one is allowed to shoot prisoners.

They must all be questioned and put on trial.

All looting is strictly forbidden.

No needless destruction, no mishandling of women or children.

Every Annamite who is unfairly treated

risks being lost to the French cause."

(jubilant music playing)

The wheels of war are grinding.

In early 1946,

the insurgents have grown in number

and their feats get bolder, day by day.

(machine guns rattling)

General Leclerc is furious to be stuck in Cochinchina.

He knows how urgent the situation is for the French colonists

to the north, in Tonkin,

where the Communists control Hanoi.

But the French army is making slow progress

and Leclerc is pessimistic.

He says,

"A single division is not enough to conquer a country

that is all riled up and armed,

and is one and a half times the size of France.

It would take 500,000 men to impose a military solution.

A political solution must be found.

We must negotiate."

The task of negotiating goes to a man

whose name will go down in history,

Jean Sainteny.

He makes his first trip to Indochina as a banker, in 1929.

An irresistible playboy, half-diplomat, half-spy,

this French James Bond is married to the daughter of Albert Sarraut,

the powerful Minister of the Colonies and former Governor of Indochina.

Sainteny, a resistance fighter,

is a decorated Companion of the Liberation.

De Gaulle sends him back to Hanoi in August 1945.

While the Viet Minh guerrillas are spilling blood in the south,

Sainteny and Ho Chi Minh struggle to negotiate with each other.

At long last, they sign the Agreement of March 6th, 1946,

establishing Vietnam as a free nation.

As part of the deal,

Ho Chi Minh agrees to allow French troops back into Tonkin,

to replace the Chinese army.

Once again, the French flag flies over Haiphong,

the port of Hanoi.

Ho Chi Minh has signed the Agreement

because he needs the French to drive out the Chinese,

who are looting the country and threatening to stay forever.

The Indochinese Communists have trouble accepting the agreements

that give the French the right to remain in Tonkin

for another five years.

Ho Chi Minh tells them,

"I prefer to sniff French... (bleep) ...for five years

than to eat Chinese... (bleep) ...for the rest of my life."

(shouting indistinctly)

(crowd cheering)

On March 18th, 1946,

General Leclerc's tanks roll into Hanoi.

The 20,000 French colonists

have been living at the mercy of the Viet Minh.

They are relieved beyond measure.

(cheering continues)

Leclerc is welcomed by Jean Sainteny.

They know each other well, from the Liberation of Paris.

For Sainteny, this is as unforgettable moment.

He takes Leclerc up to the balcony of his office,

where the General makes a gesture in the manner of de Gaulle.

Raising his arms, he calls out to the crowd,

"Hanoi, the final phase of the Liberation!"

(crowd cheering)

Sainteny goes on to describe,

"Leclerc jumps behind the steering wheel of an escort jeep,

and tells me to get in.

Together, we drive through the cheering crowd.

My mission is accomplished.

All I have to do now is return to France!"

Famous last words!

Sainteny takes Leclerc to meet Ho Chi Minh,

who has settled in a colonial palace.

In a flurry of flashbulbs, they drink to friendship between peoples,

France's future,

and the permanent recognition of the free nation of Vietnam.

But nothing goes as planned.

Then Leclerc and Sainteny attend a ceremonial parade,

where Giap, Defense Secretary of the future independent Vietnam state,

presents his first battalion.

Leclerc salutes his Viet Minh foes without blinking.

Giap raises his fist and declares that the fight has begun.

The Tonkin residents have shown up en masse.

They are contained by Viet Minh militiamen.

The crowd grumbles.

They are aimed at Ho Chi Minh.

"The old fox has been fooled,"

by accepting the return of the French army.

This French army parade, designed to impress the Viet Minh,

is followed by a grand naval review to which Ho Chi Minh is invited.

Ho Chi Minh will finally meet France's highest-ranked representative,

General de Gaulle's envoy,

Admiral Thierry d'Argenlieu.

Ho Chi Minh is flown there by seaplane, with Sainteny by his side.

They fly over the iconic Ha Long Bay.

Sainteny senses the emotions that grip the Viet Minh leader.

He writes,

"There's a photo of us aboard the seaplane.

While I'm filling my pipe,

the Chief of the Viet Minh sits obediently with his pith helmet on his head

and both hands resting on his bamboo cane.

But he looks fierce,

with the eyes of a hunted animal."

Sainteny tries to reassure him and gain his trust.

But Ho Chi Minh can't discard the possibility of a trap.

What if the French have planned to arrest him?

Sainteny writes,

"When I see the great bulk of that cruiser,

that massive floating fortress with its raised guns,

I understand now how much courage it took him."

(inaudible)

(plane engine idling)

(soldier whistling)

Ho Chi Minh is welcomed by a whistle of honor

and greeted by the representative of the civilian authorities,

Admiral Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu, who is also a Carmelite monk.

Following De Gaulle's orders,

he wants to hold onto Indochina and above all,

save it from the Communists.

Thierry d'Argenlieu suggests organizing a meeting of other nationalists

to review the initial agreements.

On the contrary, Ho Chi Minh wants the Agreement to be ratified in Paris,

to ensure that his country's independence is properly recognized.

Although the matter is left unresolved, Sainteny remarks,

"I observed the satisfaction of a man who had always fought us in the shadows,

and suddenly finds himself being treated as an equal."

And Ho Chi Minh leaves,

nervously throwing away his cigarette.

All through the spring of '46,

the Viet Minh keeps the pressure on,

leading up to the big conference that will take place

in Fontainebleau, near Paris,

as Ho Chi Minh had requested.

Thierry d'Argenlieu forces himself to smile

as he bids farewell to Ho Chi Minh,

who takes off for France on May 31st, 1946.

His plane is diverted,

De Gaulle's successor has just been overthrown by parliament.

A new government must be formed

before negotiations can continue.

The plane lands in Biarritz,

so that Ho Chi Minh can rest up in Sainteny's villa.

He spends three weeks of forced vacation there.

The only holiday he'd ever have

and, by his own account, the best time of his life.

His only regret is not meeting General de Gaulle,

but de Gaulle isn't receiving anyone.

(plane engine whirring)

Ho Chi Minh finally lands in Paris,

and is welcomed like a head of state.

(inaudible)

He even attends the Bastille Day military parade,

next to General Juin and General de Lattre.

A grand reception is organized in honor of Ho Chi Minh.

Sainteny's wife Lydie Sarraut gives Ho Chi Minh a warm welcome,

as the situation in Indochina deteriorates.

To keep up the pressure on the French,

the Viet Minh have been attacking convoys and killing soldiers.

After a month of fruitless talks,

the Fontainebleau conference concludes with a vague draft agreement

and Ho Chi Minh returns home.

He refuses to travel by plane.

It takes him three weeks to arrive in Haiphong harbor,

in the north of Indochina, on October 20th, 1946.

His deliberately long absence has given Giap time to prepare for war...

and to bloodily eliminate the Communists' political rivals.

The time for peacemaking is over.

Ho Chi Minh has failed to reach agreement with the French on the two key issues,

-independence... -(crowd protesting indistinctly)

...and the reunification of the three provinces,

Tonkin, Annam and Cochinchina,

into a single Communist country to be called Vietnam,

which the French adamantly refuse to consider.

In Haiphong, on November 23rd, 1946,

a cargo boat inspection turns violent

and the Viet Minh militia shoot at the French,

-causing casualties. -(machine gun rattling)

(distant gunfire and explosion)

The navy retaliates with its big guns, killing several hundred locals.

Ho Chi Minh issues a call for armed struggle.

"Those who have rifles will use their rifles.

Those who have swords will use their swords.

Those who have no swords will use their spades, hoes, and sticks.

Everyone must endeavor to oppose the colonialists

and save his country!"

(distant gunfire and explosions)

Hanoi rises up.

The Viet Minh lashes out against every symbol of France,

including the Pasteur Institute,

one of the biggest centers

for the prevention of tropical diseases in Asia,

which is totally demolished.

(machine guns rattling)

War reporter Lucien Bodard writes,

"The French military were attacked from every side.

They held out for days and nights on end.

Hanoi was a nightmare.

Among the ruins, the French found women's bodies slashed open

and pierced with bamboo spears.

They, too, ran amok.

There was no mercy anywhere."

(gunfire continues)

The Indochina War has just begun.

In 1946,

Indochina isn't the only place

where the tension between the Soviets and the West is flaring up.

Stalin is also threatening the United Kingdom's interests.

The British closely guard their famous route to India,

which also brings them oil from Iraq and Iran,

which Europe is increasingly dependent on.

But the Soviets have penetrated the north of Iran,

to cheers orchestrated by the local Communist party.

(all cheering)

Iran with Britain's support,

appeals to the United Nations Security Council.

Churchill, no longer in power but still influential,

tells President Truman that this Iranian crisis

marks a new wave of expansion by Stalin.

Nobody knows what Soviet Russia

and its Communist international organization

intends to do in the immediate future,

or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive

and proselytizing tendencies.

NARRATOR: Truman stands firmly by the British,

and together they push Russia out of Iran.

At the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow,

Stalin declares,

"Another war is inevitable

and the USSR needs to build up its forces to fight the West."

George Kennan, an American diplomat stationed in Moscow, writes,

"Stalin believes he is in a permanent war with capitalism."

(indistinct conversation)

Truman repeats to the press,

"The Unites States has no desire to wage war on anyone."

But privately, he states,

"Communism is as dangerous as Nazism

and Stalin is as ruthless an enemy as Hitler."

The Americans test their nuclear weapons

on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

(distant explosion)

The explosion of atomic bombs in this idyllic location

gives French fashion designers the idea of creating

an "anatomical bomb,"

the skimpiest swimsuit in history,

which becomes immediately known as the "bikini"

and is quickly banned from European beaches.

The world continues to turn, despite the escalation of fear.