All language subtitles for Apcalypse.War.Of.The.Worlds.2019.S01E03

NARRATOR: The planet
is more divided than ever.

It's the Cold War between
the West, with the United States,

and the East, with the Soviet Union,
who now has nuclear weapons,

and can trigger the Apocalypse.

(explosion)

("Cry Baby" playing)

NARRATOR: A virtual creation
by American scientists,

the Doomsday Clock, is closer in 1950

to the fateful hour of midnight
than it has ever been before.

(explosion)

With the crazed wave of atomic testing,
and China's awakening, the world trembles.

("Cry Baby" continues playing)

The world trembles in Asia.
In Korea. In Indochina.

In Indochina, the Communists
have been fighting the French

for the past five years.

(explosions and gunshots)

In Korea, in only two months,

the UN forces count 24,000 dead,
injured or imprisoned,

and still haven't been able to stop

Communist North Korea
from invading South Korea.

In the North Korean capital, Pyongyang,

a young, smiling
yet ruthless dictator reigns.

His name is Kim Il Sung.

He is the founder of what will be
the first Communist dynasty in history.

His regime, imposed by Stalin
when he invaded North Korea in 1945,

relies on an army that was trained
and equipped by the Soviets.

The Soviet Ambassador, General Shtykov,
is the country's true leader.

Along with Kim Il Sung,
he has managed to convince Stalin

that the time is ripe to invade the South.

His ally, the head of the Chinese
Communist party, Mao Zedong,

has given his okay.

He said,

"The Sino-Soviet alliance
will be the triumph of peace."

At the United Nations,
the Security Council has condemned

the North Korean aggression.

The United States has obtained a mandate

to lead military intervention
by a symbolic coalition,

made up of 22 countries.

(explosion)

The UN forces have been dominated
by the North Korean army

and have retreated to the port of Pusan,
under siege for two months.

(explosion)

In early September 1950,

the coalition's Commander-in-Chief,
American General Douglas MacArthur,

boards a battleship
flying the colors of the UN.

MacArthur sees this as the last recourse.

To land on the tail of the North Koreans
in Inchon, the port of Seoul.

September 15, 1950.

The allied fleet approaches Inchon

with 230 battleships, mostly American.

MacArthur has authorized the presence
of a group of international journalists.

Among them is Henri de Turenne.

He writes,

"On the pink backdrop
of the breaking dawn,

the American Marines
lay out their strength,

to avenge the humiliation of the infantry.

The ships slide
like pieces on a chess board."

(dramatic music playing)

(explosions continues)

MacArthur writes in his Reminiscences,

"The tension is extreme.

Forty thousand men are about to throw
themselves into an audacious mission

to save 100,000
who are fighting in the South.

If we lose the war to Communism in Asia,

the fate of Europe
will be gravely jeopardized.

Win it and Europe will stay free."

(gunfire)

(soldiers shouting)

(gunfire continues)

(anthem music playing)

After taking the port of Inchon,
the Marines savor their victory.

The cameramen
take stock of the human cost.

(somber music playing)

Survivors of the North Korean army
have either fled or been captured.

As always, their clothes are removed
so they can't conceal weapons.

This is MacArthur's triumph.

As usual, he is followed
by a swarm of journalists.

From now on, he is nicknamed,
"The Sorcerer of Inchon".

He pauses in front of the remains
of a Soviet T-34 tank,

to provide proof of Moscow's involvement
in the Korean conflict.

All the while, Stalin continues
to position himself

as leading the fight for peace.

He has the big European Communist parties
organize major protests,

with slogans like
"Leave Korea to the Koreans!",

"Stop the American assault on Korea!"

"Hands off Korea!"

North Korean leader Kim Il Sung,

surprised by the American landing
in Inchon, has a Stalinesque-reaction.

(speaking in Korean)
Down with American imperialism!

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

NARRATOR: In South Korea, the UN forces'
advance to liberate the country

has slowed down.

(gunshots)

Cameramen risk their lives
to film the increasingly violent combats.

It takes ten days
for the UN forces to reach Seoul,

merely 60 km from Inchon.

(gunshots)

Seoul, the Southern capital,

occupied and reoccupied,
is devastated by fighting.

Amongst the ruins, a population
of starving orphans struggles to survive.

(somber music playing)

The Americans discover
a horrifying number of mass graves.

An investigative committee reveals
that 30,000 South Korean prisoners

and 2000 American prisoners

were assassinated
by the retreating North Koreans.

Seoul. September 26th, 1950.

The UN flag flies
on the barely intact government palace.

(applause)

MacArthur reinstates
the South Korean president,

Syngman Rhee, who declares,

"General MacArthur, we love you
as the savior of our race!"

For Syngman Rhee, the return to peace

means his country
will remain split in two.

He wants to cross the 38th parallel

which has separated
the two Koreas since 1945,

and continue to move forward,
even without UN authorization,

to the Yalu, the great river that creates
a natural border with China.

The Americans indulge the South Koreans

and display their crossing
of the 38th parallel.

The reunification of the country
is moving ahead, by force,

which scares the allies of the coalition,
who fear an extension of the conflict.

In Seoul,
organizations of young South Koreans

multiply their protests with slogans like,

"Give us arms
to exterminate the Communists!"

"Commies are running away.
Chase them, chase them!"

Despite UN reticence, MacArthur,
secretly encouraged by his government,

gives the Army the order
to cross the 38th parallel.

October 1st, 1950,

the Americans cross over into North Korea.
Their message is clear,

Communist expansionism
must come to an end.

Where there is a threat,
there will be a reaction and destruction.

(distant gunshot)

Kim Il Sung is hiding in the mountains.

He has refused to fight because he knows
that China will soon enter the conflict.

The American crossing
of the 38th parallel is unacceptable

for the leader
of the Chinese Communists, Mao Zedong.

Mao says, "If the U.S. imperialists won
the war, they would threaten us.

We must not fail to assist the Koreans.
We will send volunteers there!"

October 15th, 1950.

Two weeks after crossing the 38th parallel
on an island in the Pacific,

American president Harry Truman,
comes to meet General MacArthur.

Truman hasn't just come to pin
another medal on MacArthur's chest.

Behind the smiles,
Truman has come to express his concern.

The CIA is sending alarming reports
on the threat of a Chinese intervention.

MacArthur is firm. The Chinese
don't have the men or the resources.

His troops must occupy North Korean
to re-establish peace.

It'll only take a few days,
and the boys will be home for Christmas.

Truman returns to the US reassured.

In fact, Europe is his main concern.

He fears a Korean-style scenario
in which Communist East Germany, the GDR,

might invade West Germany,
the Federal Republic,

which must be armed immediately.

On the Soviet side, in East Berlin,

Hitler's ex-soldiers are also rearmed

under the misnomer,
"National People's Army"

The poor East Germans,
pawns of the Cold War.

Some understand that
they must get out before it is too late,

before East Germany's political police,
the feared Stasi, tightens the vise

for the next three decades.

Do the Westerners have any idea
how lucky they are?

(lively music playing)

Every year in France,
the Communists and their supporters

flock in numbers to a party organized
by their newspaper, L'Humanité,

which celebrates
those who torment the rest Europe

and demand the departure of the Americans
who defend their freedom.

"It's better to remain in the dark",
writes Françoise Giroud,

a famous journalist at the time, adding,

"The world's borders stop
at those we love."

Other young Europeans get involved
in the fight against Communism.

Eliette, a Lanvin model at the time,
watched her fiancé,

a war reporter, leave with
France's famous Korean battalion.

He writes to her,

"They are going to fight to liberate
a country they don't even know,

like the young Americans who came here
during the two World Wars."

Eliette replies,

"I can no longer stand the world
of fashion, so vapid, so superficial."

She enlists, as a nurse, in Indochina.

Despite the protests
of the Communist dockers,

acting on orders from unions and Moscow,

she is able to leave
with other "colonialist nurses."

This is the term coined for the women
who make the long trip to Indochina,

which Eliette considers French soil.

In five years,
more than 30 nurses have died there.

The replacements need to quickly adapt.

One final elegant gesture,
before they are plunged into a war

that is dragging on and on.

The French had looked for a political
solution to break the stalemate.

One year earlier,
they called back to power Bao Dai,

the former Emperor of Annam.

Annam, Tonkin and Cochinchina,
now make up Vietnam.

French Indochina has left in its wake
three officially sovereign countries.

Along with Cambodia and Laos, they form
what is now called the Associated States.

The French army no longer carries
the weight of defending a colony,

but an ally who will have its own army

and is accepted by a majority
of the southern population.

The United States recognizes
these new nations.

It dispatches a military
mission and war materials,

which marks the beginning of a spiral
it finds itself trapped in.

The vicious mechanism
of the Cold War is set off.

The Communist countries recognize
the Democratic Republic of Vietnam,

and its leader,
the relentless Ho Chi Minh,

who merely controls a mountainous zone
in the North,

on the border of Mao's China.

Once a small group of resistance fighters

has now grown
into an army 100,000 men strong.

They are armed
and often supervised by the Chinese,

even in the headquarters
of their military leader, General Giap.

In the fall 1950, Giap and Ho Chi Minh
want a decisive win.

They want to chase the French
from the old Route Colonial route, or RC4,

that follows the Chinese border,
crossing into Communist territory.

And take the strategic positions
of Cao Bang, Dong Khe and Lang Son.

(explosion)

On September 16th, 1950,

the Viet Minh's 308th division attacks.

(explosions and gunfire)

The French were not expecting
the war to take this turn.

They had been fighting
against guerrilla troops,

not modern military units
and multiple waves of attacks.

The French journalist,
Lucien Bodard writes,

"Asian fanaticism pushes Giap's army
to the brink of horror.

(explosion)

Soldiers are far more
than mere volunteers for death.

When they jump out of their hole,
they are already no longer alive.

Like walking dead, they throw themselves
into the line of fire,

a pile of sacrificial bodies."

Lucien Bodard reveals
that the French positions along the RC4

are falling one after the other.

The farmers and the tribes
that remain loyal to France

are abandoned
and have no choice but to flee.

The French military
command the orders of retreat,

which will prove to be catastrophic.

On October 10th, 1950,
the French are ambushed.

(gunshots)

(gunfire)

Between this ambush
and the battle of the RC4,

five thousand men are killed, injured
or missing on the French side.

The Viet Minh, in taking Dong Khe
and the RC4 posts,

have taken nearly 4,000 prisoners

and recovered significant arms
and materials.

The French prisoners walk days,
even weeks, towards veritable death camps.

Along with his men,
Lieutenant Jean-Jacques Beucler

is subjected to what
the Viet Minh refer to as "re-education."

Continual brainwashing
with never-ending self-evaluation sessions

and lessons on Marxism.

Lieutenant Beucler recalls,
"The Viet Minh guards would scream,

'All of you are colonialists,

war criminals and enemies
of the Vietnamese people.

Normally, we would eliminate you.

But thanks to President
Ho Chi Minh's policy of leniency,

your life will be spared and
you will become fighters for peace.'"

Many prisoners refuse to submit
and sign appeals for "Peace in Vietnam".

They are left to starve to death.

For its propaganda,
the Viet Minh compensates

those who seem to adhere to its ideology,

passing around pineapple slices.

Indoctrination is one of the key weapons
in this Cold War conflict,

a symbol of the confrontation
between East and West.

In Korea, these American prisoners
have managed to escape

after having survived a different hell,

another Walk of Death
imposed by the North Koreans.

The North Koreans
filmed a parade, in Pyongyang,

of a column of American prisoners.

The UN troops, chasing the North Koreans,
took Pyongyang, the North Korean capital,

on October 19th, 1950.

For these young Americans,
conquering this symbol of Communism

is a sign that the war is over.

But MacArthur continues advancing,

because the Northern Dictator,
Kim Il Sung, has refused to surrender,

despite a mediation attempt
by the British.

The UN forces reach the Yalu,

the river that marks the border
with Communist China.

Early November 1950,

MacArthur prepares his final offensive

against what remains
of the North Korean army.

The boys just want to be home
for Christmas.

These young Americans, many recalled
after fighting in World War II,

had since started families.
They feel like they are at Earth's end.

The cold is brutal in the north of Korea.
-20 degrees Celsius.

On the other side of the frozen Yalu,

three hundred thousand Chinese soldiers
prepare for combat.

Mao, like Stalin, advances under cover.

This is the trademark of the Cold War.

These soldiers are officially volunteers,

recruited to fight the imperialist enemy.

They wear no official army insignias.

Nor does their commander,
General Peng Dehuai

or his officers,

including Mao Zedong's eldest son,

Lieutenant Mao Anying, 28 years old.

The date of the offensive
was not chosen by chance.

November 25th, 1950.

This is a holiday for the Americans,
who await the arrival by parachute

of their traditional turkey.

It's Thanksgiving, the day of thanks,

the day
that America's first colonial settlers

gave thanks to God for His protection.

(explosions)

November 25th, 1950.

The Chinese rush to attack
the American positions.

The UN's air force
immediately gets involved.

(planes droning)

American, Australian
and British fighter planes

drop tons of napalm,
or gelled gasoline, on the Chinese.

(explosion)

(explosion)

Mao's son is killed in the bombing.

(explosion)

Nothing can stop the thundering
advance of Mao's army

and its waves of sacrificed men.

(explosion continues)

(gunfire)

American war correspondent,
Marguerite Higgins writes,

"Air power and artillery are not enough
when you are vastly outnumbered.

Even the Marines could not cope with the
masses of howling, bugle-blowing Chinese."

(indistinct screaming)

This is the first major defeat
for the elite American military corps.

The death toll is mind-boggling.

Twenty thousand killed or injured
in ten days.

Thus begins the UN forces'
dreadful retreat,

through the chilling winter
of North Korea's mountains.

The American press
questions the US President.

Truman declares,
"We will take whatever steps are necessary

to meet the military situation."

And to the question,
"Will that include the atomic bomb?"

Truman answers,
"That includes every weapon that we have."

The Doomsday Clock.

At the mere mention
of using the atomic bomb,

shows the increasing fear of nuclear war.

The United States feels increasingly
attacked on two fronts,

certain hotspots in Korea and Indochina,

and in Europe,
under threat from the Soviet Union.

Does Truman really intend to drop
the atomic bomb on the Chinese

who are chasing the Americans from Korea?

The American government is divided.

Secretary of State Dean Acheson,
while in favor of such a decision,

reports pressure from the British.

To avoid an escalation,
the Allies want the A-bomb

to remain a weapon of dissuasion.

Without the atomic bomb,
MacArthur in Korea

has no other option than to retreat.

On December 8th, 1950, the Americans,
South Koreans and their allies,

retreat over the 38th parallel that
they had crossed three months earlier,

and abandon North Korea.

The North Korean population,

faced with the return
of Kim Il Sung's regime, is in a panic.

One million civilians
manage to escape to South Korea,

where they're not even sure
they'll be safe.

Further south, in Indochina,
civilians are also prisoners of war.

During the same month of December 1950,

in blood-drenched Indochina,
they run from the fighting.

The situation seems desperate.

As a last-ditch effort,

the French government dispatches
one of its most renowned generals

to Indochina, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.

De Lattre arrives in Saigon
on December 17th, 1950.

He looks like a star
in his beautiful white uniform,

but his cane
is a sign of his fragile health.

At 60, he has a glorious past.

On May 8th, 1945, in the name of France,

he signed the Third Reich's
official surrender in Berlin.

All civil and military powers in Indochina
have been bestowed on him.

First, he speaks to the Vietnamese.

DE LATTRE: (speaking in French)
If you are Communists, join the Viet Minh.

But if you are patriots,
fight for your country!

This is your war.

NARRATOR: In this civil war,
Bao Dai's soldiers

are the brothers and cousins
of the Viet Minh's Communist fighters,

progressively more indoctrinated
by the Chinese Maoists,

the most radical faction.

Their leader, General Giap,
along with his Chinese advisors,

plans to leave no time
for De Lattre to act.

They will draw him into a trap

and "beat up some Frenchies."

The objective is to pursue the attacks
towards the town of Vinh Yen,

on the edge of the Viet Minh zone.

January 13th, 1951,
Giap attacks with his power divisions

308 and 312.

From the outset
of this new Viet Minh offensive,

De Lattre himself commands his troops.

He mobilizes all available air transport,

with the North African regiments
and paratrooper units.

Ten thousand men are thrown into combat.

Artillery Lieutenant Robert Jambon writes,

"Gone is the notion of losing!
We finally have a leader. A real one

who will bring us to victory!

I feel like I am living
a historical moment.

Never could I have imagined that
King de Lattre's panache

would have such an effect
on the morale of the troops!"

De Lattre doesn't hesitate

to use large quantities of napalm
supplied by the United States.

(explosion)

(explosion)

In four days, the Viet Minh is defeated,

leaving behind 1500 dead,
6000 injured and 500 prisoners.

Losses on the French side
are also considerable.

Eight hundred men are out of commission.

De Lattre does not celebrate victory.

He explains to journalist Lucien Bodard
that the battle isn't over

as long as China continues to support,
finance and arm the Viet Minh.

De Lattre seeks to stop
the spread of Communism in Asia.

He sees himself leading
the southern front, in Indochina,

with MacArthur in the north, in Korea.

MacArthur manages
to contain the Chinese advance

and push them back beyond
the 38th parallel into Northern Korea.

Seoul, March 14th, 1951,

the unfortunate capital of South Korea

conquered and re-conquered
four times in eight months

is now under UN control again.

The front is more or less stable,
at the expense of bloody combat.

MacArthur comes to congratulate
and decorate the French soldiers.

These are some of the last images
of MacArthur in Korea,

taken by Corporal Chief Bérerd,

who filmed his friends
and the social worker known

as Pépita.

One of them wrote,

"Soldiers lost far from home,

volunteers from the French battalion in
Korea were able, thanks to their courage,

to gain the admiration
of the other contingents.

Anti-Communism crusaders
or simply warriors,

they died in the mud and cold,
like our doctor,

Commander Jean-Louis, shot while going
to care for South Korean soldiers."

A forgotten testimony about
an increasingly brutal and cruel fight.

While trying to conquer
or defend the hills and valleys,

one quarter
of the French battalion is lost

in man-to-man combat with bayonets.

MacArthur raises his glass to the French,
as per the tradition.

He sees no other solution
than resorting to the atomic bomb.

He petitions Washington
for 34 of these bombs.

An undisclosed number are delivered,

but without nuclear warheads.

Truman is of the opinion
that MacArthur is too uncontrollable

to be given such weapons.

Pretexting insubordination,
he relieves MacArthur of his command.

April 16th, 1951,

MacArthur boards
his personal plane saying,

"I was fired like a housekeeper."

After his departure, Truman
has nine nuclear warheads delivered.

He now has the means to back his threats,
but he is the one controlling them.

TRUMAN: To prevent a Third World War,

I have therefore considered it essential
to relieve General MacArthur

so that there would be no doubt
or confusion

as to the real purpose
and aim of our policy.

NARRATOR: Still, New York honors MacArthur
with a huge parade down Broadway.

The General finds the words
to make America cry.

MACARTHUR: The world
has turned over many times

but I still remember the refrain

of one of the most popular
barrack ballads of that day,

"Old soldiers never die,

they just fade away."

♪ Old soldiers never die ♪

♪ They just fade away ♪

NARRATOR: Public opinion believes
that MacArthur's dismissal

weakens America's position.

The Los Angeles Times' reads,
"It's Stalin's Victory."

On American television, the fearsome
Republican Senator, Joseph McCarthy,

sees this as a sign of Communist influence
at the highest levels of government.

Many American mothers
who have lost sons will now wonder

why we didn't follow
General Douglas MacArthur's

sensible theory of hitting back.

That is the suicidal,
Kremlin directed foreign policy.

The extent to which it's controlled
by communist in our government.

(airplane engines whirring)

NARRATOR: Washington, September 1951.

As always, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny
makes a dramatic entrance.

MacArthur has left the stage.

The French general considers himself
obligated to uphold MacArthur's mission.

He wears a mourner's armband
and his wife behind him, is in black.

Their only son, a young officer,
has just been killed in Indochina.

(soldiers shouting instructions)

De Lattre wants to use his prestige
to exhort the Americans

to keep up their efforts in Asia.

If not, there will be a tidal wave of what
he refers to as "Red Colonialism".

In Korea and in Indochina,
there is the same war.

There is one war, in Asia.

And, we know,

and I am here, everywhere, explaining,
making the demonstration of the truth

that Korea and Indochina
are the same battlefield,

for liberty and against Communism.

NARRATOR: At the same time, the symbolic
French ocean liner Liberté

glides past the Statue of Liberty.

In New York, at the UN Security Council,

the American delegate
shows a Soviet weapon seized in Korea.

This is to denounce Stalin's increasing
involvement in the conflict.

But Stalin doesn't only supply
the North Koreans and Chinese

with light artillery.

He sends them hundreds of fighter jets.

The most recent product
of Soviet industry,

the Mikoyan-Gurevich model 15,
also known as MiG 15.

The Soviet planes are painted
with North Korean colors.

Propaganda focuses
on the faces of the North Korean pilots,

of which there are few in reality.

Most of the pilots are Soviets,

who are also supposedly volunteers.

They go head to head with the Americans
in the first jet plane combat in history.

(pilots speaking Russian in radio)

The Americans hear their adversaries
in their headphones, speaking Russian.

For the Americans, these Soviet MiG15s
are a disturbing discovery.

Their F-86 Sabre is outperformed.

The MiG flies faster and higher.

The Soviets now master
very advanced technology.

Yet the American pilots take the lead,
because they are better trained.

(gunfire)

One of the rare
North Korean pilots deserts

and manages to land, with his MiG 15,

on an American base in South Korea.

The pilot's name is No Kum Sok.

He receives the $100,000 reward

offered to any pilot who will hand over
his MiG with its secrets.

His first words upon arriving,

"We were overjoyed
that MacArthur had been recalled,

because we feared him most of all."

Since MacArthur's departure,
the front has stabilized.

A trench war begins.

(gunfire)

Men keep dying.

(explosion)

(soldiers shouting)

Men keep suffering.

An emergency units otherwise known
as MASH, a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital,

which inspires a movie, MASH,

and 250 episodes
of a very successful American sitcom

that lasts for 11 seasons.

July 1951. In Kaesong, North Korea,

war correspondents are called in for an
initial meeting with UN representatives,

North Koreans and Chinese,

who thus far have lost nearly 200,000 men

and are looking
for a solution to the conflict.

The Russian secret service
has also alerted them

to the presence of American atomic bombs.

The cease-fire negotiations drag on.

To pass the time,
a cameraman films Americans

communicating for the first time
with North Koreans,

who are taking great risks
to play this game.

Negotiations fail
after three months of discussion.

In fact, it is a maneuver by Stalin

to stop an offensive led by the UN forces.

Stalin is the main obstacle to peace.

(crowd applause)

In Moscow, for the big military parade

of May 1st 1952, he looks well...

despite the rumors regarding his health.

These images are scrutinized
by a tortured population

and two million deportees
in the gulag concentration camps.

They all wish him dead,
but he is very much alive.

He films his super bomber,

capable of carrying his atomic bomb.

At the commands is an air force general,
Vasily Stalin, his son.

Will Stalin conquer the world?