All language subtitles for Atomic.Age.Declassified.S01E01.Born.with.the.Bomb.720p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE[eztv]

Narrator: A discovery
that changes the world...

Man: A revelation that
the splitting of uranium atoms

Contained unfathomable
amounts of energy.

Narrator: Promising a time
of limitless possibilities.

Man: Maybe it will
run our cars,

Ships, submarines, medicine.

[explosion]

Narrator: But one haunted

By the specter
of nuclear holocaust...

Man: Once the soviets
got the bomb,

Then the race was on.

Man: This is very, very scary
information for the americans.

Narrator: Where secrets
become as crucial

As the weapons themselves.

Man: The bomb is the origin
of american secrecy.

Narrator: Hidden stories...

Man: We would have lost
a significant portion

Of the east coast
of the united states.

Narrator:
From a world on the brink

Of global annihilation...

Man: Over 600 million dead
from america's weapons alone.

Man: The idea was,
if it comes to that,

We just want to
wipe them off the earth.

Narrator: Now, decades later,

They can finally be told.

The atomic age
is being declassified.

♪

♪

October 3, 1995.

A presidential committee
declassifies a grim report

Chronicling some of america's
darkest secrets...

Buried programs
finally brought to light.

Bill clinton: Thousands of
government-sponsored experiments

Did take place,

At hospitals, universities,
and military bases

Around our nation.

In too many cases,
informed consent was withheld.

Narrator: In a world haunted
by the threat of atomic weapons,

The u.S. Conducts
radiation tests

On unsuspecting humans.

Clinton: In one experiment,

Scientists injected plutonium
into 18 patients

Without their knowledge.

And that was wrong.

Narrator:
The truth went a lot further

Than medical experiments.

[explosion]

Clinton: We have declassified

Thousands
of government documents,

Files from the second world war,

The cold war.

Narrator:
The secret documents laid bare

The dark truths
of the atomic age,

When suspicion and paranoia,

Nuclear anxiety
and anti-communist fervor

Would justify
the kinds of things

Clinton's apologizing for now.

Clinton: So today,

By making ourselves accountable
for the sins of the past,

I hope, more than anything else,

We are laying
the foundation stone

For a new era.

Narrator: The old era
began with the atom.

Alex wellerstein:
Atomic and subatomic physics

Was the physical problem

Of the early decades
of the 20th century.

It was how you got
your nobel prize.

It was completely where many of
the best and the brightest minds

Were aimed at.

Narrator: A breakthrough
in the late '30s

Shocks the scientific world.

Atomic fission--

The splitting of atoms.

But it happens
in the wrong place,

At the wrong time.

James hershberg:
Discovery of fission

In berlin, germany,
of all places,

In December 1938,

Couldn't have come
at a worse moment,

With the world on the brink
of world war ii.

Narrator: It's a huge
new source of energy.

Used as a bomb,

It would be immensely powerful.

Peter kuznick:
The people in the united states

Who are most concerned
about this in 1939

Were the european
émigré physicists

Who had to escape
from nazi-occupied europe.

Wellerstein:
They are desperately,

Desperately afraid of the idea

Of nazis with nuclear weapons.

Narrator:
The united states responds

With a massive project.

Hershberg: June 1942

Was when fdr put his good old
check mark on a document,

Said okay,

And approved a crash program
to build a bomb

That a few months later would
turn into the manhattan project.

Narrator:
Entire cities spring up

In places like
hanford, washington,

Oak ridge, tennessee,

And los alamos, new mexico,

Where the first
atomic bomb was built.

Thousands of people,

Huge industrial forces,

All working together
under a shroud of secrecy.

Wellerstein: Much of what
we associate with secrecy,

The way of doing
security clearances,

The way of doing
declassification reviews,

Many of those practices come out
of the atomic bomb project

And were invented for
the atomic bomb project.

So, it's, in a very real way,

The bomb is the origin
of american secrecy.

Narrator: Two years
and two billion dollars later,

The manhattan project succeeds.

[bomb whistling]

[rumbling]

Hershberg: The atomic bomb

Was dropped on japan,
on hiroshima,

On August 6, 1945.

Narrator:
America's nuclear secret is out,

Surprising the entire world...

Especially the soviet union,

Still picking up the pieces
after a devastating war.

Anton fedyashin:
It's worth remembering

That the soviet union
loses 27 million citizens,

Which is a figure unprecedented
in the history of our species.

Narrator: They were
supposed to be allies,

But the americans had
developed the bomb in secret.

Fedyashin:
There was a lot of mistrust

That started
coming out into the open

In the second half of the 1940s,

And this is what paves the way
for the cold war.

Narrator:
The soviets see america

As a growing threat.

Fedyashin: The fear was

That a nuclear,
an atomic monopoly

In the hands
of the united states

Would make the world
more unstable.

Narrator: So the soviets
spring their own surprise.

[explosion]

Robert standish norris:
On August 29, 1949,

They demonstrated
the detonation of their weapon,

And it was a replica,

An exact replica
of the american bomb.

Narrator: It's america's turn

To be shocked.

Wellerstein: People in
the united states in particular

Are really worried
that the soviet union

Is now embarked on this active
expansion campaign

To, by force, impose communism
over the entire globe.

Narrator:
At the turn of the decade,

Communism is spreading
throughout the world.

Wellerstein: You have
revolutions in china,

You have cracking down
on countries in eastern europe,

You have what looks like
the active spreading

Of propaganda
and political influence

By the soviet union.

Kuznick: It looks like
the united states

Has got to stand up
to the russians

Because the russians
seemed to be sweeping the table

At that point.

Narrator: And now they're
building their own bombs.

In america,

The reaction would be an almost
religious determination

To contain the spread
of communism.

Wellerstein: This period

Really increases
the temperature of the politics

In the united states.

You have people who become
very hardline anticommunists,

Who start believing there are
communists everywhere.

And the bomb has a big part
to play in that.

It raises the stakes,

And it raises americans'
sense of vulnerability.

Narrator: It only gets worse

When they find out
how the soviets got the bomb.

They had spies inside
the manhattan project itself.

Kuznick: It was early 1950

That the british were able
to arrest klaus fuchs.

Wellerstein: Fuchs was
considered brilliant.

I mean, he was
considered to have

A virtually photographic memory,

A brilliant theoretical
and mathematical physicist.

He was so trusted
that he was their babysitter

When the scientists
would have parties,

And they didn't have any clue

That he was actually giving
everything that he looked at

To the soviet union.

Narrator:
Klaus fuchs is the first link

In a chain leading to one
of the biggest spy scandals

In american history.

Wellerstein:
Fuchs identifies a man

Who served as his go-between
with the russians,

Named david greenglass.

David greenglass explains that
he was recruited for spying

By his brother-in-law,
julius rosenberg.

Narrator: Julius rosenberg

Has a small machine shop
in the bronx.

He's arrested in July 1950.

His wife, ethel--
david greenglass's sister--

A month later.

Both are members
of the communist party.

Court filings present them
as super-spies.

They refuse to talk,

Pleading the fifth instead.

Wellerstein: The rosenbergs
deny all involvement.

They say this whole thing
is fabricated,

It's just
an anti-communist plot.

Narrator:
They have little chance,

Especially when ethel's brother,
david greenglass,

Testifies against them.

Both are found guilty
and sentenced to death.

Kuznick: When judge kaufman
handed down the death sentence,

He accused the rosenbergs

Of having given
the atomic bomb to russia

And having caused
thousands of american deaths

In the korean war.

It was a crazy charge.

And the europeans
and others reacted

That the united states
was going insane.

Wellerstein:
There were multiple attempts

To plead for
a pardoning or clemency

Or a commutation of sentencing.

All of this was rejected.

Kuznick: And this becomes
a cause célèbre

For the left
in the united states

Because the evidence that was
presented at the trial

Was very flimsy.

Narrator: Both rosenbergs

Maintain their innocence
to the end.

Wellerstein:
Julius and ethel rosenberg

Are executed in sing sing prison
by electric chair.

Narrator: Debate about
their guilt or innocence

Lasts for decades...

Until 1995,

When previously
classified documents

Reveal the prosecution
knew a lot more

Than ever came out in court.

Wellerstein:
During world war ii,

The united states intercepted

A large number
of soviet communications,

And they spent
an immense amount of time

To try and crack these codes.

Narrator:
They were from a spy program

Code-named venona.

Wellerstein: We now know,

We've been able to get access to
those decrypted communications,

And it's pretty clear that
julius rosenberg is a spy.

Narrator: Spies are never
referred to by name

In soviet communications.

Wellerstein:
Julius had a fancy code name

Because he was
an important person.

His code name was "antenna."

Narrator:
Ethel was a different story.

Wellerstein: Ethel is referred
to in the files as "ethel."

That's a sign
that she isn't a spy.

That's a sign that
she's the wife of a spy

Or something like that,

Very minor.

Narrator: Information
from the venona papers

Could have convicted julius,

But exonerated ethel.

Wellerstein:
Here's the thing, though--

The united states
does not want the soviet union

To know that it has
cracked its codes,

So it will never use
that evidence in court.

Narrator: A government secret
deemed so important,

Ethel rosenberg lost her life
to ensure it wasn't divulged.

Kuznick:
Documents released in 2014

Confirm that david greenglass
lied on the stand.

He downplayed
ethel's role initially

And then later accuses her of
having transcribed the documents

And been involved
in a much more fundamental way.

Narrator:
Ethel rosenberg was framed...

By her own brother.

Wellerstein: He later admitted
to perjuring himself,

And the reason he did this

Was because if he got both
julius and ethel implicated,

They would let his wife, ruth,
off the hook.

Narrator: David got off
with a much lighter sentence,

While ruth
was never charged at all.

Wellerstein: There's still
an open question today

About what's the justice
in executing them?

They were spying for an ally.

Klaus fuchs only got
14 years in prison,

And he didn't serve all of them.

Narrator: The secrecy
surrounding the rosenbergs

Still shadows their case today.

Wellerstein: The fact
that the united states

Did not and could not give

The really compelling evidence
on the rosenbergs

Meant that people could
kind of look at it

And see what they wanted to see,

And that further drove

This polarizing politics
of the period.

It's seen as a very dark moment
in the cold war.

[horn honks]

Narrator: By the time julius
and ethel rosenberg are executed

In June 1953,

There's no line
that wouldn't be crossed

In the name
of containing communism

In a country that's convinced

It's better dead than red.

Hershberg:
It wasn't just paranoia.

The soviets were a threat,

But it was clearly
an exaggerated threat.

Narrator: Even the suggestion
of communist activity

Is enough to provoke
a brutal response.

[whistle blowing]

[yelling]

Wellerstein:
You also get the rise

Of senator joseph mccarthy,

Who alleges that there are
innumerable communists

Throughout, embedded in
the united states government.

Joseph mccarthy:
All that senator mccarthy

Has been trying to do
is expose the communists

Who have infiltrated
the department of the army.

A very small percentage.

Fedyashin: In the united states,

You see the evolution
of this fear of penetration

In the american public,

Which really paves the way
for mccarthyism.

Wellerstein: And it's just
a very dangerous, ugly time

In american politics.

Narrator: No one seems
to know who to trust,

So they trust no one.

Kuznick: The americans
become obsessed with secrecy

In a way
we had never been before.

J. Edgar hoover:
We ask every citizen

To immediately report
any information

Regarding espionage, sabotage,
or un-american activities.

Kuznick: It becomes an obsession

For j. Edgar hoover, the fbi,

And the congressional
investigators.

They begin
to question the loyalty

Of people like
robert oppenheimer.

Narrator:
J. Robert oppenheimer,

The man who led
the manhattan project

At los alamos.

Wellerstein:
J. Robert oppenheimer

Was an american
theoretical physicist

And was considered
extremely brilliant

From a very young age.

Narrator: With the war over,

The future of the american
nuclear program

Is up for debate.

Conflicts arise
between oppenheimer

And a former
friend and colleague,

One of the world's
leading physicists--

Edward teller.

Wellerstein: Teller became
a major advocate for building

Not just nuclear weapons,

But thermonuclear weapons.

This is a weapon
that was imagined as being

Easily a thousand times
more powerful.

Narrator:
Oppenheimer isn't convinced.

And he wasn't alone.

Hershberg: Some of
the scientists who opposed it--

Most importantly,

The general advisory committee

To the u.S.
Atomic energy commission...

They unanimously voted against
building the hydrogen bomb.

Several of its members said,

"this is a weapon

That's too large
for any military target.

It would constitute
a weapon of genocide.

It would be evil."

Narrator:
Teller becomes the h-bomb's

Most outspoken champion.

Wellerstein: He felt that
if the soviet union, especially,

Got the atomic bomb,

Then the proper response

Was to get the hydrogen bomb
in the united states,

That you always had to stay
one step ahead.

He eventually came to see
anybody who stood in the way

Of progress in
nuclear weapons development

As potentially being traitorous.

Narrator: Teller teams up
with lewis strauss,

Powerful chairman of
the atomic energy commission

And another aggressive supporter
of the h-bomb.

Kuznick: Strauss was
particularly bitter

Toward oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer had no respect
for strauss.

Oppenheimer even ridiculed him.

Narrator: Teller and strauss
decide that oppenheimer

Can no longer be trusted with
america's nuclear secrets.

Wellerstein:
This is a conspiracy.

There is an active conspiracy

Between people
like strauss, teller,

Several other
scientists as well.

Narrator:
They get a chance to act

When a letter reaches
president eisenhower,

Accusing oppenheimer
of being a soviet agent.

Wellerstein: Oppenheimer's past

Is starting to become
a major liability.

In the 1930s,
he became very active

In sort of far-left
communist causes.

Kuznick: We don't know for sure

If oppenheimer himself
was in the communist party,

But everybody around him,

Including his wife, his brother,
his brother's wife,

All of his graduate students,

They were all
in the communist party.

Narrator: Eisenhower revokes
his security clearance.

In response,
oppenheimer demands a hearing.

Wellerstein: The hearing
is not supposed to be a trial,

But it plays out
a lot like a trial.

It's very adversarial.

It turns out to be

A really awful experience
for oppenheimer.

Every decision he made,

Every failure
he had in his life,

The fact that he had
mistresses and affairs,

The fact that he had lied
to security officers...

All of this comes out.

Narrator: Teller is one
of the last to testify.

Kuznick: Teller says

That he would rather see
somebody else in that position,

And he basically says
he doesn't trust oppenheimer.

Narrator: After 19 days,

The commission
announces its decision.

Wellerstein: Though they do say

That they don't have any
evidence that he was a spy

And they don't
really have any evidence

That he was disloyal,

What they eventually conclude
was he's unreliable at times.

Narrator:
His clearance revoked,

Oppenheimer is forced
into scientific exile.

He lives out his life
a broken man.

But it turns out

The deck was stacked
against oppenheimer.

A series of crucial
declassifications

Reveal what really happened.

His defense team had
their hands tied from the start.

Without the necessary
security clearance,

They couldn't even review many
of the charges against him.

They were removed from the room

When the prosecution presented
classified evidence.

They were also being wiretapped.

May 2009.

Notebooks made with special
access to kgb archives

Are released,

Confirming that oppenheimer
was never involved

In soviet espionage.

Wellerstein:
It wasn't until 2014 or so

That the department of energy

Re-looked
at all of these hearings

And decided
what could be released,

And the answer is everything
can be released at this point.

Narrator: The October 2014
declassification

Was the biggest of all--

19 volumes of transcripts
from the hearing,

Much of which
would have supported

Oppenheimer's public claims
of innocence.

Wellerstein:
Oppenheimer was shattered

By the whole experience
of the hearing

And its consequences.

He ended up sort of retiring
to an island in the caribbean

And essentially
drinking himself to death.

Narrator: For many,
he is another example

Of an innocent victim
of the red scare.

Wellerstein:
He became really a martyr.

He became a symbol
of a muzzle on people,

A sort of punishment
for their political positions.

Narrator:
As anti-communist politics

Continue to dominate america,

The country embraces
teller's vision

Of its nuclear future.

The device he first called
"the super,"

The h-bomb.

[explosion]

Beginning in 1952,

The u.S. Films dozens
of thermonuclear tests,

Studying the frightening power
of the h-bomb.

These images were only
recently declassified.

[explosion]

America has built
the most destructive weapon

The world has ever seen.

Is it prepared to use it?

In the 1950s,

The u.S. Nuclear arsenal
expands at an astonishing rate,

From 50 weapons
at the start of the decade

To 12,000 at the end.

The official policy
is that we have them

So that we don't
have to use them.

But in 2015,

A declassified battle plan shows

That it wasn't
all defensive posturing.

Here's how america planned
to fight world war iii.

Norris: You just can't
leave these weapons around.

You have to plan for their use,

And there was,
at the end of the eisenhower

And the beginning of
the kennedy administrations,

The creation of
real nuclear war plans.

These war plans
are highly secret.

Narrator:
"the strategic air command

Atomic weapons requirements
study for 1959"

Is the most complete
u.S. Battle plan

Ever declassified.

Kuznick:
The most frightening thing

Is the assumption

That any war between
the united states and russia

Is gonna go nuclear
almost immediately.

Narrator: Sac's plan?

Respond with nukes.

Lots of them.

Kuznick: The american policy

Was to shoot off
our entire arsenal at once.

Not a graduated
step-by-step escalation,

But to shoot it all off
at once.

Narrator:
The 800-page battle plan

Breaks down
into two types of targets--

Military installations...

Wellerstein:
You do strategic bombing

To destroy the enemy's
ability to wage war.

And this means
you hit the military bases

And their airfields
and things like that.

Narrator: And what the report
euphemistically calls

"urban-industrial complexes."

Wellerstein:
But it also means destroying

Their entire industrial
infrastructure as well,

And that means
destroying cities.

Narrator: Targets include

Major population centers
spread across china,

The soviet union,

And eastern europe,

With moscow
at the top of the list.

Over a thousand in all.

Wellerstein: There's probably
going to be a lot of fallout

That will go onto
your allies as well.

The idea was you could destroy
the entire soviet union

Within three to ten hours or so.

And so the hope was,
maybe you'd lose europe,

But united states would survive.

Narrator:
The battle plan assumes

The civilian population
will be hit hard

To destroy the enemy's
will to fight.

Wellerstein: The u.S. Government
has not liked to acknowledge

That many of
its targeting policies

Would have huge
civilian casualties.

It's not typically the policy
of the government to say

We target civilians directly.

That's sort of like a war crime.

Narrator:
As the plan gets updated,

It still includes
massive collateral damage.

Wellerstein: The internal
government estimates

For how many soviet citizens
would die in this kind of thing

Are, you know,
hundreds of millions.

It's a huge number.

Kuznick: Over 600 million dead
from america's weapons alone.

That doesn't even account
for any soviet retaliation.

Narrator:
The cold, brutal calculations

That will obliterate
huge parts of the planet.

Were we really ready
to push the button?

It's all there in any of
that era's battle plans.

America,
leader of the free world,

Is prepared to destroy it.

Wellerstein: The idea was,
if it comes to that,

We just want to
wipe them off the earth

And be done with it,

And we'll have to deal with
the consequences of that.

Man: If north america
is under attack

By a hostile force
of manned bombers,

It would, as you have just seen,

Be subjected to a continuous,
intensively devastating attack,

From as far out as possible,

With every type of lethal weapon
in our air defense arsenal.

[explosion]

Narrator:
If there is a third world war,

There won't be
winners and losers

In the traditional sense.

And most likely,

Nobody left for either side
to negotiate with.

Mutually assured destruction

Becomes the atomic age's
most infamous doctrine--

One the world hopes
will never be put into action.

Many scientists still think

That there might be
more peaceful possibilities

For the atomic age.

Kuznick: From the beginning,

Many of the scientists
had a dream

That nuclear power would
be used for beneficial purposes,

For life-affirming purposes,

Not just for
destructive purposes.

Wellerstein:
A lot of the scientists

Who worked on this

Saw it as being potentially
extremely useful

For medicine, for research,

For even changing
food production.

They were hoping--

Almost hoping against hope--

That this wouldn't just be used
for exterminating cities.

Narrator:
In December 1946,

The first successful treatment
of a patient with thyroid cancer

Using a radioisotope

Is reported in medical journals.

Isotopes are created
from nuclear reactions.

Announcer: Capturing
the atom's probing power,

Science has found
a powerful new tool

To study and defeat sickness

And make a healthier,
happier life

For the benefit of all mankind.

Narrator:
Many other atomic plans

Border on science fiction.

Wellerstein: Some of these ideas
are relatively modest.

Some of them are completely,
in retrospect, outlandish.

Kuznick: We were going to
reroute rivers.

We were going to
change mountain ranges.

We were going to change
the surface of the earth.

We even had plans to change
the direction of hurricanes

By dropping hydrogen bombs

Alongside
the eye of the hurricane.

Narrator:
Some of the wildest ideas

Come close to being approved,

Like an artificial harbor
in alaska

To be excavated
with five detonations.

[explosions]

Wellerstein: Project orion
would use thermonuclear weapons

To accelerate a spaceship.

Announcer: The technology needed
to build a nuclear rocket

Is well advanced.

Nuclear rocket propulsion

Will expand our ability
to explore space.

Narrator: In the beginning,

The promises for atomic science
were out of this world.

[explosion]

But the reality
quickly crashes back to earth.

Wellerstein: On the whole,
it isn't the thing

Where everybody has, you know,
a nuclear pill that they take

And it cures them
of all their diseases.

But these things
are what happen

When you get
very creative people and say,

"find a use for this
that isn't just killing people."

Narrator: But the real
spending and progress

On nuclear technology

Continues to be powered
by the military--

Often in secret.

Announcer:
Even the atom may release

Its giant strength for aircraft.

The atomic energy commission,

The air force,
and general electric

Are already cooperating
on an atomic power plant

For an aircraft
to be built by convair.

Narrator: The air force
commissions a project

To build the world's first
nuclear-powered plane.

Details of the propulsion system
are classified.

September 1955.

A specially adapted
convair xb-36h bomber

Rolls out
for its first flight...

With a fully functioning
nuclear reactor on board.

It's the first
of 47 test flights.

Although active,

The reactor never provides
power to the engines.

In 1961,

The project
is scrapped for good.

But there were still high hopes
for nuclear propulsion systems.

They just weren't in the sky.

Announcer: This is the story
of the nautilus,

The world's first
atomic-powered submarine

And the world's first use of
nuclear fission for propulsion.

Narrator: In June 1952,

President truman
characterizes nautilus

As a breakthrough event
for nuclear science.

Harry truman: This ship will be
something new in the world.

The heat in her boilers
will be created

By the same force
that heats the sun.

Narrator:
Converting a fission reaction

Into propulsion

Marked a milestone
in atomic science.

The nautilus, in theory,

Could cruise around the world
without refueling,

Powered by a lump of uranium
the size of a golf ball.

The u.S. Publicly touts it

As the most advanced sub
of its day.

But the details
of its real breakthrough,

Nuclear-powered propulsion,

Are highly classified,

Then and now.

Announcer:
On April 25, 1958,

The nautilus departed
her home port

Of new london, connecticut.

Destination--the pacific,
by way of the panama canal.

Narrator: It begins a mission
code-named operation sunshine.

In late July,
it reaches hawaii,

And the naval base
at pearl harbor.

What happens next
is so top-secret,

It's known to only
the ship's crew,

A few high-ranking
navy officials,

And the president.

Officially, nautilus
will sail south first,

To the equator,

Then on to panama.

Instead, she submerges
and heads north

On a three-week journey.

Announcer:
Unseen, beneath the sea,

The nautilus journeyed north,

To the edge
of the arctic ice-pack.

Then, under.

The voyage to the north pole
was underway.

Narrator: The nautilus
is attempting to become

The first vessel to sail
under the north pole.

The proposed route has them
traveling up the bering sea,

Under the pole,

And emerging at greenland.

Announcer:
All hands on the nautilus

Knew their destination

And the perilous route they were
to follow in reaching it.

Above, a continent of ice
covering the arctic sea.

And ahead, 1,800 miles
of cold, watery darkness.

Narrator: Running blind
in the cold, dark depths,

The nautilus clears

A vast uncharted
underwater mountain range,

Reaches deep water again,

And closes in
on the top of the world.

Captain: All hands,
this is the captain speaking.

In a few moments,
nautilus will realize a goal

Long sought by those
who have sailed the seas--

The attaining of the north pole.

8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Mark.

For the usa and the u.S. Navy,

The north pole.

Narrator: 36 hours later,

The sub surfaces,

And america
quickly tells the world

About operation sunshine.

The u.S. Trumpets it
as a scientific miracle.

Announcer:
Nautilus had made history.

The men of the nautilus

Had blazed a trail
under the arctic pack

Which reduced the distance
from the orient to europe

By almost half.

Narrator: But the soviet union

Gets a very different message.

America has put a submarine
on its doorstep--

A sub that may soon carry
nuclear missiles.

Announcer: At once
a formidable fighting ship

And a forerunner
of commercial atomic power,

The nautilus heralds a new era
of the atomic age.

♪

Narrator:
The need to demonstrate

The ability to strike the enemy

Will become a hallmark
of the cold war.

♪

April 1962.

John kennedy's popularity
hits an all-time high,

With many citing his firm hand
with the soviets.

That October,

He'll face the ultimate test
of the atomic age.

Kuznick: Khrushchev decided
he could both protect cuba

And restore
some of the imbalance

In nuclear capabilities

If he puts nuclear weapons
into cuba.

Narrator:
The cuban missile crisis.

Soviet ships carrying nukes
approach the island,

Just 100 miles
off the florida coast.

Kuznick: It was a reckless,
foolhardy, crazy thing to do.

John kennedy: It shall be
the policy of this nation

To regard any nuclear missile
launched from cuba

Against any nation
in the western hemisphere

As an attack by the soviet union
on the united states,

Requiring a full
retaliatory response

Upon the soviet union.

Narrator: As the world
watches and waits,

Even the american president
is unaware

Of the two greatest dangers
he's facing--

Two secrets that won't
be revealed for decades...

Two stories of how close
the world really came

To all-out nuclear war.

[roaring]

♪

October 1962.

Soviet ships carrying missiles
approach cuba.

U.S. Forces are at defcon 2,

The highest state of alert ever.

The next step, defcon 1--

A shooting war.

Kuznick:
Kennedy declares a blockade,

Which is also an act of war,

But he calls it a quarantine

In order to make it seem
a little more palatable.

Narrator:
More than 230 american warships

Spread out along
the sea lanes into cuba,

Awaiting the soviet response.

It will become
one of the most famous moments

Of the cold war.

But it wasn't until 1992

That we found out
the official version

Wasn't the whole story.

Kuznick: The soviet ships

Are heading toward
the quarantine line.

A sub, accompanying
some of those ships,

Is spotted by
the american cruisers

And destroyers.

Narrator: The american ships

Start dropping
special depth charges,

About the size of grenades.

Wellerstein: The soviets think

That the united states
is trying to sink them,

That this is
the beginning of the war.

Why else would we be
attacking a military vessel?

They didn't realize
that our protocol

For a destroyer
to make a sub surface

Is to drop sort of
mock depth charges on it,

Not trying to kill it,

But to signal to it
in a very rough way

That they should surface.

Narrator: We now know
that was almost a fatal mistake.

Kuznick:
The americans had no idea

That they had
nuclear weapons on board.

Narrator: Or that the sub's
three senior officers

Had the authority
to launch those nukes.

But only if the decision
was unanimous.

Kuznick:
The soviets' commander

Gives the order to launch
the nuclear torpedo.

Wellerstein: One of the other
high-ranking officers

Says, "ok, that sounds good,"

And then the last
high-ranking officer,

A guy named arkapov,

Says "no, we're not
gonna do that.

I will not approve of that."

That's how close it comes.

One vote, one person.

Narrator: Another of
the cold war's biggest what-ifs.

Kuznick: Had that happened,

They would have
taken out the u.S. Fleet,

The u.S. Would have
definitely taken out cuba,

But very likely would have
taken out the soviet union.

Narrator:
That wasn't the only near miss

We didn't know about.

Aerial reconnaissance
had brought back evidence

Of missile site preparation
in cuba.

If operational,

They could strike almost
anywhere in the united states.

In response,

American military leaders
urge kennedy

To authorize an attack
on mainland cuba.

Kuznick: The military leaders
want to bomb the missile sites

And invade and overthrow
the cuban government.

Kennedy resists.

Narrator:
In the days that follow,

An american u-2 spy plane
is shot down,

And u.S. Troops
are ready for invasion.

After a 13-day standoff,

Kennedy and khrushchev
strike a deal.

It's over.

The soviets pack up their nukes
and go home.

History records it

As president kennedy's
finest hour--

The day he stood up
to the soviets,

Kept nukes out of cuba,

And saved the world.

But as so often
in the atomic age,

Declassified secrets
tell a very different story.

Wellerstein: The biggest myth
of the cuban missile crisis

That was common
for decades and decades

Is that the united states
stopped the soviet union

From putting
nuclear weapons on cuba.

It was not until the 1990s

That we found out that we had
not stopped them,

That there were already
nuclear weapons on the island.

Narrator: Smaller short-range
tactical nuclear missiles.

Battlefield nukes.

Wellerstein: There were several
operational missiles

Already ready to go

That would have been used
if the united states

Had attempted
a military invasion of cuba.

Kuznick: Mcnamara,
when he heard that,

He turned white.

Narrator:
Because as secretary of defense,

Robert mcnamara knows
how close america came

To invading cuba.

Wellerstein: But if we had
actually done that,

We would have
certainly gotten into

At least a limited nuclear war,

And that easily
could have sped out of control

Into a much larger nuclear war.

Narrator:
Those thirteen days in October

Brought us even closer
than we ever thought

To nuclear war.

What we didn't know
almost killed us.

Fedyashin:
The cuban missile crisis

Was a great example

Of how a hair-trigger decision
by a submarine captain

Or a battery defense unit
on the island of cuba

Could have precipitated
a full-out conflict,

Potentially
with a nuclear exchange,

Which, thank god,
never happened.

Narrator: When you're always
prepared for a nuclear attack,

It means you're always
on the brink of world war iii.

And all it takes is one mistake
for it to start.

January 24, 1961.

275 miles
south of washington,

In faro, north carolina,

A u.S. Air force b-52
declares an emergency.

[beeping]

It carries two 4-megaton
thermonuclear bombs.

H-bombs.

260 times the explosive force

Of the bomb
that destroyed hiroshima.

The plane
is part of an operation

Code-named chrome dome.

Announcer: This, our country
and all its people,

Could be in danger
of nuclear attack--

In minutes by enemy missiles;

In hours by enemy aircraft.

To avoid surprise disaster,

Some of our aircraft must always
be in the sky or on the alert,

Carrying nuclear weapons.

Narrator: It's one of up to 12
b-52s carrying nuclear payloads

That are in the air
at all times,

Ready for the order
to strike the soviet union.

Norris: They would fly up to
the borders of the soviet union,

And turn around and come back.

Narrator: The plan works
to keep the soviets on edge.

Wellerstein: But there's
a certain number of hours

You can fly a bomber

Before you're gonna
expect it to crash.

[explosion]

Narrator: Crashed bombers
with nuclear payloads.

Lost nukes.

It happens often enough,
there's a name for it.

Norris:
The phrase "broken arrow"

Has to do with
a nuclear weapon accident.

To be a broken arrow,
it has to...

It's a pretty serious accident.

Narrator: January 17, 1966.

Palomares, Spain.

A small fishing village
and beach town

On the mediterranean coast.

An american b-52
carrying four h-bombs

Collides with a tanker
at 29,000 feet

And breaks up in mid-air.

Norris: A strategic
air command bomber

Filled with bombs

Dropped the weapons,

Some which landed on land

And one that went
into the mediterranean.

Narrator: The official line
is that a plane has crashed

And spread hazardous material
on the ground.

In fact, as the press finds out,

A nuclear weapon is missing
somewhere in the mediterranean.

Reporter:
Cruisers and destroyers

With sonar equipment

Have been trying to locate
the lost bomb

And also
screening the approaches

Against enemy spies.

Narrator: It takes two months
just to find the sunken weapon.

A mini-sub eventually
hauls it to the surface.

It was intact,

But two of the other three bombs
actually exploded.

They became
accidental "dirty bombs,"

Spreading traces of toxic
plutonium dust for miles.

American troops remove
truckloads of contaminated dirt

For months.

Norris: And this still goes on.

I mean, I think we're still
bringing back soil from Spain

That is laden with plutonium
that's a serious health hazard.

Narrator: At least
all four bombs were recovered.

Some broken arrows
are never found.

Kuznick: There was
another incident in 1968

In thule, greenland,

Which, again,
nuclear bombs were dropped.

Narrator: A crippled b-52

Patrolling near
the arctic circle

Is attempting
an emergency landing.

The crew of seven bails out.

One dies.

The plane crashes
onto the sea-ice.

There's no nuclear detonation.

But once again,

The impact,
conventional explosion,

And resulting fire

Create the effect
of a dirty bomb,

Spreading
radioactive material for miles.

Cleanup crews
battle a frozen wasteland.

Average temperature--
negative 40 degrees fahrenheit.

Crews work around the clock

To remove a quarter
of a million cubic feet

Of contaminated ice and snow

Before it melts into the sea.

The military claims
all four nukes

Are recovered
at the crash site.

But a 2008 report alleges

That one of the bombs
still lies on the sea floor.

Closer to home,
in January 1961,

In north carolina,

A b-52 attempting
an emergency landing

Never makes it back to base.

Wellerstein: This bomber sort of
disintegrates into the air,

It sorts of breaks apart
very violently,

And these two weapons are sort
of flung out of the bomber bay.

Narrator:
Pieces of the bomber rain down

Onto the small
farming town of faro.

One bomb floats to earth
after its parachute deploys.

The other crashes into a field.

The pentagon
claims neither weapon

Was ever in danger
of exploding.

But a 2013
freedom of information request

Reveals that one of the weapons

Had virtually completed
the arming sequence.

Wellerstein: This bomb

Actually attempted
to arm itself and fire.

It went through all--just a very
set of freak accidents,

And fortunately didn't.

Narrator:
One switch like this one,

Out of four,

Prevents a nuclear disaster.

Kuznick: If that other
small switch didn't hold,

Then that nuclear bomb
would have detonated.

We would have lost
a significant portion

Of the east coast
of the united states.

Narrator:
When its chute doesn't open,

The second bomb
slams into the ground,

Sinking more than 150 feet deep.

It takes three days
of frantic digging to find it.

Wellerstein: They found that
its switch was armed.

So if that one switch

Had been in the other bomb
at that time,

The bomb would have
completely, legitimately

Thought that it was
ready to explode.

Narrator: The military
removes the nuclear fuel

At the bomb's core.

But the uranium trigger
is never located.

A nuclear detonator
is still buried

In that north carolina field.

In 1968, operation chrome dome,

Keeping nukes in the air 24-7,

Is abandoned.

[explosion]

To date, the u.S. Military
admits to 32 broken arrows.

Information about 21
has been declassified.

11 remain top-secret.

[explosion]

November 9, 1989.

The berlin wall falls.

Many hope five decades
of paranoia and suspicion

Crumble with it.

Norris: There was
great joy and enthusiasm

That perhaps
the cold war would be over.

The russians weren't coming,

Which had been a rationale
all along through the decades.

Narrator: With the fall
of the soviet union,

The atomic age's hidden stories
are finally being declassified,

And americans are finding out

What we were willing to do
to fight the cold war

And protect our secrets.

Wellerstein: In the 1990s,
after the cold war ended,

Many americans
had a sort of reckoning

With what had happened.

How did we get to the state
of almost killing ourselves off?

How did we get to the state

Of having tens of thousands
of nuclear weapons?

How did we get into a place
of having all these secrets

About doing things that seemed
not just anti-american,

But, you know,
unethical by any standard?

Narrator:
The obsession with secrecy,

Born with the bomb,

Is a legacy of the atomic age.

America still keeps its secrets.

Which ones are we keeping now?

Clinton: I saw this

As an indispensable
part of our effort

To restore the confidence
of the american people

In the integrity
of their government--

That, at the very least,

They could trust
the united states government

To tell the truth
and to do the right things.