All language subtitles for Secrets.Declassified.with.David.Duchovny.S02E01.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[David] Tonight on
"Secrets Declassified,"

the close calls that nearly
triggered Armageddon

and the doomsday plans
designed to survive it.

From the Soviet
secret nuclear train...

[Hakeem] It looks like
a normal railway car,

but on the inside is
Armageddon on rails.

- To NATO war games that pushed
the Kremlin to red alert.

- The Soviets could have nukes
in the air within 30 minutes.

- Or a Soviet submariner
standing alone

to prevent nuclear apocalypse.

- If he just follows orders,
the planet is done.

- These are the astonishing
and sometimes terrible things

done by governments and
the people who work for them.

It's time to bring
them to light.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

A moving target is
harder to hit.

So when the Kremlin wants
to shield

its nuclear launch sites
from a U.S. first strike,

it doesn't just
camouflage them.

It puts them on wheels.

[tense music]

[Don] It's late 1983,
and the Kremlin is panicking.

The U.S. has just deployed

new Pershing II missiles
in West Germany.

And the Soviets believe
these missiles can hit

Moscow in under 10 minutes.

- The Communists are concerned
that a surprise attack

could take out
all of their nuclear silos

before they have an opportunity
to counterattack.

So the Soviets need
a new mobile missile system

that they can hide
from the U.S.

and launch from anywhere.

[David] Soviet war planners
find a solution

hiding in plain sight:
the Soviet rail system.

- The Soviet Union is enormous.

It runs across 11 time zones

and has 100,000 miles
of railway running over it.

[Don] This huge rail network
is bigger

than the U.S.'s entire
interstate highway system.

[Greg] The thinking is that,

if they put an ICBM
on a train,

they can run it across
all of this track,

across 11 time zones, leaving
the Americans never knowing

just where it might
actually be.

[David] The Kremlin hands
the top-secret project

to a proven rocket scientist,
Vladimir Utkin.

[Greg] Utkin is something
of a genius.

He's one of the best rocket
scientists in the Soviet Union.

- His team has already
built the Soviet's

most powerful ICBM,
a monster nicknamed Satan.

[Greg]
Even Utkin is a little daunted

by the task before him.

He calls it
"amazing in its grandeur,"

which I'm pretty sure is
Russian for "this is insane."

[David] Utkin now has to
design a missile that

can be safely launched
not from a concrete silo

but from a train.

- At the time,
the Soviet Union is using

what's called a hot launch
for ICBM rockets.

Basically, this means
that the engine ignites,

and as it does,
out come the exhaust fumes,

and that's what's firing
the rocket off into the air.

[Hakeem] These fumes coming
out of the rocket can reach

temperatures similar to that
at the surface of the sun,

around 10,000 degrees
Fahrenheit.

So what you're
going to end up with

is tracks and railroad cars
that have been reduced

to puddles of liquid metal.

[Greg]
So Utkin developed something

called a cold launch,
and this uses compressed gas

to launch the rocket instead.

Basically, think of it
like popping the cork

on a champagne bottle.

♪ ♪

- Once it's safely in the air
and away from the railroad car,

it fires up
its conventional engines,

and off it goes.

♪ ♪

[David]
It's a win for Utkin,

but now he faces
another challenge.

Normal ICBMs are
just too big to fit

in a Soviet train carriage.

- To stay hidden,
Utkin needs to fit

his new missile system inside
a standard sized freight car.

[Greg]
That's a problem.

Freight cars are
about 80 feet long,

and Satan is 120 feet long.

The math just doesn't work.

[David]
Utkin's solution is ingenious.

[Greg] Now, Utkin can't
shrink the rocket,

nor can he expand
the freight car.

However, he could do
something with the nose.

So he decides to make
the nose collapsible.

- He creates a kind
of origami design

made of corrugated metal, which
folds down inside the rocket

like an accordion.

- Once it's launched,

compressed gases
reinflate the nose cone,

returning it to its perfect
aerodynamic shape.

♪ ♪

[David] - Utkin calls his new
missle the Molodets,

Russian for "good job."

Now he just needs
a train to put it on.

[Hakeem] So the Soviets
create what is known

as the combat railway
missile system.

[Greg] It looks completely
ordinary on the outside,

but it's got a missile
on the inside.

This is Armageddon on wheels.

[Hakeem] When it's time for
the missiles to launch,

the first thing that happens
is hydraulic legs extend

out of the train
and touch down on the ground

in order to stabilize
the train car.

An arm comes out of the top

to move any power lines
out of the way.

The roof splits open, and the
Molodets missile goes vertical

and is ready to launch.

[David] Starting in 1987,
the Soviets built 12

top secret
nuclear ghost trains,

which patrolled
the railways for years,

completely unknown
to the public,

but not to the CIA.

- Only in 1999, the CIA
declassifies its files

on the apocalypse express.

♪ ♪

The files show that the CIA
did know about these trains

from their spies back
in the 1980s.

♪ ♪

[David]- The files also revealed
that the Soviet camouflage

was startlingly effective.

- The U.S. knew that
the trains existed.

But frustratingly,
they couldn't find them.

So even if the U.S. struck
all of their fixed silos,

the Soviets would still
be able to launch

a devastating
retaliatory strike

from their hidden
nuclear trains.

The system worked perfectly.

♪ ♪

- From doomsday trains
to doomsday planes,

when nuclear missiles
start flying,

most governments
head underground.

But not the U.S. president.

He heads to a
command center built

to survive Armageddon,

one that hides 30,000 feet
up in the air.

♪ ♪

[Sami] In the aftermath of
the attacks of September 11th,

there is absolute panic,

and a bigger question
starts to form.

Will other attacks be coming?

[David] Just minutes after
the assault on the Pentagon,

observers in the capital
are terrified

by another potential
threat in the sky.

- People spot this
mysterious aircraft

circling above Washington D.C.,

like it's watching over
the city in lockdown.

[David] The aircraft looks
like a jumbo jet

with one key difference.

- If you look at the plane
and you compare it

to a traditional 747,

there's a big hump
on the back of the plane.

- Confusion turns to fear.

News agencies scramble
to find out if this aircraft

is friend or foe.

[David] To calm the public,
Pentagon sources come clean.

The plane is one of theirs.

♪ ♪

It's President
George W. Bush's wartime ride,

the E-4B, known to insiders
as the Doomsday Plane.

♪ ♪

- This is essentially a nuclear
command and control in the air.

- Now President Bush's secret
apocalypse escape machine

has been exposed to the world.

- With President Bush
in Florida,

its 9/11 mission is a mystery.

[Sami] People wonder
if the government knew

something was going to happen

and launched the Doomsday Plane
in advance.

But in reality, it just so
happens that the Doomsday Plane

is actually engaged
in a standard drill

while the attacks are ongoing.

[David] Now the press
and public want to know

more about the plane.

Is the strange hump concealing
a weapon system?

The government decides
to open up.

- The administration gives
journalists permission

to film inside so the public
can see the inner workings

of the Doomsday Plane.

- The E-4B Doomsday Plane's
been in service

out of the public eye
since 1980.

Now the government reveals
it is a fully functional

Pentagon in the sky.

♪ ♪

- The Doomsday Plane can
support up to 112 personnel.

You've got a command center,
a conference room,

even a briefing room where
the president can address

whatever's left of the nation.

Further back, you've got
the operations area,

where 30 specialists sit
glued to their screens,

monitoring intel and the status
of every U.S. asset worldwide.

[Sami] One way to think
of this thing

is like an underground
bunker with wings.

[David] The Pentagon
also reveals what's inside

the mysterious hump.

It's the plane's vital heart,

allowing the president
to command a nuclear war

from the skies.

- Inside that hump is
the most sophisticated

communication suite that's
ever been put into the air.

It has 67 satellite dishes
to ensure that,

even if one form
of communication fails,

there are lots of backups.

- The hump allows the president
to speak to anybody, anywhere

across the surface
of the world,

as long as they can
answer a phone.

[David]
If World War III breaks out,

the most important people
for the president to contact

may not be on the surface

but lurking deep down
at the bottom of the ocean.

- Coiled up in the belly
of the Doomsday Plane

is a 5-mile-long wire antenna.

And in a worst-case scenario,

it can be unspooled
behind the aircraft.

[Evy] The wire transmits very
low frequency radio signals.

These radio signals
are the only ones

capable of penetrating beneath
the surface of the water

to communicate with U.S.
nuclear armed submarines.

[Sami] This simple wire
lets the president

give the subs that final

apocalyptic order
to retaliate and unleash hell.

♪ ♪

So even if the nation
is a graveyard,

its capacity for vengeance
is very much alive.

♪ ♪

[David] The tragedy of 9/11
exposed the president's

top secret E-4B Doomsday Plane
to the public.

It's still on duty

but in a world
of heightened tensions.

In 2024, the Air Force awards
a $13 billion contract

to create an
upgraded replacement.

The details
of those improvements

remain
a tightly guarded secret.

Coming up, the Pentagon builds

a wonder weapon so dangerous,
they don't dare test it.

[Hakeem] This monster is
an apocalypse machine

powered by an unshielded
nuclear reactor.

[David] And later, on the most
dangerous day in history,

a lone Soviet submariner must
decide the fate of the planet.

- If he gives the word,
he could start World War III.

♪ ♪

- Nuclear weapons are designed
to instill fear into the enemy.

But in the 1950s, the U.S.
builds an apocalypse machine

of such awesome power,
even its makers are

terrified to test it.

They call it
the Flying Crowbar.

[tense music]

- By 1957, in Washington,
there's a new paranoia.

The Soviets have
just introduced

the world's first ICBM,

or Intercontinental
Ballistic Missile.

So now the Soviets are
capable of striking us first

before we can retaliate.

- The Pentagon decides
they need a wonder weapon.

They want something
so terrifyingly overwhelming

that Moscow won't even dare
start a war with the U.S.

[David] They turn to the home
of the H-bomb,

Lawrence Livermore Labs
in California.

- At Livermore, they hand
the responsibility

for creating
this monster machine

to 37-year-old associate
director Ted Merkle.

[Don] Merkle assembles
a dream team,

the sharpest engineers and
nuclear scientists he can find.

Their job is to invent the most
devastating weapon possible.

- The stakes are so high,

he's given a budget
of $230 million a year

in today's money
to bring this vision to life.

[David] The result should be
so hellishly deadly

that the mission is codenamed
after the Roman god

of the underworld,

Project Pluto.

- Merkle envisions
a missile-bomber hybrid

with no human crew, like
a gigantic nuclear-armed drone.

He wants it to be able to lurk
for days at high altitude.

And he wants to pack not 1,
but 16 nukes.

[David] Soon Merkle settles
on a design for the weapon

based on
a stainless steel shell

nearly 100 feet long.

It's brutally simple,
designed for destruction,

so Merkle calls it
the Flying Crowbar.

First, the Crowbar needs
a game-changing engine

to make it airborne.

- To keep it in
the air for days,

carrying 50,000 pounds
of bombs,

Merkle comes up with
a solution straight out

of atomic-age science fiction.

He's going to power the Crowbar
using a nuclear reactor.

[Hakeem] Typically,
a nuclear reactor has

a lot of shielding
so that people are

protected from the radiation
that it produces.

But all that shielding is just
too darn heavy for a missile.

And given that this
aircraft is unmanned,

Merkle decides to just
ditch the shielding

and save all that weight.

So now you have
an unshielded nuclear reactor.

- By the early 1960s,
Merkle's team has

a full-scale
engine prototype ready.

Now they need to test it.

♪ ♪

[Hakeem]
You can't just fire up

an unshielded
nuclear reactor anywhere.

You need a place
where you can make

a big, giant nuclear wasteland.

So they find a location
of 8 square miles

in Jackass Flats, Nevada.

- Once the reactor starts,

the radiation will
make it deadly.

- Merkle's team builds
a thick-walled concrete bunker

for the reactor
to be tested inside of

and a second concrete bunker

for his team to observe
the tests.

[Dan] To solve the problem
of how to move the reactor

once it's running hot,

they build
a two-mile railroad track

and its very own
remote-controlled rail car

to move it into position.

[David] On May 22, 1964,
the Flying Crowbar's

full-sized nuclear reactor
engine rolls out

for its make-or-break test.

- The engine is a monster--
9 feet long,

5 feet in diameter,
weighing 10,000 pounds.

[Dan] When the test starts,
the roar is deafening.

The reactor glows as
it hits 2,500 degrees.

That's so hot that
it melts lead bricks

placed under the tracks.

♪ ♪

[David] The test lasts
for just five minutes.

♪ ♪

Project Pluto's
nuclear-powered engine

is a success.

Once it's been deployed,

it will drive the Crowbar
at Mach 3

on an apocalyptic
multi-stage attack run.

- So there are four
big threats associated

with the Flying Crowbar.

Number one is the shock wave
it produces.

Because the weapon is
traveling at Mach 3,

it's producing a shock wave

that can flatten buildings.

Number two is the
unshielded nuclear reactor

that's powering it.

When it's flying,
it's, of course, leaving

a path of radioactivity
as it flies.

- It's carrying a payload
of 16 nuclear weapons.

It can drop them one at a time,

each with the power
to destroy a city.

And lastly, the Crowbar
itself is a bomb.

So it can be programmed
to target one final bullseye

and take it out.

♪ ♪

- It will be
horrifyingly efficient.

[David] The nuclear reactor
engine works on the ground.

Now the Pluto team needs
to flight test

the Flying Crowbar
in real-world skies.

- Where on Earth can you flight
test a weapon that devastating?

The Nevada test range is
way too close to Las Vegas,

and even the Pacific
test areas are too risky.

[David] While the Pluto team
are grappling

with this thorny problem,

a newer, simpler missile
steals the Crowbar's thunder.

[Martin] While it was
under development,

we finished the development
of our Minuteman

intercontinental
ballistic missile.

Once we had the Minuteman,
we didn't really need

the Flying Crowbar any longer.

- Only months after
a successful reactor test,

Project Pluto is
quietly canceled.

It has cost the equivalent
of $2 billion.

- Project Pluto is
not only shockingly expensive,

it's a totally indiscriminate
weapon of mass destruction.

So the government
buries the details

under top secret classification
for decades.

- Finally, in 2015,
the Department of Energy

and the Air Force declassify
an extraordinary document.

♪ ♪

It details how truly deadly

the Flying Crowbar
would have been.

[Sami] It shows the United
States government was willing

to try just about anything
to give it an advantage

over the Soviet Union.

Project Pluto would
have been one

of the most devastating
weapons ever created.

♪ ♪

[David] Coming up, during the
Cuban Missile Crisis,

a Soviet sub
with nukes on board

surfaces in the middle
of the U.S. battle fleet.

- The two crews are basically
staring each other down.

♪ ♪

- In the darkest hour of
the Cuban Missile Crisis,

the future of humanity hangs
on a single Soviet submariner

stranded beneath the waves

in order to fire
a nuclear torpedo.

[tense music]

- It's October 1962.

Soviet Premier
Nikita Khrushchev has

managed to have
intermediate-range

ballistic missiles
placed in Cuba,

just 100 miles off
the U.S. Coast.

The Soviet Navy is
also establishing

a submarine base at Cuba.

[David]
To reinforce the undercover

Soviet forces there,

Khrushchev orders the
Foxtrot class submarine B-59

to sail in secret
to the island.

[Sami] Its captain is a man
named Valentin Savitsky.

Also on board is
the coolheaded 36-year-old

Commodore Vasiliy Arkhipov.

- For this special mission,
B-59 is packing an extra punch.

Alongside
conventional weapons,

it's loaded with
a single nuclear torpedo

capable of destruction
on par with Hiroshima.

♪ ♪

[David] As B-59 is crossing
the Atlantic,

U.S. spy planes spot
the secret nukes

Khrushchev has
smuggled into Cuba,

and all hell breaks loose.

President Kennedy orders
the Navy to surround

the island with warships.

Now the submarine
is heading straight

into the Cuban Missile Crisis.

- Soon, destroyer escorts
and anti-submarine units

head to Cuban waters to stop

any Soviet reinforcements
from getting through.

- What this means for the B-59
mission is that now they are

sailing into a vastly more
dangerous situation

than the one that they thought
they were sailing into

when they departed
the Soviet Union.

- The U.S. Navy is watching
the seas around Cuba,

hunting for Soviet subs.

On October 27th,
the B-59 gets spotted.

Its secret mission is exposed,

and the most dangerous day
in history begins.

♪ ♪

[Don] B-59 is running
for its life,

pursued by U.S. destroyers

and aircraft
from a nearby carrier.

The U.S. Navy drops
depth charges below,

basically grenades
that generate shockwaves

to signal to the Soviets
to come to the surface.

♪ ♪

- The shock waves violently
shake the Soviet sub.

And for the crew inside,
it's akin to sitting inside

of a metal barrel
while somebody hits it

with a sledgehammer.

♪ ♪

[Martin] They're unaware that
the United States Navy

wants to drive them off
without killing them.

- All they know for sure is
that there are explosions

going on around their sub.

♪ ♪

It has every appearance of war.

[David] Captain Savitsky
decides that the U.S.

is coming in for the kill.

- He was given rules
of engagement

when he departed
the Soviet Union.

And the rules
of engagement were,

if they fire on you,
you return fire.

For him, the most effective
weapon system available

is a nuclear-tipped torpedo.

He orders the weapon
to be armed.

[Greg]
This is terrifying.

We effectively have a Soviet
commander giving the order

that has all the
potential in the world

to start World War III.

[David] However, Soviet
launch protocol requires

both senior officers
to agree to fire the nuke.

So now there's just one man
who can walk humanity back

from the edge of Armageddon:

Commodore Vasiliy Arkhipov.

- Arkhipov isn't buying it.

[Martin] Arkhipov realized
that, if these guys wanted us,

they could have had us
from the start.

But they're
putting on a display.

This is theater--

not shooting
directly at you,

but shooting near you.

- So he takes these explosions
to mean that the Americans

just want them
to come up and surface.

- Arkhipov defies
Captain Savitsky.

He refuses to give permission
to fire the nuclear torpedo.

♪ ♪

- That single moment,
that singular decision,

may very well have saved
humanity's existence.

[David] With the future of
the world hanging by a thread,

Submarine B-59 slowly
ascends to the surface.

[Martin] B-59 finds itself
surrounded

by U.S. Navy warships that
are not firing at it.

There is no World War III
going on,

as they had been concerned
might be the case.

- The two crews are basically
staring each other down.

They're right next
to one another.

[Sami] The U.S. Navy
doesn't board the sub,

so they don't find out about
the secret nuclear torpedo.

- The very next day,

President Kennedy
and Premier Khrushchev

cut a deal, and the
Cuban Missile Crisis is over.

♪ ♪

[David]
B-59 sails back to Russia,

its nuclear torpedo
still a secret.

For decades, no one in the
West realizes just how close

the world came to Armageddon.

Then, in 2002,
on the 40th anniversary

of the Cuban Missile Crisis,

experts get
a stunning revelation--

an insider's account that,
for the first time,

unveils the one man who
prevented all-out nuclear war.

It makes headlines
around the world.

[Martin] The article reveals
for the first time

that Vasily Arkhipov
saved the world that day.

He was well within
his rules of engagement

to release that weapon.

And if he had done so,
the consequence would have been

the Third World War.

♪ ♪

[David] Coming up,
physics students get

an explosive homework
assignment.

- Using books
from the public library,

they have to build
a nuclear bomb from scratch.

♪ ♪

- When the U.S. built the
world's first nuclear bomb,

it took a team of a half
a million to make it.

But in the 1960s,
the government tasks a couple

of recent graduates
to design another one,

using nothing
but a pad of paper,

a pen, and a library card.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- It's a year after
the Cuban Missile Crisis.

President Kennedy is
terrified of the proliferation

of nuclear weapons
around the world.

- He's thinking it's not
a case of if other nations

will get nuclear bombs
but when.

So the U.S. government needs to
find out how easy or difficult

would it be to actually
create a working bomb.

- They commissioned Lawrence
Livermore Labs in California

to begin
a top secret experiment.

- And the goal is simple:

to see if physicists with no
prior weapons experience,

no access
to classified information,

can design a nuclear bomb.

[David] First, they need
guinea pigs--

sharp scientists, but ones
who don't know the first thing

about building a bomb.

They recruit physics PhDs

David Dobson
and Robert Selden,

chosen for being
what the scientists call

"nuclear innocents."

Then they briefed them
on their

top secret science assignment,

building an atom bomb
from scratch.

- Dobson's first thought?

Hmm, sounds like a bit
of a challenge.

♪ ♪

[Martin] This working group
is tucked into

a small office at Livermore.

Although they have
security clearance,

they don't have access to
any classified information.

And as this is the analog era,

that means that they can go
to the public library,

and they can go to
the university library.

All they have access to
are published sources.

But everything that
this working group produces

immediately becomes top secret.

[David] First, the young
scientists must decide

what kind of atomic bomb
to make.

- They've got two choices.

They could attempt to build
either a uranium-based bomb

or a plutonium-based bomb.

[Evy]
Uranium is a simpler bomb.

You can just shove
one mass of uranium

into another to create
an explosion.

[Hakeem] Plutonium is
more powerful but harder

because it requires
this very precise

three-stage explosion
to make it work.

[Evy] They want to impress
the scientists at Livermore,

so they go with plutonium.

[David]
Next they hit the library.

[Hakeem]
As they seek a way forward,

they're looking
for whatever information

they can find
in the public domain.

And they get lucky because they
find this unclassified report

from the Manhattan Project.

So it's kind of like a roadmap.

[David] But the report
is so heavily redacted,

it's of little use in the end.

- Once they've gone
through the document,

it's all just nothing
but disappointment.

♪ ♪

- For months they struggle,

even feeling paranoid
and wondering if they're

being set up to fail.

But still, they keep going.

[Martin] These are smart
and resourceful men,

and they understand
that they don't know anything

about explosives,
and so they begin

a process of educating
themselves on the subject.

- Ironically, they get
their biggest boost

from Eisenhower's 1950s
Atoms for Peace program,

which declassified nuclear data
for civilian purposes.

So they repurposed that data
for their weapon.

[David] Soon they begin
to build their bomb.

But their experiments aren't
even allowed to leave paper.

[Evy] When these physicists
want to run an experiment,

they have to write out a very
detailed report of exactly what

they want to know and then give
it to their Livermore handlers.

They're never told whether
or not the experiments

are actually carried out.

They just get a report back
with the results.

[David] By 1966,
after less than three years,

Dobson and Selden are done.

[Martin] They have completed
their plan for the device.

It's too big to fit
in a missile,

but it is small enough to fit
in the back of a pickup truck.

And the plans are so detailed
that they even boast

that it could be
completed and manufactured

in a machine shop.

♪ ♪

[David] Now the question is,
will it work?

Have they passed the test?

No one at Livermore
will tell them.

Dobson and Selden
get sent out on the road

on a classified lecture tour.

Government-approved scientists
and military officers

get a chance to question
the men about

their assumptions and methods.

- After their final Q&A,
their Livermore handler

pulls them to the side

and lets them in
on a little secret.

He tells them that, if
their design is constructed,

it would make a pretty
impressive explosion.

Dobson and Selden want
to know how big,

and the answer
leaves them stunned.

- It would be an
explosion comparable

to the Hiroshima bomb,
a 15-kiloton nominal yield.

- They've created
a DIY apocalypse.

[David]
It is a spine-chilling result.

In less than three years,

the young physicists
have unlocked the secrets

of mass destruction.

- Dobson and Selden's success
has the government

really concerned
with nuclear proliferation.

So they pushed forward

with the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty,

which is signed
by 59 nations in 1968.

[David] The government keeps
the experiment top secret

for four decades

until reports are
declassified in 2003.

♪ ♪

Even then, the details
reveal far too much

about how to build
a nuclear bomb.

- The results
of this experiment

are deemed so dangerous,

even when they're eventually
declassified

and released to the public,
almost every page is redacted.

♪ ♪

[David] Coming up, to hide a
nuclear test from the Soviets,

the U.S. pushes their
technology to the limit.

[Hakeem] They're going to try
and launch a set

of nuclear rockets
off the deck of a ship

in one of the roughest spots
in the ocean.

♪ ♪

- How do you defend
against a nuclear missile

screaming towards you
at 15,000 miles per hour?

In the 1950s,
the Pentagon's solution is

straight out
of science fiction--

a gigantic radioactive
force field

covering the whole
of the United States

created by detonating
nukes in space.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- By the late 1950s,
in the Department of Defense,

there is an anxiety
that the Soviets can

launch an ICBM attack.

The United States is working
on the same technology,

but we're not there yet.

What this begins
is an era in our history

during which intelligent
people come up with ideas

of how one might stop
an ICBM attack.

One of the people
that comes forward

is Nicholas Christofilos.

- He's a former elevator
repairman

and self-taught physicist
who's now working

at the University
of California's radiation lab.

[David] Christofilos
proposes a plan

straight out
of science fiction--

a plasma shield in space.

- His plan is genius
but insane.

Step one,
explode a nuclear warhead

300 miles above
continental America.

This will release a cloud
of nuclear particles.

Step two, let nature
run its course.

Christofilos believes that
Earth's magnetic field is going

to trap those particles
above the continent,

essentially creating a
nuclear shield above America.

- If the Soviets were to launch
a warhead through that shield,

its electronics would
be completely fried.

- This will destroy any nuclear
weapon aimed at America.

- The two big issues are,
number one, whether or not

the Earth's magnetic field
will be strong enough

to hold that radiation in place
to create the desired barrier.

And then number two
is whether or not

it will be created
in such a concentration

that it can interfere with
electrical systems on an ICBM.

There's no way
to prove this in a lab.

The only way to do it is

to give it a try
and see what happens.

♪ ♪

[David] President Eisenhower
signs off on the plan.

Project Argus is born.

But it's on a tight deadline.

The U.S. and Soviets
are negotiating

an end to nuclear testing,

set to kick in
by the end of the year.

- To beat that deadline,
Argus has to be

completed in just six months.

That's not very much time,
so the race is on.

[David] The next challenge
is secrecy.

[Martin] If the United States
were to conduct

any kind of an experiment,
launching a nuclear weapon

into to Earth orbit
and detonating it,

the Soviet Union would
certainly walk away

from the negotiating table.

[Hakeem] That means that
they can't use

their normal nuclear
test sites--

not the one in Nevada,

not the one in the Bikini Atoll
in the Pacific.

They want a location
that's so remote,

that Soviet spies would
never know

the tests have ever occurred.

- They choose a spot in the
South Atlantic, far out to sea,

more than 600 miles away
from the closest land.

- This is one of
the most desolate stretches

on the planet.

[David] Now Project Argus
must attempt

an unprecedented feat--

launch nuclear missiles
from a ship at sea.

[Don]
To beat the deadline,

they'll have to do it
in August.

That's right in the middle
of the South Atlantic winter.

[Hakeem] We're talking about
the roughest seas,

some of the biggest waves,

some of the fastest winds
on Earth,

and storms coming
from out of nowhere.

- It is insane.

♪ ♪

[David]
In the early morning hours

of August 27th, battered
by the wind and waves,

the Argus team fires off
their first missile.

[explosion booms]

[Dan] The conditions are
too difficult.

The missile veers off course
and detonates too low.

♪ ♪

Days later, they try again.

That one also fails.

They've got one last chance.

♪ ♪

[Evy]
Their third and final attempt

comes on September 6th.

They launch the missile
and hope that it works.

[David] The missile soars
300 miles up

and detonates on target.

- The crewmen on deck
look up,

and they see this beautiful
man-made aurora

stretching across the sky.

It's from the radiation
they just added

to the magnetic field.

[Hakeem] A satellite
flies right through it,

and it captures critical data

and beams it right back down
to mission control,

ready for analysis.

[David]
The good news--

Christofilos is definitely
on to something.

- The explosion does create
a measurable cloud

of radioactive particles
in space.

- This becomes a new
phenomenon that is known

as the Christofilos effect.

[David]
There's bad news too.

The Christofilos effect is
nowhere near strong enough

to knock out a missile.

- Project Argus ends up
costing $100 million

in 21st century dollars.

Within a year of the test,
the project is canceled.

[David]
Argus doesn't work,

but the Pentagon manages
to keep it a secret.

That's about to change.

- "New York Times" reporters
get wind of the story,

but the government
convinces them to sit on it

for national security reasons.

- Then, when government
scientists start pushing

to release the Argus data,

"The New York Times"
doesn't want to be scooped,

so it breaks the story.

♪ ♪

[Martin]
It turns out that,

primarily because
Argus failed,

it does not derail
the negotiations

toward the limited
test ban treaty,

which becomes a reality
in 1963.

And from that moment forward,
there will be no more

atmospheric nuclear testing.

And there will also be no more
nuclear blasts in space.

♪ ♪

- Coming up...

when NATO war games
get too realistic,

the Soviets prepare to strike.

- Soviet high command
starts moving into

their underground bunkers.

Moscow is freaking out.

♪ ♪

- In 1983, thousands
of NATO troops mobilize

across Europe.

Nuclear weapons are armed
and loaded onto aircraft.

The impossible question
facing the Kremlin:

is this another
military exercise

or the opening move
of World War III?

[tense music]

[Sami] In 1983, Ronald Reagan
referred to the Soviet Union

as the evil empire.

For the United States
to demonize the Soviets

in that kind of fashion
suggested that Reagan was

taking on the Cold War
as kind of a crusade.

- Many in the U.S. recognize
this as simple saber rattling.

However, in Moscow,
they are convinced that,

in fact, the United States
is on the warpath.

[David] And it's a powder keg
of paranoia into which NATO is

about to drop a lighted match.

On November 7th,
senior officers gather

at NATO HQ in Belgium,
ready for the culmination

of their annual war games,

an exercise known
as Able Archer.

- What Able Archer
is designed to do

is to mimic the reality that
most everyone assumes will be

how World War III begins,

with a Soviet and Warsaw Pact
invasion

across the Fulda gap
of Western Europe,

which would be
immediately reacted to

by a NATO-United States
nuclear response.

[Greg] Crucially, this is not
just a paper exercise.

For the first time,
these are full-on war games

where they have soldiers
in the field.

And they're going through
the entire exercise

as though the Soviets have,
in fact, crossed

into NATO territory,
all the way up to where

NATO would need to respond
with a nuclear attack.

♪ ♪

[David]
To the Soviets watching,

Able Archer soon feels
dangerously different

from previous war games.

[Paul]
As Able Archer starts,

NATO rolls out
a new encryption system.

And that's exactly of thing
the Soviets see

as a warning sign
of an impending conflict.

- NATO forces did exactly
what they would have done

in a real wartime scenario.

They actually moved the NATO
functioning headquarters

to a new location.

And NATO bases all
around the world

had their alert statuses
increased in a way

they had never done before.

[David] To the Soviets,
that's another red flag

that war is imminent.

Margaret Thatcher and
the other political leaders

are going through the process
that they would go through

in case of NATO
and the United States

authorizing
a nuclear first strike

against the Soviet Union.

- Soviet agents in Europe are
reporting this back to Moscow,

and Moscow is freaking out.

As far as they're concerned,
this looks like exactly

the scenario that
they would expect

from NATO attacking them,
not an exercise.

So they see
the beginning of the end.

- In a nuclear standoff, when
one superpower is super scared,

everybody should
be super scared.

♪ ♪

[David] Hour by hour,
Soviet intelligence delivers

more terrifying details
to Moscow.

- The Soviets can see,
through satellite imagery

and even spies on the ground,

that American bomber aircraft
are loading up.

What they don't know is
that the aircraft are

loaded with training warheads.

Everything indicates
that there's

a nuclear strike inbound
towards the Soviet Union.

- Soviet high command
starts moving into

their underground bunkers.

They have their fighters
in Poland and East Germany

start loading their planes
with live nukes.

In bunkers across
the Soviet Union,

ICBM crews are preparing
their own missiles to launch.

The Soviets could have nukes
in the air within 30 minutes.

- The world is now teetering
on the edge of apocalypse,

but NATO doesn't know it--yet.

[Vince] At the Soviet embassy
in London,

an urgent telegram hits
the desk

of KGB station chief
Oleg Gordievsky.

It's a desperate message
from Moscow to all stations.

"Drop everything you're doing,
and look out

for any indications
of an imminent attack."

They were convinced that World
War III was about to begin.

[David] Oleg Gordievsky,
however, is hiding a secret.

[Paul] What the Soviets
don't know is that

Gordievsky is a double agent.

He's secretly working
for the British,

and he's a very highly placed
asset for them.

[David] Gordievsky realizes
the danger,

so he immediately
contacts his handlers

in British intelligence
and passes on the information.

[Paul] Gordievsky tells them
the Soviets think

this is a real-world activity,
not a war game.

He's trying to convey
that the Soviets are

prepared to retaliate
and might even panic

and launch a first strike.

[David] The warning shoots up
the chain of command

in London, then to D.C.

And news of
the critical situation is

delivered straight
to the president.

- Reagan realizes, oh, my gosh,
they're more afraid of us

than we are of them.

- On November 11th,
Able Archer is wrapped up,

and NATO forces are
ordered to stand down.

Moscow breathes
a huge sigh of relief.

The Soviet war machine
has also backed down,

and World War III
does not start.

- The whole event shakes
Reagan to his core,

and he launches
a new diplomatic effort

to ease tensions.

This ultimately culminates
in the end of the Cold War.

- For decades,
details of the exercise

and the terrifying
Soviet response are

buried under
top secret classification.

And they'd be there still,
but for the efforts

of one persistent investigator.

[Greg] Researcher Nate Jones
spends 12 years sending

Freedom of Information
requests.

And in 2015,
he gets his response.

♪ ♪

This declassified
report reveals

just how terrifyingly close
we came to World War III.

♪ ♪

- From doomsday weapons
to apocalyptic close calls,

governments have
long covered up

how near we've come
to Armageddon.

Only individual human courage
and sheer good fortune

have allowed us
to escape disaster so far.

♪ ♪