All language subtitles for World War II with Tom Hanks - 01x20 - Fallout.EDITH.English

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September, 1945.

Germany and Japan
have surrendered unconditionally.

The destruction and death
of the Second World War is over.

There is jubilation around the world.

The United States and the Soviet Union

emerged from the conflict

as the globe's
two dominant superpowers.

They fought side by side
when they shared a common enemy.

But now
that that enemy has been defeated,

an American-Soviet rivalry

appears unavoidable.

All wars changed the world,

but none of them changed the world

like the Second World War did.

Japan's on the march.
Germany's on the march.

No-one can imagine
the nightmare they're about to unleash.

The most destructive war in history.

Suddenly the world
is turned upside down

and all hell is let loose.

The West is stunned
by the speed of the advance.

You get the Allies,
led by the Big Three:

Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin.

Men who are dealing with
immensely complicated questions.

It's the biggest military operation

- of human history.
- The Allies have to come together,

not just militarily,
but industrial-scale.

It's a global perspective.

They have to fight in every climate,

from the Arctic
to the jungles of the Pacific,

to the deserts of Africa.
And the depths of the ocean.

But there was no certainty of victory.

It was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.

We see humans at their absolute worst,

how they treat other human beings.

And we see them at their absolute best,

willing to give their lives

- that others might live.
- World War II was a struggle

in which there could be one victor

and one vanquished.

It's official.
It's all over. It's total victory.

The day of days
for America and her allies.

Peace, it's wonderful.

The war is over.

The entire world
begins to breathe and live again.

The Allies won this war
in the cause of freedom

and the ideals of anti-fascism,
the ideals of democracy.

One of the great legacies
of the Second World War

is that a disputatious, complicated,

often wrong nation

like the United States

can, in extremis,
marshal significant force

to do the right thing.

It took us a long time.

As Churchill is alleged to have said,

"You can always count on the
Americans to do the right thing

once we've exhausted
every other possibility."

We spent blood and treasure
to defeat fascism.

The United States
had fulfilled Roosevelt's ambitions

to be the arsenal of democracy

to orders of magnitude
no-one could have predicted.

In New York, hundreds
of thousands lined the docks

to greet America's ships

and welcome home
their sons and daughters.

President Harry Truman is honoured
with a ticker tape parade

through the city's Canyon of Heroes.

Speaking in Central Park,

the President addresses the nation.

The world cannot afford

to let the co-operative spirit

of the Allies in this war disintegrate.

The world
simply cannot allow this to happen.

In Red Square,

thousands celebrate and honour
Generalissimo Joseph Stalin.

He's dressed
in a white Marshal's summer uniform

with shoulder boards,
like a Russian Romanov emperor.

Stalin
emerges from the Second World War

with astonishing, almost religious
prestige in the Soviet Union.

Stalin and the United States
have made an alliance

that ultimately brings Hitler
and then Japan to its knees.

The spirit of co-operation is so high

that Dwight Eisenhower,
the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe,

probably one of the future staunchest
anti-communists in American history,

stands right next to Stalin.

The bloodshed and horror
of the Second World War

is unprecedented in human history.

Nearly 70 million people are killed,

the majority civilians.

An estimated 27 million Soviets.

20 million Chinese.

10 million Germans and Japanese.

One million British and Americans.

And six million Jews.

Europe is destroyed.

The Brits are bankrupt.

The Americans and the Soviets,
they're demobilising.

What's really clear
coming out of World War II

is that the U.S. has an incredibly
important role to play in the world.

She hasn't been physically touched by
the war other than Pearl Harbor.

America is the superpower.

There's every expectation that some kind
of peaceful coexistence will emerge.

When the Americans talk about

the way they want
the international system to be,

they talk about the United Nations.

The United Nations, in many ways,

is Franklin Roosevelt's dream
come true.

During the war, it's Roosevelt who says
we must have this international body.

It's a very hopeful group.

Lots of ideals, the UN Charter,
all of this comes into being in 1945.

Leaders of the United Nations,

representing all but a fraction
of the Earth's population,

are laying the foundations

of international security
in the post-war world

Out of the fires of war,

they wanted for there to be
an organisation

where we don't have 1939 again.

The United Nations combines two ideas:

the first is the General Assembly,
where equal states can meet

and confer and make resolutions.

There is also the
wartime military alliance

between the Soviets,
the British, France,

and the United States,
as well as China.

And that's the Security Council

that will be the cornerstone
to ensuring peace.

Because it's not just
winning the battle of the day,

it's trying to prevent the next one.

One of the first challenges

is to determine how Germany
will fit into the post-war world.

We can't today perhaps understand
just how threatening

and powerful Germany seemed
to the Allied leadership in 1945.

They had just fought two world wars,

the greatest enemy of which
was Germany.

Ultimately, they realised
that control of Germany

will play a huge role
in determining Europe's future.

The American view is just like
the Soviet one at the beginning,

in the sense that
we've got to divide Germany.

We've got to make sure
that it can never rise up again.

That's the first urgent thing.

The Allies split Germany
into four occupation zones.

The British, Americans, and French
will govern western Germany.

The Soviets will govern the east.

Berlin, deep within the Soviet zone,

is divided between all four nations.

The wartime Allies
have very different plans

for the new Germany.

What Stalin is doing
is taking as much of the wealth,

as much of the factories,

as much of the productive capacity
and stockpiles

from occupied Germany
back to the Soviet Union.

Stalin would say

he was only taking
what the Germans owed him

for the horrible suffering
during the war.

Conversely, the western Allies
want Germany rehabilitated.

The Western idea
is not to devastate Germany

economically through reparations,
but bring them into global markets,

connect Germany to the world,

and through that you'll get
German people who are incentivised

to do things that are constructive
instead of deconstructive.

So it's gonna need industrialists,
middle managers, local governance.

Many of these people would have
been members of the Nazi party.

The crimes of the Nazi
Third Reich are so horrific

that the wartime Allies determine

there must be an attempt
to achieve justice.

Nuremberg is highly symbolic

as the spiritual heart of Nazi Germany

and as the place where hopefully
the demons of Nazism can be purged.

Everyone in court
stands up as the tribunal enters.

Four judges and alternate members:

French, American, British, and Russian.

The defendants

are to plead guilty or not guilty
to the charges against them.

Rudolf Hess.

22 Nazi leaders are put on trial.

The next defendant called
was Ribbentrop.

Robert Jackson, chief prosecutor
of the Nuremberg tribunals,

announces that history will judge
the fairness of the trial

not by the convictions and the executions
it obtains, but by the acquittals.

But the Soviets are expecting these
to be old-fashioned show trials.

Wilhelm Keitel.

Stalin had seen
how effective show trials could be

in his own consolidation of power
in the 1930s...

...and was happy
to give the Germans a trial...

Hermann Wilhelm Goering.

...and then hang them.

12 of the defendants
receive the death sentence.

Hermann Goeing avoids the gallows

by committing suicide.

Seven are given lengthy prison terms.

Although the Soviets object,
three are acquitted.

From '45 onwards,

you just have
this constant growing tension

between the United States and Britain on
one hand and the Soviet Union on the other.

Stalin has to play a careful game.

He wants to keep what he has.

But he doesn't want to directly
antagonise the United States,

because the United States is still
much more powerful economically.

It has complete air and sea control.

And it has the atom bomb.

World War II
devastated the Soviet Union.

Joseph Stalin must rebuild his country,

ensure its security,
and consolidate his power.

But some of Stalin's
ambitions will conflict

with the post-war plans
of his Western allies.

Stalin saw the wartime alliance
as a way to defeat Nazi Germany,

but never something that would
permanently reshape the globe

or that would make capitalism
and communism friends.

Stalin is an ideologue.
That can never be forgotten.

He believes that communism
and capitalism are incompatible,

that they will at some point
wage a great fight

for the future, and he believes
communism will win.

Stalin is in an extraordinary position.

There's a moment when he reviews
what they've conquered

in World War II, looks at the map of
Europe and Russia and he says

"We really haven't done badly."
And it's an understatement.

The Red Army is in Berlin
and most countries to the east:

Poland, the Baltics,
Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria.

The Soviet wave
broke right around Berlin

and they just never receded.

Stalin has done better than any of the
greatest Czars in Russian history:

Peter the Great,
Catherine the Great. He's created

the biggest ever Russian empire.

Stalin intends to create a buffer
against the West,

militarily and ideologically.

He would say, we have now had
two world wars

where first imperial Russia,
then the Soviet Union

had been invaded through
Eastern and Central Europe.

I will make sure that they are
never a threat to us gain.

For Stalin, the key thing
for Eastern and Central Europe

is that it must be loyal
to the Soviets.

It's non-negotiable, and the recipe for
doing that is communism.

He starts to create
a new economic centralised system

in Central and Eastern Europe:

controlled governments,
armies, secret police,

factories, agricultural systems,

with all of the decisions effectively

for those countries' economies
being made in Moscow.

The Europe that the United States
wants to build

does not look very much
like the Europe the Soviets want.

The United States has an enormous
advantage over the Soviet Union:

the atomic bomb.

The Soviets construct
numerous sites across the USSR

in order to accomplish task number one.

Task number one
is to create a nuclear weapon

at breakneck speed.
No resources are too much.

The nuclear programme's what the USSR
was almost designed to do.

It's a big country with lots of natural
resources.

It can marshal and mobilise
for the nuclear project.

It's not completely unlike
the Manhattan Project,

which was also top-down,
secretive and resource-heavy.

The Soviet Union puts the full weight of
its coercive power behind this project.

Stalin puts one of his
most ruthless lieutenants in charge,

the chief of his secret police.

Lavrentiy Beria is a man
of brutal ruthlessness and sadism,

one of the great monsters
of the Soviet story.

He rapes women,
he tortures victims himself.

But he's also
as efficient as a Swiss clock,

and he uses everything.

He happily turns off power in
several cities just to power a project.

He gives scientists villas,
dachas, cars,

shooting rifles, holidays.
But at the same time,

he threatens to kill them and their
whole families if they ever deceive him.

And he drives on the project.

It's not gonna be quick for Stalin.

There's no way that he can flip a
switch and acquire nuclear weapons.

But the USSR can't sit
on its laurels in 1946.

It has readied itself for
a new phase of conflict.

After the turmoil
of the Second World War,

the people of Great Britain
and the United States

hope to return
to a normal, prosperous life...

...with peaceful coexistence
among nations...

...including with the Soviet Union.

For the past five years,

Stalin had been your friend.
He had been Uncle Joe.

But once again,

a familiar voice sounds a warning.

Winston Churchill's
in a pretty bad mood.

He was thrown out by the public

in a dramatic election defeat in 1945.

His wife said
it might be a blessing in disguise.

He said, "Pretty good disguise."

He feels he won the second world war,
he saved Britain.

And here he is on the speaking circuit.

Winston Churchill
receives an invitation

to give a speech at a small college

in President Truman's home state.

This is an opportunity for Churchill

to say things he's got in his mind,

also an opportunity to spend time with the
President of the United States of America.

He'll stand on that stage and tell
American people some home truths.

From Stettin in the Baltic
to Trieste in the Adriatic,

an iron curtain has descended
across the continent.

The famous Iron Curtain speech,

where he very clearly lays out
what is happening in Europe,

one side free, the other side not.

Behind that line,

all are subject to
a very high and in some cases

increasing measure of control
from Moscow.

Churchill sees Soviet communism,

Stalinism, as a greater threat, really,
as Nazism was a generation before.

This is certainly not the liberated
Europe we fought to build up.

It's dynamite.

Because what Churchill is doing
is reframing the wartime alliance.

He's casting the Soviet empire
as a malign force in the world.

Truman, by the way, is absolutely on
board with this speech.

But to Stalin, this is just proof
that Churchill is a warmonger.

The alliance that defeated Nazi fascism

is beginning to fray.

In late 1946,

the French
vote to elect a new government.

The Communist Party does well,

winning a plurality of seats
in the French legislature.

With the politics of Europe
in a state of extraordinary upheaval

because of the catastrophe of the war,

you do have a high degree of concern
in Washington

about Western Europe
turning to communism.

There's a lot of unrest.

There are strikes
starting to take place in France.

There's a huge
pro-communist movement in Italy.

And Stalin thinks maybe he'll win
some of these countries

without having to send an army in.

To the south,

Stalin attempts to pressure Turkey

into giving him control
of the Turkish Straits,

which would allow access
to the Mediterranean

and the Middle East.

And in Greece, communist guerrillas
and government forces

are fighting an ongoing civil war.

These countries have never been viewed

as essential to American security.
The United States does not have a

history of backing the governments
of Turkey or Greece.

The British
have been funding the Greek army

and sending weapons to Turkey.

But early in 1947 in the White House,

this document arrives, a shocker.

It's from the British government,
and it says,

for a long time, we've been
supporting Greece and Turkey,

but we are broke.

This is a really important moment,

the winding down of the British Empire.

By early 1947, they do not wish
to be a great force

in the east Mediterranean,
which they had been for a long time.

It becomes clear to Truman
and the American State Department

that this issue in Greece and Turkey
is a threat to national security.

They believe that if Greece

and Turkey become Stalinised,
these are dominoes,

and the rest of Western Europe
could possibly fall.

And the British say to the Americans,

if you wanna make sure
these places remain pro-Western,

you as the United States
will have to use military force.

Now, that is a real
put up or shut up moment for Truman.

Truman is a very practical,
plainspoken, linear thinker.

He doesn't come into office
with some big vision

of what the world should be.
He picks up the mantle of FDR

and tries to build a post-war order

according to what he thought
FDR would have done.

But really, from the moment of
meeting Stalin at Potsdam onward,

he starts to formulate his own views.

And now Truman recognises
that this is a turning point.

In this post-war world, what happens
on another side of the globe

can be critical
to America's national security.

After deliberating with
his diplomatic and military advisors,

President Truman addresses
a joint session of Congress.

I believe that it must be
the policy of the United States

to support free peoples who are
resisting attempted subjugation

by armed minorities
or by outside pressure.

We must assist free peoples to work out
their own destinies in their own way.

The United States
is shifting away from isolationism.

The Truman Doctrine is now U.S. policy.

The Truman Doctrine is the culmination,

going all the way back
to Woodrow Wilson,

of setting out American ideals,
American principles,

but this time backing them
with more power, more force,

because Truman's vision
is that the U.S. will support

any country
resisting communist aggression.

- Any country.
- It is difficult to overstate

what a dramatic departure
the Truman Doctrine is for the U.S.

In 1941, the United States
had to be dragged into war.

But what Truman is saying is now,
we're ready to take the fight

wherever democracy requires us.

We must take
immediate and resolute action.

Truman asks Congress,
and he receives $400 million

of military aid for Greece and Turkey.

This is only the beginning.

This is a radical shift,

not only in the way that America had
thought about its place in the world,

but a radical shift in where
Truman's own line was.

It's actually putting American power
behind a global ideological contest

with the Soviet Union.

As the American-Soviet alliance fades,

a contest between superpowers emerges.

Europe is in the grip of one of
the coldest winters in memory.

People have little to eat,
and struggle to stay warm.

They begin to despair at the
slow pace of post-war recovery.

Western governments have not been
able to rebuild their economies.

Agriculture has been destroyed.

Transportation has been destroyed.
Manufacturing has been destroyed.

And there's an enormous
refugee crisis that is ongoing.

During the war, there was the deliberate
forced movement of populations.

So there are millions
and millions of refugees

on the roads, in camps, in towns,
cities and villages not their own.

Truman and his advisors

fear that Europe
is on the verge of collapse.

General George Marshall,

one of the chief architects of American
victory in World War II, believes

the whole world hangs in the balance.

What Truman and George Marshall,
his Secretary of State, realise

is you need to
rebuild the European economy.

It has to be not just
the militarised Truman Doctrine,

but there needs to be
a way of getting money

to support Western European
or capitalist states.

The Marshall Plan is a $13.3 billion,

essentially, handout to
foreign governments

to help these countries
rebuild themselves,

westernise, and stabilise politically.

And it would be keeping people alive

in places where starvation
was an actual real thing.

So it's done for altruistic
reasons, but also geopolitical ones.

President Truman and George Marshall

believe that the best guarantee
against communism

are well-fed bellies,
good schools, orderly societies,

the kind of things that can only
happen in a prosperous economy.

Stalin recognises how Marshall's plan

threatens his objectives.

To him, it's another trick.

It's another American way
to try to undermine the Soviet Union

and pull Europe
into the American orbit.

It's presented
as Stalin's typical paranoia.

Actually, he's got every reason
to distrust the West.

- He was right.
- Today, our aid

to the free nations of Europe

is helping them to resist dictatorship.

Stalin understands that Western goods

with Western money
would lead to Western values

of liberal democracy, of open society,

and also would spread
the attractions of capitalism.

And it would
undermine Stalin's own rule.

For him, the Marshall Plan
must be stomped out.

Stalin directs the countries
under his command

to reject the American offer.

Very clearly, Stalin has drawn a line

and said, this is my turf,
this is your turf, and that's that.

Stalin expects
to maintain complete control

of the East European countries liberated
from Germany by the Red Army.

But one nation will test him.

Czechoslovakia is deeply connected
to the Western European economy.

The Czechs have advanced industry.

They could become wealthy with access to
Western capital via the Marshall Plan.

The democratically elected
government in Prague

is led by President Edvard Benes.

Several of its ministers are members
of the Czech Communist Party.

Stalin pressures Benes
to reject American aid

and compels the Czech communists
to seize control.

Over the next few months,

local communists stir up unrest
throughout the country.

The citizens of Czechoslovakia
haven't gotten the memo

that they're the subordinates
of Soviet power.

In 1948, there is a communist-led coup

in Prague
that topples the Benes government

and places another East European
country firmly in Moscow's orbit.

Now, Stalin decides to take fewer risks
in Eastern Europe, no risks at all.

He doesn't believe that
ultimately communism

will flower politically
and economically and that

working peoples around
he world will embrace it

because it is the true and scientific
approach to human civilisation.

He believes in power.

Across Eastern Europe,

he crushes any hint of liberalism,
free speech.

He doubles down on his Soviet system.

He arrests tens of thousands of people.

More people are sent to the Gulags
after the war

than before the war in the 1930s
during the Great Terror.

Marshall Aid is an essential component

in the American post-war
recovery plan for Europe.

But its success widens
the increasing divide

economically and politically

between East and West.

We are now in a bipolar world.

It's a world of rivalry
like the world had never seen.

The Soviet Union has proved
again and again

that it cannot be trusted.

And it's a race.

It's a competition for pre-eminence,

and it's ultimately going to be
a competition for security.

And Berlin, the former capital

of the Third Reich,
is at the centre of the conflict.

In the summer of 1948,

billions of Marshall Aid dollars

flow into the countries
of Western Europe.

Europe is slowly but surely

edging back towards economic health.

Careful planning for the use
of the $324 million allotted

has helped Western Germany
temporarily to its feet.

Great Britain and the United States

merge their German occupation zones.

The French will soon join them.

A common currency is introduced,
the Deutschmark.

Stalin understands
that the Western powers

intend to establish a strong
and independent West Germany.

Since the end of the war,
Great Britain, France,

the United States and the
Soviet Union have occupied Berlin.

It lies deep within
Soviet-dominated Eastern Germany.

Now, imagine for someone
as paranoid as Stalin

having these Western militaries
going back and forth

between Berlin
and the Western occupation zones.

This is a source of instability,
disruption, it's dangerous.

Stalin wants to sever direct contact

between Berlin
and the western half of Germany.

He doesn't want to invade West Berlin,

because that's an act of war,
but what he believes he can do

is he can blockade Berlin.

At this time,
Berlin is still a pile of rubble.

It has very little tactical significance
for the United States government.

So it really made no sense
to keep West Berlin,

and Stalin believed that in the end
the West would blink and withdraw.

On June 24th, the Soviets cut all road,

rail and water routes linking
West Berlin to Western Germany.

Suddenly the trains stopped.

Traffic between Berlin
and the Western zones was banned.

The famous autobahns were deserted,

and even canal traffic
was at a standstill.

The blockade even cut electric power

and put out 75% of the lights.

Truman is a pragmatic person.

This could be a moment where he says,
it's not worth

saving this city, because I don't know
what Stalin's gonna do.

I don't know how dangerous
this is gonna be.

Instead, he says,
we're not going anywhere.

The U.S. and Britain realise
this is Stalin testing the wire.

It'll be Berlin first,
then it'll be elsewhere.

And the Allies choose
to make it a red line.

Keep in mind, it's 1948.

For Truman, it's an election year.
It's the first post-war election.

The first election in the nuclear age.

The first in the television age.

He's aware that all eyes are on him.

The British and Americans ask,
what can we do short of war?

And the answer is,
they can keep Berlin supplied.

Not by road, not by rail,
not by canal, but by air.

The British and the Americans construct
an air bridge into West Berlin.

The plan is to deliver it on airplanes,

everything that a modern city
needs to survive.

Got food, got coal, you got fuel,
you've got medical supplies.

It's a superb example of an operation
that's pulled together very quickly.

Huge numbers of aircraft,

plans flying round the clock.
These British and American officers,

the same officers that organised the
triumphs of logistics

that you see in World War II.

A continuous stream of cargo planes

land in West Berlin every few minutes.

But to reach the city,

they must fly over hundreds of miles
of Soviet-controlled territory.

They're choosing to defy Stalin.

And if you fill the airspace
with military aircraft,

even though they're unarmed,

you have to assume
that Stalin might strike back.

You have all this military capacity.

You have the paranoia and fear
in Washington and in Moscow.

You have this hall of mirrors quality.

The two countries are involved
in a kind of escalatory spiral.

Truman now deploys dozens of B-29s

to air bases in England,

the same plane
that dropped the atomic bombs

on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Nuclear weapons go from being a

secret weapon to a

public strategic weapon.

The pressure on Truman
at this point is incalculable

He knows that this move
could be provocative enough

to start World War III.

But the Americans are hoping
that this strong show of resolve

will encourage Stalin to back off.

They are gambling that Stalin
does not want World War III.

After nearly a year
of daily international tension,

Stalin halts the blockade.

Here's a glimpse of Berlin itself

as the first trains and vehicles
got going at night.

All routes that connect
Berlin to the West are reopened.

Restrictions within Berlin
between the Soviet zone

and American, British, and French zones

are lifted as well.

Stalin set up a challenge for the West.

He was probing the West.

He needed to know how far he could go.

But in fact,
Truman rose to the challenge,

and in the end,
it was Stalin who blinked.

As relations between the United States

and the Soviet Union
continue to deteriorate,

Western governments plan
to provide collective security

against possible Soviet aggression.

When the United States
and the Soviet Union

look like they can be
on the verge of war,

it became obvious that the United
States couldn't continue to ad hoc this,

to lurch from crisis
to crisis to crisis.

The post-war path that FDR anticipated

was one in which the United Nations
would help adjudicate disputes

and rule the peace.

What he was not able
to fully anticipate

was that a struggle
against his former ally,

the Soviet Union, would become
the defining force of the era.

Representatives from Europe, Canada,

and the United States
meet in Washington to discuss

the formation
of a new military alliance,

the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, NATO.

The idea is to create

what military strategists
call deterrence.

It's an alliance
that is created to make sure

that the Russians know that if they
attack one state in the alliance,

they could theoretically face a war
against all the states in that alliance.

NATO is created
to keep the Americans in,

the Russians out, and the Germans down.

What Harry Truman does
with the Marshall Plan,

with the Truman Doctrine, with NATO,

is establish an infrastructure
of deterrence

to try to contain
the communistic influence.

If there is anything inevitable
in the future,

it is the will
of the people of the world

for freedom and for peace.

But the world is about
to cross a threshold from which...

...there is no return.

In an appropriately desolate landscape,

the Soviet Union prepares
to test its first atomic bomb.

Lavrentiy Beria,
Stalin's kind of mega-manager,

arrives to supervise in a little hut
in the middle of nowhere.

He's incredibly nervous.

If it doesn't work,

his downfall is quite likely.

He watches from a safe distance.

The test is a success.

Stalin's overjoyed

and relieved.

Now he's got an equal footing
with the West,

and they cannot push him
around ayn more.

After this period when Stalin's
struggling to catch up with America,

he's back in the game.

Truman's a poker player,
and for these years after the war,

he had an ace in the hole.
He had the bomb, the Soviets didn't.

That surety was gone.
There was no turning back.

You've got two superpowers,
two nuclear powers

that are facing each other
across the world,

and all of a sudden
the world is much less stable.

An 18th or 19th century scholar
would say, oh,

you're gonna have a war between those
two powers. It's inevitable because

they're the two great superpowers.

But atomic weapons change things.

If the Soviets and the United States
can't compete

in the military sense directly
because it's too dangerous,

well, then you compete indirectly.

After 1949, there'll be
one war after the other:

big wars, small wars, guerrilla wars,

proxy wars between the two superpowers.

But what hasn't happened
is the big one.

There has not been a World War III,

a general war involving the globe

that involves nuclear weapons.

World War II began in a universe

that would have been recognisable
50 years before.

It ends in a world
that wouldn't have been recognisable

to anyone, because of
the splitting of the atom.

The moral
and philosophical underpinnings

that enabled the Allies
to triumph in World War II,

an appreciation for the individual,

support for the dignity of all peoples,

a bias for democracy,

have for almost a century now
enabled us to live and thrive

in a world
where Armageddon is always at hand.

But it hasn't come,

not least
because we've done the right thing.

The Second World War alters everything.

National, political,
even moral boundaries are redrawn.

What was inconceivable before the war

is now part of the fabric of life.

The conflict that follows,
the Cold War,

poses even graver consequence,

because now
for the first time in human history

the world
could literally destroy itself.

One war replaced by another
and the world remains on edge.

As President Dwight D. Eisenhower
observed,

"The only way to win the next world war

is to prevent it."