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Sub extracted from file and improved by
Se7enOfNin9 for addic7ed.com
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September, 1945.
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Germany and Japan
have surrendered unconditionally.
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The destruction and death
of the Second World War is over.
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There is jubilation around the world.
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The United States and the Soviet Union
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emerged from the conflict
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as the globe's
two dominant superpowers.
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They fought side by side
when they shared a common enemy.
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But now
that that enemy has been defeated,
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an American-Soviet rivalry
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appears unavoidable.
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All wars changed the world,
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but none of them changed the world
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like the Second World War did.
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Japan's on the march.
Germany's on the march.
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No-one can imagine
the nightmare they're about to unleash.
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The most destructive war in history.
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Suddenly the world
is turned upside down
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and all hell is let loose.
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The West is stunned
by the speed of the advance.
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You get the Allies,
led by the Big Three:
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Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin.
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Men who are dealing with
immensely complicated questions.
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It's the biggest military operation
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- of human history.
- The Allies have to come together,
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not just militarily,
but industrial-scale.
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It's a global perspective.
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They have to fight in every climate,
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from the Arctic
to the jungles of the Pacific,
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to the deserts of Africa.
And the depths of the ocean.
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But there was no certainty of victory.
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It was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.
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We see humans at their absolute worst,
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how they treat other human beings.
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And we see them at their absolute best,
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willing to give their lives
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- that others might live.
- World War II was a struggle
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in which there could be one victor
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and one vanquished.
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It's official.
It's all over. It's total victory.
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The day of days
for America and her allies.
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Peace, it's wonderful.
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The war is over.
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The entire world
begins to breathe and live again.
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The Allies won this war
in the cause of freedom
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and the ideals of anti-fascism,
the ideals of democracy.
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One of the great legacies
of the Second World War
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is that a disputatious, complicated,
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often wrong nation
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like the United States
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can, in extremis,
marshal significant force
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to do the right thing.
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It took us a long time.
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As Churchill is alleged to have said,
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"You can always count on the
Americans to do the right thing
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once we've exhausted
every other possibility."
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We spent blood and treasure
to defeat fascism.
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The United States
had fulfilled Roosevelt's ambitions
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to be the arsenal of democracy
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to orders of magnitude
no-one could have predicted.
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In New York, hundreds
of thousands lined the docks
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to greet America's ships
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and welcome home
their sons and daughters.
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President Harry Truman is honoured
with a ticker tape parade
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through the city's Canyon of Heroes.
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Speaking in Central Park,
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the President addresses the nation.
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The world cannot afford
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to let the co-operative spirit
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of the Allies in this war disintegrate.
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The world
simply cannot allow this to happen.
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In Red Square,
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thousands celebrate and honour
Generalissimo Joseph Stalin.
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He's dressed
in a white Marshal's summer uniform
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with shoulder boards,
like a Russian Romanov emperor.
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Stalin
emerges from the Second World War
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with astonishing, almost religious
prestige in the Soviet Union.
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Stalin and the United States
have made an alliance
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that ultimately brings Hitler
and then Japan to its knees.
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The spirit of co-operation is so high
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that Dwight Eisenhower,
the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe,
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probably one of the future staunchest
anti-communists in American history,
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stands right next to Stalin.
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The bloodshed and horror
of the Second World War
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is unprecedented in human history.
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Nearly 70 million people are killed,
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the majority civilians.
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An estimated 27 million Soviets.
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20 million Chinese.
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10 million Germans and Japanese.
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One million British and Americans.
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And six million Jews.
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Europe is destroyed.
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The Brits are bankrupt.
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The Americans and the Soviets,
they're demobilising.
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What's really clear
coming out of World War II
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is that the U.S. has an incredibly
important role to play in the world.
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She hasn't been physically touched by
the war other than Pearl Harbor.
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America is the superpower.
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There's every expectation that some kind
of peaceful coexistence will emerge.
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When the Americans talk about
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the way they want
the international system to be,
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they talk about the United Nations.
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The United Nations, in many ways,
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is Franklin Roosevelt's dream
come true.
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During the war, it's Roosevelt who says
we must have this international body.
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It's a very hopeful group.
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Lots of ideals, the UN Charter,
all of this comes into being in 1945.
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Leaders of the United Nations,
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representing all but a fraction
of the Earth's population,
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are laying the foundations
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of international security
in the post-war world
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Out of the fires of war,
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they wanted for there to be
an organisation
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where we don't have 1939 again.
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The United Nations combines two ideas:
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the first is the General Assembly,
where equal states can meet
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and confer and make resolutions.
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There is also the
wartime military alliance
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between the Soviets,
the British, France,
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and the United States,
as well as China.
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And that's the Security Council
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that will be the cornerstone
to ensuring peace.
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Because it's not just
winning the battle of the day,
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it's trying to prevent the next one.
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One of the first challenges
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is to determine how Germany
will fit into the post-war world.
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We can't today perhaps understand
just how threatening
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and powerful Germany seemed
to the Allied leadership in 1945.
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They had just fought two world wars,
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the greatest enemy of which
was Germany.
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Ultimately, they realised
that control of Germany
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will play a huge role
in determining Europe's future.
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The American view is just like
the Soviet one at the beginning,
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in the sense that
we've got to divide Germany.
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We've got to make sure
that it can never rise up again.
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That's the first urgent thing.
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The Allies split Germany
into four occupation zones.
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The British, Americans, and French
will govern western Germany.
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The Soviets will govern the east.
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Berlin, deep within the Soviet zone,
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is divided between all four nations.
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The wartime Allies
have very different plans
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for the new Germany.
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What Stalin is doing
is taking as much of the wealth,
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as much of the factories,
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as much of the productive capacity
and stockpiles
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from occupied Germany
back to the Soviet Union.
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Stalin would say
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he was only taking
what the Germans owed him
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for the horrible suffering
during the war.
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Conversely, the western Allies
want Germany rehabilitated.
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The Western idea
is not to devastate Germany
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economically through reparations,
but bring them into global markets,
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connect Germany to the world,
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and through that you'll get
German people who are incentivised
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to do things that are constructive
instead of deconstructive.
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So it's gonna need industrialists,
middle managers, local governance.
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Many of these people would have
been members of the Nazi party.
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The crimes of the Nazi
Third Reich are so horrific
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that the wartime Allies determine
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there must be an attempt
to achieve justice.
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Nuremberg is highly symbolic
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as the spiritual heart of Nazi Germany
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and as the place where hopefully
the demons of Nazism can be purged.
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Everyone in court
stands up as the tribunal enters.
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Four judges and alternate members:
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French, American, British, and Russian.
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The defendants
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are to plead guilty or not guilty
to the charges against them.
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Rudolf Hess.
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22 Nazi leaders are put on trial.
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The next defendant called
was Ribbentrop.
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Robert Jackson, chief prosecutor
of the Nuremberg tribunals,
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announces that history will judge
the fairness of the trial
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not by the convictions and the executions
it obtains, but by the acquittals.
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But the Soviets are expecting these
to be old-fashioned show trials.
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Wilhelm Keitel.
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Stalin had seen
how effective show trials could be
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in his own consolidation of power
in the 1930s...
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...and was happy
to give the Germans a trial...
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Hermann Wilhelm Goering.
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...and then hang them.
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12 of the defendants
receive the death sentence.
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Hermann Goeing avoids the gallows
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by committing suicide.
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Seven are given lengthy prison terms.
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Although the Soviets object,
three are acquitted.
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From '45 onwards,
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you just have
this constant growing tension
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between the United States and Britain on
one hand and the Soviet Union on the other.
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Stalin has to play a careful game.
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He wants to keep what he has.
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But he doesn't want to directly
antagonise the United States,
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because the United States is still
much more powerful economically.
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It has complete air and sea control.
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And it has the atom bomb.
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World War II
devastated the Soviet Union.
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Joseph Stalin must rebuild his country,
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ensure its security,
and consolidate his power.
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But some of Stalin's
ambitions will conflict
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with the post-war plans
of his Western allies.
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Stalin saw the wartime alliance
as a way to defeat Nazi Germany,
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but never something that would
permanently reshape the globe
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or that would make capitalism
and communism friends.
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Stalin is an ideologue.
That can never be forgotten.
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He believes that communism
and capitalism are incompatible,
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that they will at some point
wage a great fight
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for the future, and he believes
communism will win.
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Stalin is in an extraordinary position.
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There's a moment when he reviews
what they've conquered
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in World War II, looks at the map of
Europe and Russia and he says
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"We really haven't done badly."
And it's an understatement.
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The Red Army is in Berlin
and most countries to the east:
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Poland, the Baltics,
Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria.
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The Soviet wave
broke right around Berlin
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and they just never receded.
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Stalin has done better than any of the
greatest Czars in Russian history:
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Peter the Great,
Catherine the Great. He's created
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the biggest ever Russian empire.
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Stalin intends to create a buffer
against the West,
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militarily and ideologically.
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He would say, we have now had
two world wars
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where first imperial Russia,
then the Soviet Union
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had been invaded through
Eastern and Central Europe.
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I will make sure that they are
never a threat to us gain.
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For Stalin, the key thing
for Eastern and Central Europe
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is that it must be loyal
to the Soviets.
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It's non-negotiable, and the recipe for
doing that is communism.
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He starts to create
a new economic centralised system
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in Central and Eastern Europe:
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controlled governments,
armies, secret police,
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factories, agricultural systems,
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with all of the decisions effectively
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for those countries' economies
being made in Moscow.
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The Europe that the United States
wants to build
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does not look very much
like the Europe the Soviets want.
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The United States has an enormous
advantage over the Soviet Union:
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the atomic bomb.
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The Soviets construct
numerous sites across the USSR
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in order to accomplish task number one.
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Task number one
is to create a nuclear weapon
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at breakneck speed.
No resources are too much.
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The nuclear programme's what the USSR
was almost designed to do.
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It's a big country with lots of natural
resources.
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It can marshal and mobilise
for the nuclear project.
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It's not completely unlike
the Manhattan Project,
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which was also top-down,
secretive and resource-heavy.
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00:15:57,703 --> 00:16:02,395
The Soviet Union puts the full weight of
its coercive power behind this project.
251
00:16:02,644 --> 00:16:07,003
Stalin puts one of his
most ruthless lieutenants in charge,
252
00:16:07,004 --> 00:16:09,506
the chief of his secret police.
253
00:16:09,507 --> 00:16:14,177
Lavrentiy Beria is a man
of brutal ruthlessness and sadism,
254
00:16:14,178 --> 00:16:17,430
one of the great monsters
of the Soviet story.
255
00:16:17,431 --> 00:16:21,727
He rapes women,
he tortures victims himself.
256
00:16:21,998 --> 00:16:24,854
But he's also
as efficient as a Swiss clock,
257
00:16:24,855 --> 00:16:26,774
and he uses everything.
258
00:16:26,829 --> 00:16:31,696
He happily turns off power in
several cities just to power a project.
259
00:16:31,987 --> 00:16:35,490
He gives scientists villas,
dachas, cars,
260
00:16:35,491 --> 00:16:38,701
shooting rifles, holidays.
But at the same time,
261
00:16:38,703 --> 00:16:42,527
he threatens to kill them and their
whole families if they ever deceive him.
262
00:16:42,591 --> 00:16:44,870
And he drives on the project.
263
00:16:45,479 --> 00:16:47,166
It's not gonna be quick for Stalin.
264
00:16:47,192 --> 00:16:50,631
There's no way that he can flip a
switch and acquire nuclear weapons.
265
00:16:50,672 --> 00:16:54,091
But the USSR can't sit
on its laurels in 1946.
266
00:16:54,131 --> 00:16:56,552
It has readied itself for
a new phase of conflict.
267
00:17:01,628 --> 00:17:04,353
After the turmoil
of the Second World War,
268
00:17:04,354 --> 00:17:06,646
the people of Great Britain
and the United States
269
00:17:06,647 --> 00:17:10,046
hope to return
to a normal, prosperous life...
270
00:17:10,797 --> 00:17:13,842
...with peaceful coexistence
among nations...
271
00:17:15,176 --> 00:17:17,262
...including with the Soviet Union.
272
00:17:18,138 --> 00:17:20,140
For the past five years,
273
00:17:20,307 --> 00:17:23,645
Stalin had been your friend.
He had been Uncle Joe.
274
00:17:24,068 --> 00:17:25,645
But once again,
275
00:17:25,701 --> 00:17:28,189
a familiar voice sounds a warning.
276
00:17:29,003 --> 00:17:31,045
Winston Churchill's
in a pretty bad mood.
277
00:17:31,046 --> 00:17:32,960
He was thrown out by the public
278
00:17:32,986 --> 00:17:36,067
in a dramatic election defeat in 1945.
279
00:17:36,093 --> 00:17:38,513
His wife said
it might be a blessing in disguise.
280
00:17:38,539 --> 00:17:40,514
He said, "Pretty good disguise."
281
00:17:40,540 --> 00:17:43,392
He feels he won the second world war,
he saved Britain.
282
00:17:43,418 --> 00:17:46,020
And here he is on the speaking circuit.
283
00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:54,903
Winston Churchill
receives an invitation
284
00:17:54,904 --> 00:17:57,110
to give a speech at a small college
285
00:17:57,136 --> 00:17:59,304
in President Truman's home state.
286
00:17:59,700 --> 00:18:02,202
This is an opportunity for Churchill
287
00:18:02,203 --> 00:18:04,580
to say things he's got in his mind,
288
00:18:04,606 --> 00:18:08,666
also an opportunity to spend time with the
President of the United States of America.
289
00:18:08,667 --> 00:18:14,778
He'll stand on that stage and tell
American people some home truths.
290
00:18:18,469 --> 00:18:24,225
From Stettin in the Baltic
to Trieste in the Adriatic,
291
00:18:24,579 --> 00:18:28,458
an iron curtain has descended
across the continent.
292
00:18:28,729 --> 00:18:30,815
The famous Iron Curtain speech,
293
00:18:30,884 --> 00:18:36,445
where he very clearly lays out
what is happening in Europe,
294
00:18:36,789 --> 00:18:39,208
one side free, the other side not.
295
00:18:39,274 --> 00:18:41,282
Behind that line,
296
00:18:41,283 --> 00:18:44,827
all are subject to
a very high and in some cases
297
00:18:44,829 --> 00:18:48,770
increasing measure of control
from Moscow.
298
00:18:48,979 --> 00:18:51,668
Churchill sees Soviet communism,
299
00:18:51,669 --> 00:18:56,549
Stalinism, as a greater threat, really,
as Nazism was a generation before.
300
00:18:56,740 --> 00:19:01,282
This is certainly not the liberated
Europe we fought to build up.
301
00:19:01,731 --> 00:19:03,822
It's dynamite.
302
00:19:04,223 --> 00:19:08,498
Because what Churchill is doing
is reframing the wartime alliance.
303
00:19:08,957 --> 00:19:13,253
He's casting the Soviet empire
as a malign force in the world.
304
00:19:13,712 --> 00:19:18,419
Truman, by the way, is absolutely on
board with this speech.
305
00:19:18,702 --> 00:19:22,161
But to Stalin, this is just proof
that Churchill is a warmonger.
306
00:19:23,193 --> 00:19:26,404
The alliance that defeated Nazi fascism
307
00:19:26,766 --> 00:19:28,852
is beginning to fray.
308
00:19:39,473 --> 00:19:41,350
In late 1946,
309
00:19:41,376 --> 00:19:43,637
the French
vote to elect a new government.
310
00:19:44,721 --> 00:19:47,140
The Communist Party does well,
311
00:19:47,294 --> 00:19:51,215
winning a plurality of seats
in the French legislature.
312
00:19:51,325 --> 00:19:54,557
With the politics of Europe
in a state of extraordinary upheaval
313
00:19:54,558 --> 00:19:56,183
because of the catastrophe of the war,
314
00:19:56,184 --> 00:19:58,644
you do have a high degree of concern
in Washington
315
00:19:58,645 --> 00:20:02,044
about Western Europe
turning to communism.
316
00:20:02,393 --> 00:20:04,395
There's a lot of unrest.
317
00:20:04,604 --> 00:20:07,168
There are strikes
starting to take place in France.
318
00:20:07,169 --> 00:20:10,254
There's a huge
pro-communist movement in Italy.
319
00:20:10,255 --> 00:20:13,549
And Stalin thinks maybe he'll win
some of these countries
320
00:20:13,550 --> 00:20:15,823
without having to send an army in.
321
00:20:18,941 --> 00:20:20,275
To the south,
322
00:20:20,442 --> 00:20:22,308
Stalin attempts to pressure Turkey
323
00:20:22,309 --> 00:20:25,072
into giving him control
of the Turkish Straits,
324
00:20:25,239 --> 00:20:27,521
which would allow access
to the Mediterranean
325
00:20:27,522 --> 00:20:29,076
and the Middle East.
326
00:20:29,587 --> 00:20:33,878
And in Greece, communist guerrillas
and government forces
327
00:20:33,904 --> 00:20:36,594
are fighting an ongoing civil war.
328
00:20:37,595 --> 00:20:40,076
These countries have never been viewed
329
00:20:40,211 --> 00:20:43,246
as essential to American security.
The United States does not have a
330
00:20:43,302 --> 00:20:48,189
history of backing the governments
of Turkey or Greece.
331
00:20:48,887 --> 00:20:51,087
The British
have been funding the Greek army
332
00:20:51,114 --> 00:20:53,011
and sending weapons to Turkey.
333
00:20:58,366 --> 00:21:01,055
But early in 1947 in the White House,
334
00:21:01,056 --> 00:21:03,975
this document arrives, a shocker.
335
00:21:04,001 --> 00:21:06,853
It's from the British government,
and it says,
336
00:21:06,879 --> 00:21:10,386
for a long time, we've been
supporting Greece and Turkey,
337
00:21:10,482 --> 00:21:12,421
but we are broke.
338
00:21:14,069 --> 00:21:15,736
This is a really important moment,
339
00:21:15,737 --> 00:21:17,863
the winding down of the British Empire.
340
00:21:17,864 --> 00:21:22,170
By early 1947, they do not wish
to be a great force
341
00:21:22,196 --> 00:21:25,476
in the east Mediterranean,
which they had been for a long time.
342
00:21:26,143 --> 00:21:29,291
It becomes clear to Truman
and the American State Department
343
00:21:29,292 --> 00:21:32,931
that this issue in Greece and Turkey
is a threat to national security.
344
00:21:33,098 --> 00:21:35,189
They believe that if Greece
345
00:21:35,215 --> 00:21:38,228
and Turkey become Stalinised,
these are dominoes,
346
00:21:38,395 --> 00:21:41,356
and the rest of Western Europe
could possibly fall.
347
00:21:41,523 --> 00:21:43,817
And the British say to the Americans,
348
00:21:43,843 --> 00:21:48,249
if you wanna make sure
these places remain pro-Western,
349
00:21:48,457 --> 00:21:52,314
you as the United States
will have to use military force.
350
00:21:52,315 --> 00:21:55,881
Now, that is a real
put up or shut up moment for Truman.
351
00:21:57,675 --> 00:22:02,252
Truman is a very practical,
plainspoken, linear thinker.
352
00:22:02,513 --> 00:22:05,578
He doesn't come into office
with some big vision
353
00:22:05,579 --> 00:22:09,598
of what the world should be.
He picks up the mantle of FDR
354
00:22:09,624 --> 00:22:12,502
and tries to build a post-war order
355
00:22:12,589 --> 00:22:15,060
according to what he thought
FDR would have done.
356
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:19,217
But really, from the moment of
meeting Stalin at Potsdam onward,
357
00:22:19,243 --> 00:22:22,074
he starts to formulate his own views.
358
00:22:22,491 --> 00:22:26,109
And now Truman recognises
that this is a turning point.
359
00:22:26,495 --> 00:22:30,519
In this post-war world, what happens
on another side of the globe
360
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:33,857
can be critical
to America's national security.
361
00:22:34,131 --> 00:22:37,937
After deliberating with
his diplomatic and military advisors,
362
00:22:38,031 --> 00:22:41,871
President Truman addresses
a joint session of Congress.
363
00:22:43,054 --> 00:22:47,704
I believe that it must be
the policy of the United States
364
00:22:47,965 --> 00:22:52,261
to support free peoples who are
resisting attempted subjugation
365
00:22:52,287 --> 00:22:56,503
by armed minorities
or by outside pressure.
366
00:22:56,504 --> 00:23:01,989
We must assist free peoples to work out
their own destinies in their own way.
367
00:23:03,063 --> 00:23:06,640
The United States
is shifting away from isolationism.
368
00:23:07,161 --> 00:23:10,404
The Truman Doctrine is now U.S. policy.
369
00:23:12,573 --> 00:23:14,938
The Truman Doctrine is the culmination,
370
00:23:14,940 --> 00:23:16,565
going all the way back
to Woodrow Wilson,
371
00:23:16,566 --> 00:23:20,444
of setting out American ideals,
American principles,
372
00:23:20,445 --> 00:23:23,736
but this time backing them
with more power, more force,
373
00:23:23,782 --> 00:23:26,467
because Truman's vision
is that the U.S. will support
374
00:23:26,493 --> 00:23:28,744
any country
resisting communist aggression.
375
00:23:28,745 --> 00:23:31,372
- Any country.
- It is difficult to overstate
376
00:23:31,373 --> 00:23:36,190
what a dramatic departure
the Truman Doctrine is for the U.S.
377
00:23:36,732 --> 00:23:40,481
In 1941, the United States
had to be dragged into war.
378
00:23:40,507 --> 00:23:43,969
But what Truman is saying is now,
we're ready to take the fight
379
00:23:43,995 --> 00:23:46,487
wherever democracy requires us.
380
00:23:46,826 --> 00:23:51,090
We must take
immediate and resolute action.
381
00:23:51,142 --> 00:23:55,371
Truman asks Congress,
and he receives $400 million
382
00:23:55,397 --> 00:23:58,254
of military aid for Greece and Turkey.
383
00:23:58,806 --> 00:24:00,464
This is only the beginning.
384
00:24:05,146 --> 00:24:06,960
This is a radical shift,
385
00:24:06,986 --> 00:24:10,119
not only in the way that America had
thought about its place in the world,
386
00:24:10,120 --> 00:24:13,120
but a radical shift in where
Truman's own line was.
387
00:24:13,146 --> 00:24:17,084
It's actually putting American power
behind a global ideological contest
388
00:24:17,085 --> 00:24:19,681
with the Soviet Union.
389
00:24:24,186 --> 00:24:27,261
As the American-Soviet alliance fades,
390
00:24:27,262 --> 00:24:30,619
a contest between superpowers emerges.
391
00:24:38,836 --> 00:24:42,100
Europe is in the grip of one of
the coldest winters in memory.
392
00:24:43,059 --> 00:24:46,938
People have little to eat,
and struggle to stay warm.
393
00:24:47,678 --> 00:24:51,974
They begin to despair at the
slow pace of post-war recovery.
394
00:24:53,827 --> 00:24:57,605
Western governments have not been
able to rebuild their economies.
395
00:24:57,668 --> 00:25:00,233
Agriculture has been destroyed.
396
00:25:00,259 --> 00:25:04,165
Transportation has been destroyed.
Manufacturing has been destroyed.
397
00:25:04,191 --> 00:25:08,164
And there's an enormous
refugee crisis that is ongoing.
398
00:25:08,331 --> 00:25:12,244
During the war, there was the deliberate
forced movement of populations.
399
00:25:12,314 --> 00:25:15,062
So there are millions
and millions of refugees
400
00:25:15,088 --> 00:25:20,291
on the roads, in camps, in towns,
cities and villages not their own.
401
00:25:24,055 --> 00:25:25,920
Truman and his advisors
402
00:25:25,921 --> 00:25:28,858
fear that Europe
is on the verge of collapse.
403
00:25:29,175 --> 00:25:31,052
General George Marshall,
404
00:25:31,078 --> 00:25:35,485
one of the chief architects of American
victory in World War II, believes
405
00:25:35,598 --> 00:25:38,496
the whole world hangs in the balance.
406
00:25:38,955 --> 00:25:42,520
What Truman and George Marshall,
his Secretary of State, realise
407
00:25:42,521 --> 00:25:44,981
is you need to
rebuild the European economy.
408
00:25:44,982 --> 00:25:47,817
It has to be not just
the militarised Truman Doctrine,
409
00:25:47,818 --> 00:25:50,028
but there needs to be
a way of getting money
410
00:25:50,029 --> 00:25:53,637
to support Western European
or capitalist states.
411
00:25:53,838 --> 00:25:58,329
The Marshall Plan is a $13.3 billion,
412
00:25:58,443 --> 00:26:01,373
essentially, handout to
foreign governments
413
00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:03,583
to help these countries
rebuild themselves,
414
00:26:03,584 --> 00:26:06,676
westernise, and stabilise politically.
415
00:26:06,772 --> 00:26:09,006
And it would be keeping people alive
416
00:26:09,007 --> 00:26:12,564
in places where starvation
was an actual real thing.
417
00:26:12,590 --> 00:26:17,280
So it's done for altruistic
reasons, but also geopolitical ones.
418
00:26:17,348 --> 00:26:19,350
President Truman and George Marshall
419
00:26:19,360 --> 00:26:22,852
believe that the best guarantee
against communism
420
00:26:22,853 --> 00:26:27,812
are well-fed bellies,
good schools, orderly societies,
421
00:26:27,858 --> 00:26:31,341
the kind of things that can only
happen in a prosperous economy.
422
00:26:36,721 --> 00:26:39,869
Stalin recognises how Marshall's plan
423
00:26:39,870 --> 00:26:41,841
threatens his objectives.
424
00:26:42,008 --> 00:26:43,706
To him, it's another trick.
425
00:26:43,707 --> 00:26:46,876
It's another American way
to try to undermine the Soviet Union
426
00:26:46,877 --> 00:26:49,359
and pull Europe
into the American orbit.
427
00:26:50,318 --> 00:26:53,561
It's presented
as Stalin's typical paranoia.
428
00:26:54,030 --> 00:26:57,299
Actually, he's got every reason
to distrust the West.
429
00:26:57,325 --> 00:27:00,412
- He was right.
- Today, our aid
430
00:27:00,578 --> 00:27:02,225
to the free nations of Europe
431
00:27:02,226 --> 00:27:05,333
is helping them to resist dictatorship.
432
00:27:05,917 --> 00:27:08,398
Stalin understands that Western goods
433
00:27:08,399 --> 00:27:11,339
with Western money
would lead to Western values
434
00:27:11,506 --> 00:27:14,561
of liberal democracy, of open society,
435
00:27:14,697 --> 00:27:18,241
and also would spread
the attractions of capitalism.
436
00:27:18,242 --> 00:27:21,808
And it would
undermine Stalin's own rule.
437
00:27:22,309 --> 00:27:25,186
For him, the Marshall Plan
must be stomped out.
438
00:27:26,125 --> 00:27:28,918
Stalin directs the countries
under his command
439
00:27:28,919 --> 00:27:31,151
to reject the American offer.
440
00:27:31,651 --> 00:27:34,549
Very clearly, Stalin has drawn a line
441
00:27:34,550 --> 00:27:39,492
and said, this is my turf,
this is your turf, and that's that.
442
00:27:40,217 --> 00:27:43,199
Stalin expects
to maintain complete control
443
00:27:43,225 --> 00:27:47,350
of the East European countries liberated
from Germany by the Red Army.
444
00:27:48,644 --> 00:27:51,025
But one nation will test him.
445
00:27:54,841 --> 00:27:58,782
Czechoslovakia is deeply connected
to the Western European economy.
446
00:27:58,809 --> 00:28:00,784
The Czechs have advanced industry.
447
00:28:00,811 --> 00:28:04,955
They could become wealthy with access to
Western capital via the Marshall Plan.
448
00:28:05,310 --> 00:28:08,291
The democratically elected
government in Prague
449
00:28:08,292 --> 00:28:11,024
is led by President Edvard Benes.
450
00:28:11,191 --> 00:28:15,090
Several of its ministers are members
of the Czech Communist Party.
451
00:28:19,765 --> 00:28:22,827
Stalin pressures Benes
to reject American aid
452
00:28:23,328 --> 00:28:26,748
and compels the Czech communists
to seize control.
453
00:28:27,916 --> 00:28:29,729
Over the next few months,
454
00:28:29,730 --> 00:28:33,630
local communists stir up unrest
throughout the country.
455
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:36,861
The citizens of Czechoslovakia
haven't gotten the memo
456
00:28:36,862 --> 00:28:39,803
that they're the subordinates
of Soviet power.
457
00:28:42,972 --> 00:28:46,663
In 1948, there is a communist-led coup
458
00:28:46,664 --> 00:28:49,416
in Prague
that topples the Benes government
459
00:28:49,479 --> 00:28:54,359
and places another East European
country firmly in Moscow's orbit.
460
00:28:55,527 --> 00:29:00,970
Now, Stalin decides to take fewer risks
in Eastern Europe, no risks at all.
461
00:29:00,996 --> 00:29:04,098
He doesn't believe that
ultimately communism
462
00:29:04,124 --> 00:29:07,543
will flower politically
and economically and that
463
00:29:07,569 --> 00:29:10,103
working peoples around
he world will embrace it
464
00:29:10,104 --> 00:29:14,400
because it is the true and scientific
approach to human civilisation.
465
00:29:14,426 --> 00:29:16,288
He believes in power.
466
00:29:22,734 --> 00:29:24,534
Across Eastern Europe,
467
00:29:24,535 --> 00:29:29,455
he crushes any hint of liberalism,
free speech.
468
00:29:29,456 --> 00:29:32,647
He doubles down on his Soviet system.
469
00:29:33,189 --> 00:29:36,401
He arrests tens of thousands of people.
470
00:29:36,797 --> 00:29:40,425
More people are sent to the Gulags
after the war
471
00:29:40,426 --> 00:29:43,575
than before the war in the 1930s
during the Great Terror.
472
00:29:51,822 --> 00:29:54,815
Marshall Aid is an essential component
473
00:29:54,841 --> 00:29:57,948
in the American post-war
recovery plan for Europe.
474
00:29:59,841 --> 00:30:02,990
But its success widens
the increasing divide
475
00:30:03,031 --> 00:30:05,324
economically and politically
476
00:30:05,558 --> 00:30:07,599
between East and West.
477
00:30:08,725 --> 00:30:11,519
We are now in a bipolar world.
478
00:30:22,113 --> 00:30:26,085
It's a world of rivalry
like the world had never seen.
479
00:30:26,138 --> 00:30:28,556
The Soviet Union has proved
again and again
480
00:30:28,557 --> 00:30:30,600
that it cannot be trusted.
481
00:30:30,601 --> 00:30:32,272
And it's a race.
482
00:30:32,582 --> 00:30:34,896
It's a competition for pre-eminence,
483
00:30:34,897 --> 00:30:38,505
and it's ultimately going to be
a competition for security.
484
00:30:39,047 --> 00:30:41,402
And Berlin, the former capital
485
00:30:41,403 --> 00:30:45,115
of the Third Reich,
is at the centre of the conflict.
486
00:30:49,366 --> 00:30:51,596
In the summer of 1948,
487
00:30:51,597 --> 00:30:53,598
billions of Marshall Aid dollars
488
00:30:53,599 --> 00:30:56,123
flow into the countries
of Western Europe.
489
00:30:56,957 --> 00:30:59,104
Europe is slowly but surely
490
00:30:59,105 --> 00:31:01,398
edging back towards economic health.
491
00:31:01,399 --> 00:31:05,569
Careful planning for the use
of the $324 million allotted
492
00:31:05,570 --> 00:31:08,760
has helped Western Germany
temporarily to its feet.
493
00:31:09,011 --> 00:31:10,949
Great Britain and the United States
494
00:31:10,950 --> 00:31:13,536
merge their German occupation zones.
495
00:31:13,562 --> 00:31:15,667
The French will soon join them.
496
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:19,931
A common currency is introduced,
the Deutschmark.
497
00:31:20,282 --> 00:31:22,794
Stalin understands
that the Western powers
498
00:31:22,795 --> 00:31:27,112
intend to establish a strong
and independent West Germany.
499
00:31:28,864 --> 00:31:32,137
Since the end of the war,
Great Britain, France,
500
00:31:32,138 --> 00:31:36,330
the United States and the
Soviet Union have occupied Berlin.
501
00:31:36,649 --> 00:31:40,438
It lies deep within
Soviet-dominated Eastern Germany.
502
00:31:43,962 --> 00:31:47,068
Now, imagine for someone
as paranoid as Stalin
503
00:31:47,069 --> 00:31:50,972
having these Western militaries
going back and forth
504
00:31:51,032 --> 00:31:54,634
between Berlin
and the Western occupation zones.
505
00:31:54,660 --> 00:31:57,976
This is a source of instability,
disruption, it's dangerous.
506
00:31:58,393 --> 00:32:00,874
Stalin wants to sever direct contact
507
00:32:00,875 --> 00:32:03,857
between Berlin
and the western half of Germany.
508
00:32:04,733 --> 00:32:06,713
He doesn't want to invade West Berlin,
509
00:32:06,714 --> 00:32:09,669
because that's an act of war,
but what he believes he can do
510
00:32:09,695 --> 00:32:11,531
is he can blockade Berlin.
511
00:32:11,974 --> 00:32:14,826
At this time,
Berlin is still a pile of rubble.
512
00:32:14,951 --> 00:32:19,706
It has very little tactical significance
for the United States government.
513
00:32:20,168 --> 00:32:23,543
So it really made no sense
to keep West Berlin,
514
00:32:23,569 --> 00:32:29,278
and Stalin believed that in the end
the West would blink and withdraw.
515
00:32:32,678 --> 00:32:36,378
On June 24th, the Soviets cut all road,
516
00:32:36,404 --> 00:32:40,435
rail and water routes linking
West Berlin to Western Germany.
517
00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:43,689
Suddenly the trains stopped.
518
00:32:43,855 --> 00:32:47,359
Traffic between Berlin
and the Western zones was banned.
519
00:32:48,527 --> 00:32:51,113
The famous autobahns were deserted,
520
00:32:51,530 --> 00:32:54,449
and even canal traffic
was at a standstill.
521
00:32:55,075 --> 00:32:57,472
The blockade even cut electric power
522
00:32:57,473 --> 00:33:00,163
and put out 75% of the lights.
523
00:33:02,249 --> 00:33:04,584
Truman is a pragmatic person.
524
00:33:04,612 --> 00:33:08,985
This could be a moment where he says,
it's not worth
525
00:33:09,011 --> 00:33:12,280
saving this city, because I don't know
what Stalin's gonna do.
526
00:33:12,281 --> 00:33:14,782
I don't know how dangerous
this is gonna be.
527
00:33:15,394 --> 00:33:18,056
Instead, he says,
we're not going anywhere.
528
00:33:19,099 --> 00:33:22,436
The U.S. and Britain realise
this is Stalin testing the wire.
529
00:33:22,602 --> 00:33:25,872
It'll be Berlin first,
then it'll be elsewhere.
530
00:33:26,391 --> 00:33:29,870
And the Allies choose
to make it a red line.
531
00:33:30,426 --> 00:33:32,209
Keep in mind, it's 1948.
532
00:33:32,258 --> 00:33:35,647
For Truman, it's an election year.
It's the first post-war election.
533
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:37,846
The first election in the nuclear age.
534
00:33:37,847 --> 00:33:40,015
The first in the television age.
535
00:33:40,016 --> 00:33:42,518
He's aware that all eyes are on him.
536
00:33:42,935 --> 00:33:46,396
The British and Americans ask,
what can we do short of war?
537
00:33:46,397 --> 00:33:49,524
And the answer is,
they can keep Berlin supplied.
538
00:33:49,525 --> 00:33:54,176
Not by road, not by rail,
not by canal, but by air.
539
00:33:58,906 --> 00:34:03,894
The British and the Americans construct
an air bridge into West Berlin.
540
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:06,659
The plan is to deliver it on airplanes,
541
00:34:06,685 --> 00:34:09,724
everything that a modern city
needs to survive.
542
00:34:09,787 --> 00:34:14,178
Got food, got coal, you got fuel,
you've got medical supplies.
543
00:34:14,204 --> 00:34:18,049
It's a superb example of an operation
that's pulled together very quickly.
544
00:34:18,085 --> 00:34:20,180
Huge numbers of aircraft,
545
00:34:20,181 --> 00:34:23,351
plans flying round the clock.
These British and American officers,
546
00:34:23,377 --> 00:34:27,104
the same officers that organised the
triumphs of logistics
547
00:34:27,130 --> 00:34:29,610
that you see in World War II.
548
00:34:30,767 --> 00:34:33,485
A continuous stream of cargo planes
549
00:34:33,486 --> 00:34:36,051
land in West Berlin every few minutes.
550
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:38,615
But to reach the city,
551
00:34:38,616 --> 00:34:42,974
they must fly over hundreds of miles
of Soviet-controlled territory.
552
00:34:44,142 --> 00:34:46,520
They're choosing to defy Stalin.
553
00:34:48,035 --> 00:34:52,462
And if you fill the airspace
with military aircraft,
554
00:34:52,463 --> 00:34:54,225
even though they're unarmed,
555
00:34:54,388 --> 00:34:58,365
you have to assume
that Stalin might strike back.
556
00:34:59,199 --> 00:35:01,383
You have all this military capacity.
557
00:35:01,409 --> 00:35:06,534
You have the paranoia and fear
in Washington and in Moscow.
558
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:08,792
You have this hall of mirrors quality.
559
00:35:09,334 --> 00:35:12,754
The two countries are involved
in a kind of escalatory spiral.
560
00:35:18,510 --> 00:35:21,883
Truman now deploys dozens of B-29s
561
00:35:21,909 --> 00:35:23,849
to air bases in England,
562
00:35:24,140 --> 00:35:27,205
the same plane
that dropped the atomic bombs
563
00:35:27,206 --> 00:35:29,354
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
564
00:35:30,153 --> 00:35:32,169
Nuclear weapons go from being a
565
00:35:32,195 --> 00:35:34,130
secret weapon to a
566
00:35:34,156 --> 00:35:36,406
public strategic weapon.
567
00:35:36,632 --> 00:35:39,784
The pressure on Truman
at this point is incalculable
568
00:35:39,871 --> 00:35:43,138
He knows that this move
could be provocative enough
569
00:35:43,139 --> 00:35:45,203
to start World War III.
570
00:35:46,308 --> 00:35:49,936
But the Americans are hoping
that this strong show of resolve
571
00:35:49,937 --> 00:35:52,544
will encourage Stalin to back off.
572
00:35:53,169 --> 00:35:57,924
They are gambling that Stalin
does not want World War III.
573
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:06,884
After nearly a year
of daily international tension,
574
00:36:07,309 --> 00:36:10,061
Stalin halts the blockade.
575
00:36:11,621 --> 00:36:13,752
Here's a glimpse of Berlin itself
576
00:36:13,753 --> 00:36:17,110
as the first trains and vehicles
got going at night.
577
00:36:19,215 --> 00:36:22,949
All routes that connect
Berlin to the West are reopened.
578
00:36:27,829 --> 00:36:30,644
Restrictions within Berlin
between the Soviet zone
579
00:36:30,811 --> 00:36:33,355
and American, British, and French zones
580
00:36:33,522 --> 00:36:35,086
are lifted as well.
581
00:36:35,629 --> 00:36:38,527
Stalin set up a challenge for the West.
582
00:36:38,924 --> 00:36:41,092
He was probing the West.
583
00:36:41,447 --> 00:36:44,633
He needed to know how far he could go.
584
00:36:45,034 --> 00:36:49,455
But in fact,
Truman rose to the challenge,
585
00:36:49,537 --> 00:36:52,944
and in the end,
it was Stalin who blinked.
586
00:37:01,244 --> 00:37:03,829
As relations between the United States
587
00:37:03,830 --> 00:37:06,891
and the Soviet Union
continue to deteriorate,
588
00:37:06,891 --> 00:37:10,644
Western governments plan
to provide collective security
589
00:37:10,645 --> 00:37:13,106
against possible Soviet aggression.
590
00:37:13,272 --> 00:37:15,409
When the United States
and the Soviet Union
591
00:37:15,435 --> 00:37:18,328
look like they can be
on the verge of war,
592
00:37:18,355 --> 00:37:22,242
it became obvious that the United
States couldn't continue to ad hoc this,
593
00:37:22,268 --> 00:37:25,222
to lurch from crisis
to crisis to crisis.
594
00:37:25,764 --> 00:37:29,329
The post-war path that FDR anticipated
595
00:37:29,330 --> 00:37:35,710
was one in which the United Nations
would help adjudicate disputes
596
00:37:35,711 --> 00:37:37,922
and rule the peace.
597
00:37:38,402 --> 00:37:41,134
What he was not able
to fully anticipate
598
00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:45,053
was that a struggle
against his former ally,
599
00:37:45,054 --> 00:37:49,579
the Soviet Union, would become
the defining force of the era.
600
00:37:54,230 --> 00:37:56,523
Representatives from Europe, Canada,
601
00:37:56,524 --> 00:37:59,655
and the United States
meet in Washington to discuss
602
00:37:59,681 --> 00:38:02,509
the formation
of a new military alliance,
603
00:38:02,759 --> 00:38:06,784
the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, NATO.
604
00:38:07,180 --> 00:38:08,827
The idea is to create
605
00:38:08,828 --> 00:38:11,204
what military strategists
call deterrence.
606
00:38:11,205 --> 00:38:13,874
It's an alliance
that is created to make sure
607
00:38:13,875 --> 00:38:17,190
that the Russians know that if they
attack one state in the alliance,
608
00:38:17,216 --> 00:38:21,194
they could theoretically face a war
against all the states in that alliance.
609
00:38:21,653 --> 00:38:23,885
NATO is created
to keep the Americans in,
610
00:38:23,911 --> 00:38:26,351
the Russians out, and the Germans down.
611
00:38:29,474 --> 00:38:32,684
What Harry Truman does
with the Marshall Plan,
612
00:38:32,685 --> 00:38:35,478
with the Truman Doctrine, with NATO,
613
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:40,901
is establish an infrastructure
of deterrence
614
00:38:40,902 --> 00:38:45,280
to try to contain
the communistic influence.
615
00:38:45,281 --> 00:38:48,491
If there is anything inevitable
in the future,
616
00:38:48,493 --> 00:38:51,077
it is the will
of the people of the world
617
00:38:51,078 --> 00:38:53,518
for freedom and for peace.
618
00:38:56,956 --> 00:39:00,296
But the world is about
to cross a threshold from which...
619
00:39:00,879 --> 00:39:02,882
...there is no return.
620
00:39:08,860 --> 00:39:12,287
In an appropriately desolate landscape,
621
00:39:12,579 --> 00:39:17,250
the Soviet Union prepares
to test its first atomic bomb.
622
00:39:18,001 --> 00:39:21,733
Lavrentiy Beria,
Stalin's kind of mega-manager,
623
00:39:21,734 --> 00:39:26,510
arrives to supervise in a little hut
in the middle of nowhere.
624
00:39:27,803 --> 00:39:29,721
He's incredibly nervous.
625
00:39:30,234 --> 00:39:31,807
If it doesn't work,
626
00:39:32,091 --> 00:39:34,157
his downfall is quite likely.
627
00:39:35,373 --> 00:39:38,563
He watches from a safe distance.
628
00:39:52,041 --> 00:39:53,787
The test is a success.
629
00:39:54,955 --> 00:39:57,060
Stalin's overjoyed
630
00:39:57,061 --> 00:39:58,625
and relieved.
631
00:39:58,834 --> 00:40:01,690
Now he's got an equal footing
with the West,
632
00:40:01,691 --> 00:40:04,256
and they cannot push him
around ayn more.
633
00:40:04,393 --> 00:40:07,947
After this period when Stalin's
struggling to catch up with America,
634
00:40:07,973 --> 00:40:10,156
he's back in the game.
635
00:40:10,157 --> 00:40:13,952
Truman's a poker player,
and for these years after the war,
636
00:40:13,953 --> 00:40:17,263
he had an ace in the hole.
He had the bomb, the Soviets didn't.
637
00:40:17,290 --> 00:40:20,564
That surety was gone.
There was no turning back.
638
00:40:20,772 --> 00:40:24,004
You've got two superpowers,
two nuclear powers
639
00:40:24,005 --> 00:40:26,965
that are facing each other
across the world,
640
00:40:26,966 --> 00:40:29,750
and all of a sudden
the world is much less stable.
641
00:40:32,372 --> 00:40:35,490
An 18th or 19th century scholar
would say, oh,
642
00:40:35,516 --> 00:40:38,552
you're gonna have a war between those
two powers. It's inevitable because
643
00:40:38,579 --> 00:40:40,479
they're the two great superpowers.
644
00:40:40,505 --> 00:40:43,189
But atomic weapons change things.
645
00:40:43,190 --> 00:40:46,260
If the Soviets and the United States
can't compete
646
00:40:46,286 --> 00:40:49,801
in the military sense directly
because it's too dangerous,
647
00:40:50,010 --> 00:40:52,304
well, then you compete indirectly.
648
00:40:53,847 --> 00:40:57,965
After 1949, there'll be
one war after the other:
649
00:40:58,059 --> 00:41:01,771
big wars, small wars, guerrilla wars,
650
00:41:02,063 --> 00:41:05,275
proxy wars between the two superpowers.
651
00:41:06,088 --> 00:41:09,321
But what hasn't happened
is the big one.
652
00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:13,366
There has not been a World War III,
653
00:41:13,575 --> 00:41:16,306
a general war involving the globe
654
00:41:16,307 --> 00:41:18,625
that involves nuclear weapons.
655
00:41:18,872 --> 00:41:22,271
World War II began in a universe
656
00:41:22,297 --> 00:41:25,921
that would have been recognisable
50 years before.
657
00:41:26,505 --> 00:41:30,695
It ends in a world
that wouldn't have been recognisable
658
00:41:30,696 --> 00:41:34,221
to anyone, because of
the splitting of the atom.
659
00:41:35,722 --> 00:41:40,122
The moral
and philosophical underpinnings
660
00:41:40,247 --> 00:41:43,813
that enabled the Allies
to triumph in World War II,
661
00:41:44,210 --> 00:41:46,316
an appreciation for the individual,
662
00:41:46,566 --> 00:41:49,819
support for the dignity of all peoples,
663
00:41:50,111 --> 00:41:52,364
a bias for democracy,
664
00:41:52,656 --> 00:41:59,057
have for almost a century now
enabled us to live and thrive
665
00:41:59,058 --> 00:42:02,958
in a world
where Armageddon is always at hand.
666
00:42:03,458 --> 00:42:05,252
But it hasn't come,
667
00:42:05,502 --> 00:42:09,714
not least
because we've done the right thing.
668
00:42:15,105 --> 00:42:17,867
The Second World War alters everything.
669
00:42:17,868 --> 00:42:21,685
National, political,
even moral boundaries are redrawn.
670
00:42:21,977 --> 00:42:24,541
What was inconceivable before the war
671
00:42:24,542 --> 00:42:27,065
is now part of the fabric of life.
672
00:42:27,315 --> 00:42:30,569
The conflict that follows,
the Cold War,
673
00:42:30,777 --> 00:42:33,029
poses even graver consequence,
674
00:42:33,238 --> 00:42:35,802
because now
for the first time in human history
675
00:42:35,803 --> 00:42:39,077
the world
could literally destroy itself.
676
00:42:39,411 --> 00:42:45,208
One war replaced by another
and the world remains on edge.
677
00:42:45,479 --> 00:42:48,503
As President Dwight D. Eisenhower
observed,
678
00:42:48,712 --> 00:42:52,090
"The only way to win the next world war
679
00:42:52,507 --> 00:42:54,426
is to prevent it."