1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,162 WWW.MY-SUBS.CO 1 00:00:14,700 --> 00:00:15,899 Peace and prosperity 2 00:00:17,399 --> 00:00:20,004 An iron curtain has descended across the continent 3 00:00:20,101 --> 00:00:25,798 the Greek state is today threatened by the terrorist activities led by Communists 4 00:00:30,003 --> 00:00:32,503 Have you ever been a member of the Communist party? 5 00:00:32,699 --> 00:00:34,699 I shall continue to fight for peace 6 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:43,801 How much time do we have? 7 00:00:43,804 --> 00:00:45,200 This is the atomic age 8 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:58,002 Lavishing in peace with 67 million people gainfully employed -the most in our history- 9 00:00:58,401 --> 00:01:01,903 the United States today represents an achievement in good government 10 00:01:01,997 --> 00:01:04,302 unsurpassed in the history of man, 11 00:01:05,001 --> 00:01:08,502 while at the throttle controlling the wheels of our destiny is a spirit 12 00:01:08,604 --> 00:01:13,003 encouraging ever greater progress efforts on farming, industry, 13 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:16,302 in science and business that ensure the great majority 14 00:01:17,001 --> 00:01:21,702 a way of life that is physically gratifying and spiritually uplifting. 15 00:01:22,099 --> 00:01:24,702 The seed of our good fortune had root here. 16 00:01:25,100 --> 00:01:30,701 ...preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States 17 00:01:31,401 --> 00:01:32,800 so help me God 18 00:01:36,803 --> 00:01:40,900 Republican Dwight David Eisenhower was elected president in 1952 19 00:01:41,303 --> 00:01:44,200 in a landslide win carrying 39 states. 20 00:01:45,203 --> 00:01:51,401 A hero of WW2, gentle yet tough, labeling the ongoing Korean war as useless 21 00:01:52,101 --> 00:01:57,402 Eisenhower, the general, would end it and restore American confidence and optimism: 22 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:01,899 Now we look forward to the future with faith in ourselves, in our country 23 00:02:02,501 --> 00:02:05,500 and in the creator who is father of us all. 24 00:02:06,703 --> 00:02:10,302 And with faith in the most powerful arsenal ever assembled 25 00:02:10,904 --> 00:02:16,301 just 3 days before his election, the US tested its first hydrogen bomb 26 00:02:16,599 --> 00:02:19,599 on what had been the island of Elugelab. 27 00:02:20,502 --> 00:02:23,205 The 65 ton device was too big to drop by plane. 28 00:02:25,603 --> 00:02:30,404 Elugelab burned for 6 hours under a mushroom cloud 100 miles across 29 00:02:30,999 --> 00:02:33,700 and then disappeared forever. 30 00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:46,002 Who was this new American president with a grandfather's face? 31 00:02:46,599 --> 00:02:49,599 At Potsdam he had opposed the atomic bombings of Japan 32 00:02:50,199 --> 00:02:52,902 he'd pushed hard for a second front to help the Soviets 33 00:02:53,502 --> 00:02:57,399 and developed a friendly relationship with Soviet General Zhukov. 34 00:02:58,300 --> 00:03:00,400 Stalin held him in high regard. 35 00:03:10,904 --> 00:03:14,203 He was the first foreigner to ever witness a parade in Red Square 36 00:03:14,802 --> 00:03:17,800 from the platform atop Lenin's tomb 37 00:03:18,703 --> 00:03:22,601 and 6 weeks after his inauguration in March 1953 38 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:26,199 a fresh opportunity presented itself 39 00:03:26,802 --> 00:03:30,101 Americans woke to the news that Joseph Stalin was dead. 40 00:03:31,001 --> 00:03:33,400 Despite his extraordinary brutality 41 00:03:34,302 --> 00:03:38,200 most Russians revered him for leading the nation to victory over the Nazis 42 00:03:38,500 --> 00:03:43,300 and turning a backward Russia into a modern industrial state. 43 00:03:43,603 --> 00:03:47,799 While the public mourned, the new somewhat uncertain Soviet leaders 44 00:03:48,002 --> 00:03:52,200 created the onerous ghost of a man who'd ruled their lifes like an ancient czar 45 00:03:52,803 --> 00:03:58,203 for 30 years, decided to ease tensions with the capitalist west. 46 00:03:58,804 --> 00:04:02,703 They wanted above all to focus on improving their quality of life at home 47 00:04:03,398 --> 00:04:07,004 and called for coexistence and peaceful competition. 48 00:04:07,899 --> 00:04:10,599 How would America's new leadership respond? 49 00:04:13,102 --> 00:04:17,801 Winston Churchill was re-elected a 2nd time to office in 1951 50 00:04:18,402 --> 00:04:23,203 announcing 50 years of international diplomacy from the golden age of 51 00:04:23,503 --> 00:04:27,101 the European empires to the horrifying rise of fascism. 52 00:04:28,303 --> 00:04:32,803 But this new nuclear age held a special terror for the old man. 53 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:37,303 He urged Washington to seize this unprecedented opportunity 54 00:04:37,601 --> 00:04:41,803 and pressed for an international summit with the new Soviet leaders. 55 00:04:42,003 --> 00:04:43,199 He had hopes for Eisenhower 56 00:04:44,403 --> 00:04:45,903 6 weeks went by 57 00:04:46,502 --> 00:04:47,704 silence 58 00:04:48,299 --> 00:04:51,600 and then, Eisenhower eloquently spoke of peace: 59 00:04:52,204 --> 00:04:55,503 This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense 60 00:04:55,800 --> 00:05:00,603 under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. 61 00:05:01,202 --> 00:05:04,502 The Soviets, inspired, reprinted the speech widely 62 00:05:05,099 --> 00:05:08,703 but then, 2 days later, an answer came back to Moscow 63 00:05:09,303 --> 00:05:13,500 from Eisenhower's secretary of state John Foster Dulles: 64 00:05:14,403 --> 00:05:19,803 the peace offensive, was a peace defensive, taken in response to US's strength 65 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:24,603 and the Communists were endlessly conspiring to overthrow from within 66 00:05:25,202 --> 00:05:28,202 every genuinely free government in the world. 67 00:05:28,802 --> 00:05:32,701 It was insulting and the Soviets were perplexed, wondering 68 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,299 whether it was the moderate Eisenhower or hard lined Dulles 69 00:05:36,601 --> 00:05:39,603 who spoke for this new administration. 70 00:05:40,503 --> 00:05:45,001 The son of a presbyterian minister, Dulles had made a career on Wall St. 71 00:05:45,601 --> 00:05:51,903 in 1920s and 30s as a lawyer for the corporate powerhouse SullivanandCromwell 72 00:05:52,499 --> 00:05:56,400 Dulles never waivered in his commitment to protecting US business interests 73 00:05:56,999 --> 00:05:59,402 or in his hatred for Communism. 74 00:06:00,003 --> 00:06:03,599 Despite his later vehement denials of any dealings with the Nazis 75 00:06:03,904 --> 00:06:06,600 he worked for banker clients and helped secure 76 00:06:06,900 --> 00:06:09,902 more than a billion dollars in German bond sales in the US. 77 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:13,504 He also dealt extensively with IG Farben corporation, 78 00:06:13,802 --> 00:06:16,801 a significant contributor to the Hitler regime. 79 00:06:17,403 --> 00:06:22,799 Dulles was set on the idea of an aggresive liberation of citizens under Soviet control: 80 00:06:23,403 --> 00:06:25,801 Everywhere I look around the world, the question is, 81 00:06:26,402 --> 00:06:31,200 what -maybe- we gonna lose next, y'know? We seem to be on the defensive 82 00:06:31,804 --> 00:06:33,299 and they're on the offensive. 83 00:06:37,204 --> 00:06:42,600 By this time the Korean police action had become a 2.5 year nightmare 84 00:06:43,203 --> 00:06:48,303 and endless maneuvers for useless hill sides as elusive as 85 00:06:49,203 --> 00:06:52,202 the jungles of south Vietnam 15 years later. 86 00:06:53,100 --> 00:06:58,202 Battling Soviet trained and equipped North Koreans, WW2 hero general Douglas MacArthur 87 00:06:58,501 --> 00:07:03,304 had pushed north towards the Chinese border, despite repeated warnings from Beijing 88 00:07:03,898 --> 00:07:07,503 ensuring Truman that the Chinese would never enter the war. 89 00:07:08,701 --> 00:07:13,501 In the late fall of 1950 hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops 90 00:07:13,798 --> 00:07:18,302 streamed across the Yalu river, sending US and allied forces reeling backwards 91 00:07:18,901 --> 00:07:23,701 in a frantic retreat. The marines who spearheaded the breakout did not 92 00:07:24,303 --> 00:07:28,499 consider it a retreat. "Retreat, hell!" said their commander. 93 00:07:28,803 --> 00:07:31,201 "We're just advancing in a different direction". 94 00:07:31,504 --> 00:07:35,401 Time magazine called it the worst defeat the US had ever suffered. 95 00:07:36,003 --> 00:07:39,299 Truman wrote in his diary: WW3 is here. 96 00:07:40,499 --> 00:07:45,299 MacArthur repeatedly and Truman separately threatened to use the bomb. 97 00:07:45,902 --> 00:07:48,003 General Curtis Lemay volunteered to direct the attacks 98 00:07:48,899 --> 00:07:52,799 and, unknown to the public, American and Soviet pilots were engaging in direct 99 00:07:53,699 --> 00:07:59,101 air warfare, the only extended combat between the two sides during the Cold War. 100 00:08:01,501 --> 00:08:05,999 The drama of Truman firing MacArthur for insubordination: 101 00:08:06,300 --> 00:08:08,702 General MacArthur is one of our greatest military commanders 102 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:15,899 but the cause of world peace is much more important than any individual. 103 00:08:16,801 --> 00:08:21,599 And the shock of seeing their all powerful military failing to defeat 104 00:08:22,201 --> 00:08:27,303 ill equipped Chinese peasants drew Truman's popularity to a record low 105 00:08:27,902 --> 00:08:32,102 with the public of 22%. No victory in sight, the UN forces pounded 106 00:08:32,700 --> 00:08:36,004 month after month the North and the South with massive unrelenting 107 00:08:36,602 --> 00:08:40,799 conventional air bombing, similar to the campaign visited upon Japan 108 00:08:41,102 --> 00:08:44,699 5 years earlier. Weapon of choice was napalm. 109 00:08:45,299 --> 00:08:48,004 Almost every major city in North Korea was burned to the ground, 110 00:08:48,598 --> 00:08:51,601 a little was left standing in the South. 111 00:08:53,103 --> 00:08:57,604 Although Mao Zedong was imagining a world wide conflict, Stalin in the 112 00:08:58,201 --> 00:09:02,701 summer of 1951 pushed the North Koreans to the bargaining table. 113 00:09:03,304 --> 00:09:06,901 But negotiations dragged on for 2 more years. 114 00:09:07,201 --> 00:09:09,303 What are talking about? What are we arguing about? 115 00:09:09,903 --> 00:09:13,500 You know that this insignificant little hill is of no importance to you 116 00:09:13,799 --> 00:09:17,703 and no importance to us. So how can it be worth any man's life? 117 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:22,500 Don't you feel some responsibility towards thousands of 118 00:09:24,602 --> 00:09:28,501 Despite some progress at the negotiations and the Soviet peace initiative 119 00:09:29,102 --> 00:09:33,602 after the death of Stalin, Eisenhower now threatened to widen the war. 120 00:09:34,201 --> 00:09:38,102 He suggested to his commanders that the Kaesong area in North Korea 121 00:09:38,702 --> 00:09:43,501 might be a good place to showcase America's new tactical atomic bombs. 122 00:09:44,399 --> 00:09:49,800 The Joint Chiefs and National Security Council endorsed atomic attacks on China. 123 00:09:50,403 --> 00:09:55,202 Eisenhower and Dulles made sure the communist leaders knew of these threats. 124 00:09:56,102 --> 00:10:00,302 The US also began bombing the dams near Pyongyang, North Korea, 125 00:10:00,902 --> 00:10:04,804 causing enormous floods and destroying the rice crop. 126 00:10:05,400 --> 00:10:10,204 The Nuremberg Tribunal had condemned similar actions by Nazis in Holland 127 00:10:10,503 --> 00:10:13,502 in 1944 as a war crime. 128 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:18,903 With causalties skyrocketing on both sides, an armistice was finally signed in 129 00:10:19,203 --> 00:10:25,801 July of 1953, dividing the country exactly where the war had begun 3 years earlier. 130 00:10:26,402 --> 00:10:31,502 The US, despite claims of stopping communism, was perceived as having lost. 131 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:34,201 Because, it had not won. 132 00:10:34,801 --> 00:10:39,301 Vice president Richard Nixon would later insist that Eisenhower's nuclear threats 133 00:10:39,601 --> 00:10:43,801 had worked brilliantly, teaching him the value of unpredictability and 134 00:10:44,402 --> 00:10:50,401 inspired Nixon's own Mad Man thesis which he applied to Vietnam less than 20 years 135 00:10:50,703 --> 00:10:57,304 later. What was clear was the message to Asians who tried to challenge US interests. 136 00:10:58,203 --> 00:11:04,500 Some 3-4 million Koreans lay dead out of a population of 30 million, 10%, 137 00:11:04,799 --> 00:11:09,602 as well as over a million Chinese and 36,000 Americans. 138 00:11:10,202 --> 00:11:14,401 China had stood up proudly to the Americans, as the Vietnamese later would, 139 00:11:14,701 --> 00:11:17,400 enhancing their international prestige. 140 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:24,001 But America would block Chinese entry to the UN until 1971. 141 00:11:24,599 --> 00:11:29,403 The Soviets by comparison looked weak widening their gulf with China. 142 00:11:30,302 --> 00:11:33,603 As for the US, it was Churchill who grasped the real meaning: 143 00:11:34,500 --> 00:11:40,499 Korea does not really matter now. I'd never heard of the bloody place until I was 74. 144 00:11:41,103 --> 00:11:46,503 Its importance lies in the fact that it has led to the re-arming of America. 145 00:11:47,703 --> 00:11:51,304 The defense budget had grown 4 times to almost $50 billion, 146 00:11:52,199 --> 00:11:56,399 and military spending would hover it more than 50% of the US budget 147 00:11:56,703 --> 00:11:58,202 for the rest of the 1950s. 148 00:11:59,403 --> 00:12:03,599 Under Eisenhower a permanent war economy was to be achieved. 149 00:12:03,904 --> 00:12:07,499 Put it another way, it was not just General Motors that was good for America, 150 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:12,603 anti-communism was good for business. 151 00:12:13,799 --> 00:12:17,102 Hang out the banners, beat the drums, we'll take Ike to Washington. 152 00:12:18,004 --> 00:12:23,104 During his campaign, Eisenhower had in fact on little to lower the cold war 153 00:12:23,401 --> 00:12:28,500 temperature, fanning the flames of anti-Sovietism with calls to move beyond 154 00:12:29,101 --> 00:12:35,400 the democrats' containment to a republican liberation of the Eastern Block. 155 00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:43,200 Although he despised the venomous anti-communist Wisconsin senator Joe McCarthy 156 00:12:43,803 --> 00:12:49,499 and privately deplored his tactics, he backed down during the campaign from 157 00:12:49,802 --> 00:12:54,303 defending his mentor general George Marshall who McCarthy had accused of 158 00:12:54,903 --> 00:12:59,703 virtual treason for losing China as secretary of State. 159 00:12:59,802 --> 00:13:02,499 Even if there were only one communist in the state department, 160 00:13:03,101 --> 00:13:04,902 that'd still be one communist too many. 161 00:13:09,101 --> 00:13:12,399 Marshall refused to respond and told Truman at the time, that 162 00:13:12,999 --> 00:13:16,601 if at this point in his life he had to explain that he was not a traitor 163 00:13:17,500 --> 00:13:19,303 it was hardly worth the effort. 164 00:13:19,900 --> 00:13:23,802 But it wasn't long before he resigned as secretary of defense. 165 00:13:24,403 --> 00:13:27,404 From 1950 on, McCarthy made headlines: 166 00:13:28,302 --> 00:13:34,601 I have here in my hand a list of 205, a list of names who I've made known 167 00:13:35,202 --> 00:13:38,799 to the secretary of State as being members of the Communist party who, 168 00:13:39,399 --> 00:13:43,303 nevertheless, are still working and shaping policy in the State Department. 169 00:13:44,203 --> 00:13:47,802 Senator, senator Iselin, I'd like to verify that number sir, 170 00:13:48,503 --> 00:13:49,403 how many communists did you say? 171 00:13:50,203 --> 00:13:52,601 Oh I, major I said there're exactly, 172 00:13:55,103 --> 00:13:58,103 105 card carrying communists in the defense department at this time 173 00:13:58,703 --> 00:13:59,604 How many sir? 174 00:14:00,205 --> 00:14:01,704 Ahem, 275, and that's absolutely all I have to say on the subject 175 00:14:02,604 --> 00:14:03,504 at this time. Come babe. 176 00:14:04,403 --> 00:14:05,904 How many did he say? 177 00:14:06,801 --> 00:14:09,804 I'd be a lot happier if we could just settle on the number of 178 00:14:10,102 --> 00:14:12,805 communists I know there are in the Defense Department. 179 00:14:13,405 --> 00:14:19,404 The next day in another state he lowered his number to 57. 180 00:14:20,407 --> 00:14:23,704 Although he'd stayed silent when it mattered, Truman in one of his 181 00:14:24,304 --> 00:14:28,205 finest speeches deplored the mood and hysteria that he had done 182 00:14:28,805 --> 00:14:30,002 so much to create: 183 00:14:30,303 --> 00:14:32,703 Now I am going to tell you how we are not going to fight communism. 184 00:14:33,004 --> 00:14:38,705 We are not going to transform our fine FBI into a Gestapo secret police. 185 00:14:39,005 --> 00:14:40,803 That is what some people would like to do. 186 00:14:41,106 --> 00:14:44,707 We are not going to try to control what our people read and say and think. 187 00:14:45,006 --> 00:14:48,303 We are not going to turn the United States into a right-wing totalitarian 188 00:14:48,906 --> 00:14:52,206 country in order to deal with a left-wing totalitarian threat. 189 00:14:53,106 --> 00:14:54,606 In short, we are not going to end democracy. 190 00:14:55,803 --> 00:14:57,905 We are going to keep the Bill of Rights on the books. 191 00:14:59,403 --> 00:15:03,604 But throughout the 1950s, political debate essentially continued to vanish 192 00:15:03,904 --> 00:15:09,902 in the US, as Eisenhower never publicly attacked the extremist tactics of 193 00:15:10,205 --> 00:15:14,705 either the Red Scare or the Lavender Scare that targeted gays and lesbians. 194 00:15:17,405 --> 00:15:22,208 Behind the scenes, the real power was being exercised by director J. Edgar Hoover, 195 00:15:22,507 --> 00:15:28,206 who had Eisenhower's full support tapping telephones, opening mail, 196 00:15:28,502 --> 00:15:31,805 installing bugs, breaking into offices and safes. 197 00:15:32,406 --> 00:15:36,905 Hoover often played up the phony threat of a surprise Soviet attack on the US, 198 00:15:40,206 --> 00:15:45,003 and in 1956 briefed Eisenhower on the specter of a dirty bomb unleashed in 199 00:15:45,304 --> 00:15:48,604 Manhattan, killing hundreds of thousands of people. 200 00:15:51,303 --> 00:15:56,404 What's in the box? 201 00:15:57,904 --> 00:16:00,303 Curiosity killed the cat, and it certainly would have you if you followed 202 00:16:00,905 --> 00:16:02,404 your impulse to open it. 203 00:16:15,905 --> 00:16:20,406 Hoover was totally convinced Communism was behind the black civil rights movement 204 00:16:20,702 --> 00:16:25,203 from WW1 on and had spied on every single black leader since. 205 00:16:26,705 --> 00:16:30,906 His FBI was busy on a number of other fronts leaking information to its 206 00:16:31,204 --> 00:16:36,604 high level assets in the press and launching, in 1956, a program called 207 00:16:36,906 --> 00:16:43,802 Cointelpro of dirty tricks designed to disrupt ultimately some 2300 left-wing 208 00:16:44,402 --> 00:16:49,503 organizations. By 1960, the FBI had begun investigations at more than 209 00:16:50,107 --> 00:16:55,205 400,000 individuals and groups, all with Eisenhower's support. 210 00:16:55,507 --> 00:17:00,606 Patriotic pageants and ... pockmarked the landscape. Paranoia was rampant: 211 00:17:01,204 --> 00:17:05,405 Communism in reality is not a political party, it is a way of life, 212 00:17:06,007 --> 00:17:11,407 an evil, a malignant way of life. It reveals a condition akin to disease 213 00:17:11,702 --> 00:17:15,903 that spreads like an epidemic. And like an epidemic, its quarantine is necessary 214 00:17:16,502 --> 00:17:18,904 to keep it from infecting this nation. 215 00:17:19,203 --> 00:17:22,203 A second, more damaging, set of Hollywood hearings began. 216 00:17:22,804 --> 00:17:27,003 Artists and citizens were hauled before committees in order to name names. 217 00:17:29,705 --> 00:17:34,505 To writer Mary McCarthy the purpose of the hearings was not to combat subversion, 218 00:17:34,802 --> 00:17:39,303 but to convince Americans to accept the principle of betrayal as a norm of 219 00:17:39,903 --> 00:17:42,604 good citizenship. It worked. 220 00:17:43,505 --> 00:17:48,605 Renowned muckraking journalist I.F.Stone had earlier denounced the attempt to turn 221 00:17:48,904 --> 00:17:52,502 a whole generation of Americans into stool pigeons. 222 00:17:53,407 --> 00:17:58,503 The perception of our heroic WW2 ally was now deeply tarnished in the US 223 00:17:59,105 --> 00:18:03,005 by the Berlin airlift, the spies, the Korean war and the 224 00:18:03,605 --> 00:18:07,504 further revelations of the brutalities of the Stalin purges. 225 00:18:08,004 --> 00:18:11,605 But the Red Scare itself was far more damaging to America. 226 00:18:12,509 --> 00:18:16,107 It certainly decimated the legal communist party USA 227 00:18:16,407 --> 00:18:19,705 whose membership had dropped from 80,000 in 1944 228 00:18:20,304 --> 00:18:26,909 to below 10,000 by the mid 1950s, with probably 1500 of them FBI informants. 229 00:18:27,504 --> 00:18:29,604 9 years putting on an act I hate being hated for doing it. 230 00:18:30,505 --> 00:18:31,406 Something happened at HQ? 231 00:18:32,006 --> 00:18:35,304 No, HQ, they still think I'm a low soul who'd sell out on his own people 232 00:18:35,607 --> 00:18:38,605 Y'know you guys have a home and a family, when your day's work is done 233 00:18:38,905 --> 00:18:40,406 you go home where they're glad to see you 234 00:18:41,606 --> 00:18:44,309 I've got nothing but a bunch of slimy commies who'd cut my throat 235 00:18:44,607 --> 00:18:45,807 and throw me in the river when they're through with me 236 00:18:46,704 --> 00:18:49,408 Look, Ken, you've got to get me out of this thing, you've got to wipe 237 00:18:50,008 --> 00:18:52,106 this red smear of me, i can't take it any longer. 238 00:18:53,309 --> 00:18:57,805 More importantly, the Red Scare eviscerated the US left, the labor unions, 239 00:18:58,408 --> 00:19:01,706 and political and cultural organizations which had spurred 240 00:19:02,306 --> 00:19:06,204 the reforms of the New Deal of 1930s and 40s. 241 00:19:08,910 --> 00:19:12,206 With the exception of the civil rights and anti-nuclear movements, 242 00:19:12,808 --> 00:19:18,205 left-wing'd descend and progressive reform throughout the 1950s would remain silent, 243 00:19:19,109 --> 00:19:23,008 and the labor movement would never recover. 244 00:19:23,309 --> 00:19:27,508 To this day, the Eisenhower 50s are remembered as an era of the lonely, sad, 245 00:19:27,804 --> 00:19:32,306 capitalist corporation man and his gray flannel conformity. 246 00:19:34,105 --> 00:19:38,905 Fearing defense spending would bankrupt the country, Eisenhower and Dulles 247 00:19:39,506 --> 00:19:43,708 called for a new look defense policy that would cut the size of the army 248 00:19:44,006 --> 00:19:49,106 and rely on cheaper nuclear weapons to be used as would other munitions, 249 00:19:50,307 --> 00:19:53,305 based on the assumption that any war with the Soviets would become 250 00:19:53,905 --> 00:19:55,706 a full scale nuclear one. 251 00:19:56,004 --> 00:20:00,208 Though he had once abhorred atomic weaponry, Eisenhower told the British ambassador: 252 00:20:04,405 --> 00:20:08,005 As he set out to convince a weary public, there was no difference between 253 00:20:08,604 --> 00:20:10,709 conventional and nuclear weapons. 254 00:20:11,009 --> 00:20:16,708 He told a reporter in 1955 that he considered nuclear weapons to be as 255 00:20:17,006 --> 00:20:21,804 available for use as other munitions. Churchill was shocked, 256 00:20:22,105 --> 00:20:25,705 so was Pulitzer prize winning NY Times columnist James Reston, who 257 00:20:26,306 --> 00:20:30,508 wondered why no single congressman questioned Eisenhower's commitment 258 00:20:31,306 --> 00:20:35,506 to sudden atomic retaliation without congressional approval. 259 00:20:36,108 --> 00:20:41,808 In August of 1953, the Soviets exploded a 400 Kton proto-hydrogen bomb 260 00:20:42,407 --> 00:20:45,705 in Kazakhistan, shocking the world. 261 00:20:46,004 --> 00:20:49,005 They seemed to have closed the gap, and were now only 10 months behind 262 00:20:49,606 --> 00:20:51,104 the American H-bomb effort. 263 00:20:52,005 --> 00:20:58,606 In december of 54 Eisenhower ordered 42% of atomic 36% of hydrogen bombs 264 00:20:59,206 --> 00:21:03,106 deployed overseas closer to the Soviet union. 265 00:21:03,708 --> 00:21:07,910 Meanwhile he and Dulles intensified their efforts to vanquish the taboos 266 00:21:08,204 --> 00:21:10,606 surrounding the use of nuclear weapons. 267 00:21:11,207 --> 00:21:16,905 As early as december 1953 Eisenhower had unveiled his atoms for peace program 268 00:21:17,208 --> 00:21:21,706 in a speech at the UN, mesmerizing the 3500 delegates: 269 00:21:22,604 --> 00:21:27,107 If the peoples of the world are to conduct an intelligent search for peace, 270 00:21:27,705 --> 00:21:33,103 they must be armed with the significant facts of today's existence. 271 00:21:34,005 --> 00:21:38,209 He promised energy too cheap to meter at home and abroad, ignoring 272 00:21:38,505 --> 00:21:43,005 scientists' warnings about the dangers of proliferation. 273 00:21:43,606 --> 00:21:47,508 Over the years the administration would propose initiatives to use 274 00:21:47,809 --> 00:21:52,307 nuclear bombs for planetary excavation or creating harbors in Alaska 275 00:21:52,606 --> 00:21:57,706 freeing inaccessible oil deposits, creating underground reservoirs 276 00:21:58,003 --> 00:22:01,605 producing steam desalinizing water. 277 00:22:02,206 --> 00:22:05,808 There were schemes to blast a bigger and better Panama canal, and 278 00:22:06,407 --> 00:22:10,306 to alter weather patterns, and even melt the polar ice caps. 279 00:22:11,209 --> 00:22:14,808 Hamburgers from an atomic electric skillet are tasty testimonials of 280 00:22:15,406 --> 00:22:17,504 things to come in the atomic age. 281 00:22:17,805 --> 00:22:23,208 But when a massive hydrogen bomb test in the Marshall Islands in March of 54 282 00:22:23,508 --> 00:22:28,004 went awry and contaminated islanders and Japanese fishermen, 283 00:22:28,608 --> 00:22:30,707 international outrage ensued. 284 00:22:46,607 --> 00:22:51,105 The word fallout entered the lexicon, and opposition to nuclear testing grew globally 285 00:22:52,306 --> 00:22:56,807 new organizations were spun, people marched in the streets once more. 286 00:22:58,305 --> 00:23:02,807 The respected non-aligned Indian prime minister Nehru publicly denounced 287 00:23:03,407 --> 00:23:07,604 US leaders as dangerous self-centered lunatics who would blow up any people 288 00:23:07,904 --> 00:23:10,908 or country who came in the way of their policy. 289 00:23:11,207 --> 00:23:15,708 Eisenhower told his national security council: everybody seems to think that 290 00:23:16,009 --> 00:23:19,007 we're skunks, saber rattlers and war mongers. 291 00:23:19,906 --> 00:23:23,505 Dulles worried: comparisons are now being made between ours and 292 00:23:23,805 --> 00:23:25,908 Hitler's military machine. 293 00:23:29,809 --> 00:23:32,807 But Eisenhower could still speak eloquently and be believed: 294 00:23:34,609 --> 00:23:39,704 I come here representing a nation that wants not an acre of another people's land, 295 00:23:40,304 --> 00:23:43,608 that seeks no control of another people's government, 296 00:23:44,208 --> 00:23:49,305 that pursues no program of expansion in commerce or politics or power of any sort 297 00:23:49,608 --> 00:23:52,005 at another people's expense. 298 00:23:52,608 --> 00:23:55,302 There were other reasons besides the nuclear buildup 299 00:23:55,606 --> 00:23:59,206 for Nehru's denunciation of US leadership in the world 300 00:23:59,808 --> 00:24:01,904 Nehru knew more than the American public knew. 301 00:24:02,209 --> 00:24:04,905 He knew that Eisenhower was not telling the truth. 302 00:24:06,406 --> 00:24:09,408 In Iran, Britain suffered another reverse with the nationalization 303 00:24:09,708 --> 00:24:12,407 of its huge oil industry, and confiscation of the properties 304 00:24:13,008 --> 00:24:14,509 amidst scenes of violence. 305 00:24:18,107 --> 00:24:22,005 The British turn for help to the CIA with tales of mideast oil 306 00:24:22,308 --> 00:24:27,407 coming under Soviet control, this oil rich region from the Caspian to 307 00:24:27,705 --> 00:24:32,208 the Persian Gulf, unlike Korea, was critical to western interests. 308 00:24:33,106 --> 00:24:37,607 Democraticly elected, immensely popular, prime minister Mohammed Mosaddegh was 309 00:24:37,906 --> 00:24:44,205 the first Iranian to earn a doctor of laws degree from a European university. 310 00:24:45,108 --> 00:24:49,604 Time magazine named him 1951's Man of the Year. 311 00:24:50,206 --> 00:24:52,608 He inspired the Arab masses throughout the region 312 00:24:52,909 --> 00:24:57,407 who pulsated with nationalist fever, ready to take over their own affairs. 313 00:24:58,905 --> 00:25:03,107 Dulles and his brother Allen who was now head of the CIA knew Mosaddegh 314 00:25:03,705 --> 00:25:08,807 was not a communist, but feared a takeover by the small communist party. 315 00:25:09,705 --> 00:25:14,508 And with Eisenhower's full approval deployed the CIA to get rid of the 316 00:25:14,808 --> 00:25:20,507 madman Mosaddegh, buying up journalists, military officials, members of parliament 317 00:25:20,808 --> 00:25:27,406 and ominiously the services of the extremist warriors of Islam, a terrorist gang. 318 00:25:28,007 --> 00:25:32,809 In August of 53, organized mobs caused chaos in Tehran spreading rumours 319 00:25:33,104 --> 00:25:35,807 that Mosaddegh was Jewish and communist. 320 00:25:36,107 --> 00:25:39,708 The CIA and British intelligence paid street thugs to destroy mosques. 321 00:25:41,506 --> 00:25:45,705 Among the rioters was Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran's future leader. 322 00:25:46,608 --> 00:25:52,008 Mosaddegh and thousands of his supporters were arrested for treason, some executed. 323 00:25:52,607 --> 00:25:56,804 Former premier Mosaddegh's ruined house is a mute testimony to 3 days of bloody rioting 324 00:25:57,405 --> 00:26:02,205 culminating in a military coup from which the one time dictator of Iran fled for his life. 325 00:26:03,107 --> 00:26:08,809 The Shah who had fled to Rome comes home. Iranian oil may again flow westward. 326 00:26:11,208 --> 00:26:16,605 Reinstating the Shah on the throne, the US turned on the financial spigots for the next 327 00:26:16,908 --> 00:26:21,705 25 years, creating its strongest military ally in the middle east. 328 00:26:21,810 --> 00:26:25,707 Cutting down the British share, 5 US oil companies now received 329 00:26:26,010 --> 00:26:29,010 40% ownership of a new consortium. 330 00:26:29,607 --> 00:26:35,306 Those celebrate it in the western media as a great victory, the downside would be enormous. 331 00:26:36,507 --> 00:26:39,809 Instead of seeing a change of attitude at Stalin's death, 332 00:26:40,110 --> 00:26:44,311 the Soviets would perceive the US imposing another puppet government 333 00:26:44,606 --> 00:26:48,810 on a nation with which it shared a 2000 km border 334 00:26:50,007 --> 00:26:55,408 along with the Nato alliance, and now saw a western strategy of encirclement. 335 00:26:56,906 --> 00:27:01,409 Blowback is an espionage term for the violent unintended consequences of 336 00:27:01,708 --> 00:27:07,108 a covert operation on the civilian population of the aggressor nation. 337 00:27:07,408 --> 00:27:13,408 And in this case the US, despite temporary success and a new supply of oil, 338 00:27:13,710 --> 00:27:17,309 had outraged the citizens of a proud nation. 339 00:27:17,908 --> 00:27:23,609 It may have taken 25 more years for blowback to manifest, but in 1979, it did. 340 00:27:24,808 --> 00:27:27,807 Fed up with fixed elections and the repressions of Savak, 341 00:27:28,111 --> 00:27:32,906 the despised intelligence agency given to torture, people revolted 342 00:27:33,206 --> 00:27:38,610 embracing the Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini, and forced out the Shah. 343 00:27:39,507 --> 00:27:43,409 The Iranian coup would poison the US relations with the Iranian people for 344 00:27:43,709 --> 00:27:49,710 another 30 years into the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. 345 00:27:52,110 --> 00:27:56,906 The CIA had now come into its own, and the next year organized the overthrow of 346 00:27:57,207 --> 00:28:02,605 Guatamala's popular leader Jacobo Arbenz Guzman who challenged the giant 347 00:28:02,806 --> 00:28:07,609 US commercial interests in his impoverished central American nation. 348 00:28:07,911 --> 00:28:11,808 Dulles believed Arbenz was secretly a communist and, if not stopped, 349 00:28:12,409 --> 00:28:14,809 would invite Soviet infiltration into the region. 350 00:28:15,109 --> 00:28:19,607 In reality, communist influence was minimally a party of approximately 351 00:28:20,208 --> 00:28:22,308 4000 members. 352 00:28:22,909 --> 00:28:28,006 Future of Guatemala lies at the disposal of leaders loyal to Guatemala 353 00:28:28,310 --> 00:28:33,106 who have not treasonably become the agents of an alien despotism which sought 354 00:28:33,407 --> 00:28:36,409 to use Guatamala for its own evil ends. 355 00:28:37,009 --> 00:28:43,909 From bases in Honduras and Nicaragua in June 54, CIA trained mercenaries attacked. 356 00:28:44,209 --> 00:28:46,906 And Arbenz surrendered to a military junta. 357 00:28:47,206 --> 00:28:53,211 The events of recent months and days add a new and glorious chapter to 358 00:28:53,510 --> 00:28:56,507 already great tradition of the American states. 359 00:28:58,010 --> 00:29:02,209 Arbenz's replacement, anti-communist strong man Castillo Armas 360 00:29:02,807 --> 00:29:06,411 set up a brutal military dictatorship employing death squads 361 00:29:07,011 --> 00:29:11,812 and was assasinated 3 years later. The democratically elected Arbenz 362 00:29:12,412 --> 00:29:16,309 warned that 20 years of fascist bloody tyranny was coming. 363 00:29:16,911 --> 00:29:17,508 He was wrong. 364 00:29:18,409 --> 00:29:21,111 The tyranny that followed actually lasted 40 years, and 365 00:29:21,710 --> 00:29:24,112 took up the lives of some 200,000 people. 366 00:29:24,709 --> 00:29:29,812 The word communism was now being used as a description of not only 367 00:29:30,111 --> 00:29:33,410 the Soviet system, but for anyone, any place, any time 368 00:29:34,011 --> 00:29:37,009 who wanted change in their way in their country. 369 00:29:37,610 --> 00:29:40,311 Be it a labor leader, a reformer, a peasant activist, 370 00:29:41,211 --> 00:29:44,807 a human rights worker, or even a priest reading the gospel and 371 00:29:45,412 --> 00:29:50,209 organizing self help groups based on radical or pacifist messages. 372 00:29:53,110 --> 00:29:57,010 Events of even greater significance were unfolding simultaneously 373 00:29:57,614 --> 00:29:58,812 in Vietnam. 374 00:29:59,411 --> 00:30:01,512 The British had yielded much of their empire, but the French 375 00:30:02,109 --> 00:30:06,011 who had been humiliated by the German invasion of WW2 were still 376 00:30:06,311 --> 00:30:09,910 fighting for their enormous colonies in Indo China, and Africa. 377 00:30:11,114 --> 00:30:15,011 As the British in Iran had done in order to receive American aid 378 00:30:16,210 --> 00:30:21,310 the French daemonized their enemy, Ho Chi Minh, as a communist fanatic 379 00:30:21,612 --> 00:30:24,609 although they knew that he represented the same rebellion 380 00:30:24,911 --> 00:30:28,211 they had been fighting since the late 1800s. 381 00:30:30,912 --> 00:30:34,213 For the Vietnamese people, it had always been a struggle for their 382 00:30:34,814 --> 00:30:38,114 independence, well before the Russian revolution and 383 00:30:38,710 --> 00:30:41,409 the concept of communism had taken root. 384 00:30:42,610 --> 00:30:45,612 But in this time period, it was naturally assumed that 385 00:30:45,910 --> 00:30:48,909 Asian communism was directed from Moscow. 386 00:30:49,212 --> 00:30:52,213 The truth was that Stalin had always shown caution in Asia, 387 00:30:52,813 --> 00:30:57,008 denying significant aid to Mao, as he would for Ho Chi Minh, 388 00:30:57,609 --> 00:31:00,612 seeing little to gain by inflaming the French. 389 00:31:03,612 --> 00:31:07,512 Ho, who'd received US assistance when he led the resistance 390 00:31:07,811 --> 00:31:11,712 to the Japanese during WW2, had asked president Truman for help 391 00:31:12,313 --> 00:31:15,014 in setting up an independent Vietnamese state. 392 00:31:15,311 --> 00:31:16,810 He received no response. 393 00:31:17,414 --> 00:31:21,914 In 1950 he found out why: Truman was backing the other side. 394 00:31:22,512 --> 00:31:27,014 By april of 1954 Ho Chi Minh's peasant army had finished hauling 395 00:31:27,312 --> 00:31:30,912 extremely heavy anti-aircraft guns and howitzers through 396 00:31:31,508 --> 00:31:34,212 almost impassable jungle and mountain terrain, 397 00:31:34,811 --> 00:31:39,313 to lay siege to an encircled French army at Dien Bien Phu. 398 00:31:42,910 --> 00:31:45,914 A battle to the death is joined in Dien Bien Phu, an isolated French 399 00:31:46,511 --> 00:31:50,112 union stronghold deep in communist held territory of Indo China. 400 00:31:50,710 --> 00:31:53,111 The battle is at its height as French forces repulse repeated 401 00:31:53,711 --> 00:31:56,111 fanatical charges by 40,000 reds. 402 00:31:56,413 --> 00:32:00,312 Supplied by airlift reinforcements, a garrison outnumbered 4 to 1, 403 00:32:00,912 --> 00:32:04,813 kills or wounds 10,000 of the attackers while sustained severe losses 404 00:32:05,414 --> 00:32:08,710 of its own in the first single battle of the 8 year war. 405 00:32:10,809 --> 00:32:15,311 Incredibly the US was paying 80% of the French war costs. 406 00:32:16,209 --> 00:32:19,513 Eisenhower justified it by describing the countries in the region 407 00:32:20,107 --> 00:32:24,610 falling like dominoes, ultimately leading from Thailand, Indonesia and 408 00:32:24,911 --> 00:32:27,310 Malaysia to Japan itself. 409 00:32:27,910 --> 00:32:31,813 Though Eisenhower ruled out sending US ground forces, the Joint Chiefs' 410 00:32:32,412 --> 00:32:37,512 drop plans for operation Vulture, an air campaign against Viet positions 411 00:32:38,113 --> 00:32:44,109 which included the possibility of using 3 small tactical a-bombs. 412 00:32:44,411 --> 00:32:48,610 Nonetheless the French alongside the British rejected this option, 413 00:32:48,910 --> 00:32:54,911 and on may 7th after 56 grueling days the French garrison fell. 414 00:32:55,513 --> 00:32:59,412 And France's days of colonial conquest in Asia were over. 415 00:32:59,713 --> 00:33:02,411 Despite the fact that his forces controlled most of the country 416 00:33:03,011 --> 00:33:06,609 Ho gave in to pressure from Soviets and the Chinese who feared 417 00:33:06,912 --> 00:33:09,912 US intervention and at Geneva accepted a proposal that would 418 00:33:10,813 --> 00:33:16,311 temporarily divide Vietnam at the 17th parallel with Ho's forces 419 00:33:16,615 --> 00:33:21,113 withdrawing to the north and French backed forces retreating to the south. 420 00:33:21,713 --> 00:33:25,612 A national election was scheduled for 1956 to unify the country. 421 00:33:26,213 --> 00:33:29,513 The US promised not to interfere. But it did, 422 00:33:30,114 --> 00:33:34,315 installing a conservative, corrupt, catholic in a Buddhist country. 423 00:33:34,913 --> 00:33:39,411 Ngo Dinh Diem wasted no time in crushing rivals and jailing communists, 424 00:33:40,313 --> 00:33:42,415 thousands of whom were executed. 425 00:33:42,611 --> 00:33:47,114 With US backing, Diem then subverted the most important provision of 426 00:33:47,712 --> 00:33:51,013 the Geneva agreement: cancelling the 1956 election. 427 00:33:51,912 --> 00:33:55,511 Eisenhower later explained that, had the elections been held 428 00:34:03,913 --> 00:34:07,216 As a result the insurgency was soon rekindled, and within 429 00:34:07,514 --> 00:34:11,714 a few short years the French war would become the American. 430 00:34:21,014 --> 00:34:24,612 Across the globe in Africa, the Vietnamese struggle became an inspiration 431 00:34:25,212 --> 00:34:29,115 for the Algerian revolutionaries who would outlast the French 432 00:34:29,714 --> 00:34:34,211 in a brutal 8 year war from 1954 to 62. 433 00:34:35,114 --> 00:34:38,411 This finally gutted the French empire in Africa. 434 00:34:41,415 --> 00:34:46,812 In 1953, Eisenhower symbolically went to Madrid to offer a huge loan 435 00:34:47,414 --> 00:34:51,313 to feared fascist dictator Francisco Franco in return for the 436 00:34:51,913 --> 00:34:54,012 establishment of nuclear bases. 437 00:34:54,312 --> 00:34:58,511 Spain was then admitted to the UN in 1955, 438 00:34:58,813 --> 00:35:02,113 although communist China was still denied membership. 439 00:35:03,016 --> 00:35:06,316 The US also supported Portugal, which clung to an enormous 440 00:35:06,913 --> 00:35:11,411 ramshackle plantation and apartheid empire in southern Africa 441 00:35:12,012 --> 00:35:15,014 as well as neighboring south Africa where minority whites 442 00:35:15,312 --> 00:35:18,016 strictly suppressed the black majority. 443 00:35:19,513 --> 00:35:24,012 By the mid 1950s the reputation of the US in the third world 444 00:35:24,311 --> 00:35:27,610 reached rock bottom, as it allied itself with some of the world's 445 00:35:27,913 --> 00:35:29,714 most reactionary regimes. 446 00:35:30,614 --> 00:35:35,111 America's capacity for massive retaliation might keep the balance of 447 00:35:35,413 --> 00:35:39,314 power with the Soviets, but it would prove useless in preventing 448 00:35:39,912 --> 00:35:43,813 the revolutionary upsurge in the developing world, which wished 449 00:35:44,115 --> 00:35:47,712 to steer non-aligned course between capitalist and socialist blocks 450 00:35:48,311 --> 00:35:52,511 and ... seeing to spend billions of dollars on arms when 451 00:35:52,813 --> 00:35:55,211 money for survival was in short supply. 452 00:35:55,815 --> 00:35:58,816 To the non-aligned point of view, the American cold war on 453 00:35:59,114 --> 00:36:03,912 Eisenhower's watch was not really a war against communism 454 00:36:04,211 --> 00:36:07,512 as much as it was a war against the poor peoples of the earth 455 00:36:07,810 --> 00:36:10,213 for the resources of the earth. 456 00:36:10,816 --> 00:36:15,314 29 Asian and African leaders met for the first time in 1955 at 457 00:36:15,613 --> 00:36:20,637 Bandung in Indonesia. The host was Indonesia's Achmed Sukarno who 458 00:36:21,388 --> 00:36:23,473 had led the fight against Dutch colonialism. 459 00:36:24,140 --> 00:36:27,852 The stars were Yugoslavia's renegade leader marshall Tito 460 00:36:28,395 --> 00:36:30,689 who had, despite several assasination attempts, 461 00:36:31,231 --> 00:36:33,858 freed himself from Stalin's Soviet grip 462 00:36:34,192 --> 00:36:37,821 along with Nasser of Egypt who had taken on the British empire 463 00:36:38,446 --> 00:36:41,199 Nehru, independent India's first leader 464 00:36:41,616 --> 00:36:43,076 and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh. 465 00:36:43,284 --> 00:36:46,454 Israel, perceived as a US ally, was not invited 466 00:36:46,788 --> 00:36:50,083 to avoid an Arab boycott. Communist China was. 467 00:36:50,712 --> 00:36:54,612 They met on the beautiful island of Java in the world's 4th 468 00:36:54,911 --> 00:36:59,113 largest nation which combined the world's largest muslim community 469 00:36:59,416 --> 00:37:01,514 and the 3rd largest communist party. 470 00:37:02,116 --> 00:37:05,557 This conference is not to oppose each other, 471 00:37:06,099 --> 00:37:07,299 it is a conference of brotherhood. 472 00:37:08,184 --> 00:37:11,479 Dulles proclaimed neutrality an obsolete conception, 473 00:37:11,688 --> 00:37:13,148 immoral and short-sighted. 474 00:37:13,565 --> 00:37:17,610 In one the strangest and little known episodes of this time period, 475 00:37:18,153 --> 00:37:21,531 the prime minister of China, Zhou Enlai, was targeted 476 00:37:22,115 --> 00:37:24,826 by Jiang Jieshi's nationalist government in Taiwan. 477 00:37:25,618 --> 00:37:30,957 Secretly embedded by the CIA, a detonator and bomb were placed on his plane. 478 00:37:31,374 --> 00:37:33,793 But Zhou survived when he changed planes, 479 00:37:34,586 --> 00:37:36,755 although the 16 people aboard were blown 480 00:37:37,380 --> 00:37:39,799 out of the sky under mysterious circumstances. 481 00:37:40,512 --> 00:37:43,011 Zhou maintained an enigmatic silence and 482 00:37:43,470 --> 00:37:45,430 the conference was considered a great success. 483 00:37:47,056 --> 00:37:50,659 But many of these independent leaders would in time be toppled by the US. 484 00:37:53,713 --> 00:37:57,913 The Soviet union, which had first ignored the neutral block, 485 00:37:58,213 --> 00:37:59,714 was beginning to confront its own past. 486 00:38:02,711 --> 00:38:06,013 Premier Nikita Khrushchev who, like Eisenhower, had come from 487 00:38:06,611 --> 00:38:11,111 humble origins and seen the worst of WW2 up close as a political 488 00:38:11,412 --> 00:38:15,613 organizer at the battle of Stalingrad shocked the communist world 489 00:38:15,915 --> 00:38:21,311 in February 1956, emotionally giving voice to what noone had ever 490 00:38:21,614 --> 00:38:24,014 publicly said without being punished. 491 00:38:24,611 --> 00:38:28,811 He detailed Stalin's murderous terror which had left his society 492 00:38:29,412 --> 00:38:33,011 frightened into a conformity even greater than that in the US 493 00:38:33,309 --> 00:38:36,313 which had not suffered the physical terrors. 494 00:38:37,215 --> 00:38:41,712 He decried Stalin's cult of personality and initiated a much 495 00:38:42,016 --> 00:38:45,015 needed policy of de-Stalinization. 496 00:38:45,613 --> 00:38:48,915 The reaction across the communist world was incendiary. 497 00:38:49,515 --> 00:38:53,114 Hard liners were stunned. Mao in China infuriated. 498 00:38:54,014 --> 00:38:56,413 Unrest swept much of eastern Europe. 499 00:38:57,012 --> 00:38:59,112 Crowds gathered outside the parliament in Hungary and 500 00:38:59,712 --> 00:39:03,311 toppled the enormous statue of Stalin, even lynching secret 501 00:39:03,614 --> 00:39:05,415 police officers in the streets. 502 00:39:06,012 --> 00:39:08,712 Kruschev allowed the revolt to take its course, but when the 503 00:39:09,013 --> 00:39:12,013 moderate Hungarian prime minister announced free elections and 504 00:39:12,313 --> 00:39:16,515 said that Hungary was withdrawing from the Warsaw pact of 1955 505 00:39:17,113 --> 00:39:21,311 which was a new parallel organization to the west's Nato, 506 00:39:22,213 --> 00:39:24,913 Kruschev felt he had no other choice or he would be removed 507 00:39:25,513 --> 00:39:27,014 by his hard liners. 508 00:39:27,315 --> 00:39:29,712 Russian tanks rolled into the old city and the resistance 509 00:39:30,314 --> 00:39:33,912 ended with the death of around 2500 Hungarians. 510 00:39:34,512 --> 00:39:38,412 Although this number pales in comparison to the total casualties 511 00:39:39,013 --> 00:39:42,611 from America's interventions in 3rd world countries, Hungary 512 00:39:43,214 --> 00:39:46,213 became one of the biggest stories of cold war, clearly pointing 513 00:39:46,812 --> 00:39:49,514 to Soviet evil and domination. 514 00:39:51,013 --> 00:39:54,012 This is battered Budapest under the brutal Russian boot. 515 00:39:54,615 --> 00:39:57,914 Communist secret police hunt down heroic freedom fighters. 516 00:39:58,215 --> 00:40:01,215 Time magazine called the Hungarian freedom fighter 517 00:40:01,510 --> 00:40:02,711 the man of the year. 518 00:40:05,715 --> 00:40:09,011 At the same time, unknown to the American public, the USA's 519 00:40:09,611 --> 00:40:13,213 hard power continued to manifest globally. 520 00:40:13,812 --> 00:40:17,414 We were not very happy with Mr. Sukarno in, what was that 521 00:40:18,011 --> 00:40:22,511 year? 1958, and I don't thin k we're happy with him in 1965. 522 00:40:23,113 --> 00:40:26,411 Sukarno in Indonesia became a major target. 523 00:40:26,713 --> 00:40:30,313 the CIA plans to unseat him were sometimes ludicrous involving 524 00:40:30,914 --> 00:40:34,212 porno films and beautiful Russian blondes, and supporting 525 00:40:34,815 --> 00:40:39,614 a military coup in 1957 in which CIA pilots bombed targets. 526 00:40:40,213 --> 00:40:43,512 When Eisenhower denied US involvement, he was embarassed when 527 00:40:44,412 --> 00:40:48,613 one such pilot, Al Pope, was shot down in a B-26 and presented 528 00:40:49,212 --> 00:40:50,415 there in a news conference. 529 00:40:50,711 --> 00:40:53,411 The results of these efforts pushed Sukarno towards accepting 530 00:40:54,014 --> 00:40:57,012 more and more Soviet aid. It would take the US another 8 years 531 00:40:57,612 --> 00:41:01,213 to change the power structure in Indonesia in one of the 532 00:41:01,514 --> 00:41:03,616 bloodiest massacres of the century. 533 00:41:05,714 --> 00:41:08,415 An extreme situation has been created in Little Rock. 534 00:41:09,014 --> 00:41:13,212 Projecting a negative international image of the US, federal 535 00:41:13,511 --> 00:41:18,313 troops were sent in the fall of 1957 to Arkansas to protect 536 00:41:18,614 --> 00:41:21,314 newly enrolled black high school students from violent 537 00:41:21,911 --> 00:41:22,811 hateful moms, 538 00:41:26,714 --> 00:41:31,513 whereas the progressive Soviet union was seen by all to be 539 00:41:32,111 --> 00:41:35,716 launching the satellite Sputnik into the night sky. 540 00:41:57,913 --> 00:42:01,215 We had bombs, but suddenly the Soviets had space. 541 00:42:01,812 --> 00:42:03,315 They had rockets and missiles. 542 00:42:03,916 --> 00:42:06,915 Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson said that the Soviets 543 00:42:07,515 --> 00:42:10,513 would soon be dropping bombs on us from space like kids 544 00:42:11,116 --> 00:42:14,411 dropping rocks onto cars from freeway overpasses. 545 00:42:15,314 --> 00:42:17,711 Eisenhower's response was lackadaisical: 546 00:42:18,613 --> 00:42:21,913 they put one small ball into the air, he said 547 00:42:23,112 --> 00:42:27,613 then to drive his point home, he reportedly played 5 rounds of golf that week. 548 00:42:28,514 --> 00:42:32,114 The reason was he knew the truth and could not reveal it, that 549 00:42:32,411 --> 00:42:37,212 US technology had developed hightly secret U2 reconaissance planes 550 00:42:37,515 --> 00:42:42,616 which had for over a year flown 70,000 feet above Soviet 551 00:42:42,911 --> 00:42:46,513 airspace photographing how far the Russians really lagged 552 00:42:47,115 --> 00:42:48,915 behind in the arms race. 553 00:42:49,515 --> 00:42:53,414 CIA director Allen Dulles later gloated: I was able to 554 00:42:53,714 --> 00:42:56,711 get a look at every blade of grass in the Soviet union. 555 00:42:57,912 --> 00:43:03,011 A month later the Soviets launched the massive 6 ton Sputnik 2. 556 00:43:04,216 --> 00:43:07,512 Nonetheless, Kruschev reached out to Eisenhower calling for 557 00:43:08,114 --> 00:43:11,711 a peaceful space competition and an end to the cold war. 558 00:43:12,311 --> 00:43:16,211 But Ike, feeling enourmous political pressure, gloated publicly 559 00:43:16,511 --> 00:43:20,412 about America's vast and growing military superiority. 560 00:43:20,713 --> 00:43:23,412 We're well ahead the Soviets both in quality and in quantity. 561 00:43:23,711 --> 00:43:25,815 We intend to stay ahead. 562 00:43:26,414 --> 00:43:30,013 Pointing to its submarines and huge aircraft carriers 563 00:43:30,314 --> 00:43:33,015 now supplied with nuclear weapons. 564 00:43:33,515 --> 00:43:35,912 Nonetheless, the democrats seized the initiative. 565 00:43:36,512 --> 00:43:39,214 Respected house leader John McCormack declared that 566 00:43:39,816 --> 00:43:44,015 US faced national extinction. Among those who jumped 567 00:43:44,310 --> 00:43:47,615 enthusiastically on this missile gap bandwagon was the 568 00:43:48,213 --> 00:43:51,811 junior senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy 569 00:43:52,711 --> 00:43:56,014 Eisenhower dismissed these critics as sanctimonious 570 00:43:56,314 --> 00:43:59,915 hypocritical bastards. but gloom 571 00:44:01,411 --> 00:44:03,515 He now commissioned a secret security review that was 572 00:44:03,814 --> 00:44:07,412 authored essentially by Paul Nitze, a furiously anti-communist 573 00:44:08,014 --> 00:44:10,415 Wall St. protege of James Forrestal. 574 00:44:11,012 --> 00:44:14,614 His report, the Gaither report, was devastating. And it was leaked 575 00:44:15,214 --> 00:44:19,115 apparently by Nitze himself to the Washington Post which wrote 576 00:44:19,715 --> 00:44:23,614 that it portrays a US in gravest danger in its history. 577 00:44:24,511 --> 00:44:28,114 In the best tradition of yellow press, the newspaper pictured the 578 00:44:28,715 --> 00:44:32,013 nation moving to the status of a second class power and 579 00:44:32,615 --> 00:44:35,312 urgently called for enormous increase in military spending 580 00:44:36,212 --> 00:44:38,915 from now through 1970. 581 00:44:40,113 --> 00:44:44,313 The publication of Nevil Schute's On The Beach in 1957, 582 00:44:44,915 --> 00:44:48,513 followed by an internationally popular movie, chillingly 583 00:44:49,115 --> 00:44:52,712 showed a handful of survivors of nuclear war waiting in 584 00:44:53,615 --> 00:44:56,914 Melbourne, Australia, the world's southern-most city for the 585 00:44:57,513 --> 00:45:00,813 fallout that had already wiped out the rest of humanity. 586 00:45:02,311 --> 00:45:05,914 Winston Churchill, now in retirement, was attending a party 587 00:45:06,213 --> 00:45:09,515 when asked if he would send a copy of the novel to Eisenhower. 588 00:45:10,415 --> 00:45:14,015 A one time ferocious cold war hero responded with despair: 589 00:45:14,914 --> 00:45:19,112 It would be a waste of money. He's so muddle-headed now I think 590 00:45:19,413 --> 00:45:23,614 the earth will soon be destroyed. And if I were the almighty 591 00:45:24,215 --> 00:45:29,913 I would not re-create it in case they destroyed him too the next time. 592 00:45:30,213 --> 00:45:35,015 After 2 heart attacks, Eisenhower still seemed a decent well meaning 593 00:45:35,312 --> 00:45:38,011 man but lost out of touch. 594 00:45:44,914 --> 00:45:49,713 Right under his nose in America's backyard in early 1959, Fidel Castro 595 00:45:50,313 --> 00:45:54,812 and his revolutionaries finally toppled Cuba's Batista dictatorship 596 00:45:55,115 --> 00:45:58,714 under which American business interests controlled over 80% of 597 00:45:59,016 --> 00:46:03,512 Cuba's resources. Castro said about redistributing land and 598 00:46:04,114 --> 00:46:07,416 reforming the education system. He seized large Cuban land 599 00:46:08,013 --> 00:46:11,611 holdings, and over a million acres from United Fruit and two 600 00:46:11,912 --> 00:46:15,212 other companies, offering compensation, which was rejected. 601 00:46:16,416 --> 00:46:20,611 Like many non-aligned 3rd world leaders, Castro accepted offers of 602 00:46:20,911 --> 00:46:26,615 Soviet aid. In april of 59, he visited the US and met briefly with 603 00:46:27,215 --> 00:46:31,716 vice-president Nixon who dismissed Castro as naive about communism and 604 00:46:32,314 --> 00:46:36,814 later supported his elimination. And when US and British oil 605 00:46:37,411 --> 00:46:41,914 companies refused to process Russian crude at their Cuban refineries 606 00:46:42,215 --> 00:46:46,113 Castro nationalized them and threatened to expropriate all American 607 00:46:46,414 --> 00:46:50,010 property on the island. Eisenhower announced a punishing trade 608 00:46:50,616 --> 00:46:54,513 embargo denying the Cuban people, among other things, markets for 609 00:46:55,312 --> 00:46:58,916 their sugar which the Soviets and Chinese offered to buy. 610 00:46:59,518 --> 00:47:03,117 The embargo would take a terrible toll, though it would be eased 611 00:47:03,415 --> 00:47:06,416 by US at the turn of the century, it would last for more than 612 00:47:06,716 --> 00:47:09,414 50 years and 10 administrations. 613 00:47:10,017 --> 00:47:13,314 Condemned repeatedly by a huge majority of the General Assembly 614 00:47:14,215 --> 00:47:20,215 in 2011, 186 nations were against it, 2 nations supported it: 615 00:47:20,814 --> 00:47:22,316 the US and Israel. 616 00:47:22,916 --> 00:47:28,013 In march 1960, Eisenhower approved a CIA plan to organize 617 00:47:28,616 --> 00:47:32,815 a paramilitary force of Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro. 618 00:47:33,415 --> 00:47:36,713 This plan included the possibility of assasination. 619 00:47:37,613 --> 00:47:41,213 As a symbol to the rest of the world, Castro could not be allowed 620 00:47:41,514 --> 00:47:43,016 to succeed. 621 00:47:43,913 --> 00:47:47,816 The Belgian Congo had been infamously portrayed in Joseph Conrad's 622 00:47:48,413 --> 00:47:51,116 Heart of Darkness in the early part of the century. 623 00:47:52,014 --> 00:47:53,814 Nothing much had changed. 624 00:47:54,413 --> 00:48:00,414 When the Belgians left in 1960, new socialist premier Patrice Lumumba 625 00:48:01,017 --> 00:48:04,915 desperate for help, flew to Washington. But Eisenhower refused 626 00:48:05,513 --> 00:48:09,717 to see him. CIA chief Allen Dulles told Ike that Lumumba was 627 00:48:10,312 --> 00:48:13,914 an African Fidel Castro and persuaded him to authorize a plan 628 00:48:14,516 --> 00:48:17,216 to assasinate him. It was bungled. 629 00:48:17,815 --> 00:48:22,616 But as Congo descended into an anarchic civil war Lumumba was 630 00:48:23,214 --> 00:48:28,017 removed in January of 61 by army mutineers in the presence of 631 00:48:28,917 --> 00:48:33,414 Belgian officers. He was tortured and murdered. And quickly 632 00:48:34,015 --> 00:48:37,313 became a martyred nationalist hero to the 3rd world. 633 00:48:37,914 --> 00:48:40,013 The US was blamed by many. 634 00:48:40,917 --> 00:48:45,716 The CIA, abandoning the UN peace plan, backed Joseph Mobutu. 635 00:48:46,613 --> 00:48:50,215 Stealing billions of dollars in natural resources from the land 636 00:48:50,515 --> 00:48:54,113 as well as from his US supporters and slaughtering multitudes 637 00:48:54,713 --> 00:48:59,517 to preserve his power, Mobutu ruled for 3 decades as a 638 00:48:59,817 --> 00:49:05,516 billionaire dictator, and as the CIA's most trusted ally in Africa. 639 00:49:08,514 --> 00:49:13,617 In his remarkable farewell address of January 1961, Eisenhower 640 00:49:14,213 --> 00:49:19,014 seemed to understand the monstrosity he had created and seemed 641 00:49:19,617 --> 00:49:22,314 almost to be asking for absolution. 642 00:49:22,912 --> 00:49:26,513 We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of 643 00:49:27,114 --> 00:49:32,218 vast proportions. 3.5 million men and women are directly engaged 644 00:49:33,116 --> 00:49:34,612 in the defense establishment. 645 00:49:35,215 --> 00:49:40,316 The total influence -economic, political, even spiritual- is 646 00:49:40,615 --> 00:49:44,216 felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of 647 00:49:44,514 --> 00:49:47,213 the Federal government. In the councils of government, 648 00:49:47,815 --> 00:49:50,816 we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, 649 00:49:51,713 --> 00:49:55,617 whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. 650 00:49:56,512 --> 00:49:59,213 We must never let the weight of this combination endanger 651 00:49:59,516 --> 00:50:01,613 our liberties or democratic processes. 652 00:50:04,315 --> 00:50:07,917 Privately he told Allen Dulles: I leave a legacy of ashes 653 00:50:08,215 --> 00:50:11,817 to my successor. He was close to the truth. 654 00:50:12,413 --> 00:50:15,415 Aside from overthrowing foreign governments and intervening 655 00:50:15,714 --> 00:50:19,615 freely around the globe, it was Eisenhower who did more than 656 00:50:19,914 --> 00:50:24,117 anyone else to create the very military industrial complex 657 00:50:24,716 --> 00:50:29,515 he warned of. Under Ike, the US arsenal expanded from a little 658 00:50:30,113 --> 00:50:34,010 more than 1000 to over 22,000 nuclear weapons. 659 00:50:35,216 --> 00:50:38,217 And continuing into the 1960s he authorized more than 660 00:50:39,112 --> 00:50:43,017 30,000 weapons. Nuclear bombs were now the foundation of 661 00:50:43,616 --> 00:50:48,116 America's empire, and provided the new emperor, its president, 662 00:50:48,714 --> 00:50:51,714 with a mystical power that required more and more 663 00:50:52,314 --> 00:50:55,915 suffocating secrecy, even if those powers went far beyond 664 00:50:56,214 --> 00:50:58,313 the original limits of executive power 665 00:50:58,613 --> 00:51:00,714 defined in the constitution. 666 00:51:02,814 --> 00:51:05,816 And, although the bombs themselves were not expensive, the 667 00:51:06,118 --> 00:51:11,515 huge infrastructure was, requiring bases in the US and abroad 668 00:51:11,814 --> 00:51:15,116 and enormous delivery systems by bomber missile, 669 00:51:15,716 --> 00:51:18,114 aircraft carrier and submarine. 670 00:51:19,013 --> 00:51:22,016 Eisenhower additionally made it acceptable US policy 671 00:51:22,618 --> 00:51:24,717 to threaten nuclear attack. 672 00:51:26,513 --> 00:51:30,716 In a Life magazine interview in 1956 Dulles defending 673 00:51:31,012 --> 00:51:34,615 his policy of brinksmanship pointed to 3 different 674 00:51:34,917 --> 00:51:37,617 occasions where the administration had walked to the 675 00:51:38,213 --> 00:51:42,115 brink of nuclear war and forced the communists to back down: 676 00:51:43,313 --> 00:51:46,915 In Korea, Vietnam and the Formosa Straits. 677 00:51:47,813 --> 00:51:51,113 The US would actually do so again against the Soviets 678 00:51:51,712 --> 00:51:54,112 who also threatened to use their nuclear weapons during 679 00:51:55,012 --> 00:51:59,513 the Suez crisis of 1956, and once more in the crisis 680 00:52:00,117 --> 00:52:04,916 with China over the small islands Quemoy and Matsu in 1958. 681 00:52:06,417 --> 00:52:09,115 Eisenhower's successors in the white house have all 682 00:52:09,713 --> 00:52:12,717 followed his example in threatening America's perceived 683 00:52:13,316 --> 00:52:16,013 enemies if they didn't recede to its demands. 684 00:52:17,214 --> 00:52:20,214 Additionally, what is little known is that Eisenhower had 685 00:52:20,813 --> 00:52:24,116 delegated to theater commanders and other specified 686 00:52:24,413 --> 00:52:27,714 commanders the authority to launch a nuclear attack, if 687 00:52:28,615 --> 00:52:31,913 they believed it were mandated by circumstances, and 688 00:52:32,515 --> 00:52:34,312 were out of communication with the president. 689 00:52:35,212 --> 00:52:38,514 And with Eisenhower's approval, some of these commanders 690 00:52:38,811 --> 00:52:42,417 had in turn delegated the same authority to lower level 691 00:52:43,617 --> 00:52:46,912 officers. Thus, there were now dozens of fingers on 692 00:52:47,813 --> 00:52:50,516 the trigger at a time when there were no locking devices 693 00:52:50,816 --> 00:52:52,613 on nuclear weapons. 694 00:52:52,914 --> 00:52:55,015 General Turgidson, I find this very difficult to understand. 695 00:52:55,913 --> 00:52:58,312 I was under the impression that I was the only one in 696 00:52:58,612 --> 00:53:01,013 the authority to order the use of nuclear weapons. 697 00:53:02,813 --> 00:53:03,714 Ah, that's right sir. 698 00:53:04,313 --> 00:53:07,012 You are the only person authorized to do so, and although 699 00:53:07,615 --> 00:53:10,913 I hate to judge before all the facts are in, it's 700 00:53:11,513 --> 00:53:13,613 beginning to look like general Ripper exceeded his 701 00:53:14,216 --> 00:53:15,117 authority. 702 00:53:15,413 --> 00:53:17,213 It certainly does, far beyond the point I would've 703 00:53:17,517 --> 00:53:18,415 imagined possible. 704 00:53:19,313 --> 00:53:22,313 Perhaps you're forgetting the provisions of Plan R, sir. 705 00:53:22,613 --> 00:53:23,517 Plan R? 706 00:53:23,813 --> 00:53:30,416 Plan R is an emergency war plan in which a lower echelon 707 00:53:30,714 --> 00:53:33,716 commander may order nuclear retaliation after a sneak attack 708 00:53:34,912 --> 00:53:37,913 if the normal chain of command has been disrupted. 709 00:53:38,514 --> 00:53:40,616 You approved it sir, you must remember. 710 00:53:47,515 --> 00:53:51,415 In august of 1960 Eisenhower approved an operational plan 711 00:53:51,712 --> 00:53:57,118 to launch a nuclear attack simultaneously on USSR and China 712 00:53:57,714 --> 00:53:59,816 within the first 24 hours of a war. 713 00:54:01,016 --> 00:54:03,717 The conservative estimate on the number of deads from US 714 00:54:04,013 --> 00:54:07,614 bombs and fallout was 600 million people, more than 715 00:54:08,212 --> 00:54:12,412 100 holocausts, much less the possibility of a nuclear 716 00:54:13,013 --> 00:54:16,315 winter across the globe that would have ended all life. 717 00:54:17,813 --> 00:54:21,116 In hindsight, Eisenhower presiding over the world's most 718 00:54:21,715 --> 00:54:25,912 powerful nation during perhaps the tensest extended period 719 00:54:26,513 --> 00:54:30,412 in its history, could have with bold action put the world 720 00:54:31,016 --> 00:54:32,513 on a different path. 721 00:54:33,115 --> 00:54:36,715 Signs eminating from Moscow indicated Kremlin was ready 722 00:54:37,013 --> 00:54:38,813 to change course. 723 00:54:39,414 --> 00:54:42,414 But because of ideology, political calculations, 724 00:54:43,018 --> 00:54:47,514 the exigencies of a militarized state and a limited 725 00:54:48,113 --> 00:54:52,313 imagination, Eisenhower repeatedly failed to seize 726 00:54:52,915 --> 00:54:54,713 the opportunities that emerged. 727 00:54:55,014 --> 00:54:57,114 Fathers make mistakes too, y'know, lots of them. 728 00:54:57,716 --> 00:54:59,513 In fact, it's easy for us to make mistakes because 729 00:55:00,116 --> 00:55:01,612 we're trying so hard to live up to the perfect picture 730 00:55:02,214 --> 00:55:03,413 you paint of us. 731 00:55:05,213 --> 00:55:07,016 You're just going to have learn that I'm just an 732 00:55:07,316 --> 00:55:09,412 ordinary human being, with a reasonable amount of 733 00:55:09,716 --> 00:55:13,014 intelligence, capable of handling most situations, 734 00:55:13,613 --> 00:55:17,517 but I'm not a superman. I can't bring about miracles. 735 00:55:18,413 --> 00:55:20,217 Just because I'm your father doesn't mean that I'm 736 00:55:20,513 --> 00:55:22,012 infallible. 737 00:55:22,614 --> 00:55:26,516 It's interesting to think that in 1953 when Eisenhower 738 00:55:26,816 --> 00:55:30,116 was becoming more of a cold war hero, his mentor 739 00:55:30,712 --> 00:55:34,613 general George Marshall became the only career military 740 00:55:35,216 --> 00:55:38,216 officer to be awarded the Nobel peace prize. 741 00:55:39,414 --> 00:55:43,315 Emphasizing the need for a better understanding of history 742 00:55:43,913 --> 00:55:45,714 and the causes of war, he said: 743 00:55:46,313 --> 00:55:49,013 A cost of war is constantly spread before me 744 00:55:49,615 --> 00:55:51,413 written neatly in many ledgers, 745 00:55:52,614 --> 00:55:55,016 whose columns are gravestones. 746 00:55:56,816 --> 00:55:59,814 Marshall, a conservative man who had lived through 747 00:56:00,112 --> 00:56:02,816 two world wars and a depression who, unlike many 748 00:56:03,715 --> 00:56:06,117 generals, rarely wore his medals in public and 749 00:56:06,717 --> 00:56:10,012 reportedly refused a large sum of money for his 750 00:56:10,914 --> 00:56:13,916 memoirs, stood till he died in 1959 751 00:56:14,516 --> 00:56:17,512 in a sort of respected but lonely grandeur 752 00:56:18,114 --> 00:56:20,216 still ostracized by many on the right for 753 00:56:20,816 --> 00:56:24,414 moderation in a time of zealotry, and a tolerance 754 00:56:25,015 --> 00:56:27,418 he was truly the embodiment of. 755 00:56:32,816 --> 00:56:35,515 There's no question the Eisenhower years are remembered 756 00:56:36,117 --> 00:56:37,915 as peaceful and prosperous. 757 00:56:44,510 --> 00:56:47,513 At a time when war with the Soviet union seemed 758 00:56:48,117 --> 00:56:50,512 quite possible, he certainly deserves credit for 759 00:56:51,717 --> 00:56:55,917 avoiding it. But, the inescapable truth is that 760 00:56:56,513 --> 00:56:59,216 the beloved Dwight Eisenhower put the world on a 761 00:56:59,816 --> 00:57:03,113 glide path towards annihilation by the most 762 00:57:03,717 --> 00:57:06,414 gargantuan expansion of military power in history 763 00:57:07,913 --> 00:57:10,917 and left the world a far more dangerous place than 764 00:57:11,514 --> 00:57:13,314 when he first took office. 765 00:57:14,212 --> 00:57:16,313 We stand ready to engage with any and all others 766 00:57:16,916 --> 00:57:21,416 in joint effort to remove the causes of mutual fear 767 00:57:21,713 --> 00:57:24,714 and distrust among nations, so as to make possible 768 00:57:25,316 --> 00:57:28,017 drastic reduction of armaments.