Original subtitles

[Music]

Friday April 13th

1945 America is in

shock the second world war is not yet

over and US President Franklin Roosevelt

has just

[Music]

died

Roosevelt was a great Craftsman of

Peace more than anyone else he embodied

the hope of seeing the world rebuilt on

a better

[Music]

basis as the silent crowd watches the

funeral procession go past the whole

planet is asking

itself without Roosevelt will the Soviet

Block in the West managed to build

Bridges and build a lasting

[Music]

peace April 12th

1945 the White House in

Washington 3 hours after Roosevelt's

death Harry Truman becomes the new

president of the United

States he makes his first appearance in

a world Riven by

chaos in April 1945 America is still at

war with Hitler and the

Japanese to add to the complications

Truman has been vice president for just

3 months and he never seemed to be

predestined to be the new president of

the

[Music]

USA he's a former shirt and tie salesman

from

Missouri he went into politics late in

life and was elected to the senate for

the first time 10 years

ago when Roosevelt selected him as his

vice president it wasn't for his

abilities

he considered him clueless he chose him

purely for electoral reasons it's very

common in the US vice presidents are not

necessarily selected for their

intelligence it's often because they can

win votes from important

areas overnight the former shopkeeper

from Missouri has been propelled to the

head of the world's biggest

superpower he himself is flabbergasted

and doesn't try to hide it the front

pages scream out what Truman has told

journalists boys if you ever pray pray

for me now I don't know whether you've

ever had a load of hay fall on you but

when they told me what happened I felt

like the moon stars and all the planets

had fallen on

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me even today President Truman's

grandson remembers that his grandfather

never tried to pretend that he was the

man for the job

he was not ready for that at all he

actually said there must be a million

people a million men better qualified to

do this job than I am but it's mine to

do so I'm going to do it he was the kind

of man who when given a job did

it the task promises to be

Herculean he will have to to build the

World of Tomorrow on solid basis but

Truman has no experience of

international

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politics in the 3 months he has been

vice president Rosevelt has only met him

in private

twice Truman has been told

nothing I fault my grandfather for not

trying to bring him more into the

picture I wonder how much energy my

grandfather had I think he was well

aware of his diminishing energy and to

bring Truman into the picture may have

been more than he could

[Music]

face two months before his death

Rosevelt had met with Stalin and

Churchill at

Yalta it was there in Crimea that the

big three had laid the foundations for

future peace but the deals concluded

were complex and full of ambiguity each

of the Allies having played his own

[Music]

hand Truman was not privy to these

discussions he needs to familiarize

himself with all the

dossier he is pragmatic and

hardworking so he has countless

briefings with his

advisers but will his Relentless work be

enough can this small time Thai salesman

from Missouri hold his own against the

formidable

[Music]

Stalin one month after Truman exceeds to

the White House the Allies win the war

in

Europe all over the continent people are

jubilant

outside Buckingham Palace in London a

human tide greets Winston

Churchill the British prime minister is

lauded as a

hero but even at this euphoric moment

Churchill looks

drawn the smile on his face looks a

little forced in his Memoirs he writes

weary and warn impoverished but

undaunted and now triumphant we share a

moment that was Sublime yet it may well

be there were few whose Hearts were more

heavily burdened with anxiety than

mine what could seem so terrible that it

could darken such a moment problem

Churchill has goes by the name of Stalin

now the war in Europe is won the British

prime minister is convinced that Stalin

will seize this opportunity to install

communist regimes everywhere he

can

already contrary to the pledges made at

Yalta the Soviet leader has established

a communist regime in Romania in Poland

six non-communist ministers have been

allowed to join the government but they

have a little less power every

day Stalin wanted all of Europe to

become communist it was an

ideology but also because he had the

mindset of an

emperor a dictator with an Emperor's

mindset

the British prime minister tries to warn

Truman but the new American president is

not

interested for now Truman has taken the

tack that he will honor the agreements

made by

Roosevelt he will not have a word said

against his communist

Ally Churchill can only wait and hope

that Truman will see the Soviet leaders

true colors for himself the opportunity

soon

[Music]

arises July 16th 1945 Berlin

airport the US president's plane has

just

landed Truman is in Europe for a peace

conference this is his opportunity to

meet his allies and make up his own mind

about

them talks are to take place at poton a

few miles from

[Music]

Berlin in order to get there Truman has

to go through the former capital of the

Third

Reich Berlin is nothing more than a land

of ruins

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a few bone weary people wander around

aimlessly the scene of desolation upsets

Truman and convinces him that he needs

to help Germany get back on its

feet that evening he writes in his

diary never have I seen such a sorrowful

and depressing sight

we saw old men old women and young women

carrying what they could of what they

had left to nowhere in

particular the conference begins on the

next day July

17th here at cecilian Hoff Castle Truman

Stalin and church will meet for the

first and only

time

as Truman expected Churchill seems

Charming but his advisers keep telling

him that Stalin is not to be

trusted however the new president

quickly sizes up the man with whom he'll

have to

negotiate I can deal with Stalin he is

honest but cunning as

[Music]

hell Stalin on the other hand has no

concerns about Truman whom he just sees

as a smalltime shopkeeper from

Missouri Stalin knows very little about

Truman because he was a bit poot player

his spies hadn't really spoken about him

and what they had said led him to

believe that he was insignificant and

weak and could be made to agree to

anything but Truman is a man who sticks

to his

guns for against all expectations

despite his lack of experience the

American president knows how to stand

firm he's in no way cowed by

Stalin a matter of character certainly

but not only that Truman feels he's in a

strong position because he's waiting for

a piece of information that could make

him the most powerful man on the

planet at that precise moment in the

United States a top secret event is

being prepared while he's negotiating

the president is keenly anticipating

some

news on day two of the negotiations he

finally receives a telegram in coded

language doctor has just returned most

enthusiastically and confident that the

little boy is as husky as his big

brother the light in his eyes is

discernable from here to highhold and I

could have heard his screams from here

to my

farm

the little boy in question is the first

atomic

[Applause]

bomb for the last four years the

planet's finest scientists have been

working in the greatest secrecy to

develop what could be the Ultimate

Weapon the operation is codenamed

Trinity

the first nuclear test in history is an

unqualified

success the explosion is the equivalent

of detonating 21 kilotons of TNT never

before has such destructive power been

achieved a single weapon now has the

power to annihilate all of

humanity after hesitating briefly Truman

decides to forewarn

Stalin

this is obviously seen as bad news it

means that henceforth the Soviet Union

is in a position of

inferiority everyone was watching out

for Stalin's reaction and Stalin who was

a good actor said oh well I'm pleased

for you and I hope you'll use it against

Japan but was Stalin really in the

dark despite the drastic measures taken

by the Americans to protect the secrecy

of their project Russian spies have

managed to infiltrate the Los Alamos

base where the atomic bomb was being

developed among them is clous fuks a

German physicist who has fled the

Nazis but fuks a fervent communist is

also a spy in the pay of the Soviet

Union for the last 2 years the scientist

has been passing on all of the plans for

the atomic bomb B to the

Russians thanks to this information the

Soviet Union has begun to develop its

own nuclear

bomb despite this on July 24th when

Stalin finds out that the American bomb

is ready he becomes

anxious there is nothing Stalin hates

more than feeling

[Music]

vulnerable he called together his entire

pot Dam on

Gage and he asked them to tell the

scientists and everyone else working on

the atomic project that he wanted them

all to speed up the creation of the

Russian atomic bomb as much as

possible the bomb would become an

obsession for Stalin until he has his

own atomic bomb the supreme leader will

not feel confident facing the

Americans

his relationship with Truman is about to

become

fraught pdam will also be the backdrop

for another configration

in midc conference Churchill leaves the

negotiating table to head for London to

receive the result of the general

election a passionate Democrat the

British prime minister has thrown his

hat in the ring once

again he's acclaimed throughout Britain

in the weeks he spends

campaigning but as day Dawns on the

morning of the election he has a feeling

of

forboding I woke suddenly with a sharp

stab of almost physical pain the power

to shape the future would be denied

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me Churchill's intuition is

correct and to General amazement he

loses the

election rather than their war hero the

British people have opted for a new man

the labor leader Clement

Atley the day after his Triumph Atley

settles into Churchill's still war

seat around the table there is a general

sense that there's been a casting

error Clement Atley is a man who seems

truly

insignificant Churchill used to say he

was a sheep in sheep's clothing

or an car stops outside Downing Street

and Atley gets out of it a modest man

with much to be modest

about and this leaves Stalin

puzzled because he was convinced that

Churchill had all he needed to be able

to rig the election which in Stalin's

eyes is what any politician worth his

salt would

do faced with a lost and awkward atlete

Stalin takes matters into his own hands

he's the last man standing of yalta's

big three under Atley Great Britain is

now on the

sidelines there are only two superpowers

left in the world the USA and the

USSR Truman and Stalin meet face to

face very quickly the differences

between the two men turn sour and become

genuinely

contentious

5 days after pot Dum Truman makes a

decision which will have significant

consequences the USA will use its atomic

bomb against

Japan this ratches up the tension with

Stalin August 6th 194

5 in the early hours of the morning the

American bomber Enola Gay flies towards

the Japanese

archipelago at

8:15 little boy is dropped on

[Music]

Hiroshima a huge mushroom cloud Billows

over the city the temperature on the

ground reaches 4

1,000° 70,000 people die

instantly the city is nothing more than

a wasteland of Ash and

[Music]

dust 3 days later on August 9th it's

nagas saki's turn to be

bombed the whole world is in shock

Stalin sees the atomic bomb as

provocation he's convinced that Truman

is trying to intimidate him he doesn't

understand why America has launched its

bombs when on the 8th of August as

promised the USSR joined the war against

Japan alongside the

USA the way we saw it was that the US

was sending a clear message in using the

atomic bomb against Japan the aim was

not to achieve a quick Victory against

the Japanese but to intimidate the

Soviet Union in order to be able to

dictate American

[Music]

conditions obviously trumman wanted to

end the war as quickly as possible and

save American lives but it is also a

clear message to

Stalin because Truman fully intends to

let him know that he is now in the

driver's

seat

[Music]

from then on Stalin wants to know how

much leeway he will get with Truman and

decides to test him at Yalta Stalin was

promised territory in exchange for

joining the war against

Japan sakin island the kurin islands

dyen Port Arthur and a Manchurian

Railway

line but now Stalin demands to be

allowed to occupy Hokkaido

Island in a telegram to Truman Stalin

explains Russian public opinion would

like to see our troops get an occupation

Zone in part of the archipelago anything

to the contrary would be seriously

offensive I hope my modest request will

be satisfied he then rethinks and adds

in his own hand we'll meet with no

objection the American president is

outraged his response is

unequivocal No

period Grandpa expected people to be

straightforward and honest he those the

kind of people he that's how he was he

expected people to be truthful with him

to be upfront and when he discovered

that they weren't when he discovered

that Stalin wasn't he very quickly got

his back up and and began to deal with

Stalin more more roughly more directly

and more

confrontationally Stalin has also

decided to move things forward and press

his advantage in

Europe rigged elections coups wherever

he can Stalin establishes communist

regimes Poland

Czechoslovakia Hungary and Bulgaria in

turn all fall into Soviet

[Music]

hands the rampant stalinization of

Europe worries Truman but he's still

unsure how how to approach the

situation the telegram which lands on

his desk on February 22nd 1946 changes

everything its author is George Kennan

an ordinary Diplomat posted in

Moscow Kenan has had time to observe how

Stalin

operates he has seen that Stalin wants

to take control of Eastern Europe and is

convinced that the only way to stop him

is to stand

firm in a Long Telegram to Washington he

describes the Soviet

apparatus at the bottom of kremlin's

neurotic view of world affairs is a

traditional and instinctive Russian

sense of

insecurity Russians are impervious to

the logic of reason and very sensitive

to the logic of

force Kenan explains that it's pointless

to try and appease Stalin in any case he

can cannot and will not be appeased

because that allows him to justify

dictatorship but on the other hand we

should be firm with Stalin because he

understands how the balance of power

works and that when the West stands firm

he's ready to back

down kenan's analysis confirms

everything that the US president had

intuitively foreseen his change of TAC

is then drastic Truman jettison

Roosevelt's former advisers whom he

considers too lenient with regards to to

the Soviet Union and appoints some new

men Kenan is soon called to the White

House as a special

adviser Truman is still left with a

problem that of explaining this

turnaround to the American

public this will be a delicate operation

as in the eyes of America Stalin is a

great Ally the man who helped win the

war against

Hitler the Press has consistently hailed

him as a

[Music]

hero they've been exposed to four years

of war propaganda which has shown Stalin

as a friend to all children and the

great Ally who will help America win the

war the propaganda was successful and

Stalin is very popular in the

USA the American president then has an

idea he will make use of the former

British prime minister and let him

deliver the bad

news Churchill still has considerable

Prestige and no one will dare to doubt

his

word also he would surely be delighted

to pay a visit to the

States since losing the election he's

been in a period of deep

depression

[Applause]

on March 5th

1946 everyone in the small town of

Fulton Missouri has hung out their flag

to welcome the former British leader

it's a beautiful sunny day Truman

welcomes Churchill to his home territory

wathed in Smiles Truman is quite aware

the turill is about to drop a bombshell

but does not let on that he knows

anything a few minutes later at Fon

University Churchill gives a speech that

will stun his audience and dismay the

whole

world from stetin in the Baltic to

triest in the Adriatic an iron curtain

has descended across the

continent the Iron Curtain Speech

provokes an outcry the Americans are

shocked good old unle

Joe this strategy of trumans is very

clever in that he lets Churchill make

the speech where he mentioned the Iron

Curtain because it shows America and the

rest of the

world that this change in America's

policy is not just down to Truman or a

few isolated

advisers but that as significant a

figure as Churchill was thinking the

same way as the American

president soon Stalin's former admirers

in the US start to consider him a

dangerous

tyrant in the Soviet Union the Fon

speech is seen as a stab in the

back Stalin is said to be

furious intellectuals and those close to

the Kremlin Stand United against

Churchill Churchill

on Churchill was our country's sworn

enemy he was the leader of the world's

most anti-soviet nation in the

west he spent his whole life trying to

put one over on the Soviet

Union henceforth European countries will

have to nail their colors to either the

communist or the capitalist

mast in this race to divide up the world

Stalin has a head start

he's already got his hands on countries

in Eastern Europe and is making ground

in the

west communist ministers have already

found their way into the French and

Italian parliaments how far will Stalin

manage to extend his feere of

[Music]

influence this question haunts Truman he

understands full well that in this arm

wrestle with Stalin one thing adds

weight to his opponent

poverty almost 2 years after the end of

World War II Europe has still not got

back on its feet the old continent is

staring into the abyss druman is

perfectly aware that this deprivation

makes a perfect breeding ground for

communism but before he can act he needs

a clear view of the

situation

in early 1947 Truman sends Montana

Senator Mike Mansfield to Europe with a

brief to evaluate the

situation his report is

horrifying in every country visited

there was evidence of man nutrition

tuberculosis and

disease the greater part of the Italian

population is subsisting on a bread R

from 75 to 125 g a

day very little in addition is

eaten when he reads the report a new

conviction awakens in Truman if he does

not come to Europe's help he will leave

Stalin a free reign on the

continent Truman then decides on a

rescue plan for Europe and entrusts it

to Secretary of State General George

[Music]

Marshall raw materials Machine Tools

tons of equipment make their way across

the atan

ANC but behind this facade of generosity

the Marshall PL is also vital as a tool

to relaunch the US

economy it was also a way to bring a new

Vigor to American Trade because you

can't be rich on your own in the world

you need Rich Partners

too so by extension if the USA who had

profited from the war could not trade

with other countries because those

countries couldn't afford to buy

anything then America's wealth would go

into

decline the Marshall Plan is also a

political strategem designed to

destabilize Stalin because American Aid

is on offer to All European countries

including those in the

East and of course the Eastern Nations

who are under the protection of the

Soviet Union are also in great need like

Poland and Czechoslovakia who are both

offered the Marshall Plan but ultimately

the conflict of ideologies wins the day

the Marshall Plan was perceived as an

American imperialistic ploy to subjugate

Western Europe This was completely

unacceptable to

Stalin those Eastern European countries

tempted by the idea of American Aid were

soon brought into line

in total 16 countries all Western take

part in the Marshall Plan France the

United Kingdom and Italy are the

greatest

beneficiaries by mid 1947 Churchill's

Iron Curtain has become a

reality one city will bear the brunt of

this new battle of wills between the

west and the Soviet Union

[Music]

Berlin the German Capital lies at the

very heart of the Russian zone of

occupation but the city itself is

occupied by four Allied Powers the USA

Great Britain France and the Soviet

Union between them they have the task of

putting Germany back on its fate but the

Allies are unable to agree on a course

of action the Soviet priority is to get

their War

reparations the USSR is

broke as predicted by the peace

agreements the Russians take their

compensation in kind and dismantle

Germany's

industry entire factories are dismantled

and taken to the Soviet Union to be

reassembled me meanwhile the Americans

rebuild as promised in the terms of the

Marshall Plan the Americans gave Germany

$16 billion we on the other hand gave

nothing but we were in no position to

give anything we had nothing we couldn't

compete in the West Life gradually goes

back to normal while Berlin's Eastern

sector goes to rack and

ruin the Americans want to go further

and introduce sweeping reforms to help

Revitalize the German

economy but Stalin

objects he wants to maintain the status

quo what Stalin wants is a comparable

level of suffering on both sides of

Berlin and that the isolated inhabitants

of West Berlin end up falling under the

influence of East

Germany this capitalist Enclave in the

middle of a communist sea is

unbearable in order to get through this

impass the Western Powers see only one

solution to merge their occupation zones

this will without a doubt infuriate

Stalin but to what

extent could Stalin start a

war before proceeding the West needs

information and there's only one way to

get it

Espionage unfortunately in these early

days of the Cold War the American secret

services are to all intents and purposes

non-existent actually it's worth noting

that during World War II in 1942 the

Roosevelt administration created the OSS

information service but it was no longer

active after the war ended in

1945 so between 1945 and 47 the United

States had no intelligent Services as

such therefore in the summer of

1947 Truman decides to found a new

intelligence agency which will soon be

known the world over the

CIA former Admiral Henry hener is named

as its

head he has the difficult task of

recruiting and training spies in a very

short space of time the problem is that

he will need to find russian-speaking

spies and other than the Russians

themselves not many people speak Russian

for this former British secret service

operative this was a major

hindrance the problem was how far could

you trust someone who was Russian born

with a big secrets because you could

never guarantee that they weren't

actually in on the other side working

for the

Russians hen CER wastes no

time pragmatically he realizes that it

is among recent enemies that he will

find his

spies Reinhardt Galen a former Nazi and

the verar head of intelligence in the

East is recycled by the

[Music]

CIA gayen knows the Communist World

extremely well he becomes the brains

behind American Espionage in

Germany he helps recruit hundreds of

former Nazis to the

CIA the Americans have no quals about

this the only thing that matters to

Truman is blocking Stalin's

way the logistics have changed in the

Cold War the enemy wasn't Germany but

the Soviet Union so ultimately why not

make use of people who are fervently

anti-communist and obviously those

former Nazis hated Communists with the

passion so why not at this point we're

in the middle of genuine real

[Music]

politic the cia's opponents Russia's Gru

and KGB are also very

active but they have a considerable Head

Start as their intelligence Services

have existed since the first world

war Berlin will become the world's

Espionage capital

in the street the Civil Service in the

armed forces there are spies

everywhere all of them regardless of

which side they're on have the same

objective to decipher their opponent's

plans and to get one step ahead of them

Espionage uh was almost certainly a new

style of

warfare uh

because uh you needed no

uh and it penetrated right into the

center of the other side's world

[Music]

view as Truman has requested Galen and

his men try to discover what Stalin's

reaction would be if the West merged its

various zones in

Berlin in the late spring of 1948 the

German spies think they may finally have

the answer

on June 9th a telegram from Helen ker

warns

Truman according to the head of the CIA

if the West were to bring all of their

zones of occupation together as one

Stalin's reaction would

be the USSR may be expected to continue

its hindrance of Western powers in

Berlin and elsewhere in Germany by any

means short of military

[Music]

force this is the green light the Allies

were waiting

for 4 days after Hillen keter's telegram

the Americans British and French create

a new currency for their Zone the

Deutsch

Mark Stalin sees this currency as a

symbol of capitalism and a

provocation he has to

react as the German spies had predicted

the Soviet leader then decides on

economic

retaliation on June 24th

1948 he cuts off all supply routes to

West

Berlin the roads which link West Germany

to West Berlin are

blocked 2.5 million inhabitants of

Berlin are trapped without supplies they

will be unable to survive for long

in Washington some of Truman's advisers

urge him to respond with

Force but the US president decides on

another option to replenish the city's

Provisions from the air he didn't want

open Warfare between the US and the

Soviets he that was the last thing he

wanted but he also didn't want to appear

weak like we were going to do nothing

because if you let the Soviets get away

with closing off

Berlin then they take they take

something else and I I don't think that

the idea for the airlift was his but he

agreed to it because it made

[Music]

sense 4 days after the blockade starts

huge British and American cargo planes

fly over

[Music]

Berlin within their bellies tons of food

and goods and the famous care

packages

assembled by the American NGO care these

Parcels contain everything the berliners

need to survive bacon margarine powdered

eggs chocolate the taste of

America what Stalin hadn't accounted for

at all was that the Americans the

English and the French together had the

wherewithal to keep West Berlin supplied

for 11 months to the tune of 6,000 tons

a

day every day a cargo plane would land

on one of Berlin's three aod drones

every 30

seconds for a year Berlin citizens live

their lives to the rhythm of the

aircraft flying back and forth over

their

heads but despite American Aid daily

life remains difficult in order to

survive everyone does whatever they can

seers start appearing in the Heart of

the City soon vegetables start growing

through the

tarmac they also show themselves

resourceful where heating is

concerned the Americans are not sending

enough coal so berliners find wood

wherever it is

available trees are

uprooted not one bench in the city has

any slats

left

at the market people trade with anything

they have coats bags

shoes berliners want for everything but

they

survive the Americans too are determined

to Stand Fast whatever the cost and as

predicted by Galen Stalin does not give

the order to shoot down theer ameran

ples he was unprepared to go to war

because the Americans had the atomic

bomb the Soviet Union would not have

been able to endure Another War when 20

million Russians died during World War

II realizing that he had lost the

political arm wrestle Stalin lifts the

blockade on May 12th

1949

all over West Berlin people

Rejoice for the communist leader this is

a humiliating

defeat this smalltime shopkeeper from

Missouri has got the upper hand over the

most feared man on the planet in his

Memoirs Truman can barely hide his

Delight he knows that he has scored a

crucial point in his battle against

Stalin the blockade had sharply turned

them against

communism Germany which had been waiting

passively to see where it should cast

its lot for the future was veering

towards the cause of the western

Nations this was the exact opposite of

what Stalin wanted which was to sew

Discord between the

Allies it actually sealed reconciliation

and friendship between the German and

American

people they formed a close Bond and were

responsible for ensuring the survival of

West Berlin

[Music]

15 days after the blockade is lifted the

Western Powers create the Federal

Republic of Germany the Soviet Union

responds by founding the Democratic

Republic of Germany the allies of yester

year are now officially

enemies at the White House Canon is

terrified he is farsighted and

writes all in all our policy on the

continent takes us along a street to

which there are only only three Outlets

a Russian collapse a disintegration of

our own

position or a terrible

War the threat of a terrible War hangs a

little more heavily on the world every

day Stalin has still not recovered from

the blockade debacco and wants to regain

the upper hand his efforts eventually

allow him to turn the tables once

[Music]

more

to the horror of the western powers on

August 29th

1949 the Russians detonate an atomic

bomb in

Kazakhstan the information provided by

fuks and his comrades who infiltrated

Los Alamos has finally borne

fruit the Soviet intelligence Services

helped us to accelerate the creation of

a Soviet atomic

bomb and they allowed us to save a lot

of resources

our scientists believe that the

information provided by our intelligence

Services enabled us to reduce the

development time for the bomb from 10 to

5

years this comes as a great shock to

Truman He could never have imagined that

the Soviets crippled by War could

develop a nuclear weapon so

quickly Stalin feels empowered against

again the Soviet Union is once more the

equal of the United States the world

Teeters on the brink of

Terror raymon Aron summed up this cold

war perfectly when he said war is

impossible impossible because it would

be nuclear peace is improbable war is

impossible peace is

improbable icts are not long in breaking

out but they will remain localized and

be fought by

proxy because neither American nor

Soviet blood should ever be spilled as

that would cause widespread

[Music]

chaos the first of these post World War

II conflicts to erupt is in a small

country that few Russians or Americans

would be able to identify on a map of

the world

Korea since 1945 Korea which formerly

belonged to Japan has been occupied on

both sides of the 38th parallel to the

South by the Americans to the north by

the

Soviets since then North Korea's

communist leader Kim ilung has sought to

reunite his

country he has on several occasions

asked Stalin for help but the Soviet

leader has always

[Music]

refused however on January 12th the

supreme leader changes his

mind and it is all because of a tiny

little sentence uttered by Dean aeson

The American Secretary of State that day

in his speech on America's military

Ambitions aderson

writes this defensive perimeter runs

along the uans then to Japan then to the

ruse and the

Philippines he forgot about Korea the

worst mistake he could have made there

was Taiwan Japan the Philippines

everything you like except Korea it

wasn't

clever which is surprising for someone

as experiences

Aton but he made a big blunder Stalin

took this as an encouraging sign that

the Americans had softened

again Stalin then gives Kim ILS a green

light to spring into

action at 4:00 a.m. on June 25th 1950

North Korean forces cross the 38th

[Music]

parallel the news is immediately broken

to Truman who is spending the weekend in

his home in

Missouri the American president does not

hesitate for a moment Force must be met

with

Force his Memoirs recall

if this was to go unchallenged it would

mean a third world war just as similar

incidents had brought about the second

world

war the Americans were not prepared for

an attack on Korea and they have

virtually no troops

there the North Koreans make ground with

alarming ease and seize soul in less

than a

week

Truman is deeply concerned how will it

all

end he writes to his wife I hope we can

contain it and not have to order our

terrible weapon turned

loose Truman will not need to use the

atomic bomb as he has another secret

weapon in the form of a man General

MacArthur the great hero of the war in

the Pacific is in charge of the

occupation of Japan he knows Asia very

well and is a Peerless

tactician in just a few months he

succeeds in regaining the advantage over

the

Communists by November 1950 the

Americans have invaded almost all of

North Korea and are close to the Chinese

border the cold war is suddenly looking

likely to become very hot because

neighboring China became communist in

1949 Ma sends 500,000 Chinese volunteers

to help his North Korean

Brethren here again you see the Prudence

of Mao in this

conflict in that he doesn't want China

to be seen intervening as a

state so he uses this strategy of

Chinese volunteers to intervene

surreptitiously there is certainly an

empirical rather than theoretical

Mastery of the Cold

War everyone makes their move but does

so in a controlled way to ensure that

the Cold War doesn't become a general

Global and nuclear

war

incle for Truman these months of intense

tension are psychologically

exhausting in his journal he writes

it is hell to be the president of the

most powerful Nation on

Earth I would rather be the leader of my

Village the American president only ever

refers to the White House as the white

prison the Korean conflict is becoming a

war of attrition but it is a completely

unexpected event which brings the war to

an end

Stalin

[Music]

disappears March 1st

1953 Kuno data near

Moscow this is where Stalin now lives as

a recluse the man who struck fear in the

hearts of the world has locked himself

away in a cage of delusional paranoia he

fears he's going to be

assassinated when Stalin goes to bed

that night he's had a lot to

drink during the night he suffers a

cerebral

hemorrhage for 10 hours as he lies dying

no one dares to open his

door everyone is too afraid of the

possible

reprisals he died alone and all those

who could have helped him such as as his

doctor well he was in prison he could

have made a

recovery but when his cronies arrived

like Cru chof baram

malanov they don't do anything in case

it's held against

them so doctors were called but those

doctors were scared they didn't even

dare make a diagnosis because the KGB

behind them is saying be careful what

you write and what you discover comrade

[Music]

after 4 days of death throws and no

adequate treatment Joseph Stalin dies on

March 5th

[Music]

1953 as soon as the news is out 5

million people flood towards

Moscow

they all want to see the remains of the

man who over a quarter of a century

decided whether they lived or

[Music]

died many people who hated Stalin said

thank God he snuffed it at

last many others saw him as a kind of

demigod and was stunned to find out that

he turned out to be

mortal

but the third and the most important

concern for everyone was what happens

now the whole world is reeling from the

shock while Molotov and others close to

Stalin carry the coffin each of them is

thinking about the future in Moscow just

as in London and Washington people hope

that the end of the Soviet dictator will

also mean an end to political

tensions their hopes will soon be dashed

8 years of continual latent conflict

between the USA and the Soviet Union

have shaped the world in such a way that

there is no easy way to turn

back Stalin and Truman's Cold War will

dominate the world and chill the hearts

of humanity for nearly 40

[Music]

[Applause]

years

[Music]

[Music]

February

1945 for the last 6 years Europe has

been one vast

Battlefield millions of men are

dead

but now there is a certainty that Nazi

Germany will be defeated and the Allies

are already looking to the

Future because it is now as the battles

still rage that peace must be

brokered therefore Stalin Roosevelt and

Churchill decide to get

together the meeting takes place in a

small Resort in the south of the Soviet

Union it is here in Crimea that these

three Giants will together dream up the

post-war world at one of the greatest

conferences of all

time the Yalta

[Music]

Conference

this photograph is yalta's momento of

history but what paths led to this

moment why are the faces of Churchill

Roosevelt and Stalin so

tense United in war the Allies will show

themselves to be at loggerheads in peace

for 8 days between the 4th and 11th of

February

1945 the three greats will engage in a

merciless struggle dictated by their OPP

opposing interests and

ideologies Yalta is the last time they

will all

meet each one of them is at a crucial

stage of his own destiny while this

conference will soon plunge the world

into a new

[Music]

Darkness

February 3rd

1945 after a 7-hour flight British and

American aircraft which took off by

Night land on the Frozen Runway of Saki

airport in

Crimea as he alights from the plane

Winston Churchill is stiff and has a

raging

fever but the British prime minister

puts on a brave facei even unwell he is

ready to ride a new page of

[Music]

History US President Franklin Roosevelt

is also ready despite his extreme

fatigue diplomats and servicemen greet

each other on the

runway many of those present at Yalta

keep

logs thanks to their Revelations we know

exactly what happened during the

conference their writings tell the

stories that the official history

[Music]

doesn't Stalin has not seen fit to come

and greet his guest at Saki this absence

is an early Gambit in his power

game negotiations are well and truly

underway it falls to Molotov Stalin's

faithful right-hand man to meet Rosevelt

and Churchill off the

plane ravaged by polio Rosevelt can no

longer

walk walking beside him Churchill seems

to be in a position of

inferiority this strange scenario is not

lost on Churchill's personal doctor Lord

who protests in his

diary the Prime Minister walked

alongside the president like an Indian

attendant accompanying Queen Victoria's

faton in old age

[Music]

but this is not the last time that

Churchill will appear to be Roosevelt's

attendant the war is not yet over and

the British Empire's glory is already

beginning to fade the USA and the Soviet

Union are the Centuries new

Giants Yalta will be Churchill's

struggle for

survival

[Music]

Yalta is 150 km from saki the journey

takes no less than 5 hours because of

the poor state of the winding

road a whole new ordeal Begins for

Roosevelt he was

paralyzed so even in an automobile he

sat in the back seat with two

cushions behind him here to to give to

brace his back and some support for his

legs which were

useless uh and so it was a very

difficult

trip with the war still ongoing across

Europe the road to Yalta is kept under

close

surveillance 160 fighter planes Patrol

the sky

Roosevelt's daughter Anna bettiger who

is his traveling companion is startled

to observe how the Soviets

operate in her diary she

writes all along the road from saki to

yelta soldiers were posted every 300 M

each time a car passed by those without

rifles saluted us all of these Russian

soldiers women included were smart and

erect

Through the Windows Roosevelt and

Churchill witness a scene of

[Music]

Devastation Crimea Was Won back from the

Germans less than a year ago over 20

million Russians lost their

lives 70,000 Soviet towns and Villages

were

destroyed

the USSR is profoundly scarred by the

war and Stalin himself has designed the

itinerary so that his guests do not miss

a single detail of

[Music]

Devastation this allows Stalin very

skillfully to lay the burden of guilt on

his two counterparts mainly

Roosevelt we have lost many people the

subtext being that we've lost many

people because you didn't come to help

us

[Music]

after an interminable 5-hour trip

Roosevelt and Churchill finally reach

Yalta in the early evening Roosevelt is

exhausted his journey started 12 days

ago when he crossed the Atlantic by boat

before catching a plane from Malta the

American president has covered 8,500

km while Churchill has covered 3,200 km

Stalin's journey by train was a mere

1,500

km it is as if there is some

significance to the number of kilometers

and that Roosevelt was prepared to make

the greatest effort and Stalin the

least the Bay of Y has lost none of its

charm in the 19th century it was a kind

of Soviet Riviera where SARS and

Aristocrats came to spend their

holidays the conference delegates would

be put up in palaces that are still

intact

[Music]

today before negotiations began in

February 1945 they were completely

refurbished

in anticipation of the conference the

Palaces were very quickly refurnished

with things brought from Moscow in great

convoys in order to give them a homely

feel they'd been terribly neglected for

a very long

time

it was Stalin who decided to have the

conference at Yalta and he wanted to

ensure that his guests had nothing but

good

memories he greets them with opulence

reserving them the two finest

Villas ladia Palace for Roosevelt where

the negotiations took

[Music]

place and voronov Villa for

Churchill

it is a clear night over

Yalta each of the big three gathers his

strength for the coming

[Music]

[Music]

Marathon February 4th

1945 day one of of the

negotiations before the debates get

underway Stalin pays a courtesy visit to

his guests he starts with

Churchill the two men have not seen each

other since they met in Moscow 4 months

ago they are pleased to see one another

and take stock of the military

situation Stalin's reunion with

Roosevelt is just as

cordial the Russian and the American

Sher Martini Roosevelt's guilty

pleasure and there's no lemon Stalin

makes a note of this and the next time

he has a huge lemon tree

delivered this makes quite an impression

on the British and the Americans because

a lemon tree in the middle of the war is

quite

remarkable they're

dazzled and at the same time it shows of

Stalin's

power because in the field Stalin is in

a dominant

position since the spring the Soviet

Steamroller has been on the move and the

Red Army is regaining territory from the

Germans it's time for Stalin's War

efforts to pay

[Music]

dividends

negotiations finally begin at 5:00

p.m. the ladia ballroom has been

prepared for the conference everything

is ready ministers and diplomats talk

amongst themselves as they wait for the

three great

leaders Churchill is the first to arrive

with his daughter

Sarah the prime minister is in good

spirits and is wearing a Russian cap in

tribute to his host

he feels better after a good night's

sleep his temperature has

fallen Stalin is the next to

arrive in front of the cameras the two

men make a show of their

camaraderie Roosevelt is already at the

negotiation table having made a discreet

entrance this ritual will be repeated

for the next 8

days he has banned cameras from filming

his arrivals deeming them too

humiliating he has to get from that

wheelchair into a chair which is not

easy when you are paralyzed from the

waist

down each of the big three has his

advisers around him they will not be

negotiating

alone Churchill is accompanied by

Anthony Eden his foreign minister a

along with Diplomat Alexander kadan an

expert on

Poland Roosevelt leans on Harry Hopkins

his friend and right-hand man the man he

trusts more than any other but also his

foreign minister Edward

staus Stalin also has two main advisors

veslav Molotov his foreign minister and

the Diplomat Ivan

isi there are four large dosses on the

table the fate of defeated Germany that

of Poland the United Nations and the war

against

Japan the positions of the different

Allied armies will have a significant

influence on these

dosses

since December the Red Army has

liberated Romania Bulgaria Hungary and

Poland the Russians are a mere 80 km

from

Berlin the anglo-american forces however

have been hampered by a German

Counterattack and are yet to cross the

[Music]

rind certainly say from a military point

of view the Soviets are clearly ahead of

their Western

allies and that gives them The High

Ground from a diplomatic

perspective added to this imbalance in

the field there is also an ideological

disparity Churchill and Rosevelt are two

capitalists facing a

communist but this is not just say that

they will present a united front to

Stalin far from it in fact the two men

espouse quite differing

ideologies Roosevelt respects Churchill

as an old warhorse who stood alone in

Europe and admires this fellow who is

still capable of remarkable

performances at the same time he has a

degree of contempt for him because he

sees him as an old colonialist throwback

while he himself considers he has modern

ideals such as decolonization of the

world Rosevelt needs Stalin more than he

needs

Churchill at this time the US is

fighting a war against Japan in the

Pacific the battles are incredibly

violent and the Japanese have no

hesitation in using kamikazi suicide

Jets against their foes rather than

surrender

without help from the Russians the war

could go on and

on Roosevelt also needs Stalin to

participate in the future United Nations

organization which he's trying to

assemble without the USSR the UN will be

just an empty

shell in order to move the project

forward Roosevelt is prepared to

jettison Churchill a long-standing Ally

but with nothing to

offer Churchill takes this very badly

for him it is a disaster to arrive

separately in the knowledge that Stalin

will fully exploit any diverence between

the American and the

Britain the British prime minister

suspects that Stalin will try to

establish communist regimes in all of

the countries liberated by the Red Army

and he knows that without Roosevelt's

help he will have no chance chance of

stopping

him during the first day only military

matters are

discussed each watches the

others as the Tactical game begins

Stalin takes the lead He suggests that

Roosevelt preside over the plenary

session

by being made

president he's being

ingratiated but also rendered

powerless because he will be constrained

to being Master of

Ceremonies during which time others will

be able to plot and negotiate behind his

back this is a very clever Ploy on

Stalin's

part the first session was just a warmup

with no significant decisions being

made but the westerners are clearly

aware that it will not be easy to make

their voices heard against

Stalin so come the evening each of them

hones his strategy for the next day

Churchill Ponders calmly alone gazing at

the portraits of British Aristocrats

that Stalin has thoughtfully had hung on

the walls for his

enjoyment Roosevelt develops his battle

plan with Harry Hopkins

[Music]

day

two Churchill is once more first to

arrive while Stalin again is fashionably

late this time serious matters will be

discussed the German question is to be

debated what will be Germany's fate once

she has lost the war how will the

country be managed what reparations will

be appropriate the Allies have differing

positions on all of these questions

discussions begin with the issue of

Germany's imminent

occupation as early as

1944 the plan was that once conquered

the country would be divided and

governed in three zones American British

and

Soviet

but now Churchill requests a fourth zone

for France this

time he no longer wants to stand alone

against these two giants who have

something of an ax to grme with Imperial

Powers he wants an alliance with another

colonial

power finally Stalin magnanimously says

the French didn't really fight much

during the war so we don't see why they

collaborated they gave up very quickly

in 1940 they don't deserve it but I'm a

reasonable man all right then but you

can share your own occupation Zone with

them the concession costs him nothing

and Stalin seeds quickly but he takes

the opportunity to demand something from

his allies in return he wants the

maximum reparations possible from

Germany the Soviet Union is ruined the

BOS must

pay this vengeful attitude worries

Roosevelt and Churchill on this occasion

the two Western leaders Stand

Fast if Germany is pillaged and starved

to appease Stalin how can she be put

back on her feet it will inevitably be

funded by us so ultimately we will be

the one paying Stalin's reparations

which is clearly a bad

thing this refusal causes Stalin to dig

his heels

in he's vexed and becomes

suspicious he's angry with his allies

and becomes

aggressive frankly look me in the eye

tell me why do you not want the Soviet

Union to be

rebuilt is there some reason in the back

of your Western Minds why you would be

against the legitimate reconstruction of

our country why do you want to undermine

us first Defiance then the

bluff Stalin is about to play his trump

card and for that he will need the

support of his crony Molotov the two men

form a Peerless Duo and are both masters

of the Dark Arts of

diplomacy Molotov is the bad cop Mr

nette he's the one who isn't any

fun and will be immovable on the more

difficult

issues and the point where Stalin

intervenes is when he Smooths the waters

as if he's saying you're going too far

you don't have to be so

harsh at this point

a total figure for reparations needs to

be added to the German

dossier nothing has yet been decided by

the Soviet delegation other than a

minimum and a maximum

figure in his journal Russian Diplomat

Ivan mey describes the

scene Molotov sitting Stalin's right

leans towards him and asks in a worried

tone should I give them a total yes give

them a total replies Stalin which one

five or 10 10 snap

Stalin it's a way of demonstrating that

discussions are ongoing that nothing has

been

finalized and probably seems more

reassuring for their counterparts across

the

table 10 billion for the USSR it's

agreed no one says anything Stalin

assumes that the total has been accepted

the westerners haven't dared to react

but this decision will have severe

consequence later on because Germany is

incapable of paying such a vast sum the

Soviets will take payment in kind and

dismantle Germany's

industry following this first round of

negotiations each of the big three will

retire to his Palace to

[Music]

recuperate as usual Stalin buries

himself in dossier and prepares for the

next day's

debates his office desk has been

preserved exactly as it was

[Music]

then in levadia Palace Roosevelt finds a

little peace and serenity with his

daughter

Anna for the last few years she has been

his Confidant and goes everywhere with

her

father she was not only good company in

the sense of a daughter but she was very

bright aware and informed we were living

in the white house so that she was what

should I say like an assistant not paid

very informal but uh what we would call

in English a right-hand

man 15 km away at the verono Churchill

is with his daughter Sarah the young

woman is an actress and an AUX Au ilary

volunteer in the

RAF Churchill enjoys her cheerful

Presence at his

[Music]

side the young women are delighted to be

involved and their fathers are happy to

show off their daughters in uniform

showing that the whole family is taking

part and it makes a good impression on

the

Entourage and they can do those things

that not everyone else can for

example Churchill tends to get up late

to work in

bed spends a lot of time in the

bath so you can't send an aid Deon to

get him out that would just be

impossible but you can send in his

daughter most evenings that week one of

the leaders invites the others to

supper this is an occasion for more

informal

negotiations

the first of these meals takes place at

the ladia the Americans take care of the

service but the Russians provide the

food and Stalin has made it a point of

principle to make it

[Music]

Sumptuous these are 15 30 course meals

with caviar cream all kinds of

things cream is rationed in Britain

people have virtually forgotten what it

is meanwhile the Soviet people are

starving to death but Stalin isn't

interested in that he only cares about

showing off his power this is Georgian

and Russian

Hospitality I'm your host I will do

anything for you you only have to ask

psychologically this gives him the upper

hand I am both your master and your

servant it's marvelous both marvelous

and

menacing everything is dependent on

Stalin's Goodwill

that is one of the defining aspects of

Yalta in order to make sure his guests

feel at home and well disposed towards

him Stalin has thought of everything at

supper the alcohol flows

freely it's a well-known fact that if

you want successful negotiations you

want the delegates to be at their

ease so food and drink have always been

part of the means at the hosting power's

disposal this is a game in itself seeing

who can drink the most by which I mean

that alcohol clearly played a part at

yelta the first supper brought the

Allies together a new sense of trust

emerged negotiations began in a fresh

atmosphere

to allow everyone to recover from these

bibulous evenings the plenary sessions

were planned for late afternoon but

Stalin Roosevelt and Churchill's cohorts

spend their morning working on

preparation for the

debates they Ponder the possible

compromises for each

dossier it will then be left to the big

three to thrash it

[Music]

out on day three February

6th the Polish dossier is on the

[Music]

table this is the prickliest part of the

conference yet it is also the most

symbolic as it was in Poland that the

War Began the Allies must set up a new

government but they are unable to agree

on anything Stalin is always considered

Poland a threat to his

country because throughout history it

has always been through Poland that

Russia has been

invaded therefore Stalin wishes Poland

to be a friendly state in fact he wants

to build a defensive buffer all around

the Soviet Union so that she'll never be

attacked again the Soviet Union would

have those as buffer states that was

understood and it was understood that

for the Russians that was an essential

part of their foreign policy and when

you think about it uh you wouldn't want

if you were a big state like the Soviet

Union was to have a hostile state right

on your border no you would want a

friendly State me but what does a

friendly state mean is it a country

whose foreign policy is friendly towards

the Soviet Union

and whose domestic policy is completely

free or is it a country whose

friendliness will be coopted into

communization that's a big

question the British view is that they

certainly did not declare war against

Hitler over Poland in order for it to

become a communist

state Churchill wants post-war Poland to

be free and

independent the British had a long

tradition of of a friendly Poland the

British had

a long-standing trading agreements

economic and they did not want to have a

country as big as Poland with its

natural resources and human

resources uh under the influence of

Communism if they could help

it for Roosevelt far removed from Europe

the Polish question is incidental but it

still has some importance for other

reasons

6 million American citizens are of

Polish

extraction and these citizens mostly

support Roosevelt's Democratic

party so he is very conscious of the

potential situation in

Poland these polish citizens who took

refuge in the US are fervent

anti-communists most of them came to

America before the first World War but

they've never forgotten that Stalin and

Hitler were in accord over the invasion

of

Poland these polish Americans along with

the British support Polish president

vladislav rakovich who has been in Exile

in London since

1940 problem is that another government

communist this time opposes

him this Soviet influenced government is

headed by bisav

beut it has its headquarters in the

center of Poland at Lublin and calls

itself the Lublin

committee the London and Lublin

governments detest each other 6 months

ago an event took place which damaged

their relationship Beyond

repair August

1944 at this point in time the Red Army

is at the gates of

Warsaw from London rakovich decides to

trigger an

Insurrection he wants the Polish

resistance to liberate their Capital

before the Communists do to give him the

upper hand in the future

government but the German repost is

ferocious for 63 days the resistance is

relentlessly

crushed Stalin coldly allows this to

happen and orders the Red Army to do

nothing the Nazis Massacre 200,000 poles

90% of the Polish capital is

destroyed

2 months later Stalin reaps the benefits

and installs a communist government in

[Music]

wara Stalin's actions cast a PA over the

Yalta negotiations Churchill has never

been able to stomach the fact that

Stalin let the Warsaw insurgents perish

without coming to their

aid

at this point he understands that he's

not dealing with some vanular good chap

but that he could not be fully trusted

and was actually a dangerous

hoodlum and finally that even if Hitler

had to be removed

first they would have similar problems

with Stalin after the

war but now in Yalta the Allies must put

suspicion and ranker as side and build

Poland's future

government the speculation is over which

political model it will be based

on obviously the anglo-american point of

view is that they should build a United

national

government from Poland's different

anti-fascist political

groups the Soviets and Stalin see it

simply as a matter of using the Warsaw

government as it is with the addition of

a few

[Music]

members a political arm wrestle ensues

Stalin does not want to hear about the

London based government on the other

hand each time Churchill or Roosevelt

try to compromise by suggesting

potential members to bring into the

Lublin Administration he refuses and why

would he agree Stalin knows he's in a

position of

strength the Soviet Union troops were in

those

countries occupying those countries

although the word occupy is not uh used

but nevertheless they were there and

there you know it's the Soviet Union

influence you can in hindsight you can

say was

inevitable the allies cannot find a way

to agree and little by little things

become

heated Stalin becomes increasingly

agitated at his side Ian myi is

petrified he describes the scene in his

diary suddenly Stalin got up and started

gesticulating with his right arm such

Behavior was inappropriate for a

conference of the big three he started

talking in an unusually overwrought

manner

Stalin is a very taciturn and calm

character other than on a few occasions

when he gets very angry these occasions

have a mounting influence on the debate

the fact that he will suddenly stand up

and launch an impassioned tiate on a

certain subject is a very clear way of

showing his counterparts that there are

matters on which he's not prepared to

compromise the Soviet leader tyde floors

his

allies Hopkins who witnesses the debacle

slips a note to the presiding

Rosevelt why not end this here for the

day let's say we'll talk further

tomorrow at

7:15 better to leave things as they are

and start aresh the next

day the skill with which Stalin

negotiates is obvious to

everyone

Uncle Joe as the westerners know him has

a hypnotic hold over the

delegations in his room that night the

Diplomat Alexander kadan

writes I must say I think Uncle Joe is

the most impressive of the three men

he's very calm and reserved when he

speaks he never uses a Superfluous word

and gets straight to the

point the British Secretary of State

Anthony Eden is no less

impressed by more subtle methods he got

what he wanted without having seemed too

obdurate however Stalin's success cannot

merely be attributed to his negotiating

talents in fact unknown to Eden and

kugan Uncle Joe's apparatchik had been

spying on his allies before the alter

conference even begins he knew

everything that was going

on

preparations for the alter conference

lasted several

months at the time Russian Information

Services were well implanted in England

and the

USA our agents were providing us with

exhaustive details of how Churchill and

Roosevelt were preparing for the

conference we knew exactly what they

were planning to discuss and on which

positions they were going to stand firm

during negotiations

to ensure they did not miss a thing the

Russian Secret Service had also bugged

the

Palaces Churchill and Roosevelt knew

this what they didn't realize a little

naively is that when they went to the

park to discuss confidential matters

everything was being picked up by

multi-directional microphones which were

everywhere

they were in the trees the bushes and

they capture any conversation in a

radius of several

meters Stalin does not treat this

information lightly he does not want to

miss a shred he even insists that his

spies personally report back to him

everything they've

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heard Salin wanted to know how things

were said he even insisted that

dialogues were repeated using the same

intonations that Churchill and Roosevelt

had

used the cards used in the Yalta poker

game are

marked Stalin knows exactly what hands

his opponents

have he knows exactly where he's heading

while his allies are feeling their way

around in the

dark

day four of negotiations and the Polish

dossier needs to be

finalized thanks to the information

gathered the previous day Stalin knows

that his allies are prepared to

sacrifice Poland in order to get what

they want from other

dossier the UN and Japan are uppermost

in Roosevelt's

mind the dossier Churchill cares about

most is not on the table at Yalta but is

an underlying issue it's

Greece Greece is a former British

protectorate it is an important

strategic asset for the British as

Greece opens the path to the Suz Canal

which gives them access to their

colonies

but for the last 2 years Greece has been

in the throws of a violent Civil War the

Communists are trying to overthrow the

king control the countryside and are on

the verge of taking

power if Greece were to fall to the

Communists the future of the entire

British Empire could be at

stake Jill dreads this terrible

scenario in order to avoid this he makes

the first move and becomes embroiled in

perilous bargain

in in October 1944 4 months before Yalta

the British prime minister meets Stalin

face to face in

Moscow at the time Roosevelt is in the

midst of a reelection

campaign Churchill uses the opportunity

of the American president's absence to

forge a secret pact with Stalin over

Europe's

future so when we talk about dividing up

the world it wasn't done at yter but

when Churchill and Stalin met in

Moscow the document scribbled on a scrap

of paper in Churchill's hand is

annotated by

Stalin like two Grocers they have

mutually agreed their shares at the East

European

crop Russia gets 90% of

Romania the Soviets get 75% of Bulgaria

Britain gets 90% of

Greece when he gets to Yalta churel is

hoping that Stalin will remember this

agreement in order to ensure the Soviet

leader leaves him a free hand in Greece

the British prime minister is prepared

to hang Poland out to

dry this agreement on percentages is in

sharp contrast with the idea of an

immovable

Churchill he would never have agreed to

compromise on any European zones or

spheres of

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influence to avoid upsetting Stalin the

Western Powers end up being conciliatory

on the Polish

question on the fourth day of

negotiations the American and the

Britain Dro rovi's government in Exile

and recognize Beer's communist Lublin

government in exchange Churchill and

Rosevelt win places for non communist

ministers in the Lublin

government Stalin also commits to

organizing free elections in postwar

Poland as well as in all of the other

countries liberated by the Red

Army the phrase free elections sounds

like a victory for the West even though

Stalin has given them no guarantees

whatsoever they managed to get from

Stalin was a declaration of Good

Intentions and formulas which would

allow them to save face in their

respective

parliaments they only just managed that

but what more could they

do but how were free elections

conceivable when the country was

completely occupied by the Red Army this

is where the Western leaders were

deluded for in exchange for these

promises the Western leaders have done

Stalin a huge favor

they allow him to construct a defensive

buffer by attaching part of Poland to

the Soviet

Union in return Poland will at a later

stage gain German territories allowing

the country a gradual transition to the

West Stalin has got full marks for the

Polish dossier the Soviet leader has got

everything he wanted his allies hope

that he will not forget this

it's February 8th and the sun shines

brightly in the Crimean

Sky Roosevelt is on edge as discussions

are about to begin about

Japan the American president desperately

needs Stalin's support

to make sure things go in his favor he

invites Stalin to share a martini just

before the plenary

session Churchill has not been informed

of this trist and the meeting takes

place behind his

back Rosevelt is afraid that the

impetuous Englishman will stop him

negotiating freely and upset the apple

cart the US president is also a great

believer in heart tohe hearts

he believed in having a personal rapport

with Joseph Stalin and I think FDR felt

that he could have influence on Joseph

Stalin with a rapport that he was

developing but such things do not work

with Stalin no he had no idea how cruel

Stalin

was how devoid of human sentiment he

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was at this time the American campaign

in the Pacific is suffering heavy losses

against the fanatical Japanese Army the

top brass estimates that without Russian

help the war could last for another year

and cost the lives of more than half a

million

GIS roselt is determined to avoid this

Bloodbath

Stalin knows this and raises the

stakes in return for Soviet Canon fder

he wants territory and he is

greedy he demands sakin Island and the

kuril islands but also control of Port

Arthur

dyen and the Manchurian

Railway negotiations don't dwell on

kuril and sahalin as they belong to

Japan and the Americans are more than

happy to hand over Japanese territory to

the Soviets but dyen and Port Arthur are

troubling because they belong to China

China means changai Sheek and he's an

ally of the

US and he wasn't invited to yelta so

Roosevelt could be censured notably by

the senate for making concessions to

Stalin to the detriment of an ally it's

a very delicate

situation

but then Stalin in his turn tries to

mify Roosevelt he will use his charm to

find a solution and convince changai

Sheek to accept the

situation Roosevelt's interpreter

Charles Bolan reports in his

Memoirs Stalin said that it was clear

that if his conditions were not met it

would be difficult for him and Molotov

to explain to the people why the Soviet

Union was entering the war against Japan

it was obvious that rosev El was

bothered by what he was

doing Roosevelt waivers but faced with

Soviet intransigence swallows his

Scruples his main aim is to bring this

war to an

end his chines allies are sacrificed

along with dyen and Port Arthur he'll

sort things out with Jan kashk once the

war is

over

the American president can be pleased

with

himself he has achieved his

objectives not just over Japan but also

the

UN the new organization which Roosevelt

wants to see Harbors the ambition of

bringing peace to the

world Stalin has agreed in principle to

be a part of this peacekeeping

organization the ussr's de facto

participation is far from in the bad

but it is a

start it's quite a coup to get Stalin to

admit that he'll send Molotov to dumart

and Oaks for preliminary

negotiations for Stalin this is a big

concession and Stalin keeps saying so

this un thing of yours can I really send

Molotov I'm not

sure he's playing a game of cat and

mouse and he's good at it

[Music]

day six of

negotiations on February 9th 1945

Churchill Rosevelt and Stalin can

display their Good Humor for the throng

of

photographers the UN Japan Germany

Poland The Big Three have managed to

reach compromises on each of these

dossier and each of them Has Come Away

with what they wanted the

most Churchill has proved himself the

equal of his two powerful counterparts

and has hoisted France into the realm of

the victors and got them an occupation

Zone in Germany the American president

has got a green light from Stalin over

the UN and

Japan and along with Churchill he has

also got Stalin to agree to organize

free elections on Poland and Eastern

Europe after the

war but it is the Soviet leader who hits

the

jackpot without question it's the Soviet

Union and Stalin Who come out on top in

the yter conference Stalin has got what

he wanted regarding

Poland and pretty much what he wanted

regarding

Germany certainly where reparations are

concerned this image of Perfect Harmony

between the big three goes around the

world but the image is

deceptive Ed Yalta Stalin Roosevelt and

Churchill made a point of trying to get

along they wanted to preserve the

alliance while the war was still going

on but ultimately each of them defended

his own World Vision and his own

interests the Yalta Agreements are

precarious they are born of compromise

and rest upon a fragile unanimity

between three exceptional

characters however come the end of

negotiations everyone wants to

believe that evening the delegations

drink toasts to friendship between

nations and peace for all Humanity

but this hope will be

shortlived this aant celebrated by The

Big Three will soon

[Music]

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[Applause]

shatter a mere 3 weeks after the end of

the conference Stalin rides rough Shard

over the Yalta

agreements with the Red Army still

occupying Romania he organizes a power

grab by the

Communists in Poland every time his

allies put forward the name of a

non-communist minister to join the

government Stalin

declines the hither to confident

Roosevelt becomes

anxious post Yalta Roosevelt became

disillusioned he realized that the

Stalin he thought he knew bore little

resemblance to the real Stalin

[Music]

Stalin on April 1st the American

president sends a Long Telegram to his

friend Stalin seeking

explanations I cannot conceal from you

the concern with which I view the

development of events of mutual interest

since our fruitful meeting at Yalta

events in which our common interests

were at stake I frankly cannot

understand why the recent events in

Romania should not be regarded as not

falling within the term of that

agreement but Roosevelt's warnings fall

on deaf Soviet

ears Stalin ruthlessly follows through

with his plan and keeps installing

communist regimes in Eastern

Europe Roosevelt dies 11 days after

sending the telegram never to see the

full extent of Stalin's

betrayal Churchill who to widespread

shock loses the general election can

only sit powerless and watch their

master plan unravel

The Big Three did not bring long awaited

Global paace into the world at

Yalta the dream of Brotherhood was

nothing more than an

illusion soon these former allies would

be enemies fighting a new kind of

conflict the Cold

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War

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