1998

S1.E1 ∙ Comrades

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Though ideological enemies, the Soviet Union and the United States are allies against Hitler during World War II. At the end of theWar, Europe is divided and the one-time allies now confront each other. The United States has the atomic bomb.

8.1 /10

S1.E2 ∙ Iron Curtain

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

The Soviet Union dominates Eastern Europe. Churchill warns about the consequences. Stalin insists that the governments of the Soviet Union's client states be pro-Communist. Impoverished after the war, Great Britain opts out as a world power.

8 /10

S1.E3 ∙ Marshall Plan

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

The United States adopts the Truman Doctrine--it will defend freedom, worldwide. Secretary of State George Marshall plans to bolster economic recovery in Europe. Stalin sees this as a threat, and forbids his satellites to participate. The world divides.

8.1 /10

S1.E4 ∙ Berlin

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Berlin is a Western enclave in Eastern Europe. The Soviets blockade the city, but the allies airlift in supplies. NATO is formed.In August 1949, Soviet scientists explode an atom bomb, establishing nuclear parity between the two world superpowers.

8 /10

S1.E5 ∙ Korea

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Mao Zedong proclaims the People's Republic of China--the country is now lost to the West. In June 1950, North Korea invades the South, with Stalin's blessing. The United States, backed by the United Nations, defends South Korea and confronts China.

8.1 /10

S1.E6 ∙ Reds

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

The world is polarized across an ideological divide. Following Stalin's domination of Eastern Europe, and the loss of China,American democracy succumbs to a bout of anti-communist hysteria, but survives it. Eisenhower is elected President.

7.7 /10

S1.E7 ∙ After Stalin

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Thaw is conceivable with Stalin dead and Eisenhower in the White House. Stalin's chief of secret police is arrested and shot.Krushchev outmaneuvers Malenkov, for power and visits the West.

7.9 /10

S1.E8 ∙ Sputnik

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

In the mid-1950s, the Soviet Union seems to be forging ahead. In October 1957, the Soviet satellite Sputnik orbits the earth-to the dismay of the United States, which is frustrated with its own unsuccessful space program.

8.2 /10

S1.E9 ∙ The Wall

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Stalin's death has brought about détente, but the fate of Germany is unresolved. West Germany is admitted to NATO. Thousands of East Germans escape to the West through Berlin. At the Vienna Summit in 1961, Khrushchev bullies the inexperienced Kennedy. The Soviets confirm the division of Germany. To keep their people in, the East Germans erect the wall.

8.2 /10

S1.E10 ∙ Cuba

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Contemplating U.S. missile power installed around the Soviet periphery, Krushchev decides to install short and medium range missilesin Cuba, America's backyard. The sites are detected and the U.S. blockades the island.

8.4 /10

S1.E11 ∙ Vietnam

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Since the end of the French colonial rule, Vietnam has been divided. The north is run by Communists, the south by anti-Communists.

7.7 /10

S1.E12 ∙ M.A.D.

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

The USA and the USSR confront each other, each armed with nuclear weapons. Each side must deter the other. Bombing the enemy could mean provoking retaliation and self-destruction.

8.2 /10

S1.E13 ∙ Make Love Not War

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Western Economies grow and prosper, fueled partly by armaments production. Rejecting their parents' affluence and the Cold War, theyoung protest and rebel. There is racial violence in U.S. inner cities.

7.7 /10

S1.E14 ∙ Red Spring

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

In the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, denial of freedom and incentive stifles ambition and achievement. The young lust for totems of America's youth culture--blue jeans and rock-and-roll.

7.5 /10

S1.E15 ∙ China

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Chinese Communists are victorious in the longest civil war in 20th century history. Mao Zedong's reforms are popular, but in 1958, he embarks on a series of catastrophic changes. A famine that kills 30 million people follows.

8.3 /10

S1.E16 ∙ Detente

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

The North Vietnamese overwhelm U.S.-backed forces in the South and the United States steps up its bombing campaign. Nixon goes to the Kremlin to meet Brezhnev and signs the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). Kissinger negotiates with North Vietnam and proclaims, "Peace is at hand." Nixon is re-elected, and the United States finally withdraws from Vietnam. In Europe, rapprochement between East and West culminates in the Helsinki Accord. Apollo and Soyuz meet in space.

8.1 /10

S1.E17 ∙ Good Guys, Bad Guys

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Across the world, the two superpowers back surrogates engaging in ideological and, sometimes, physical conflict. In the MiddleEast, the United States arms Israel; the Soviet Union arms Syria and Egypt. In 1967 and 1973, the two weapons systems clash.

7.9 /10

S1.E18 ∙ Backyard

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

The United States has always regarded Latin America as its own back yard. In 1954, Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz is overthrown by U.S.-backed forces. Arbenz is leftist, not Communist.

7.7 /10

S1.E19 ∙ Freeze

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

7.8 /10

S1.E20 ∙ Soldiers of God

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Afghanistan is a brutal war that costs the lives of almost 15,000 Soviet conscripts and an estimated one million Afghans. "It wasthe Soviet Union's Vietnam syndrome," says Soviet aide Anatoly Chernyaev.

8.2 /10

S1.E21 ∙ Spies

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Even before the end of World War II, spies prepare for post-war world order. Beginning in 1944, KGB spies infiltrate Los Alamos,stealing information about the atomic bomb.

8.2 /10

S1.E22 ∙ Star Wars

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

Ronald Reagan pledges to defeat the "evil empire," but abhors the idea of nuclear war. He is prepared to increase arms expendituresignificantly to protect the United States.

8.2 /10

S1.E23 ∙ The Wall Comes Down

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

The dominoes fall: incredibly quickly, the Soviet bloc is breaking up, virtually without bloodshed.

8.7 /10

S1.E24 ∙ Conclusions

Wed, Dec 31, 1969

The United States proves the stronger and the Soviet Union implodes. The balance of terror that has kept the peace in Europe for more than 40 years vanishes, but no new world order readily emerges.

8.4 /10