Politics | 1960 | Sound | B/W
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The Cold War.
Brezhnev is shown saluting Soviet rockets in Red Square, Moscow, in 1967. This was a Red Army parade. The narrator warns that deep in Russia are many large rockets armed with hydrogen bombs. There are aimed at the USA and Western Europe. An American missile silo is then shown, and the narrator says the USA, too, has hydrogen bombs. A missile launch is shown. The presenter outlines the two opposing camps, each able to destroy the other.
The recent nature of the division between the USSR and the USA, and their respective allies, is alluded too - they fought together in World War Two, for example. Potsdam conference 1945. War-time alliance temporary friendship. Picture of Truman, Stalin and Churchill seated outdoors at Potsdam. Churchill and Stalin in uniform, Truman in a suit. The UK, USA and USSR were only allies in a common cause until the defeat of Hitler. Stalin distrusted the British and Americans. Pictures of bombed cities. Stalin worried that the US and UK might ally themselves to attack a war-weakened Soviet Union. He was determined to prevent this from happening. Between 1945 and 1948 Stalin gained control of East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. The Iron Curtain. Picture of barbed wire fence and watchtower. This power in Eastern Europe made Stalin feel less vulnerable.
Pictures of patrolling border guards. In the West, people did not realise how badly damaged the Soviet Union had been by the war. They felt they had fought for the freedom of small nations, not to see them under the sway of Stalin. There was a fear that Stalin wanted to spread Communism as far as he could. The Yugoslavs helped the Communists in their attempt to seize power in Greece in 1946. Bulgaria too, provided assistance. Stalin was threatening Turkey. President Truman was concerned about this and in 1947 promised money and aid to countries threatened by Communism. This has been the basis of American foreign policy ever since. The Truman Doctrine. Thus, the USA did not retreat into splendid isolation.
Berlin airlift. Division of Germany by Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the USA. Berlin also divided. Soviet attempts to blockade West Berlin failed. Pictures of food in shops in East Berlin. Aircraft flying supplies to West Berlin. At the height of the airlift, 12,000 tons of supplies were delivered every day. Even coal was delivered by air. Berliners building runways during the airlift. North American Treaty Organisation (NATO) set up in Washington in April 1948 to counter Soviet menace. The Americans agreed to station troops in West Germany on a long term basis. The UK, the Netherlands, France, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark and Norway were the European founder members, joined by Greece and Turkey in 1952 and West Germany in 1955. The world was becoming divided into two blocs, the Soviet and the Western. Their enmity was not expressed in open war, but in peaceful hostility - the Cold War. China joined the Communist bloc in 1949.
The Korean war. A Korean peasant woman in a field hears shots and stands up wondering. US soldiers running to their posts with shots in the background. An officer - American - looks through his binoculars. Soldiers shooting. Soldiers jumping out of trenches. Division of Korea after Second World War. United Nations sent forces to aid the South Koreans. An aircraft carrier. Cheering South Korean children. British soldiers disembarking from a troopship. American troops landing from a landing craft. General Macarthur climbing out of an aircraft. UN forces landing. Trucks going through a river. Tanks firing a flame-thrower. American troops firing artillery. American troops under fire. American artillery. American troops running down a road. An American tank. American troops firing at a hidden enemy. An American convoy crossing the 38th parallel. American troops escorting Korean prisoners. An aircraft bombing a hill. American troops re-supply artillery with ammunition. American heavy artillery firing. Artillery explosions. Burning buildings. Korean refugees on a road. A sacred bull walking on mats which Korean refugees then replace in front of it. American officers driving to peace talks. American officers walking. Korean officers walking. War graves.
USA establishes SEATO - South East Asia Treat Organisation. Pakistan (inc. East Pakistan), Thailand and the Philippines were the Asian members. The Central Treaty Organisation - CENTO. American military police marching. American tanks. American jeeps with recoilless rifles. Communism seen as evil by USA. US trucks filled with soldiers pass by officers on parade. American truck filled with troops and artillery, watched by a crowd. Khrushchev meeting Eisenhower. They are standing outside, dressed in suits and talking to each other. Pictures of Paris summit 1960. Hopes of a rapprochement between the USA and USSR were clashed. Khrushchev leaving talks after capture of U2 pilot Gary Powers. Eisenhower leaving Paris summit. Macmillan leaving Paris summit. Khrushchev giving speech in Russian attacking the USA. The US capitol. Extract from Kennedy's inauguration speech, 1961.
Pictures of American tanks. A B-52 bomber. A pilot. An aircraft carrier. A fighter taking off from an American aircraft carrier. American warships and a US submarine (SS 598 George Washington?). Soviet tanks in Red Square. A Soviet bomber. Soviet Submarine, Zulu Class Submarine? Soviet fighters. A nuclear explosion. You cannot win a nuclear war.
Lyndon Johnson at his desk in the White House. Cuban Missile Crisis. Soviet ship (Bonronec?) carrying missiles and trucks to Cuba. A flotilla of US warships. American aircraft. Cockpit of an American aircraft. Soviet ship. Nuclear test. Ban treaty. Kosygin and President Johnson. Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Tanks on streets of Prague. American armoured personnel carrier firing heavy machine gun. Vietnam.
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