Original subtitles

(upbeat jazz music playing)

NARRATOR: The United States, 1947.

In Texas, Max and Rachel celebrate the return of their son, Paul,

discharged from the US Army after serving two years in Japan.

He has great memories of his time there.

(inaudible conversation)

Children were conceived during the short time

the American army helped rebuild the country,

after having dropped the atom bomb on it.

In Nagasaki, the ruins of the atomic disaster have been erased.

The grass has grown back,

but the world has changed forever.

Scientists have conceived an imaginary clock,

the Doomsday Clock,

which measures the danger of imminent nuclear war.

If it hits midnight, it's the end of the world.

For the next 50 years,

Russia, then known as the Communist Soviet Union,

will confront the West, led by the United States.

This is the Cold War.

Between the East and West.

The war of the worlds.

(theme song playing)

-(all cheering) -NARRATOR: Like many Americans,

Max and Rachel donate food to help a starving Europe.

Little Daniel in Paris will be able to face the harsh winter of 1947,

one of the coldest of the century,

even though France has no coal.

Still the morale of the French sets an example for the whole world.

After six years of war,

they have chosen to live a carefree existence.

Meanwhile between East and West,

the weapons race has begun.

Are these confrontations

between the Western democracies and the Communists in the East,

like in Indochina or in Korea,

merely the first steps in the Escalation of Fear?

Texas, spring of 1947.

Max and Rachel move to Fort Bliss, a small city near a military base.

Max, an engineer, is hired to participate in the development of German rockets

seized at the end of the war.

Someday, these rockets could launch other atomic bombs.

Max works with a group of Germans, which is upsetting to him.

The recently revealed horrors of the Nazi camps

and the Holocaust have shocked him,

along with the rest of America.

(inaudible conversation)

Many German-born scientists and technicians

were captured by the Soviets, the French and the Americans.

1500 are now settled in the US.

Among them is a young prodigy,

35-year-old Werner Von Braun.

He invented the V2 rocket for Hitler,

the rocket that terrified Londoners at the end of the war.

Von Braun will perfect these German V2 units

recovered by the Americans.

Over 30 years, he redesigns them for the conquest of space.

(inaudible conversation)

In 1946, they are the first weapons of dissuasion,

launched over the New Mexican desert.

The sound of war is coming closer.

At the same time, diplomats try to save world peace

by organizing a conference with the Soviet Union.

On March 9, 1947,

France's Secretary of State, Georges Bidault,

a Christian Democrat,

leaves for Moscow with his wife.

At this conference,

the foreign ministers of the four great powers

that brought down Hitler

try to agree on the fate of occupied Germany.

But the context has changed.

France's minister Bidault wants Saarland,

an industrial region in Germany that De Gaulle has already laid claim to.

From Britain, Bevin, a leftist, anti-Communist union supporter,

aligns with the US position...

a position advocated by General Marshall,

whose main concerns is America's security.

The Soviet foreign minister, Mr. Molotov, who is getting close to the West,

will be sidelined by Stalin.

The former "allies" can't agree on anything.

Germany will remain split in two.

A final reception that Stalin doesn't attend

marks the end of the wartime alliance between East and West.

After the smiles come the farewells.

The American president, Democrat Harry Truman,

presents his doctrine to Congress.

His policy is one of containment.

Any aggressive action by Stalin will be met with retaliation.

And most importantly, help Europe recover from poverty,

a breeding ground for Communism.

The American Secretary of State, George Marshall,

offers Truman a plan for European reconstruction

that bears his name:

the Marshall Plan.

He says...

"The people of these countries need to eat and to survive the winter."

Back in France, little Daniel marvels at the convoy of American equipment.

There are electric transformers

and all kinds of machine tools.

Provided by the USA for European economic recovery

The offer is generous for the European populations.

$12 billion, a fortune at the time.

But this loan must be partially reimbursed

and be used, whenever possible,

to buy American products.

Stalin refuses.

He forces the countries he occupies to turn down the Marshall Plan aid.

In the other countries, Italy, Belgium, England, and especially France...

DOWN WITH THE MARSHALL PLAN

...he stirs up the local Communist parties,

backing violent protests and strikes...

(all protesting)

...to denounce "American imperialism."

But France's ambassador to the US accepts Washington's checks.

Mister Ambassador, It gives me great pleasure

to be able to hand you these checks

which total $31,400,000.

With these checks and those which we gave you last week,

the total now is $33,000,000.

Even this amount represents only the initial portion

which eventually will be made available

under the United States foreign aid program.

NARRATOR: France needs money to fund its war in Indochina...

(foghorn blares)

...now entering its third year.

1948...

French ownership of Indochina becomes a stake in the Cold War.

The Communist insurgents of the Viet Minh have attempted a bloody coup in Hanoi,

the capital in the North.

The French have managed to regain control.

This is an expensive war.

500 million French Francs per day,

and more importantly almost a total of 100,000 dead on both sides.

(machine guns rattling)

In the North, the men of the French Expeditionary Corps

are hunting for Ho Chi Minh and Giap,

the Communist leaders of the fight for independence.

They're searching the mountains,

where the tribes have stayed out of the war.

But for how long?

A French commando almost captured Ho Chi Minh,

missing him by a few hours.

But he disappeared into the impenetrable jungle.

Ho Chi Minh has taken refuge in this region

near the border of the Republic of China,

which is still fighting Mao's Communists.

(plane engine whirring)

From the sky, the zone looks deserted.

But within this sanctuary,

Ho Chi Minh has created an embryonic government.

Its bamboo ministries can quickly be disassembled

and carried to new hiding places.

Bamboo serves all purposes.

It can be used for everything.

It can be used to survive, and to kill.

Its sharpened points stick up out of the clearings to impale paratroopers.

In the opposing camp,

the French positions are also protected by bamboo,

as dangerous as the barbed wire used during World War I.

From his jungle workshops,

Ho Chi Minh wants to project the image

of an entire population building with its own hands

-the very weapons that will liberate it. -(clanging)

A heavy machine-gun is worth two kilos of opium.

Ho Chi Minh applies the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism:

Hammer home and spread propaganda and the ideology...

(printing press rattling)

...dispense combat instructions,

inspire the will to fight...

(inaudible conversation)

...recruit soldiers and militants,

and tirelessly cleanse the Party by killing skeptics and opponents.

Ho Chi Minh shows his true face, after years spent in the USSR.

No more negotiating.

He is preparing for a long war.

He declares...

"It will be the fight between the tiger and the elephant.

During the day, the tiger lies low in the jungle.

He only comes out at night.

He jumps on the elephant,

tearing large chunks of flesh from his back.

Then he leaps back into the dark jungle.

Slowly, the elephant bleeds to death.

Such will be the war in Indochina."

(fire roaring, crackling)

But the French have understood.

Twenty-one-year-old Lieutenant Bernard Moinet writes,

"We must adapt to this type of combat.

We must cease to be prey

and become hunters."

(boat engine whirring)

(monkeys whooping in distance)

(gunshots)

There is no small-scale smuggling,

nor small-scale prey.

(insects chirping)

(machine gun rattling)

(inaudible conversation)

To reassure and control the peasants,

the French erect small forts manned by small, expendable units

who drink warm beer and cook good food

before setting off on an ambush.

(sizzling)

Those who make it back reassure their wives.

Like Lt. Moinet, who writes,

"My dear Francine, I am a happy man,

in love with my career and with you."

There they wait, until the Viet Minh attack.

The men are massacred,

as the forts are regularly won and lost again.

This is the case throughout this war which is only beginning.

High Command tries to reinforce its garrisons

with local back-up troops whose loyalty can be shaky.

Their families may be Viet Minh hostages.

The French troops can barely close their eyes at night.

During a commando mission,

Moinet discovers a printing press and flyers.

He reads the following text, in French:

"Tomorrow, your post will be destroyed

by the courageous people's army of the Viet Minh.

The French will be killed and chased from our lands.

Victory will strengthen our ongoing revolution.

Long live Ho Chi Minh!

Long live Communism around the world!"

Communism around the world is making headway in Asia,

as Mao prepares to take over the Republic of China.

In the British colonies of Burma and Malaysia,

communist movements rise up to claim their independence.

The Dutch East Indies become Indonesia.

In Europe, the Communists attempt to seize power from the Greek monarchy,

which is backed by the British and the Americans.

But the West does nothing to prevent the coup in Prague in February 1948,

when the Communists seize power in Czechoslovakia.

Stalin is now one step closer to bringing Berlin over to his side.

Stalin declares,

"All of Germany must be ours, entirely Soviet and Communist."

In 1945, the one-time Allies had divided Germany into four occupied zones:

Soviet, British, American and French.

They did the same in Berlin, divided into four sectors

and landlocked by the Soviet zone.

In order to reach their zones in Berlin,

the Westerners have access to three corridors:

Westerners and Berliners are shocked to discover

that Stalin has issued the order to close the corridors.

He has also barred all train and river traffic.

Even the electrical plants in the Soviet zone

stop supplying power to the West.

Berlin is now cut off from the world.

Its two million residents are now hostages of the Cold War.

The Doomsday Clock jumps to five minutes to midnight!

The threat of nuclear war is getting closer,

because Stalin just made a risky bet.

What will the Allies do?

What will Truman do?

The Americans have atom bombs,

ready to be carried by the B-36 strategic bomber,

one of the largest aircraft ever built.

Weighing 150 tons,

with six 3000-horsepower engines,

it has a flying range of 12,000 kilometers,

more than enough to reach Moscow.

It's the ultimate weapon.

But Truman remains cautious.

In his memoirs, he writes,

"We had to make a show of strength, without setting off a war.

We had to stay in Berlin.

I ordered the organization of a full-scale airlift,

using every available Allied plane in Europe."

Truman breaks through the blockade with 1000 Allied freight planes,

mostly American,

which fly over the Soviet zone

to bring supplies to Berlin.

This airlift is the only solution,

because Stalin can easily block a road.

But to stop a plane from getting through,

he would have to order it shot down.

Soviet fighter planes are on the prowl.

Truman writes,

"The real danger was that a Russian pilot might pull the trigger

and create an incident that would spark a crisis."

Will the airlift be stopped?

On September 9, 1948,

the people of Berlin's Western zones gather in front of the Reichstag,

the former German parliament.

It is the reminder of a recent tragic past.

(man speaking German over microphone)

NARRATOR (in English): 300,000 Berliners have come to show support for their mayor.

Ernst Reuter,

a well-known figure in the fight against Nazism,

who asks for help.

"People of the world!

People of America,

England, France and Italy!

You cannot, you must not forsake us!"

The noise of the four-engine planes in constant succession is unbearable.

And yet, Berliners refer to it as the Symphony of Freedom.

During the winter of 1948-49,

the planes transport close to one million tons of coal.

The aircraft are at the limit of their capacity,

and the pilots are exhausted.

(crash, explosion)

The American and British pilots perish in crashes.

The Soviets concentrate their armored divisions around Berlin.

The threat of war is so tangible

USSR

that all of Europe turns to the US,

WAR

gearing up for a presidential election in November 1948.

The Republicans are historically isolationist.

However, the Democrats' slogan is

"Truman, the world's hope."

(crowd cheering)

Truman was an officer on the French front in 1918.

He knows France well

and cares about the fate of the Old Continent.

He is re-elected and tells the European leaders,

"We will continue to uphold the peaceful principles of the UN."

On April 4, 1949,

12 countries sign the North Atlantic Pact in Washington.

France, Luxembourg, Belgium,

the Netherlands, Great Britain, Denmark,

Norway, Italy, Portugal, Iceland,

Canada and the United States commit to Article 5,

which reads,

"The Parties agree that an armed attack against any member country

shall be considered an attack against all members."

Philosopher Raymond Aron writes,

"Without hesitation, the Western Europeans chose the American protector

over the Soviet empire."

This immediately provokes widespread Communist protests throughout Europe,

and particularly in France,

which becomes home to the general staff of NATO,

the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,

and its renowned commanders,

such as General Eisenhower, the liberator of France.

The NATO forces settle in France,

along with their accommodations, hospitals, schools and disposable income.

The French actor, Gerard Depardieu,

who grew up near the US Air Force base in Chateauroux, recalls:

"The city was Americanized.

Popcorn, hamburgers, peanut butter, jeans and t-shirts, strip clubs,

soldiers in Jeeps and rock 'n' roll."

The US Navy's powerful Sixth Fleet rules the Mediterranean,

and its sailors invade St. Tropez.

NATO also has bases in Italy, Turkey,

Great Britain, and especially in Germany,

next to the Eastern troops.

On May 12, 1949, after an 11-month blockade,

Stalin reopens the routes to Berlin.

He has given in to the West's determination.

Without the atomic bomb, he cannot risk a war.

(all cheering)

August 29, 1949, is an important Cold War date.

In the desert of Kazakhstan,

the first Soviet atomic bomb is ready.

It's a duplicate of the American bomb,

made possible by intensive espionage.

This marks the end of America's nuclear monopoly.

American newspapers are the first to reveal this nuclear test.

The headlines read,

"Reds exploded atom bomb!"

Stalin had wanted to keep the public in the dark,

because he still wants to appear to be fighting for peace.

And he needs to buy time until his atom bomb is fully operational.

Communism continues to spread across one-third of the planet.

China joins its ranks.

(playing ceremonial music)

Peking, October 1, 1949.

In the Forbidden City, China's imperial palace,

Mao Zedong becomes the master of the world's most populated nation.

With 600 million inhabitants.

(speaking Mandarin)

NARRATOR (in English): Mao establishes the People's Republic of China.

Over a period of 30 years,

this totalitarian regime will be responsible for 50 million deaths,

through the application of Stalinist practices

such as agrarian reform and famine,

peasant revolts, repression

and the gulags, concentration camps.

He has been waging a brutal civil war ever since the 1920's.

Although he was just a hounded Marxist at the time...

he is even considered crueler than Stalin.

Violence is the key to his power.

He imposes on his men what he calls "the blood pact."

"Everyone must participate

in the physical destruction of class enemies.

Everyone must have blood on their hands."

Mao says...

"Corpses have their use.

They can be used to fertilize the land."

Mao finalizes his conquest by pushing the last anti-Communist troops

back to the border of French Indochina.

The French disarm them,

in fear of being infiltrated by Mao's soldiers.

Commander Auriol writes,

"A surprising number of women are pregnant.

Handing these refugees over to the People's Republic of China

is out of the question.

The only option is to keep them in camps in Indochina

until further notice."

The French are also concerned.

The arrival of these 30,000 refugees

raises the question of Mao's army chasing after them.

His army could join forces with the Viet Minh

and help it take over Indochina.

On December 21, 1949, Mao is in Moscow,

standing to the right of Stalin,

who is celebrating his 70th birthday.

Stalin is wary of him,

as he is of all Communist leaders,

ever since his altercations with Yugoslav leader Tito,

who refuses to be a satellite of the USSR.

But Mao needs Soviet assistance for his industry and his army.

He has Stalin's birthday religiously observed in China...

(speaks Mandarin)

NARRATOR (in English): ...as it is in all Communist countries.

(all singing in foreign language)

Stalin's personality cult

extends beyond the USSR's borders.

The French Communists celebrate Comrade Stalin,

a champion of peace, liberty,

the independence of the people, and human happiness.

The French Communist party remains the country's first political movement.

Its leader, Maurice Thorez, is Stalin's tireless champion.

(Thorez speaking French) Long live Stalin!

A long and glorious life

to the leader of the international proletariat,

the head of the Socialist revolution,

the liberator of the people,

and the most avid defender of the freedom and peace.

We Communists,

whom the class enemy and its agents

try to insult by calling us "Stalinists",

we hereby state loud and clear,

like we did 20 years ago,

that we are honored by the glorious title

that we continually strive to be worthy of.

Yes, with all of our heart,

we declare our fervent love for Stalin

and we place our unwavering trust in him.

Long live Stalin!

May our great Stalin live forever!

Long live Communism!

NARRATOR: Yet, Thorez had deserted in '39

and spent five wartime years in the Soviet Union.

He knows all about Stalin and the Gulags.

(all singing in French)

NARRATOR: But all the other brave souls are in the dark, like this militant.

(speaking French) I am convinced that my children, my husband

peace, and you, Comrade Stalin,

are all one and the same.

Never will the women of France

allow their husbands and children

to go to war against Stalin's country.

NARRATOR (in English): "No war against Stalin!"

To our Soviet sisters. Never will the mothers...

is the message the Communists are to spread.

...of France send their sons to fight against the Soviet Union.

Along with this comes the creation of a World Movement of Partisans of Peace,

whose emblem is a dove designed by Picasso.

This peace movement launches

an international petition on March 19, 1950,

demanding a ban on nuclear weapons.

It is known as the Stockholm Appeal.

OUTLAW NUCLEAR WEAPONS

250,000 people sign the petition in just a few weeks,

particularly in the Communist countries.

How could one refuse to sign?

Yet, who can verify that Stalin upholds his commitment

now that he has the bomb and is multiplying atomic testing.

But to the Communists, the supporters and fellow travelers,

the Red Army saved the world,

and Stalin embodies the quest for peace.

(all shouting indistinctly)

In the US, the hunt for Communist sympathizers

in the government and film industry

is launched by a Republican senator, Joseph McCarthy.

The FBI succeeds in shutting down

the extensive Soviet espionage network

to which Julius and Ethel Rosenberg belong.

The couple is sent to the electric chair.

In Europe, abstention is in fashion.

The "good times" party is in the lead.

People want to live their lives.

Ignorance is bliss.

They want to have children

and avoid thinking about the dangers that lurk.

SOLDIER: Fire!

On June 25, 1950, war breaks out in Korea.

For the first time, East and West confront each other directly.

The Korean War claims two million lives,

civilians and soldiers alike.

(distant explosions)

On this day of June 25, 1950,

the Communist troops of North Korea cross over the 38th parallel,

which has separated Korea into two countries since 1945.

In the North, the Soviet conquest

has led to the creation of the People's Republic of Korea,

governed de facto by General Shtykov,

who occupied the country in 1945.

Shtykov put a USSR-trained Korean Communist in power,

38-year old Kim Il-sung.

He established a six-year compulsory military service.

The country is ready for war.

Mao Zedong, China's new ruler,

had returned to Moscow to conclude an alliance with the USSR.

Shtykov convinces Stalin, who, fearing an international conflict,

tends to be cautious,

to let Kim Il-sung invade South Korea.

South Korea's authoritarian ruler is Syngman Rhee,

former opposition leader against the Japanese,

who had colonized Korea for many years.

The US supports him

but doesn't give him the means to defend himself.

The South Korean army

calls for an emergency mobilization of troops to defend Seoul.

They are outnumbered two-to-one by the North,

and are poorly armed, without armored tanks.

Commander Paik Sun-yup and his unit are in charge of defending Seoul.

He writes,

"Our soldiers have never seen a tank.

As soon as they hear the word 'tank,' they fall down in shock."

(rumbling)

The North Korean army, with its 150 Soviet T-34 tanks,

one of World War II's best armored vehicles,

and its 100,000 over-equipped troops,

march into the Southern capital,

crushing all resistance on their path.

On June 28, 1950,

on the morning of the third day of the assault,

the North Koreans enter Seoul.

They rush into the administrative buildings

to steal all the confidential US documents.

The Soviet cameramen that accompany them

stage the discovery of this map,

which supposedly reveals a planned attack

on the North by the South.

This allows the Communists to tell the people of Seoul

who have stayed put and are immediately mobilized,

that the Northern attack on their city is a preventive measure

against the "South Korean threat."

June 1950,

at the United Nations in New York,

the Security Council holds an emergency meeting.

The Soviet delegate has been absent for months

in protest of America's refusal to recognize Communist China.

The Council is able to vote a resolution asking the US to take military action

with their forces still based in Japan.

These young soldiers, fulfilling their duty,

have no idea of the hell that awaits them.

Their commander, a historical figure,

is the flamboyant general, Douglas MacArthur,

the man with the corncob pipe.

One of the great Pacific War heroes,

he is still Commander-in-chief in Japan.

He leaves, for Korea.

MacArthur and his limited troops land in Korea early July 1950,

to block the North Koreans' route.

With such a famous leader,

the US troops are welcomed as saviors

and are full of confidence.

But these young Americans aren't given the means to fight.

Their few tanks are in poor shape,

and they have little ammunition for their cannons.

(machine guns rattling)

The US and South Korean troops backtrack toward the South, to Pusan,

the last available port.

The entire North Korean army is mobilized to march on Pusan.

The stakes are crucial.

They will win the war if they succeed in pushing the Americans back to the sea.

The Americans and the South Koreans,

overwhelmed by an enemy superior in number and arms,

set up a defense perimeter.

(explosions)

(machine guns rattling)

Throughout July 1950,

the soldiers fighting to defend the Pusan Perimeter

manage to hold out,

thanks to the uninterrupted support of their air forces.

The B-29's, the US Air Force's super fortresses,

receive permission to strike beyond the 38th parallel,

and target North Korea's arms factories.

(bombs whistling)

(explosions)

The civilians, who are collateral victims of the bomb strikes

and the war unleashed by their regime,

are filmed by the Soviets,

for their anti-American propaganda.

You, the people's army! Avenge us!

Exterminate the enemy without mercy! We are approaching Pusan!

The arms factories aren't hit

because most of them are underground.

Working endless shifts in front of Soviet machinery,

under the portraits of Stalin and Kim Il-sung,

these poor women manufacture millions of munitions

until they pass out from exhaustion.

August 1950.

The American forces in the Pusan Perimeter are in trouble.

They've lost many men.

Almost 4000 are dead and 2000 are captured,

as filmed here by the Soviets.

On August 14,

on Hill 303,

45 American soldiers from the 5th Cavalry Regiment

are captured and marched to a ravine where they are shot point-blank.

One of these men, Corporal Day,

has miraculously survived and is discovered under the corpses.

("Taps" playing)

NARRATOR: America calls in 90,000 reservists.

Five years after being discharged at the end of World War II,

these Americans, who have started families and found jobs,

aren't so thrilled to don the uniform and go back to war.

(explosions)

On behalf of the United Nations,

thousands of men land in the port of Pusan.

Although their numbers are merely symbolic,

there are Greeks,

Filipinos,

New Zealanders, British, Turks,

and soon, the French.

(explosions)

America's elite, the Marine Corps,

continues to defend Pusan throughout August 1950.

These Marines' and their planes,

the famous "Black Sheep Squadron,"

are back on the job.

They drop canisters of jellied gasoline, better known as napalm,

which burns everything within 100 square meters.

The surviving North Koreans are in shock.

They are captured and humiliated.

But the pressure is on.

(machine guns rattling)

Will the Americans hold out?

What will General MacArthur do, now that he commands the UN forces?

The President of South Korea, Syngman Rhee,

calls upon those defending Pusan.

He urges,

"We will dig huge trenches and fill them with Communists.

Then cover them over."

(inaudible)

True to his word,

he executes 100,000 suspects.

Hatred breeds hatred...

and strengthens Kim-Il sung

and especially Soviet General Shtykov's determination

to pursue the war.

Nothing can stop the wave of worldwide protests

orchestrated by Stalin

to denounce the American attack on Korea.

Will the fear continue to escalate?

Will China get involved in Korea or Indochina?

Napolean once said,

"When China wakes, the world will tremble."