Original subtitles

[narrator] In Michigan, a top-secret Air Force base

embroiled in controversy.

[expert] It's possible there was some form of cover-up.

The official documentation does have some redacted sections.

[narrator] In Italy, an entrepreneur's dream

shattered by links to organized crime.

Was he guilty?

Or was this just a huge miscarriage of justice?

[narrator] And a California transportation hub

that inspired lasting change.

Oakland has always had a secret sauce in people fighting

for greater justice and a better way to live.

[narrator] In northern Michigan, on the edge of Lake Superior,

remnants of a global conflict conceal a tale of intrigue.

[Sascha] A dirt track leads to a clearing dotted

with large, industrial-looking buildings.

This is a site built for function, not beauty.

[Dr. Sharp] On the edge of this place are what look

like just normal suburban streets.

[Alicia] There's a basketball court and a baseball field

and what looks like the remains of a bowling alley.

This has all the amenities of any small town,

but why are they out here?

[Zachary] Well, there's only

2,000 permanent residents in this entire area,

and so to have this little city just up here on the top

of a mountain popping out of nowhere is just very unusual.

[narrator] But this was not a normal town.

When constructed, this was a covert facility

with one objective, to protect America.

[Sascha] At the top of the hill,

two large constructions stand out.

This is a clue to the place's true function.

[Dr. Sharp] The US Air Force is using this technology

to defend the country from what they thought

was a real existential threat.

[narrator] Yet this site would become infamous

because of its connection to an alleged government cover-up

that involved the disappearance of two American aviators.

[Alicia] The jet and its occupants vanished,

and the mystery has never been solved.

So I first visited this site about 10 years ago

with my cousin,

and we made kind of the joke that everybody makes.

If we ever had the opportunity to purchase this,

then we had to try and purchase it.

Come on, right here.

[narrator] In 2021, Zachary Garner did buy this property.

He's been working hard to uncover its secrets ever since.

[Zachary] We wanted to save it, preserve the history,

tell the story.

This place and most of the others like it

were always surrounded with an air of mystery

because everything that happened up here

was classified during the times

when it was active.

[narrator] There was a good reason

this site was clandestine.

It was built as a reaction to the rising threat

of communist activity.

On August 29, 1949, in the very early part

of the Cold War, the Soviet Union detonated

their first atomic bomb,

codename Joe-1.

Even more terrifying news was to follow.

The Soviets also created long-range aircraft

capable of delivering nuclear bombs to the United States.

This new reality caught the United States off guard.

They were unprepared, and they were nervous.

[narrator] If America was to regain the upper hand,

they needed a system that would provide early detection

of any incoming threat from the Soviet Union.

The United States takes action by setting up

radar stations all across the country.

Calumet Air Force Station was part of this radar network.

[Zachary] So they built a lot of these stations

further north in the U.S. and Canada

because they were specifically monitoring for bombers

coming over the Arctic Circle from the Soviet Union,

that was the quickest or shortest flight path

from primarily two Soviet Air Force bases.

[Sascha] Should a Soviet aircraft approach,

Calumet would be able to detect it and help guide

American fighters to intercept and destroy it.

This station in particular was right in the flight path

if they would have sent bombers to either Chicago or New York.

[narrator] By April of 1951,

Calumet was fully operational.

Less than two years later, it was called into action.

[Zachary] On the evening of November 23rd, 1953,

the radar operators here noticed a flight

that was coming through Lake Superior

that was not registered on any particular flight plan.

If this was a Soviet bomber, they needed to act fast.

[narrator] The operators noted the coordinates

and sent them to Kinross Air Force Base,

located 190 miles southeast of Calumet.

From there, an F-89 Scorpion jet

was immediately scrambled to intercept.

First Lieutenant Felix Moncla, an experienced airman

who clocked 811 hours, took the pilot seat.

Behind him was the navigator,

Second Lieutenant Robert Wilson.

On that day, the weather was pretty typical

for a late November, it was cold, low visibility,

cloudy, of course dark.

Operators at Calumet were tracking the object

and then sending directions to navigator Robert Wilson.

[narrator] For the next 30 minutes, a high-speed game

of cat and mouse played out in the skies above Lake Superior.

Every time the radar would spin around,

they would get an updated location on the bogey

and tell them a new heading.

[narrator] Yet reports claim the unidentified entity

moved with alarming irregularity

in ways that shouldn't be possible.

The blip was changing course, changing airspeed,

changing altitude, and they just weren't sure

what it was.

At 6:52 PM, the operators let the crew know

that the object was at their 11:00, 10 miles out.

The two men would have by now had the unknown object

in their sights.

[narrator] At 6:55 PM the radar signature

of the Scorpion jet converged with that of the unknown object,

forming a single dot on the radar screen.

They assumed that the fighter jet was flying in formation

with the bogey and making contact with the pilot.

[narrator] Then the unthinkable happened.

When radio operators tried to hail Moncla,

they heard nothing back.

Next, the jet's transponder signal was lost

and its radar signature disappeared from their screens.

The staff at Calumet urgently tried to reestablish

contact with the missing Scorpion jet, but to no avail.

The Scorpion jet had vanished.

[Zachary] According to the official reports from the Air Force,

the dot of the aircraft that was still in the air

continued on its original flight path, flying east.

[Sascha] In the following days, a number of aircraft

joined the search from all over the country,

but no trace of the plane or the two airmen was ever found.

[narrator] During this period, the American public

was increasingly fascinated by the phenomena of UFOs,

after a number of high-profile sightings occurred

across the country.

[Sascha] The incident quickly became a source

of various conspiracy theories.

Many of the most extraordinary

revolved around alien abduction.

[Zachary] As we were researching,

we interviewed several different people

that had intimate knowledge and slowly we were able

to put together what we believed to be the full story.

[narrator] In the 1950s, radar operators

at a top-secret military site spotted

an unidentified object flying in restricted airspace.

An F-89 fighter jet was scrambled to intercept,

but mysteriously vanished.

Wild theories soon began to surface.

[Zachary] The conspiracy that has formed from the blips merged

is that the UFO ate the aircraft or absorbed it,

and that's why it was never seen or heard from again.

[narrator] The Air Force put forward

a very different explanation.

When they looked on the screen and saw those two blips merge,

that simply meant that they were within half a mile

of one another, not that they actually

ran into each other.

[Alicia] And while no conclusive evidence has ever been found

to explain the aircraft's disappearance,

the most plausible theory

is some type of mechanical failure.

[Dr. Sharp] The F-89 Scorpion had known issues just a year

before all F-89s had been grounded to fix a wing problem.

[narrator] Yet respected UFO researcher Major Donald Keyhoe

believed the government was trying to hide the truth.

He claimed the wife of Felix Moncla was given

two different stories by the U.S. Air Force

as to how her husband died.

At first, she was told his jet crashed into Lake Superior.

Then she was told his jet exploded in midair.

Keyhoe also suggested certain details were left out

of the official record to cover it up.

[Zachary] The official documentation does have some

redacted sections that we've been unable

to figure out what it says.

But ultimately, the puzzle was never solved.

My personal opinion is that the fighter jet

got too close to the other aircraft during intercept,

made some maneuver to avoid hitting it,

and crashed into Lake Superior.

[Sascha] But this all still leaves

a crucial question unanswered, which is,

what was that original radar signature

that the Calumet station detected?

[Dr. Sharp] It remains a mysterious

footnote to the Cold War,

which claimed the lives of two American airmen.

[narrator] Calumet continued to operate in secrecy

for the next 35 years, until communism collapsed

and the threat of nuclear war subsided.

[Sascha] In September 1988, the station was closed

and the remaining personnel were transferred elsewhere.

[narrator] Zachary now has big plans to open Calumet

to the public so its story can continue to be told.

[Zachary] The entire top of the mountain here

that we're standing on now will be turned into a museum

dedicated to radar stations in the Cold War.

We expect this to be kind of a lifetime project,

and we're here for it. It's really exciting.

[narrator] In central Italy, 40 miles from Florence,

is the site of a fallen stronghold

besieged by personal tragedy.

[Alexis] We are in the foothills of Tuscany,

famous for its glorious countryside,

incredible wines and centuries-old towns.

So it's no great surprise when you come across

what appear to be ancient remains

concealed in dense forest.

The structure has thick stone walls,

a crenellated tower and a drawbridge,

all the hallmarks of a medieval castle.

But look closer and you start to see problems

with that theory.

[narrator] All around are clues that suggest not everything

is what it seems.

Some of the features are more recent,

like there's a gazebo with a plastic canvas roof.

Inside, it gets even stranger.

There are bars, stages, and even the artwork

appears as if made to look old.

[Daisy] All sorts of people used to come here

from all over Italy -- VIPs, celebrities, politicians,

and it was a great success.

But the question is, who killed the party?

[Rob] This place would be engulfed by scandal.

We're talking links to organized crime,

a wrongful arrest, and lives torn apart.

[Daisy] The last time I came here, it was about 10 years ago,

and now the building -- everything is completely

covered with trees and plants.

It looks so strange and even sad.

[narrator] When Daisy Vannelli was young,

this enchanted setting was her family's business,

and it played a very important role in her life.

I remember my childhood here with my sister and my brothers.

When we were younger, it was like our playground.

The construction was inspired

by my father's passion for castles.

Like many good stories, this one begins

with an ambitious vision to build something magical.

And the person behind everything we see here,

a man named Walter Vannelli.

[Alexis] So, Walter is a local entrepreneur.

And back in the '80s, he had this idea

that he wanted to create a beautiful hotel

in the mountains.

But then my father came up with the idea

of opening a nightclub.

He discussed this idea with my two brothers,

who were in their twenties at that time,

and who enthusiastically opted for the nightclub idea.

It wasn't long before the wacky concept

that we see today emerged.

[narrator] Walter funded the project using his own money,

that of investors, and by loaning around

$750,000 from the bank.

In 1987, construction began.

But bringing his dream to life proved to be a difficult task.

Walter changed his mind constantly

about what it should look like.

[Alexis] One day, he'd ask the builders to build something.

Then the next day, knock it down,

start over again from scratch.

[Daisy] Honestly, we all thought

we would never get the club finished.

But finally, we did it.

[Rob] In the end, the club had three dance floors,

two restaurants, four bars.

It took six years and cost around $5 million.

[narrator] The Vannellis called their labor of love

the Excalibur.

On December 23rd, 1993, it opened for business.

[Daisy] And on that night, there were 3,000 people.

Up there was the DJ booth.

I remember flag bearers, fire eaters, fireworks.

Yes, champagne.

A lot of drinking, a lot of dancing,

a lot of fun, everything that made it a night to remember.

[narrator] As the months passed,

the club's reputation continued to grow.

[Dominic] There were politicians celebrities, soccer players,

and even royalty in the form of Princess Stephanie of Monaco,

the rebellious youngest daughter of Grace Kelly.

[Daisy] Everything was looking really good.

We were making good money,

and everything was just perfect.

The Excalibur was a huge hit. What could possibly go wrong?

The answer was everything.

[narrator] When the Excalibur nightclub first opened in 1993,

it was a resounding success.

But two and a half years later, Walter Vannelli's dream

turned into a nightmare.

In July 1996, around 5 AM, a police helicopter swooped in

and landed next to the club.

Armed officers streamed out and raided the house

that Walter was living in.

He was handcuffed, hooded,

and taken to a high-security prison.

[Dominic] Walter had no idea why he'd been arrested.

But it turns out he was being accused of being a key player

in the Brenta Mafia.

[narrator] The Brenta Mafia was a ruthless criminal organization

founded by career criminal Felice Maniero.

His illicit empire made millions from drug trafficking,

extortion, money laundering.

But in 1994, his criminal dealings caught up with him

after a crackdown on mafia gangs.

He was arrested and became an informant

to save his own skin.

He gave up over 400 mob bosses, corrupt judges,

corrupt policemen, and he named Walter

as part of the operation.

[narrator] Walter had met Maniero 20 years earlier,

but this was long before the mafia boss

had founded his criminal enterprise.

Since then, there had been no further dealings

and Walter was given no explanation

of why he had been implicated.

Prosecutors insisted he be kept in isolation

and refused to tell him when a trial date would be set.

Walter chose to take matters into his own hands.

My father had to go on a hunger strike because they gave him

no possibility to tell his side of the story.

And so he had to do that in order to be heard.

[narrator] Only then did the authorities start to listen.

[Dominic] After this, the anti-mafia prosecutor,

Dr. Fogliardelli, conducted more investigations

and interviewed people from the mafia clan.

His findings eventually found that Walter had no mafia

involvement, and he was cleared of all charges completely.

[narrator] In June 1997, Walter was finally released

after almost a year in prison.

The reason Maniero originally named him remained a mystery.

[Daisy] But he always kept his dignity,

and he always maintained a positive attitude, really.

He's an incredible person for this.

It was a terrible miscarriage of justice,

but there was even worse news to come.

[narrator] Following Walter's initial arrest,

local newspapers and TV stations relentlessly covered the event.

They linked his suspected mob affiliation to the Excalibur.

Which inevitably led to a significant drop

in attendances.

[Rob] This, coupled with a landslide that blocked

the main road leading to the club signaled its demise.

[Daisy] And so, from the 2,500 people crowding the nights,

the attendance dropped to only a few hundred.

In July 1996, while Walter was still locked up,

the Excalibur was forced to close.

Today, the future of the Excalibur is uncertain.

[Rob] It's up for sale.

So perhaps one day, the hills surrounding

this medieval discotheque will once again

be alive with the sound of music.

[Daisy] I'd love to see it getting back to its original glory.

It would be so nice to see it full of people

having fun and dancing.

[narrator] In Oakland, California, is a faded relic

that fostered a movement whose impact

is still felt to this day.

This area has an industrial feel to it.

There are freeways, rail lines, and an active port.

Then on the edge of a pretty residential neighborhood,

you see this building unlike the rest.

It's majestic and imposing with these three huge arch windows.

[Jim] Once you get inside, you've got light flooding in,

illuminating the marble floors. You've got ornate plaster work.

And then in other parts of the structure,

there's a more utilitarian space.

[narrator] Yet the interior reveals little about

this building's original purpose.

The big giveaway is out back.

[Jim] You see this set of railroad tracks heading out

of the structure, so clearly it's a railroad station.

[narrator] This grand site was built at a time

when Oakland was a city on the rise.

[David] The people that worked here were viewed

as very important people in the community.

[narrator] That's because they did so much more

than just keep the wheels turning.

Their actions would help bring change to America.

[David] This place is related to the civil rights struggle,

particularly on the West Coast, because so much

of the organizing happened here.

[Prof. Mitchell] Their Battle would inspire leaders

for generations to come.

[narrator] In Oakland is the rundown shell

of a once majestic railway building.

David Peters is the founder

of the Black Liberation Walking Tour.

This long-forgotten station

is an important stop on his route.

[David] What a sense of awe and wonder I'm feeling

right now to be able to be in this place

that has so much history.

You know, many people think that the resistance movement

in Oakland started with the Black Panthers,

and there's a reason for that,

but they didn't just spring out of nowhere,

and this place is integral to that.

In fact, I can feel goosebumps on my arms right now

as I talk about it.

[narrator] The story of struggle that unfolded within these walls

all began with a marvel of American engineering.

Originally, Oakland was just a small town

at the edge of the bay,

but its fortunes massively changed

with the arrival of the Transcontinental Railroad

in 1869.

[Jim] One thing a lot of people don't realize

is that it didn't go all the way to San Francisco.

It actually ended here in Oakland.

Passengers would get off the trains

and go to a nearby ferry terminal

to take a ferry across the bay

to the city of San Francisco.

[narrator] By the early 1900s,

the existing wooden railway station

couldn't support the increasing number

of travelers or their baggage.

In 1912, the Southern Pacific Railroad

unveiled a grand new terminus.

This is Oakland's 16th Street Station.

[James] Driven by the railroad industry,

Oakland's economy was booming,

and its population was skyrocketing.

[Prof. Mitchell] Many of those migrating to the city

were African Americans looking for a new life

away from the racism and segregation

of the Jim Crow South.

[narrator] But finding work was no easy task.

One area that did become a good opportunity for Black workers

was in serving the clientele that rode these railroads

on long-distance trips.

[David] The Transcontinental Railroads here had ultra-luxury

sleeper cars called Pullman cars.

These cars were an important part of the history here.

It took an army of employees to deliver the indulgence

that the company's founder, George Pullman,

wanted to achieve.

They were employed almost entirely

from the African-American community.

[narrator] They were called the Pullman Porters,

and they carried out their duties with pride.

Because of its vital position at one end

of the Transcontinental Railroad,

Oakland and this station

became a very important hub for the Pullman Porters.

[David] We're in a historic baggage wing.

This is the place where the Pullman Porters

would have handled the servicing

thousands of passengers on the trains

that came through this station,

Dozens of trains on a daily basis.

[Jim] But it was difficult work and not as well paid

as comparable white workers would be.

[Prof. Mitchell] They often worked as many

as 400 hours a month

with little time off and no overtime.

[narrator] In 1923, a man named C.L. Dellums

moved from Texas to Oakland.

His arrival would herald a brighter future

for the Pullman Porters.

When Dellums came to Oakland, he hoped to enroll

in law school.

To make money, he took a job as a Pullman Porter.

But he quickly realized that between the long hours

and the low wage, he couldn't actually afford school.

[David] So unfortunately for him and his law school dreams,

but so fortunately for us, he can continued to work

as a porter.

And C.L. Dellums immediately distinguished himself

by demanding better conditions for the Black workers.

[narrator] But the Pullman company was resistant to change.

Fortunately, Dellums wasn't on his own.

[Jim] In 1925,

the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids

was founded in New York City.

This was a group that wanted to unionize the Porters

give them some negotiating power to demand

better pay and better conditions.

They clearly knew that it was going to be a struggle.

The union's motto was, "Fight or be slaves."

[Jim] When Dellums learned about

the founding of the Brotherhood Union,

he knew that this was something that he really

wanted to embrace.

And he helped organize the Oakland porters and maids

to join the organization.

[David] Certainly here in this baggage room

would have been place where the porters

were organizing and talking about their frustrations.

[narrator] The Pullman Company was strongly opposed

to this fledgling union

and refused to recognize them.

They did everything in their power

to stop Dellums in his tracks.

Dellums himself got fired in 1927.

The company claimed that he'd been found sleeping on the job,

but in fact, this was a common tactic they used

to get rid of people that they saw as troublemakers.

So the Pullman Car Company, they used every dirty tactic,

every dirty trick in the book to be able to

squash this union.

[narrator] The company encouraged African-American

staff to tell on their fellow workers

and would dismiss employees if they joined the union.

The company also transferred work away from Oakland

so they could make do with fewer porters at that station.

[Prof. Mitchell] Dellums wasn't deterred,

and he continued the fight but then disaster struck.

[narrator] In the 1920s, after working

at the 16th Street Station in Oakland,

C.L. Dellums became a key member

of one of America's first African-American unions.

He fought tirelessly for better working conditions

on behalf of its members, who regularly worked

400 hours a month for low pay.

In 1929, Dellums became vice president

of the entire labor union.

It was a long fight, and they didn't win initially,

but they kept at it.

[narrator] It would take one of the worst

economic disasters in American history

to transform the union's fortunes.

In 1929,

the Wall Street stock market crashed,

ushering in the start of the Great Depression.

The American economy had hit rock bottom,

and something needed to be done

to ease the population's suffering.

[Jim] During the New Deal under Roosevelt,

laws were passed that made it easier

for workers to unionize and required

companies to give workers

the right to bargain collectively.

[narrator] In 1935,

the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

began negotiations with the Pullman Company

for union recognition and a fairer contract.

The Depression had led to a decline in the company's

prosperity, and they stood vehemently opposed.

But in 1937, the Porters finally won.

[Jim] The contract improved wages and limited hours

to a maximum of 240 hours a month,

which is still a lot.

[Prof. Mitchell] This was the first time in U.S. history

that a black union reached a bargaining agreement

with a major American company.

[David] This is a huge, huge win for the porters.

But this is not only important for the porters,

this is particularly important for Black America.

[James] After the Brotherhood's

monumental victory, the 16th Street Station

continued to provide jobs

for porters, maids, and other staff.

But the winds of change were blowing.

[Prof. Mitchell] In the 1950s and '60s,

with the rise of the automobile and airplane,

fewer people relied on passenger trains

for long-distance travel, and the number of porters

steadily declined.

[narrator] Yet the impact of the men and women

that worked at the 16th Street station

would not be forgotten.

[David] The legacy of the porters

is impossible to overestimate.

The fight for civil rights in C.L. Dellums

went so far just beyond the organizing of the union.

[Prof. Mitchell] Oakland is known to many

as birthplace to movements like

the Black Panther Party, but those movements are part

of a much longer tradition that stretches back

to the incredible work of C.L. Dellums

and the Pullman Porters.

[narrator] C.L. Dellums continued to live

in West Oakland until his death in 1989.

But that same year, a natural disaster struck

that meant the 16th Street station

had reached the end of the line.

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was the final blow,

and in fact, it sustained significant damage

and had to be closed.

Currently, we are greatly concerned

about the future of this station.

It's essential that this space be preserved.

It's so important to Oakland.

It's so important to the Bay Area.

It's critical to understand our past

to know where we're going in the future.

[narrator] In southern Croatia is an overgrown compound

that became embroiled in the fate of a nation.

[Hadley] At the tip of this peninsula

is a really dramatic sight, this great stone building.

It looks like it's been standing watch

for hundreds of years.

[Dr. Nusbacher] But as we move along the coastline,

we can see much more modern structures.

[Hadley] So obviously, this has been an important place

for a long time. But why?

[Dr. Nusbacher] This is a tiny point of land,

but it's a point of power.

It controls access to the bay beyond.

[narrator] In the 1990s,

that access was violently fought over.

And this cliffside citadel played a crucial role

in the chaos that followed.

[Dr. Nusbacher] This was a time when neighbors,

literal neighbors, became sworn enemies.

[Hadley] A foreign force was sent to keep

the entire region from going up in flames.

[Dr. Nusbacher] They came to be peacekeepers,

but there was no peace to keep.

Croatia used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,

and Croatia was where the Austro-Hungarian Empire

based its Mediterranean fleet.

[Hadley] The Austrians built a series of fortifications

along the Bay of Kotor,

including this grand stone fortress

at the tip of Prevlaka.

For almost 100 years, this fort stood guard

over the mouth of the bay.

[narrator] But in the wake of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's

collapse after the First World War,

a new country called Yugoslavia

was formed in this region.

It was comprised of six republics,

including Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro,

and Serbia.

[Dr. Nusbacher] Yugoslavia was created on the theory

that all of the Slavic states in the Balkans

were all brethren.

But it was a diverse and tenuous coalition.

For years, Yugoslavia was held together

by the dictator of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito.

Tito was sufficiently powerful to keep it all together.

[narrator] By the 1950s,

the old fortress at Prevlaka was obsolete,

and Tito decided he needed to modernize

and expand the stronghold.

Yugoslavia's geographical position made it a potential

target for Cold War rivals on both sides of the globe.

Tito was always concerned that either

the West or the Soviet Union

would try to attack Yugoslavia

to control Yugoslavia.

And Tito had to prepare to defend

his Adriatic coast against all comers.

The Tito regime then fits these fortifications

out with a helipad, new bunkers, and new radar stations

to detect incoming threats.

[narrator] It was called the Prevlaka Military Base.

But as it turned out, the enemy that endangered

Yugoslavia's borders didn't come from east or west.

[Hadley] The threat instead came from within, and it would send

shockwaves across this entire region.

[narrator] In Croatia is the site

of a rundown military base.

In the 1990s, it would be drawn into a conflict

that tore this region apart.

[Dr. Nusbacher] Tito died in 1980.

At that point, there was nothing

holding Yugoslavia together anymore.

Slovenia, Croatia, they secede.

Yugoslavia starts to disintegrate

[narrator] But the powerful Serbian president,

Slobodan Milosevic, still controlled the Yugoslav

people's army and retained the support of Montenegro.

Together, they were not going to let

Croatia and Slovenia leave the union

without a fight.

And so instead of a peaceful departure,

there was going to be a war.

And of course, the Serbs and the Croats

and the Montenegrins battle over these forts

at the southern tip of Croatia.

If Croatia controls Prevlaka,

then Croatia is going to control the biggest

natural harbor in the former Yugoslavia.

[narrator] On September 23, 1991,

the Yugoslav People's Army advanced into southern Croatia.

Their aim was to crush the Croatian drive

for independence and to seize control of strategically

important sites, like the Prevlaka military base.

Historian Ivan Viden is an expert on this facility.

European countries quickly realized

they had to stop the war.

[Hadley] An intervention was needed,

and it would take place here, on the peninsula of Prevlaka.

[Dr. Nusbacher] Montenegro and Serbia say

that they should control Prevlaka Peninsula.

The Croats say, "No, it's part of Croatia".

And the answer was,

demilitarize the Prevlaka Peninsula.

[narrator] On October 20, 1992,

United Nations peacekeepers descended

on Prevlaka in an attempt to restore order

at this contested site.

In theory, Prevlaka is Croatian territory,

but there are no Croatian soldiers in the garrison.

Demilitarizing the Prevlaka Peninsula doesn't make

anybody happy, but it keeps the peninsula peaceful.

[narrator] The Croatian War of Independence

raged on until November 1995.

Across the region, tens of thousands lost their lives.

The Prevlaka Peninsula remained a source of dispute

throughout the conflict and beyond.

In 2002, Croatia and Montenegro finally agreed

on a temporary solution.

It stipulated that Croatia receive control of the entire

peninsula as well as some of the waters around it.

[narrator] Following the settlement,

the United Nations peacekeepers were finally able to leave.

Prevlaka has been abandoned ever since.

Today, the Prevlaka Peninsula

still belongs to Croatia,

but debate continues to rage over their right

to control this controversial area.

It's still grit in the years between Croatia,

Serbia, and Montenegro.

But because it's still demilitarized,

Prevlaka is no longer a potential battlefield.