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September, 1945.

Germany and Japan have
surrendered unconditionally.

The destruction and death of
the Second World War is over.

There is jubilation
around the world.

The United States and
the Soviet Union emerged

from the conflict as the globe's
two dominant superpowers.

They fought side by side when
they shared a common enemy.

But now that that enemy
has been defeated,

an American-Soviet rivalry
appears unavoidable.

All wars changed the world,

but none of them
changed the world like

the Second World War did.

Japan's on the march.
Germany's on the march.

No one can imagine the nightmare
they're about to unleash.

The most destructive
war in human history.

Suddenly the world
is turned upside down

and all hell is let loose.

The West is stunned by
the speed of the advance.

You get the Allies led

by the Big Three: Roosevelt,
Churchill, Stalin.

Men who are dealing

with immensely
complicated questions.

It's the biggest
military operation

of human history.

The Allies have
to come together,

not just militarily,
but industrial scale.

It's a global perspective.

They have to fight
in every climate

from the Arctic to the
jungles of the Pacific

to the deserts of Africa
and the depths of the ocean.

But there was no
certainty of victory.

It was going to be a
horrific bloodbath.

We see humans at
their absolute worst,

how they treat
other human beings.

And we see them at
their absolute best,

willing to give their lives
that others might live.

World War II was a struggle

in which there could be one
victor and one vanquished.

It's official.

It's all over.
It's total victory.

The day of days for
America and her allies.

Peace,
it's wonderful.

The war is over.

The entire world begins
to breathe and live again.

The Allies won
this war in the cause

of freedom and the
ideals of anti-fascism,

the ideals of democracy.

One of the great legacies
of the Second World War

is that a disputatious,
complicated,

often wrong

nation like
the United States

can in extremis marshal
significant force

to do the right thing.

It took us a long time.

As Churchill is
alleged to have said,

you can always count
on the Americans to do

the right thing once

we've exhausted every
other possibility.

We spent blood and
treasure to defeat fascism.

The United States had
fulfilled Roosevelt's ambitions

to be the arsenal of
democracy to orders

of magnitude no one
could have predicted.

In New York,

hundreds of thousands
lined the docks

to greet America's ships

and welcome home their
sons and daughters.

President Harry
Truman is honored

with a ticker tape parade

through the city's
Canyon of Heroes.

Speaking in Central Park,

the President
addresses the nation.

The world cannot afford to let

the cooperative
spirit of the Allies

in this war disintegrate.

The world simply cannot
allow this to happen.

In Red Square,

thousands celebrate and honor
Generalissimo Joseph Stalin.

He's dressed in a white
Marshal's summer uniform

with shoulder boards like
a Russian Romanov emperor.

Stalin emerges from
the Second World War

with astonishing, almost
religious prestige

in the Soviet Union.

Stalin and the
United States have made

an alliance that ultimately
brings Hitler and then Japan

to its knees.

The spirit of
cooperation is so high

that Dwight Eisenhower,
the Supreme Allied Command

in Europe, probably one

of the future staunchest
anti-communists

in American history, stands
right next to Stalin.

The bloodshed and horror

of the Second World War is
unprecedented in human history.

Nearly 70 million people are
killed, the majority civilians.

An estimated 27 million Soviets.

20 million Chinese.

10 million Germans and Japanese.

1 million British and Americans.

And 6 million Jews.

Europe is destroyed.

The Brits are bankrupt.

The Americans and the
Soviets, they're demobilizing.

What's really clear coming out

of World War II is
that the United States

has an incredibly important
role to play in the world.

She hasn't been physically
touched by the war other

than Pearl Harbor.

America is the superpower.

There's every
expectation

that some kind of peaceful
coexistence will emerge.

When the Americans talk
about the way they want

the international system to be,

they talk about
the United Nations.

The United Nations,
in many ways,

is Franklin Roosevelt's
dream come true.

During the war, it's
Roosevelt who says we must

have this international body.

It's a very hopeful group.

Lots of ideals, the UN Charter,

all of this comes
into being in 1945.

Here, leaders
of the United Nations,

representing all but a fraction

of the earth's population,

are laying the foundations
of international security

in the post-war world.

Out of the fires of war,

they wanted for there
to be an organization

where we don't have 1939 again.

The United Nations
combines two ideas.

The first is the
General Assembly,

where equal states can meet and
confer and make resolutions.

There is also the
wartime military alliance

between the Soviets,
the British, France,

and the United States,
as well as China.

And that's the Security
Council that will be

the cornerstone
to ensuring peace.

Because it's not
just winning the battle

of the day, it's trying
to prevent the next one.

One of the first
challenges is to determine

how Germany will fit
into the post-war world.

We can't today
perhaps understand just

how threatening and
powerful Germany seemed

to the Allied
leadership in 1945.

They had just fought
two world wars,

the greatest enemy of which
of theirs was Germany.

Ultimately, they realized the
control of Germany is going

to play a huge role

in determining the
future of Europe.

The American view is
just like the Soviet one

at the beginning in the
sense that we've got

to divide Germany.

We've got to make sure that
it can never rise up again.

That's the first urgent thing.

The Allies split Germany
into four occupation zones.

The British, Americans,

and French will govern
Western Germany.

The Soviets will
govern the East.

Berlin, deep within
the Soviet zone,

is divided between
all four nations.

The wartime Allies have
very different plans

for the new Germany.

What Stalin is doing is
taking as much of the wealth,

as much of the factories,

as much of the productive
capacity and stockpiles

from occupied Germany
back to the Soviet Union.

Stalin would say
he was only taking

what the Germans owed him
for the horrible suffering

during the war.

Conversely, the Western Allies
want Germany rehabilitated.

The Western idea is not
to devastate Germany

economically through
reparations,

but bring them into
global markets,

connect Germany to the world,

and through that you'll
get German people

who are incentivized
to do things

that are constructive
instead of destructive.

So it's gonna need
industrialists, middle managers,

local governance, that
many of these people would

have been members
of the Nazi party.

The crimes of
the Nazi Third Reich

are so horrific

that the wartime Allies
determine there must be

an attempt to achieve justice.

Nuremberg is highly
symbolic

as the spiritual
heart of Nazi Germany

and as the place where
hopefully the demons

of Nazism can be purged.

Everyone in court stands up

as the tribunal enters.

Four judges and alternate
members: French, American,

British, and Russian.

The defendants are to
plead guilty or not guilty

for charges against them.

Rudolf Hess.

Nein!

22 Nazi leaders
are put on trial.

The next defendant
called was Ribbentrop.

Sich nicht schuldig.

Robert Jackson,
chief prosecutor

of the Nuremberg tribunals,

announces that history
will judge the fairness

of the trial not
by the convictions

and the executions it obtains,
but by the acquittals.

But the Soviets
are expecting these

to be good old-fashioned
show trials.

Wilhelm Keitel.

Sich nicht schuldig.

Stalin had seen how
effective show trials could be

in his own consolidation
of power in the 1930s.

Nicht schuldig.

And was happy
to give the Germans a trial.

Hermann Wilhelm Göring.

Nicht schuldig.

And then hang them.

12 of the
defendants receive

the death sentence.

Hermann Göring avoids the
gallows by committing suicide.

Seven are given
lengthy prison terms.

Although the Soviets
object, three are acquitted.

From '45 onwards,

you just have this
constant growing tension

between the United States
and Britain on one hand

and the Soviet
Union on the other.

And Stalin has to play
quite a careful game.

He wants to keep what he has.

But he doesn't want
to directly antagonize

the United States.

Because the United States

is still much more
powerful economically.

It has complete air
and sea control.

And it has the atom bomb.

World War II
devastated the Soviet Union.

Joseph Stalin must rebuild his
country, ensure its security,

and consolidate his power.

But some of Stalin's
ambitions will conflict

with the post-war plans
of his Western allies.

Stalin saw the
wartime alliance as a way

to defeat Nazi Germany.

But never something that
would permanently reshape

the globe or that
would make capitalism

and communism friends.

Stalin is an ideologue.
That can never be forgotten.

He believes that communism and
capitalism are incompatible.

That they will actually at
some point wage a great fight

for the future and he
believes communism will win.

Stalin is in an
extraordinary position.

There's a moment when he
reviews what they've conquered

in World War II.

And he looks at the map of
Europe and Russia and he says,

we really haven't done badly,
and it's an understatement.

The Red Army is in
Berlin and most countries

to the east: Poland,

the Baltics, Hungary,
Romania, Bulgaria.

The Soviet wave broke
right around Berlin

and they just never receded.

Stalin has done
better than any

of the greatest czars in Russian
history, Peter the Great,

Catherine the Great.

He's created the biggest
Russian empire in history.

Stalin intends
to create a buffer

against the West, militarily
and ideologically.

He would say, we
have now had two world wars

where first Imperial Russia
and then the Soviet Union

have been invaded through
Eastern and Central Europe.

I am gonna make sure that
they are never a threat

to the Soviet Union again.

For Stalin, the
key thing for Eastern

and Central Europe is
that it must be loyal

to the Soviet Union.

That's non-negotiable
and the recipe for doing

that is communism.

He starts to
create

a new economic centralized
system in Central

and Eastern Europe.

Controlled governments, armies,
secret police, factories,

agricultural systems, with all

of the decisions effectively
for the economies

of those countries
being made in Moscow.

The Europe that the
United States wants

to build does not look
very much like the Europe

that the Soviets wanna build.

The United States
has an enormous advantage

over the Soviet Union,
the atomic bomb.

The Soviets construct
numerous sites across the USSR

in order to accomplish
task number one.

Task number one is to
create a nuclear weapon

at breakneck speed.

No resources are too much.

The nuclear
program is what the Soviet Union

was almost designed to do.

It's a big country with
lots of natural resources.

It can marshal and mobilize
for the nuclear project.

It's not completely unlike
the Manhattan Project,

which was also top-down,
secretive and resource-heavy.

And the Soviet Union
puts the full weight

of its coercive power
behind this project.

Stalin puts one

of his most ruthless
lieutenants in charge,

the chief of his secret police.

Lavrentiy Beria is a
man

of brutal ruthlessness
and sadism.

One of the great monsters
of the Soviet story.

He rapes women, he
tortures victims himself.

But he's also as efficient
as a Swiss clock,

and he uses everything.

He happily turns off power

in several cities just
to power a project.

He gives scientists villas,

dachas, cars, shooting
rifles, holidays.

But at the same time,

he threatens to kill them
and their whole families

if they ever deceive him.

And he drives on the project.

It's not gonna be
quick for Stalin.

There's no way that
he can flip a switch

and acquire nuclear weapons.

But the Soviet Union
simply can't sit

on its laurels in 1946.

It has to ready itself for
a new phase of conflict.

After the turmoil
of the Second World War,

the people of Great Britain
and the United States hope

to return to a normal,
prosperous life.

With peaceful coexistence
among nations,

including with the Soviet Union.

For the past five
years,

Stalin had been your friend.
He had been Uncle Joe.

But once again,

a familiar voice
sounds a warning.

Winston Churchill's
in a pretty bad mood.

He was thrown out by
the British public

in a dramatic election
defeat in 1945.

His wife said it might be
a blessing in disguise.

He said, well, I think it's
a pretty good disguise.

He feels he won the Second
World War. He saved Britain.

And here he is on
the speaking circuit.

Winston Churchill
receives an invitation

to give a speech
at a small college

in President
Truman's home state.

This is an opportunity
for Churchill

to say some things that
he's got in his mind.

It's also an opportunity
to spend some time

with the President of the
United States of America.

And then he's gonna
stand on that stage

and he's gonna tell the American
people some home truths.

From Stettin in the Baltic
to Trieste in the Adriatic,

an iron curtain has descended
across the continent.

The famous Iron
Curtain speech,

where he very clearly lays out
what is happening in Europe.

One side free, the
other side not.

Behind that line,

all are subject to a very high

and in some cases increasing
measure of control from Moscow.

Churchill sees Soviet
communism and Stalinism

as a greater threat really,

as Nazism was a
generation before.

This is certainly not the
liberated Europe we fought

to build up.

It's dynamite.

Because what Churchill
is doing is reframing

the wartime alliance.

He's casting the
Soviet empire

as a malign force in the world.

Truman, by the way,

is absolutely on board
with this speech.

But to Stalin, this is
just proof that Churchill

is a warmonger.

The alliance that
defeated Nazi fascism

is beginning to fray.

In late 1946, the French
vote to elect a new government.

The Communist Party does well,

winning a plurality of seats
in the French legislature.

With the politics
of Europe in a state

of extraordinary upheaval
because of the catastrophe

of the war, you do have
a high degree of concern

in Washington about countries
in Western Europe turning

in a communist direction.

There's a lot of
unrest.

There are strikes starting
to take place in France.

There's a huge pro-communist
movement in Italy.

And Stalin thinks,
maybe he'll win some

of these countries without
even having to send an army in.

To the south,

Stalin attempts
to pressure Turkey

into giving him control
of the Turkish straits,

which would allow access
to the Mediterranean

and the Middle East.

And in Greece,
communist guerrillas

and government forces are
fighting an ongoing civil war.

These are countries

that have never been
viewed as essential

to American security.

The United States does not
have a history of backing

the governments of
Turkey or Greece.

The British have
been funding the Greek army

and sending weapons to Turkey.

But early in 1947
in the White House,

this document arrives,
and it's a shocker.

It's from the British
government, and it says,

For a long time, we've
been supporting Greece

and Turkey, but we are broke.

This is a really
important moment,

the winding down of
the British Empire.

But early 1947, they
do not wish to be

this sort of great force
in the Eastern Mediterranean,

which they had been
for a long time.

[A.J.} It becomes clear to
Truman

and the American State
Department that this issue

in Greece and Turkey
is actually a threat

to national security.

They believe that if Greece

and Turkey become Stalinized,
these are dominoes,

and the rest of Western
Europe could possibly fall.

And the British
say to the Americans,

if you wanna make sure these
places remain pro-Western,

you as the United
States are gonna

have to use military force.

Now that is a real put up or
shut up moment for Truman.

Truman is a very
practical,

plain-spoken, linear thinker.

He doesn't come into
office with some big vision

of what the world should be.

He sort of picks up the
mantle of FDR and tries

to build a post-war
order according

to what he thought
FDR would have done.

But really from the
moment of meeting Stalin

at Potsdam onward, he's starting
to formulate his own views.

And now Truman
recognizes

that this is a turning point.

In this new post-war world,

what's happening on another side

of the globe can be critical
to America's national security.

After deliberating
with his diplomatic

and military advisors,
President Truman addresses

a joint session of Congress.

I believe
that it must be the policy

of the United States
to support free peoples

who are resisting
attempted subjugation

by armed minorities or
by outside pressure.

We must assist free
peoples to work out

their own destinies
in their own way.

The United States

is shifting away
from isolationism.

The Truman Doctrine
is now U.S. policy.

The Truman
Doctrine is the culmination,

going all the way back
to Woodrow Wilson,

of setting out these
American ideals,

setting out these
American principles,

but this time backing them

with more power, more force,

because Truman's vision is
that the U.S. will support

any country that is resisting
communist aggression.

Any country.

It is difficult to
overstate

what a dramatic departure
the Truman Doctrine

is for the United States.

In 1941, the United States

had to be dragged into war.

But what Truman
is saying is now,

we're ready to take

the fight wherever
democracy requires us.

We must take
immediate and resolute action.

Truman asks Congress,

and he receives $400 million

of military aid for
Greece and Turkey.

This is only the beginning.

This is a radical
shift,

not only in the way
that America had thought

about its place in the world,

but a radical shift in where
Harry Truman's own line was.

It's actually putting
American power behind

a global ideological contest
with the Soviet Union.

As the American-Soviet
alliance fades,

a contest between
superpowers emerges.

Europe is in the grip

of one of the coldest
winters in memory.

People have little to eat
and struggle to stay warm.

They begin to despair at the
slow pace of post-war recovery.

Western governments
have not been able

to rebuild their economies.

Agriculture has been destroyed.

Transportation has
been destroyed.

Manufacturing has
been destroyed.

And there's an enormous
refugee crisis that is ongoing.

During the war,

there was the deliberate
forced movement of populations.

So there are millions
and millions of refugees

on the roads, in camps,

in towns and cities and
villages that are not their own.

Truman and his
advisors fear that Europe

is on the verge of collapse.

General George Marshall,
one of the chief architects

of American victory in
World War II, believes,

the whole world
hangs in the balance.

What Truman and
George Marshall,

his Secretary of State realize,

is you need to
rebuild the European economy.

It has to be not just the
militarized Truman Doctrine,

but there needs to be
a way of getting money

to support Western European
or capitalist states.

The Marshall Plan

is a $13.3 billion
essentially handout

to foreign governments

to help these countries
rebuild themselves,

westernize, and
stabilize politically.

And it would be
keeping people alive

in places where starvation
was an actual real thing.

So it's done for
altruistic reasons,

but also geopolitical ones.

President Truman and
George Marshall

believe that the best guarantee
against communism are

well-fed bellies, good schools,

orderly societies,
the kind of things

that can only happen in
a prosperous economy.

Stalin recognizes
how Marshall's plan

threatens his objectives.

To him, it's
another trick.

It's another American
way to try to undermine

the Soviet Union and pull
Europe into the American orbit.

It's presented as
Stalin's typical paranoia.

Actually, he's got every
reason to distrust the West.

He was right.

Today, our aid to the
free nations of Europe

is helping them to
resist dictatorship.

Stalin understands
that Western goods

with Western money would
lead to Western values

of liberal democracy,
of open society,

and also would spread the
attractions of capitalism.

And it would undermine
Stalin's own rule.

So for him,

the Marshall Plan has
to be stomped out.

Stalin directs the
countries under his command

to reject the American offer.

Very clearly, Stalin
has drawn a line

and said, this is my
turf, this is your turf,

and that's that.

Stalin expects to
maintain complete control

of the East European countries
liberated from Germany

by the Red Army.

But one nation will test him.

Czechoslovakia is deeply connected

to the Western European economy.

The Czechs have
advanced industry.

They could become wealthy
with access to Western capital

in the form of
the Marshall Plan.

The democratically
elected government

in Prague is led by
President Edvard Benes.

Several of its
ministers are members

of the Czech Communist Party.

Stalin pressures Benes
to reject American aid

and compels the Czech
communists to seize control.

Over the next few months,

local communists stir up
unrest throughout the country.

The citizens of
Czechoslovakia

haven't quite gotten the memo

that they're really the
subordinates of Soviet power.

In 1948, there
is a communist-led coup

in Prague that topples
the Benes government

and places another East
European country firmly

in Moscow's orbit.

Now Stalin decides
to take fewer risks

in Eastern Europe,
no risks at all.

He doesn't believe

that ultimately communism
will flower politically

and economically and that
working peoples around

the world will just embrace
it because it is the true

and scientific approach
to human civilization.

He believes in power.

Across Eastern Europe,

he crushes any hint of
liberalism, free speech.

He doubles down on
his Soviet system.

He arrests tens of
thousands of people.

More people are sent to
the Gulags after the war

than before the war in the
1930s during the Great Terror.

Marshall aid is
an essential component

in the American post-war
recovery plan for Europe.

But its success widens

the increasing divide
economically and politically

between East and West.

We are now in a bipolar world.

It's a world of
rivalry

like the world had never seen.

The Soviet Union has
proved again and again

that it cannot be trusted.

And it's a race.

It's a competition
for preeminence

and it's ultimately going to
be a competition for security.

And Berlin,
the former capital

of the Third Reich, is at
the center of the conflict.

In the summer of 1948,

billions of Marshall aid
dollars flow into the countries

of Western Europe.

Europe is slowly

but surely edging back
towards economic health.

Careful planning for the use

of the $324 million allotted

has helped Western Germany
temporarily to its feet.

Great Britain and
the United States merge

their German occupation zones.

The French will soon join them.

A common currency is
introduced, the Deutschmark.

Stalin understands that
the Western powers intend

to establish a strong and
independent West Germany.

Since the end of the war,
Great Britain, France,

the United States and the Soviet
Union have occupied Berlin.

It lies deep within Soviet
dominated Eastern Germany.

Now imagine for
someone as paranoid as Stalin

having these Western militaries
going back

and forth between Berlin and
the Western occupation zones.

This is a source of instability,
disruption, it's dangerous.

Stalin wants
to sever direct contact

between Berlin and the
Western half of Germany.

He doesn't wanna
invade West Berlin

because that's an act of war,

but what he believes he can
do is he can blockade Berlin.

At this time, Berlin is
still a pile of rubble.

It has very little
tactical significance

for the United
States government.

So it really made no
sense

to keep West Berlin,

and Stalin believed

that in the end the West
would blink and withdraw.

On June 24th,
the Soviets cut all road,

rail and water routes
linking West Berlin

to Western Germany.

Suddenly the trains stopped.

Traffic between Berlin and
the Western zones was banned.

The famous
autobahns were deserted,

and even canal traffic
was at a standstill.

The blockade
even cut electric power

and put out 75% of the lights.

Truman is a pragmatic
person.

This could be a
moment where he says,

it's not worth saving this city

because I don't know
what Stalin's gonna do.

I don't know how dangerous
this is gonna be.

Instead, he says, we're
not going anywhere.

The U.S. and Britain
realize

that this is Stalin
testing the wire.

It'll be Berlin first,
then it'll be elsewhere.

And the Allies choose
to make it a red line.

Keep in mind, it's
1948.

For Truman, it's
an election year.

It's the first
post-war election.

It's the first election
in the nuclear age.

The first election in
the television age.

He's aware that all
eyes are on him.

The British and
Americans ask,

what can we do short of war?

And the answer is, they
can keep Berlin supplied.

Not by road, not by rail,
not by canal, but by air.

The British and
the Americans construct

an air bridge into West Berlin.

The plan is to
deliver it on airplanes

everything that a
modern city needs to survive.

Got food, got
coal, you got fuel,

you've got medical supplies.

It's a superb example
of an operation

that's pulled
together very quickly.

Huge numbers of aircraft,
planes flying around the clock.

These British and
American officers,

the same officers that
have organized the triumphs

of logistics that you see
during the Second World War.

A continuous
stream of cargo planes land

in West Berlin
every few minutes.

But to reach the city,

they must fly over
hundreds of miles

of Soviet-controlled territory.

They're choosing
to defy Stalin.

And if you fill the airspace
with military aircraft,

even though they're unarmed,

you have to assume that
Stalin might strike back.

So you have all
this military capacity.

You have the paranoia and fear
in Washington and in Moscow.

You have this hall
of mirrors quality.

The two countries are involved

in a kind of escalatory spiral.

Truman now
deploys dozens of B-29s

to air bases in England,

the same plane that
dropped the atomic bombs

on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Nuclear weapons go
from being a secret weapon

to a public strategic weapon.

The pressure on Truman
at this point is incalculable.

He knows that this move
could be provocative enough

to start World War III.

But the Americans are
hoping

that this strong show of
resolve will encourage Stalin

to back off.

They are gambling that Stalin
does not want World War III.

After nearly a year

of daily international tension,
Stalin halts the blockade.

Here's a glimpse
of Berlin itself

as the first trains and
vehicles got going at night.

All routes

that connect Berlin to
the West are reopened.

Restrictions within Berlin
between the Soviet zone

and American, British, and
French zones are lifted as well.

Stalin set up a
challenge for the West.

He was probing the West.

He needed to know
how far he could go.

But in fact, Truman
rose to the challenge.

And in the end, it was
Stalin who blinked.

As relations
between the United States

and the Soviet Union
continue to deteriorate,

Western governments plan

to provide collective security

against possible
Soviet aggression.

When the United
States and the Soviet Union

look like they can be on the
verge of war,

it became obvious

that the United States couldn't
continue to ad hoc this,

to lurch from crisis
to crisis to crisis.

The post-war path
that FDR anticipated

was one in which the
United Nations

would help adjudicate
disputes and rule the peace.

What he was not able
to fully anticipate

was that a struggle against his
former ally, the Soviet Union,

would become the defining
force of the era.

Representatives from Europe, Canada,

and the United States meet
in Washington to discuss

the formation of a
new military alliance,

the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, NATO.

The idea is to
create

what military strategists
call deterrence.

It's an alliance that
is created to make sure

that the Russians know that
if they attack one state

in the alliance, they could
theoretically face a war

against all of the
states in that alliance.

NATO is created to
keep the Americans in,

the Russians out,
and the Germans down.

What Harry Truman does

with the Marshall Plan,
with the Truman Doctrine,

with NATO, is establish an
infrastructure of deterrence

to try to contain the
communistic influence.

If there is
anything inevitable

in the future, it is the will
of the people of the world

for freedom and for peace.

But the world is
about to cross a threshold

from which there is no return.

In an appropriately
desolate landscape,

the Soviet Union prepares to
test its first atomic bomb.

Lavrentiy Beria,
Stalin's kind of mega manager,

arrives to supervise
in a little hut

in the middle of nowhere.

He's incredibly nervous.

If it doesn't work, his
downfall is quite likely.

He watches from a safe distance.

The test is a success.

Stalin's overjoyed
and relieved.

Now he's got an equal
footing with the West,

and they cannot push
him around any more.

After this period
when Stalin's struggling

to catch up with America,

he's back in the game.

Truman's a poker
player,

and for these years
after the war,

he always had an
ace in the hole.

He had the bomb, the Soviets
didn't. That surety was gone.

There was no turning back.

You've got two
superpowers,

two nuclear powers that are
facing each other across

the world, and all
of a sudden the world

is much less stable.

An 18th or 19th
century scholar would say, oh,

you're gonna have a war
between those two powers.

It's inevitable, right?

Because they're the
two great superpowers.

But the atomic
weapons change things.

If the Soviets and the
United States can't compete

in the military sense directly

because it's too
dangerous,

well, then you compete
indirectly.

After 1949,

there'll be one war after the
other:

big wars, small
wars, guerrilla wars,

proxy wars between
the two superpowers.

But what hasn't
happened is the big one.

There has not been
a World War III,

a general war
involving the globe

that involves nuclear weapons.

World War II began in
a universe that would

have been recognizable
50 years before.

It ends in a world that
wouldn't have been recognizable

to anyone because of the
splitting of the atom.

The moral and philosophical
underpinnings that enabled

the Allies to triumph
in World War II,

an appreciation
for the individual,

support for the
dignity of all peoples,

a bias for democracy,

have for almost a century
now enabled us to live

and thrive in a world where
Armageddon is always at hand.

But it hasn't come,

not least because we've
done the right thing.

The Second World
War alters everything.

National, political, even
moral boundaries are redrawn.

What was inconceivable
before the war is now part

of the fabric of life.

The conflict that
follows, the Cold War,

poses even graver consequence,

because now for the first
time in human history

the world could
literally destroy itself.

One war replaced by another
and the world remains on edge.

As President Dwight D.
Eisenhower observed,

the only way to win the next
world war is to prevent it.