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Hello, I'm Oliver Stone.
2
00:00:04,338 --> 00:00:07,581
When I was a young boy
growing up in New York City...
3
00:00:07,758 --> 00:00:10,125
...I thought I received a good education.
4
00:00:10,302 --> 00:00:14,421
I studied history extensively,
especially American history.
5
00:00:14,598 --> 00:00:16,760
It made sense.
We were the center of the world.
6
00:00:17,059 --> 00:00:22,054
There was a manifest destiny.
We were the good guys.
7
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Well, I've traveled the world now.
8
00:00:25,108 --> 00:00:28,817
I continued my education
as an infantryman in Vietnam.
9
00:00:29,112 --> 00:00:32,070
I made a lot of movies,
some of them about history.
10
00:00:32,241 --> 00:00:35,450
And I've learned a lot more
than I once knew.
11
00:00:35,619 --> 00:00:39,328
And when I heard from my children
what they were learning in school...
12
00:00:39,498 --> 00:00:42,957
...I was perturbed to hear
that they were not really getting...
13
00:00:43,126 --> 00:00:45,618
...a more honest view of the world
than I did.
14
00:00:45,796 --> 00:00:50,131
We live much of our lives in a fog,
all of us.
15
00:00:50,300 --> 00:00:53,588
And I would like my children
to have access to something...
16
00:00:53,762 --> 00:00:58,472
...that looks beyond what I would call
the tyranny of now.
17
00:00:58,642 --> 00:01:03,011
You watch the media, and everyone talks
about that thing, the news of the day.
18
00:01:03,188 --> 00:01:08,354
All the subconscious, really important
stuff that's going on is being neglected.
19
00:01:08,527 --> 00:01:13,363
Napoleon once said that history
is a pack of lies agreed upon.
20
00:01:13,532 --> 00:01:17,321
Well, I'm not sure I agree.
I believe history does have a meaning...
21
00:01:17,494 --> 00:01:20,737
...does have a purpose,
and there is a pattern to be found.
22
00:01:22,082 --> 00:01:25,325
And I wanted, with my colleagues,
rather than make another feature film...
23
00:01:25,502 --> 00:01:30,247
...to tell the American story in a way
that it has never been told before.
24
00:01:30,424 --> 00:01:33,291
There are many questions
that you may not find answered here...
25
00:01:33,468 --> 00:01:36,506
...but you will find questions raised
that, I hope...
26
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...will help make you more conscious.
27
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We are going to propose,
among other things...
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...a forgotten set of heroes.
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People who suffered for their beliefs
and who have been lost to history...
30
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...because they did not conform.
31
00:01:52,487 --> 00:01:55,525
We are going to debunk
some of those heroes that you believe in...
32
00:01:55,699 --> 00:01:59,488
...not with malice,
but by restating the facts.
33
00:01:59,661 --> 00:02:02,699
Unless we remind ourselves
of the good that we have lost...
34
00:02:02,998 --> 00:02:05,456
...it's not easy to imagine
a better future.
35
00:02:06,752 --> 00:02:09,335
By showing you the patterns of behavior
which have come to be...
36
00:02:09,504 --> 00:02:13,168
...that you perhaps
have not noticed before...
37
00:02:13,342 --> 00:02:16,710
...we will try to bring you back
to the meaning of this country...
38
00:02:17,054 --> 00:02:21,048
...and what so radically changed
after World War II.
39
00:02:21,224 --> 00:02:25,559
There have been
some profound mistakes.
40
00:02:25,812 --> 00:02:29,601
But we still have a chance,
I strongly believe, to correct them.
41
00:03:08,855 --> 00:03:12,769
STONE: The Sangre De Cristo
or Blood of Christ mountain range...
42
00:03:13,068 --> 00:03:17,813
...is one of the United States'
most remote and primitive landscapes.
43
00:03:18,448 --> 00:03:21,782
In an isolated ranch house,
the world's top scientists...
44
00:03:22,119 --> 00:03:26,613
...many of them European,
gather nervously in the chill morning air.
45
00:03:26,790 --> 00:03:30,579
Nearby in the darkness,
something hangs atop a steel tower.
46
00:03:30,752 --> 00:03:32,834
A bomb.
47
00:03:33,004 --> 00:03:37,123
Today, they will test it.
The test is code-named Trinity.
48
00:03:37,300 --> 00:03:42,716
The inspiration, John Donne.
Robert Oppenheimer's favorite poet.
49
00:03:42,889 --> 00:03:45,130
One of the premier scientists of his age...
50
00:03:45,308 --> 00:03:48,721
Oppenheimer loved literature
and the desert of the southwest.
51
00:03:48,895 --> 00:03:53,810
He was a peaceful man who just happened
to have created and coordinated...
52
00:03:53,984 --> 00:03:57,818
...the most destructive weapon
in all history.
53
00:03:57,988 --> 00:04:01,822
Only a few miles away,
the project's military commander...
54
00:04:01,992 --> 00:04:05,485
...Brigadier General Leslie Groves,
is the man responsible for building...
55
00:04:05,662 --> 00:04:09,451
...the war department's gigantic new
headquarters in Virginia...
56
00:04:09,624 --> 00:04:10,910
...known as The Pentagon.
57
00:04:11,084 --> 00:04:14,998
He doesn't like relying
on unreliable civilian scientists.
58
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His career is on the line.
59
00:04:17,549 --> 00:04:20,086
Here it is, General Groves.
Plutonium.
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00:04:20,385 --> 00:04:22,626
I have to say
that's the first time I've seen it...
61
00:04:22,804 --> 00:04:24,991
...but if you don't mind,
I wish you'd hold that under it...
62
00:04:25,015 --> 00:04:30,931
...because, after all, there's
about $50 million in that test tube.
63
00:04:32,022 --> 00:04:35,014
The automatic control has got it now.
64
00:04:35,192 --> 00:04:38,480
Rob, this time,
the stakes are really high.
65
00:04:38,653 --> 00:04:42,988
It's going to work all right, Robert,
and I'm sure we'll never be sorry for it.
66
00:04:43,366 --> 00:04:44,948
Well, in 40 seconds, we'll know.
67
00:04:45,118 --> 00:04:50,704
STONE: In the last few minutes, general
silence is observed as the countdown begins.
68
00:04:50,874 --> 00:04:55,710
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six...
69
00:04:55,879 --> 00:05:00,715
...five, four, three, two, one.
70
00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:08,260
At 5:29 and 45 seconds,
the bomb detonates.
71
00:05:16,608 --> 00:05:19,066
The light is brighter than the sun.
72
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Observing the explosion,
Oppenheimer recalls a line...
73
00:05:22,739 --> 00:05:25,731
...from the Hindu scripture
the Bhagavad Gita.
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OPPENHEIMER: "Now I am become Death,
the destroyer of worlds."
75
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STONE: This terrifying weapon would
launch the United States on a journey...
76
00:05:35,335 --> 00:05:39,954
...turning the refuge of the founding
fathers into a militarized state.
77
00:05:53,270 --> 00:05:55,682
Generations of Americans
have been taught...
78
00:05:55,856 --> 00:06:00,601
...that the United States reluctantly dropped
atomic bombs at the end of World War II...
79
00:06:00,777 --> 00:06:06,773
...to save the lives of hundreds of thousands
of men poised to die in an invasion of Japan.
80
00:06:06,950 --> 00:06:12,787
But the story is really more complicated,
more interesting, and much more disturbing.
81
00:06:13,039 --> 00:06:17,499
Many Americans view World War II
nostalgically as the good war...
82
00:06:17,669 --> 00:06:21,628
...in which the United States and its
allies triumphed over German Nazism...
83
00:06:21,798 --> 00:06:24,961
...Italian fascism,
and Japanese militarism.
84
00:06:25,260 --> 00:06:32,053
Others, not so blessed, remember World War
II as the bloodiest war in human history.
85
00:06:32,350 --> 00:06:36,184
By the time it was over,
60 to 65 million people lay dead...
86
00:06:36,479 --> 00:06:39,972
...including
an estimated 27 million Soviets...
87
00:06:40,150 --> 00:06:43,484
...between 10 and 20 million Chinese...
88
00:06:43,653 --> 00:06:47,317
...6 million Jews,
over 6 million Germans...
89
00:06:47,616 --> 00:06:50,199
...3 million non-Jewish Poles...
90
00:06:50,493 --> 00:06:56,614
...two and a half million Japanese,
and one and a half million Yugoslavs.
91
00:06:56,791 --> 00:07:01,831
Austria, Britain, France, Italy,
Hungary, Romania, and the United States...
92
00:07:02,005 --> 00:07:06,249
...each counted between a quarter million
and a half million dead.
93
00:07:10,472 --> 00:07:15,683
Unlike World War I, World War II
began slowly and incrementally.
94
00:07:15,852 --> 00:07:20,847
The opening shots were fired in 1931
when Japan, rapidly industrializing...
95
00:07:21,024 --> 00:07:24,642
...launched its Kwantung Army
into Manchuria...
96
00:07:24,819 --> 00:07:27,857
...overwhelming Chinese forces.
97
00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:45,038
In Europe, Germany,
under Nazi leader Adolf Hitler...
98
00:07:45,340 --> 00:07:50,005
...seeking to avenge its own
devastating defeat in World War I...
99
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...was building up
the German war machine.
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[IN GERMAN]
101
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[CROWD SHOUTING IN GERMAN]
102
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STONE: His ally,
Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini...
103
00:08:06,569 --> 00:08:09,812
...invaded Ethiopia in October 1935.
104
00:08:13,284 --> 00:08:17,619
But the United States, Britain,
and France did little to protest.
105
00:08:18,915 --> 00:08:23,660
And as a result, Hitler concluded that
the Allies had no real stomach for war.
106
00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:26,207
In March 1936...
107
00:08:26,506 --> 00:08:31,046
...German troops
occupied the demilitarized Rhine/and.
108
00:08:31,344 --> 00:08:34,257
It was Hitler's biggest gamble to date,
and it worked.
109
00:08:34,556 --> 00:08:38,925
"The 48 hours after the march were the
most nerve-wracking in my life," he said.
110
00:08:39,185 --> 00:08:43,099
"The military resources at our disposal
would have been wholly inadequate...
111
00:08:43,273 --> 00:08:45,014
...for even a moderate resistance.
112
00:08:45,316 --> 00:08:47,603
If the French had marched
into the Rhine/and...
113
00:08:47,777 --> 00:08:50,940
...we would have had to withdraw
with our tails between our legs."
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00:08:51,114 --> 00:08:53,822
HITLER [IN GERMAN]:
115
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STONE: The feeble international response
to the Spanish Civil War...
116
00:09:06,838 --> 00:09:08,670
...was even more disheartening.
117
00:09:08,965 --> 00:09:14,176
Fighting erupted in July 1936,
when General Francisco Franco's forces...
118
00:09:14,471 --> 00:09:19,841
...set out to topple the elected Spanish
republic and establish a fascist regime.
119
00:09:20,143 --> 00:09:23,727
The republic had made enemies among
U.S. officials and corporate leaders...
120
00:09:23,897 --> 00:09:29,063
...with its progressive policies
and tight regulation of business.
121
00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:31,943
Many American Catholics
rallied to Franco's support...
122
00:09:32,238 --> 00:09:37,233
...as did Hitler and Mussolini, who sent
abundant aid and thousands of troops.
123
00:09:37,535 --> 00:09:39,697
Hitler supplied
his feared Condor Legion...
124
00:09:39,954 --> 00:09:46,200
...whose bombing of Guernica was depicted
by Pablo Picasso in his famous mural.
125
00:09:47,879 --> 00:09:53,716
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin sent
arms and advisors to assist the loyalists.
126
00:09:53,885 --> 00:09:58,971
But neither France, England,
or the United States did anything to help.
127
00:09:59,224 --> 00:10:02,512
The U.S. under President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt...
128
00:10:02,685 --> 00:10:05,518
...banned the shipment of weapons
to either side...
129
00:10:05,688 --> 00:10:08,726
...which weakened
the outgunned government forces.
130
00:10:08,900 --> 00:10:13,610
But Ford, General Motors, Firestone,
and other U.S. businesses...
131
00:10:13,780 --> 00:10:18,240
...provided the fascists with trucks,
tires, and machine tools.
132
00:10:18,535 --> 00:10:21,698
Texaco Oil Company,
headed by a pro-fascist...
133
00:10:21,871 --> 00:10:25,114
...promised Franco
all the oil he needed on credit.
134
00:10:25,291 --> 00:10:30,752
Roosevelt was furious and threatened an
oil embargo and slapped Texaco with a fine.
135
00:10:30,922 --> 00:10:35,667
But Texaco persisted undeterred
and also supplied oil to Hitler.
136
00:10:37,303 --> 00:10:41,012
The fighting dragged on for three years.
Some 2800 brave Americans...
137
00:10:41,224 --> 00:10:44,012
...snuck into Spain
to battle the fascists...
138
00:10:44,185 --> 00:10:48,930
...most joining the communist-backed
Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
139
00:10:49,107 --> 00:10:51,314
Almost 1000 did not return.
140
00:10:51,609 --> 00:10:56,228
Tell us, Ingles, why have you come so far
to fight for our republic?
141
00:10:59,742 --> 00:11:01,779
A man fights for what he believes in,
Fernando.
142
00:11:02,078 --> 00:11:04,945
Well, but in his own country.
143
00:11:05,248 --> 00:11:10,493
Well, maybe you feel that I'm sticking
my nose into other peoples' business...
144
00:11:10,670 --> 00:11:15,915
...but I don't feel that way.
It's not only Spain fighting here, is it?
145
00:11:16,092 --> 00:11:19,585
It's Germany and Italy on one side
and Russia on the other.
146
00:11:19,762 --> 00:11:23,130
And the Spanish people
right in the middle of it all.
147
00:11:23,308 --> 00:11:28,144
The Nazis and fascists are as much against
democracy as they are against the communists.
148
00:11:28,438 --> 00:11:31,647
They're using your country as a proving
ground for their new war machine...
149
00:11:31,858 --> 00:11:35,226
...their tanks and dive bombers
and stuff like that...
150
00:11:35,528 --> 00:11:38,987
...so they can get the jump on the democracies
and knock off England and France...
151
00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:41,857
...and my country
before we get armed and ready to fight.
152
00:11:42,076 --> 00:11:47,947
STONE: But Franco triumphed and
the republic fell in the spring of 1939...
153
00:11:48,124 --> 00:11:54,791
...burying not only over 100,000 republican
soldiers and 5000 foreign volunteers...
154
00:11:54,964 --> 00:11:58,628
...but the hopes and dreams
of many progressives.
155
00:11:58,801 --> 00:12:05,173
By 1939, Roosevelt told his cabinet that his
policies in Spain had been a grave mistake...
156
00:12:05,475 --> 00:12:08,467
...and warned
that they all soon would pay the price.
157
00:12:08,645 --> 00:12:13,856
But that policy convinced Stalin that
the western powers had no real interest...
158
00:12:14,108 --> 00:12:18,318
...in a collective action
to slow the Nazi advance.
159
00:12:18,613 --> 00:12:21,947
For years, the Soviet dictator
had implored the west...
160
00:12:22,158 --> 00:12:27,824
...to unite against Hitler and Mussolini,
even joining The League of Nations in 1934.
161
00:12:27,997 --> 00:12:31,865
But Soviet pleas
were repeatedly ignored.
162
00:12:32,043 --> 00:12:36,128
And then, in 1937,
full-scale war erupted in China...
163
00:12:36,297 --> 00:12:40,791
...as the powerful Japanese army
captured city after city.
164
00:12:43,096 --> 00:12:46,589
With Jiang Jieshi's nationalist forces
fleeing in retreat...
165
00:12:46,766 --> 00:12:52,603
...Japanese soldiers brutalized
the citizens of Nanjing in December 1937...
166
00:12:52,772 --> 00:12:58,768
...killing 200,000 to 300, 000 civilians
and raping tens of thousands of women.
167
00:13:06,536 --> 00:13:11,872
Japan soon controlled the east coast of
China with its population of 200 million.
168
00:13:15,670 --> 00:13:20,460
The international situation
deteriorated further in 1938...
169
00:13:20,633 --> 00:13:23,295
...with German annexation of Austria...
170
00:13:23,594 --> 00:13:26,962
...and the Allies' capitulation
to Hitler at Munich...
171
00:13:27,223 --> 00:13:31,683
...dismembering Czechoslovakia
and giving Germany the Czech Sudetenland.
172
00:13:36,232 --> 00:13:38,690
British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain...
173
00:13:38,860 --> 00:13:43,900
...infamously proclaimed that the
settlement had brought peace in our time.
174
00:13:44,115 --> 00:13:46,903
Nor did the U.S. and its allies
officially do much...
175
00:13:47,076 --> 00:13:49,738
...to help Germany's desperate
Jewish community...
176
00:13:49,912 --> 00:13:55,533
...when, in late 1938, an orgy of violence
was let loose on Krista/inacht.
177
00:13:55,710 --> 00:14:00,045
Rape and murder
of the ancient Jewish population escalated.
178
00:14:01,716 --> 00:14:04,083
As in Europe,
the U.S.A. did little to help...
179
00:14:04,427 --> 00:14:07,465
...only admitting
approximately 200,000 Jews...
180
00:14:07,680 --> 00:14:11,639
...between 1933 and 1945.
181
00:14:13,686 --> 00:14:16,678
Emboldened,
Hitler struck again in March '39...
182
00:14:16,856 --> 00:14:20,724
...breaking his promise
and invading the rest of Czechoslovakia.
183
00:14:20,902 --> 00:14:27,239
Stalin recognized the truth. His country
was facing its most deadly enemy alone.
184
00:14:27,533 --> 00:14:33,119
He needed to buy time. And fearing a
German-Polish alliance to attack the USSR...
185
00:14:33,414 --> 00:14:37,248
...he shocked the west when he signed
a non-aggression pact with Hitler...
186
00:14:37,543 --> 00:14:39,875
...dividing Eastern Europe between them.
187
00:14:40,046 --> 00:14:41,966
ANNOUNCER:
Here were the admitted arch-enemies...
188
00:14:42,131 --> 00:14:44,088
...in a state of apparent friendship.
189
00:14:44,342 --> 00:14:47,755
STONE: Stalin's primary concern
was the security of his own nation.
190
00:14:47,929 --> 00:14:52,218
In fact, the Soviet dictator had proposed
the same alliance with Britain and France...
191
00:14:52,517 --> 00:14:54,758
...but neither would
accept Stalin's demand...
192
00:14:54,936 --> 00:15:00,648
...to place Soviet troops on Polish soil
as a way of blocking the Germans.
193
00:15:01,818 --> 00:15:04,105
Less than two weeks
after the pact was signed...
194
00:15:04,445 --> 00:15:07,858
...Hitler invaded Poland from the west.
195
00:15:14,497 --> 00:15:19,492
Britain and France, allied with Poland,
finally stood up to Hitler and declared war.
196
00:15:23,881 --> 00:15:29,718
Two weeks later, on September 17th,
Stalin also invaded Poland.
197
00:15:33,182 --> 00:15:36,641
The Soviets soon thereafter
asserted control over the Baltic states...
198
00:15:36,811 --> 00:15:41,521
...of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,
and invaded Finland.
199
00:15:41,691 --> 00:15:44,854
The world was at war once again.
200
00:15:45,111 --> 00:15:47,193
ANNOUNCER:
World War II has begun.
201
00:15:48,239 --> 00:15:51,027
STONE: In rapid succession,
the invincible German army...
202
00:15:51,325 --> 00:15:55,239
...conquered Denmark, Norway,
Holland, and Belgium.
203
00:16:00,334 --> 00:16:06,546
The French army of World War I, its younger
generation decimated in that slaughter...
204
00:16:06,716 --> 00:16:10,835
...collapsed after only six weeks
of fighting in June 1940.
205
00:16:12,096 --> 00:16:18,638
The bulk of its ruling class, conservative
and anti-Semitic, decided on collaboration.
206
00:16:18,811 --> 00:16:21,519
Hitler now turned his attention
to England...
207
00:16:21,689 --> 00:16:27,935
...and launched a punishing air assault
as precursor to a cross-channel invasion.
208
00:16:28,946 --> 00:16:34,066
But a new war leader, Winston Churchill,
rallied the nation behind him.
209
00:16:34,243 --> 00:16:39,079
CHURCHILL: We shall fight on the beaches.
We shall fight on the landing grounds.
210
00:16:39,248 --> 00:16:42,912
We shall fight in the fields
and in the streets.
211
00:16:43,085 --> 00:16:47,750
We shall fight in the hills.
We shall never surrender.
212
00:16:52,303 --> 00:16:54,465
STONE:
And in what seemed a miracle...
213
00:16:54,639 --> 00:16:56,926
...the battered air force
held the Germans at bay...
214
00:16:57,141 --> 00:16:59,883
...in the historic Battle of Britain.
215
00:17:00,061 --> 00:17:03,429
Churchill called it their finest hour.
216
00:17:06,234 --> 00:17:10,444
Leading the British people,
Churchill became a living legend.
217
00:17:21,582 --> 00:17:25,291
Although most Americans
wanted Britain and France to win the war...
218
00:17:25,586 --> 00:17:28,453
...according to a Gallup poll
in October '39...
219
00:17:28,631 --> 00:17:31,794
...95 percent
wanted the U.S. to stay out...
220
00:17:32,093 --> 00:17:36,633
...fearing essentially that Britain
was again as in 1917...
221
00:17:36,806 --> 00:17:40,674
...drawing the US.
Into a futile world war.
222
00:17:40,893 --> 00:17:45,228
Another war? Not for me. This time,
America should keep out, and I know I will.
223
00:17:45,523 --> 00:17:48,936
Let Europe fight her own battles.
They mean nothing to us.
224
00:17:49,151 --> 00:17:50,983
- By all means, no.
- No.
225
00:17:51,153 --> 00:17:53,736
- No.
- No.
226
00:17:54,991 --> 00:17:57,653
STONE:
Roosevelt promised in the 1940 election...
227
00:17:57,827 --> 00:18:01,991
...that no American boys
would go to a foreign war.
228
00:18:02,331 --> 00:18:07,167
Yet he now believed that Hitler
was intent on world domination.
229
00:18:07,503 --> 00:18:10,746
And with neutrality legislation
on the books...
230
00:18:10,923 --> 00:18:14,006
...and military preparedness
at a low level...
231
00:18:14,343 --> 00:18:19,258
...Roosevelt nonetheless
made several bold moves.
232
00:18:19,557 --> 00:18:24,267
Bending the rules, he unilaterally
sent 50 old destroyers to Britain.
233
00:18:24,562 --> 00:18:27,520
And in order to drive Japan
out of China...
234
00:18:27,690 --> 00:18:32,230
...he imposed select embargoes
on the flow of vital raw materials...
235
00:18:32,528 --> 00:18:36,021
...critical to the Japanese war machine.
236
00:18:37,491 --> 00:18:41,280
In September 1940,
Japan retaliated and established...
237
00:18:41,579 --> 00:18:47,245
...with Germany and Italy and others,
the Tripartite Pact.
238
00:18:47,543 --> 00:18:52,379
NARRATOR: It was clear now that the three
Axis countries definitely stood against us...
239
00:18:53,716 --> 00:18:57,129
...organized to smash the very principles
which made us the people we are.
240
00:18:57,303 --> 00:18:59,544
[CROWD SHOUTING IN GERMAN]
241
00:19:00,473 --> 00:19:06,219
STONE: With war clouds growing darker,
Roosevelt now made his boldest move yet.
242
00:19:06,562 --> 00:19:09,975
Breaking the famous precedent
of George Washington...
243
00:19:10,149 --> 00:19:12,641
...he declared for a third term in 1940.
244
00:19:12,902 --> 00:19:17,191
The stakes had rarely been higher
in a presidential election.
245
00:19:17,490 --> 00:19:22,951
And Roosevelt, in this spirit, now chose his
controversial Secretary of Agriculture...
246
00:19:23,120 --> 00:19:25,737
...Henry A. Wallace,
as his running mate.
247
00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:29,704
Wallace had been at the nerve center
of Roosevelt's successes...
248
00:19:29,877 --> 00:19:33,086
...in stalling off the perils
of the Great Depression...
249
00:19:33,255 --> 00:19:36,919
...easing the way with government subsidies
for farmers to stay in business...
250
00:19:37,176 --> 00:19:40,635
...by cutting back on production.
251
00:19:40,846 --> 00:19:45,010
For the urban poor, Wallace had provided
food stamps and school lunches.
252
00:19:45,309 --> 00:19:49,894
He instituted programs for land-use
planning and soil conservation.
253
00:19:50,064 --> 00:19:53,227
Considered
the scientific community's best ally...
254
00:19:53,526 --> 00:19:58,191
...Wallace spoke out strongly against
the building up of false racial theories...
255
00:19:58,489 --> 00:20:01,982
...in rebuke of the Hitler policies
in Germany.
256
00:20:02,284 --> 00:20:04,651
WALLACE
George Carver, born into slavery...
257
00:20:04,829 --> 00:20:08,663
...now a chemist at Tuskegee University
specializing in botany...
258
00:20:08,833 --> 00:20:12,952
...first introduced me to the mysteries
of plant fertilization.
259
00:20:13,129 --> 00:20:17,043
I spent a good many years breeding corn
because this scientist...
260
00:20:17,216 --> 00:20:22,131
...deepened my appreciation of plants
in a way I could never forget.
261
00:20:22,388 --> 00:20:27,724
Superior ability is not the exclusive
possession of any one race or any one class...
262
00:20:27,893 --> 00:20:31,932
...provided men are given
the right opportunities.
263
00:20:34,191 --> 00:20:37,559
STONE: Democratic Party bosses
feared Wallace's views.
264
00:20:37,737 --> 00:20:41,696
And it looked like the Wallace nomination
would go up in flames...
265
00:20:41,866 --> 00:20:47,532
...when Roosevelt, angry and frustrated, wrote a
remarkable letter to the assembled delegates...
266
00:20:47,705 --> 00:20:51,539
...in which he flatly turned down
the presidential nomination.
267
00:20:51,709 --> 00:20:55,794
ROOSEVELT: The Democratic Party has failed
when it has fallen to the control...
268
00:20:55,963 --> 00:21:00,958
...of those who think in terms of dollars
instead of human values.
269
00:21:01,135 --> 00:21:04,924
Until the Democratic Party
shakes off all the shackles of control...
270
00:21:05,097 --> 00:21:09,933
...fastened upon it by the forces of
conservatism, reaction, and appeasement...
271
00:21:10,186 --> 00:21:13,679
...it will not continue
its march to victory.
272
00:21:13,856 --> 00:21:18,646
The party cannot face in both directions
at the same time.
273
00:21:18,819 --> 00:21:24,656
Therefore, I decline the honor
of the nomination for the presidency.
274
00:21:25,659 --> 00:21:29,197
STONE: His wife, Eleanor Roosevelt,
saved the day.
275
00:21:29,538 --> 00:21:32,701
The first president's wife
ever to address a convention...
276
00:21:32,875 --> 00:21:37,585
...she told disgruntled delegates
that, "We face now a grave situation."
277
00:21:37,755 --> 00:21:42,716
You cannot treat it as you would treat...
278
00:21:42,885 --> 00:21:47,755
...an ordinary nomination
in an ordinary time.
279
00:21:47,932 --> 00:21:51,891
STONE: The party bosses buckled
and put Wallace on the ticket.
280
00:21:52,102 --> 00:21:54,810
They would, however, come back
for their vengeance.
281
00:21:54,980 --> 00:21:59,224
I've just heard the news of my nomination,
and there is just one thing I want to say.
282
00:21:59,568 --> 00:22:03,436
I am confident that under the leadership
of President Roosevelt...
283
00:22:03,614 --> 00:22:07,733
...we shall have a united Democratic Party,
victory in November...
284
00:22:07,910 --> 00:22:10,777
...and security for the American people.
285
00:22:37,273 --> 00:22:40,106
STONE: But the crisis over Wallace
never went away.
286
00:22:40,401 --> 00:22:43,564
The previous vice president,
Cactus Jack Garner...
287
00:22:43,737 --> 00:22:46,604
...an affable outgoing Texan, had said:
288
00:22:46,782 --> 00:22:50,275
GARNER: This job ain't worth a barrel
of warm piss.
289
00:22:50,578 --> 00:22:55,664
STONE: Nonetheless, Wallace stuck out
like a sore thumb on Capitol Hill.
290
00:22:55,833 --> 00:23:00,578
He was a spiritual man
fascinated by Navajo tribal religion.
291
00:23:00,754 --> 00:23:04,088
He studied Buddhism
and Zoroastrianism.
292
00:23:04,258 --> 00:23:09,549
The Washington scene with its cocktail dives
and smoky members' clubs didn't suit him.
293
00:23:09,722 --> 00:23:13,841
He didn't drink or smoke.
He preferred to play tennis and box.
294
00:23:14,101 --> 00:23:19,687
He liked to spend evenings reading
and throwing boomerangs on the Potomac.
295
00:23:19,899 --> 00:23:22,891
In a sign of his great confidence,
Roosevelt made Wallace...
296
00:23:23,068 --> 00:23:27,983
...Chairman of the Board of Economic
Warfare in charge of the national economy.
297
00:23:28,157 --> 00:23:32,071
Wallace was at the height
of his influence in Washington.
298
00:23:33,829 --> 00:23:38,494
1941 would be a year of epic change.
299
00:23:38,667 --> 00:23:41,910
The fuhrer of Germany had fulfilled
his promise to the German people...
300
00:23:42,087 --> 00:23:45,705
...and reversed the shame of World War I.
301
00:23:45,883 --> 00:23:49,376
[IN GERMAN]
302
00:23:53,015 --> 00:23:55,097
STONE:
The Germans now were at their height.
303
00:23:55,351 --> 00:24:01,142
Foodstuffs from France, Holland, Denmark,
Norway. Luxury goods, industries thriving.
304
00:24:01,357 --> 00:24:07,478
The thousand-year retch of the future
looked like it might come true after all.
305
00:24:07,696 --> 00:24:10,233
But as history repeatedly shows...
306
00:24:10,532 --> 00:24:15,572
...the fatal flaw arises not from without,
but from within.
307
00:24:15,746 --> 00:24:21,207
And Hitler, at the zenith of his arrogance,
attacked the Soviet Union.
308
00:24:22,711 --> 00:24:27,251
The concept of lebensraum, or living
space was described first by him...
309
00:24:27,549 --> 00:24:34,216
...in his 1925-6 two-volume autobiography,
Mein Kampf. "My Fight."
310
00:24:34,515 --> 00:24:38,884
He stated that the future of the
German peoples lay in the east...
311
00:24:39,061 --> 00:24:42,725
...and would need to be carved
out of the USSR.
312
00:24:42,898 --> 00:24:46,607
NARRATOR: One-sixth of the Earth's surface,
reaching from east to west...
313
00:24:46,777 --> 00:24:48,688
...nearly halfway around the world...
314
00:24:48,862 --> 00:24:52,071
...and southward from the North Pole
to the borders of India.
315
00:24:52,241 --> 00:24:56,576
One country of 9 million square miles.
316
00:24:56,745 --> 00:24:59,157
That's our own country three times over...
317
00:24:59,331 --> 00:25:03,040
...or all of North America
and a million square miles to boot.
318
00:25:03,210 --> 00:25:06,453
Raw materials, unlimited.
319
00:25:06,630 --> 00:25:09,918
Manpower, 193 million.
320
00:25:13,887 --> 00:25:18,632
STONE: It was going to be the Slavic and Jewish
peoples who were going to be eliminated...
321
00:25:18,809 --> 00:25:22,723
...to make room
for the ascendant German race.
322
00:25:31,655 --> 00:25:35,523
The clash between Germans and Slavs
over Eastern Europe...
323
00:25:35,701 --> 00:25:38,910
...dated back to the Baltic Crusades
of the 13th century...
324
00:25:39,079 --> 00:25:41,696
...in which German knights
had fought the Russians...
325
00:25:49,048 --> 00:25:53,463
...and later intensified
with the rise of nation states.
326
00:25:53,635 --> 00:25:58,801
Now Hitler was prepared to finish the job,
believing that racially-pure Germany...
327
00:25:58,974 --> 00:26:04,435
...was destined to vanquish
the decadent, racially-mixed Slavs.
328
00:26:04,605 --> 00:26:09,065
Racial mixing, he reasoned,
caused the collapse of civilization.
329
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:11,691
He had witnessed it
in his native country...
330
00:26:11,945 --> 00:26:15,563
...in the multi-national city of Vienna
before the First World War...
331
00:26:15,783 --> 00:26:20,869
...and now saw it also occurring in a
decadent Britain and the United States.
332
00:26:21,038 --> 00:26:23,621
With England
no longer a threat in the west...
333
00:26:23,791 --> 00:26:27,500
...Hitler was now ready
to go after the biggest prize of all.
334
00:26:27,669 --> 00:26:32,209
Less than two years after he had signed
the peace pact with Stalin, he attacked.
335
00:26:39,431 --> 00:26:42,594
Three million men
he sent in a blitzkrieg movement...
336
00:26:42,768 --> 00:26:46,853
...cutting deep into Soviet territory
along a 2000-mile front...
337
00:26:47,022 --> 00:26:50,515
...from the Arctic
all the way down to the Black Sea.
338
00:26:50,692 --> 00:26:55,937
The Germans quickly destroyed
two-thirds of the Soviet air force.
339
00:26:56,156 --> 00:26:58,193
With the added loss
of tanks and artillery...
340
00:26:58,534 --> 00:27:02,949
...Stalin's massive post-1939 build-up
had been useless.
341
00:27:03,122 --> 00:27:05,739
Fearing that Britain
was planting disinformation...
342
00:27:05,916 --> 00:27:10,080
...to incite war
between Germany and the USSR...
343
00:27:10,420 --> 00:27:15,756
...Stalin disbelieved his own intelligence
reports about the imminence of the invasion.
344
00:27:17,511 --> 00:27:20,879
In the 19303 purges,
Stalin had killed or imprisoned...
345
00:27:21,140 --> 00:27:25,725
...most of the Soviet High Command,
some 43,000 officers...
346
00:27:25,894 --> 00:27:30,730
...because of their alleged loyalty
to the Red Army founder Leon Trotsky...
347
00:27:30,899 --> 00:27:36,736
...whom Stalin had had assassinated the
year before in his exile in Mexico City.
348
00:27:38,699 --> 00:27:42,442
Stalin was equally paranoid,
and rightly so...
349
00:27:42,619 --> 00:27:45,486
...about the loyalty
of local Soviet populations...
350
00:27:45,664 --> 00:27:48,747
which he'd brutalized
in the pre-war years.
351
00:27:48,917 --> 00:27:53,127
But Hitler, instead of seeking the alliance
of this restive population...
352
00:27:53,422 --> 00:27:57,916
...was even more ruthless than Stalin,
intending the annihilation of the Soviets...
353
00:27:58,093 --> 00:28:04,009
...on a scale far larger than his war
in the west or even against the Jews.
354
00:28:06,143 --> 00:28:09,226
The Ukraine fell in the summer of 1941.
355
00:28:09,521 --> 00:28:13,731
...and the battle for Kiev, the
oldest major city in the Soviet Union...
356
00:28:13,984 --> 00:28:16,897
...cost half a million Soviet lives.
357
00:28:19,531 --> 00:28:23,490
Civilians were either executed
or condemned to slave labor ranks.
358
00:28:23,660 --> 00:28:29,497
And with the fall of the Ukraine came the
loss of the Soviet industrial heartland.
359
00:28:29,666 --> 00:28:33,625
The coal, the steel, the gas,
and the mineral ores of the Soviet Union...
360
00:28:33,879 --> 00:28:39,875
...were stolen by the Germans who were
moving towards Moscow in the fall of 1941.
361
00:28:40,052 --> 00:28:43,841
American and British military leaders
estimated the USSR...
362
00:28:44,014 --> 00:28:49,009
...would hold on for no more than three
months and might even fold in four weeks.
363
00:28:49,311 --> 00:28:53,270
They feared that Stalin
would conclude a separate peace.
364
00:28:53,565 --> 00:28:56,057
The prospects were so devastating
that Churchill swallowed...
365
00:28:56,235 --> 00:29:01,446
...his long-standing loathing of communism
and pledged support for the Soviet Union.
366
00:29:01,657 --> 00:29:04,649
Stalin begged Britain
for military material...
367
00:29:04,826 --> 00:29:09,662
...and to land immediately in Europe
and engage Hitler on a second front.
368
00:29:09,831 --> 00:29:13,699
And for the west, it was now crucial
to keep the Soviet Union in the war...
369
00:29:14,002 --> 00:29:18,496
...to absorb the main thrust
of the Nazi war machine.
370
00:29:18,674 --> 00:29:24,010
In August, Roosevelt ordered delivery of
the first 100 fighter planes to the USSR.
371
00:29:24,179 --> 00:29:28,673
But American military leaders, intent upon
building up U.S. defenses...
372
00:29:28,934 --> 00:29:30,595
...impeded Roosevelt's efforts.
373
00:29:30,852 --> 00:29:34,686
And the British,
reinforcing Stalin's mistrust...
374
00:29:34,856 --> 00:29:38,520
...also objected
to diversion of their supplies.
375
00:29:38,694 --> 00:29:42,187
There were still many in the west
who, frankly, were glad...
376
00:29:42,364 --> 00:29:45,026
...to see the Soviet Union
finally on her knees.
377
00:29:45,325 --> 00:29:51,071
Missouri Senator Harry Truman declared
on the floor of the Senate in 1941...
378
00:29:51,248 --> 00:29:54,286
TRUMAN: If we see that Germany is winning,
we ought to help Russia.
379
00:29:54,584 --> 00:29:58,703
And if Russia is winning,
we ought to help Germany.
380
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:01,463
And that way,
let them kill as many as possible.
381
00:30:01,633 --> 00:30:05,092
STONE: Ignoring such advice,
Roosevelt, in November 1941...
382
00:30:05,262 --> 00:30:08,800
...announced that the U.S.
would extend aid to the Soviets.
383
00:30:08,974 --> 00:30:13,468
In March of that year, Roosevelt
had managed to get a lend-lease act...
384
00:30:13,645 --> 00:30:16,012
...through a reluctant congress.
385
00:30:16,189 --> 00:30:18,476
He then sent the first $7 billion...
386
00:30:18,650 --> 00:30:23,235
...of what would eventually become
32 billion to Britain.
387
00:30:23,530 --> 00:30:27,740
The Soviets in the end
would receive $11 billion.
388
00:30:31,204 --> 00:30:37,246
In August 1941, Roosevelt met secretly
with Churchill in Newfoundland.
389
00:30:37,586 --> 00:30:41,580
A ship came out of the mist,
mooring side by side with the Augusta.
390
00:30:41,757 --> 00:30:45,125
It was the HMS Prince of Wales.
391
00:30:45,302 --> 00:30:51,594
The prime minister had come solely to convince
the United States to join the war now.
392
00:30:51,767 --> 00:30:56,933
Elliott Roosevelt, one of Franklin's sons
who was there as a military attache...
393
00:30:57,105 --> 00:31:02,191
...described in his book a late-night
encounter where Churchill made a naked appeal.
394
00:31:02,486 --> 00:31:07,231
CHURCHILL: It's your only chance.
You've got to come in beside us.
395
00:31:07,532 --> 00:31:12,618
STONE: Elliott later helped his father
on his leg braces walk to his cabin.
396
00:31:12,788 --> 00:31:18,283
ROOSEVELT: A real old Tory, isn't he?
He's a perfect wartime prime minister.
397
00:31:18,627 --> 00:31:22,791
His one big job is to see
that Britain survives this war.
398
00:31:22,964 --> 00:31:28,505
But Winston Churchill lead England
after the war? It would never work.
399
00:31:28,678 --> 00:31:31,921
We've got to make clear to the British
from the very outset...
400
00:31:32,099 --> 00:31:35,308
...that we don't intend
simply to be a good-time Charlie...
401
00:31:35,602 --> 00:31:39,687
...who can be used to help the
British Empire out of a tight spot...
402
00:31:39,856 --> 00:31:42,063
...and then be forgotten forever.
403
00:31:42,234 --> 00:31:44,976
The British Empire is at stake here.
404
00:31:45,153 --> 00:31:49,943
It's something that is not generally known,
but British bankers and German bankers...
405
00:31:50,117 --> 00:31:55,533
...have had world trade pretty well
sewn up in their pockets for a long time.
406
00:31:55,705 --> 00:32:00,700
STONE: That night, Roosevelt began
to spell out his vision for a new world.
407
00:32:00,877 --> 00:32:03,414
ROOSEVELT:
I think I speak as America's president...
408
00:32:03,588 --> 00:32:05,750
...When I say that America
won't help England...
409
00:32:06,007 --> 00:32:11,502
...to continue to ride roughshod
over colonial peoples.
410
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:13,466
STONE:
At the heart of Roosevelt's vision...
411
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,849
...was that political freedom
meant economic freedom...
412
00:32:17,018 --> 00:32:20,682
...Which was in sharp contrast
to the British Empire's rationale...
413
00:32:20,856 --> 00:32:24,850
...that kept the colonies poor
and dependent on London.
414
00:32:25,026 --> 00:32:29,520
Roosevelt's global new deal
would create a financial credit system...
415
00:32:29,698 --> 00:32:33,032
...that would allow
the colonies to develop.
416
00:32:33,326 --> 00:32:37,695
Roosevelt reminded Churchill that the U.S.'
colonial relationship with the Philippines...
417
00:32:37,873 --> 00:32:40,865
...was to be terminated in 1946...
418
00:32:41,042 --> 00:32:44,410
...and urged the British to do the same
with their empire...
419
00:32:44,588 --> 00:32:47,205
...which offended
so many American sensibilities.
420
00:32:47,549 --> 00:32:51,133
Churchill realized there were limits
to Roosevelt's generosity...
421
00:32:51,303 --> 00:32:56,139
...and that the price of American aid
would be the world after the peace.
422
00:32:56,808 --> 00:33:00,221
ROOSEVELT:
We look forward to a world founded...
423
00:33:00,562 --> 00:33:04,556
...upon four essential human freedoms.
424
00:33:04,733 --> 00:33:10,228
The first is freedom of speech
and expression...
425
00:33:10,572 --> 00:33:13,564
...everywhere in the world.
426
00:33:13,783 --> 00:33:17,196
The second is freedom of every person...
427
00:33:17,496 --> 00:33:24,084
...to worship God in his own way
everywhere in the world.
428
00:33:24,419 --> 00:33:30,290
The third is freedom from want
everywhere in the world.
429
00:33:30,592 --> 00:33:34,586
The fourth is freedom from fear...
430
00:33:34,763 --> 00:33:37,846
...anywhere in the world.
431
00:33:38,016 --> 00:33:42,931
STONE: These were big words, but the Atlantic
Charter was a truly visionary document...
432
00:33:43,104 --> 00:33:47,769
...that later became the guiding manifesto
of the United Nations.
433
00:33:47,943 --> 00:33:52,107
A universal statement not heard
since the French or Russian Revolution...
434
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,648
...on the rights of men
and women everywhere.
435
00:33:55,825 --> 00:33:58,157
Fearing Roosevelt's proposed wording...
436
00:33:58,328 --> 00:34:02,947
...Churchill added a clause stipulating
that equal access to international wealth...
437
00:34:03,124 --> 00:34:09,086
...would be guaranteed only with
due respect for existing obligations.
438
00:34:09,256 --> 00:34:11,623
But as Elliott Roosevelt wrote...
439
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:16,010
ELLIOTT: Gradually, very gradually,
and very quietly...
440
00:34:16,179 --> 00:34:20,639
...the mantle of leadership was slipping
from British shoulders to American.
441
00:34:20,809 --> 00:34:24,473
STONE: The next day, the Prince of Wales
headed back to the wars...
442
00:34:24,646 --> 00:34:27,889
...the two statesmen parting ways
for now.
443
00:34:28,066 --> 00:34:31,275
Churchill later told his cabinet
that Roosevelt said...
444
00:34:31,444 --> 00:34:33,651
...he would wage war but not declare it.
445
00:34:33,822 --> 00:34:37,156
Everything was to be done
to force an incident.
446
00:34:37,450 --> 00:34:39,691
Neither man
would have then predicted...
447
00:34:39,869 --> 00:34:44,238
...this path to war would lead
through Japan, not Germany.
448
00:34:44,541 --> 00:34:49,126
Japan had avoided the Nazi war
against their old Russian antagonists...
449
00:34:49,296 --> 00:34:51,754
...and, in fact, had been alienated
from Berlin...
450
00:34:51,923 --> 00:34:55,791
...by the Soviet-German alliance of 1939.
451
00:34:55,969 --> 00:35:00,304
In his arrogance, Hitler, who considered
the Japanese racially inferior...
452
00:35:00,599 --> 00:35:05,514
...had made no attempt whatever
to confide his Soviet plans to them...
453
00:35:05,729 --> 00:35:09,973
...or offer any new territory
for their support in the Far East.
454
00:35:10,275 --> 00:35:15,020
In hindsight, this had enormous
consequences for the fate of the world.
455
00:35:15,196 --> 00:35:18,530
If the Japanese
had entered the war against Stalin...
456
00:35:18,700 --> 00:35:23,035
...it is almost certain the Soviet Union
would have been crushed.
457
00:35:23,204 --> 00:35:28,745
But Japan wanted, like Britain, Germany
and Italy, a colonial empire of its own.
458
00:35:29,002 --> 00:35:34,463
And taking advantage of the vacuum created by
the German conquest of France and Holland...
459
00:35:34,633 --> 00:35:37,295
...and the neutralization
of British power...
460
00:35:37,594 --> 00:35:41,929
...It drove south into Indochina
in July 1941...
461
00:35:42,098 --> 00:35:46,262
...seeking resources and military bases.
462
00:35:46,561 --> 00:35:51,021
The United States, which now produced
half of the oil supplies of the world...
463
00:35:51,191 --> 00:35:57,233
...responded by completely embargoing
all trade to Japan, including oil.
464
00:35:57,530 --> 00:35:59,692
Its supplies dwindling fast...
465
00:35:59,866 --> 00:36:04,235
...Japan determined to secure its oil
from the Dutch East Indies...
466
00:36:04,537 --> 00:36:10,579
...but the American fleet at Pearl Harbor
could significantly interfere with those plans.
467
00:36:15,965 --> 00:36:20,459
ROOSEVELT:
December 7th, 1941...
468
00:36:20,637 --> 00:36:24,471
...a date which will live in infamy.
469
00:36:24,641 --> 00:36:27,508
STONE: Thus, the Japanese
launched an all-out surprise attack...
470
00:36:27,686 --> 00:36:31,520
...on the U.S. Naval Base
at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii...
471
00:36:46,287 --> 00:36:49,245
...leaving almost 2500 dead...
472
00:36:49,541 --> 00:36:53,660
...and disabling
much of the American fleet.
473
00:36:53,837 --> 00:36:58,707
The Americans knew an attack was coming
but thought it would be in the Philippines.
474
00:36:58,883 --> 00:37:02,626
ROOSEVELT:
No matter how long it may take us...
475
00:37:02,804 --> 00:37:05,967
...to overcome this
premeditated invasion...
476
00:37:06,141 --> 00:37:08,929
...the American people
in their righteous might...
477
00:37:09,102 --> 00:37:12,140
...will win through to absolute victory.
478
00:37:12,313 --> 00:37:13,644
[CROWD CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING]
479
00:37:13,815 --> 00:37:18,651
STONE: The next day, the US. and Britain
declared war on Japan.
480
00:37:18,820 --> 00:37:24,657
Although he had not even been told about
Pearl Harbor by his Japanese allies...
481
00:37:24,909 --> 00:37:29,153
...Hitler now unnecessarily declared war
on the United States...
482
00:37:29,497 --> 00:37:33,661
...a mistake nearly equivalent
to invading the Soviet Union.
483
00:37:35,170 --> 00:37:38,834
Roosevelt could declare
a popular war on Japan...
484
00:37:39,132 --> 00:37:45,003
...but was now relieved of the enormous burden
of breaking his word to the American electorate.
485
00:37:45,180 --> 00:37:48,639
He could finally declare war
on Germany.
486
00:37:48,808 --> 00:37:51,220
The chaos was now global.
487
00:37:52,771 --> 00:37:57,015
The U.S. strategy was to build up
and advance gradually in the Pacific...
488
00:37:57,233 --> 00:38:01,147
...while focusing its major effort
against the Germans.
489
00:38:01,404 --> 00:38:05,523
Defeating Japan, Roosevelt argued,
would not defeat Germany.
490
00:38:05,700 --> 00:38:08,567
But the defeat of Germany
would mean the defeat of Japan.
491
00:38:09,871 --> 00:38:12,363
And with the U.S. focused in Europe...
492
00:38:12,540 --> 00:38:15,953
...the Japanese conquest
proceeded largely unimpeded.
493
00:38:16,294 --> 00:38:21,630
They captured one-sixth of the
Earth's surface in only six months.
494
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:24,041
Thailand, Malaya, Java, Borneo...
495
00:38:24,385 --> 00:38:28,879
...the Philippines, Hong Kong,
Indonesia, Burma.
496
00:38:29,182 --> 00:38:33,426
Citizens of those countries
often greeted the Japanese as liberators...
497
00:38:33,812 --> 00:38:35,803
...from European colonial oppressors...
498
00:38:36,064 --> 00:38:38,772
...a judgment
that would prove short-lived.
499
00:38:39,025 --> 00:38:41,266
President Roosevelt said privately:
500
00:38:41,569 --> 00:38:45,984
ROOSEVELT: Don't think for a minute that
Americans would be dying in the Pacific...
501
00:38:46,157 --> 00:38:52,529
...if it hadn't been for the short-sighted greed
of the French, and the British, and the Dutch.
502
00:38:52,705 --> 00:38:55,242
STONE: In another great blow
to the Allied cause...
503
00:38:55,542 --> 00:39:00,912
...Japan stunned the British Empire
at Singapore in early 1942.
504
00:39:03,508 --> 00:39:07,593
The British had more troops
defending Singapore than England itself.
505
00:39:08,721 --> 00:39:14,512
Eighty thousand Commonwealth soldiers, many
of them Australian, were taken prisoner.
506
00:39:14,686 --> 00:39:18,725
But in a sign of the true
feelings of colonized peoples...
507
00:39:19,023 --> 00:39:23,608
...of the 55,000 British-Indian troops
taken prisoner by the Japanese...
508
00:39:23,778 --> 00:39:29,490
...40, 000 changed sides
to fight for the Japanese.
509
00:39:29,659 --> 00:39:33,013
AN NOUNCER: Port of Singapore was forced to
surrender to the Japanese forces in Malaya.
510
00:39:33,037 --> 00:39:35,904
STONE: If the Japanese
had attacked Eastern India...
511
00:39:36,082 --> 00:39:39,791
...and coordinated it with the
German advances in the Middle East...
512
00:39:39,961 --> 00:39:43,079
...before their invasion
of the Soviet Union...
513
00:39:43,256 --> 00:39:47,466
...the British Empire would have been
severely threatened in India.
514
00:39:47,635 --> 00:39:52,801
But Japan and Germany throughout the war
never behaved as if close allies.
515
00:39:54,893 --> 00:40:00,730
Japan crucially failed to deliver
the knockout blow at Pearl Harbor.
516
00:40:00,899 --> 00:40:04,733
And the allies began a counteroffensive
led by General Douglas MacArthur...
517
00:40:04,903 --> 00:40:08,066
...and Admiral Chester Nimitz.
518
00:40:08,323 --> 00:40:13,739
And in June 1942, U.S. forces
defeated the Japanese navy at Midway...
519
00:40:13,912 --> 00:40:19,783
...and began an island-hopping strategy that
would continue for more than three years.
520
00:40:19,959 --> 00:40:21,996
The Japanese would fight fiercely...
521
00:40:22,253 --> 00:40:26,542
...ensuring that victory would come
at a great cost to American soldiers.
522
00:40:28,092 --> 00:40:33,713
But by 1943, the U.S. was churning out
almost 100,000 planes a year...
523
00:40:33,890 --> 00:40:39,135
...dwarfing the 70, 000 Japan produced
for the entire war.
524
00:40:39,395 --> 00:40:45,141
By the summer of '44, the U.S. had deployed
almost 100 aircraft carriers in the Pacific...
525
00:40:45,318 --> 00:40:48,606
...far more than Japan's total of 25.
526
00:40:48,780 --> 00:40:50,987
[WHISTLING]
527
00:40:51,157 --> 00:40:54,525
STONE: Allied science figured prominently
on every front.
528
00:40:54,702 --> 00:40:58,661
Development of radar and the proximity fuse
contributed to victory...
529
00:40:58,831 --> 00:41:02,495
...but it was the atomic bomb
that would change the course of history.
530
00:41:02,669 --> 00:41:06,583
In December 1938,
two German physicists...
531
00:41:06,756 --> 00:41:11,216
...stunned the scientific world,
splitting the uranium atom...
532
00:41:11,511 --> 00:41:15,971
...making development of atomic bombs
a theoretical possibility.
533
00:41:16,224 --> 00:41:18,761
Those in the U.S.
most alarmed by this development...
534
00:41:18,935 --> 00:41:23,975
...were the scientists who had escaped from
Nazi-occupied Europe, many of them Jewish...
535
00:41:24,148 --> 00:41:29,564
...who feared the consequences should
Hitler get his hands on such a weapon.
536
00:41:29,737 --> 00:41:35,858
The émigré scientists had tried but failed to
arouse the interest of American authorities.
537
00:41:36,035 --> 00:41:39,653
NARRATOR: To the Navy department,
these laboratory experiments...
538
00:41:39,831 --> 00:41:42,493
...seemed to be
of no immediate importance.
539
00:41:42,667 --> 00:41:46,035
Very interesting, Doctor.
Keep us informed.
540
00:41:46,212 --> 00:41:52,083
STONE: Desperate in July 1939, Leo Szilard
solicited the help of Albert Einstein...
541
00:41:52,260 --> 00:41:54,718
...Who agreed to write
to President Roosevelt...
542
00:41:54,887 --> 00:42:01,054
...urging him to authorize a U.S. atomic
research program. Einstein later said:
543
00:42:01,227 --> 00:42:03,719
EINSTEIN:
I made one great mistake in my life...
544
00:42:03,896 --> 00:42:06,763
...when I signed the letter
to President Roosevelt...
545
00:42:06,941 --> 00:42:10,605
...recommending
that the atom bombs be made.
546
00:42:10,778 --> 00:42:15,488
STONE: At first, the project was small,
but in September 1942...
547
00:42:15,658 --> 00:42:20,277
...the Manhattan Project
was turned over to the military.
548
00:42:21,998 --> 00:42:25,992
General Groves
was told by his superiors to get results.
549
00:42:26,169 --> 00:42:30,128
Vice President Wallace, who tracked
scientific development closely...
550
00:42:30,298 --> 00:42:31,959
...had a low opinion of Groves...
551
00:42:32,133 --> 00:42:37,094
...believing him a slightly pathological,
anti-Semitic Roosevelt-hater...
552
00:42:37,346 --> 00:42:39,257
...and outright fascist.
553
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:43,934
Amazingly,
to head up the project's Los Alamos lab...
554
00:42:44,145 --> 00:42:48,981
...the man Groves chose, Robert Oppenheimer,
was an unapologetic leftist who admitted...
555
00:42:49,150 --> 00:42:54,236
...to being a member of every communist
party front organization on the West Coast...
556
00:42:54,530 --> 00:43:01,323
...at one point, giving 10 percent of his salary
to support the republican forces in Spain.
557
00:43:01,579 --> 00:43:03,786
Though completely opposite
in temperament...
558
00:43:03,956 --> 00:43:09,201
...Groves, with Oppenheimer's help, assembled
an incredible coterie of scientists...
559
00:43:09,504 --> 00:43:12,166
...including Enrico
Fermi and Leo Szilard...
560
00:43:12,507 --> 00:43:17,673
...who achieved the first nuclear
chain reaction in an atomic pile...
561
00:43:17,845 --> 00:43:21,588
...constructed
in a University of Chicago squash court.
562
00:43:21,766 --> 00:43:24,053
Scientists worked long hours
in the desert...
563
00:43:24,352 --> 00:43:28,971
...fearing a last-minute German victory
in the atomic race.
564
00:43:29,148 --> 00:43:32,186
But the truth came out in late 1944...
565
00:43:32,527 --> 00:43:36,646
...that Germany had actually abandoned
the bomb research in '42...
566
00:43:36,823 --> 00:43:40,282
...opting instead to throw
their top scientists and resources...
567
00:43:40,576 --> 00:43:44,911
...into developing V1 and V2 rocketry.
568
00:43:48,835 --> 00:43:52,749
But America's scientists continued on.
569
00:43:55,633 --> 00:44:00,173
In the east, the Soviet Union
lay on the brink of catastrophe...
570
00:44:00,346 --> 00:44:02,804
...the Nazis about to take Moscow.
571
00:44:03,057 --> 00:44:05,845
In September '41,
Stalin pleaded with the British...
572
00:44:06,060 --> 00:44:09,849
...to send 25 to 30 divisions
to the motherland...
573
00:44:10,106 --> 00:44:14,191
...and once again pressed
for a second front in Northern France.
574
00:44:14,485 --> 00:44:16,726
The following May,
Roosevelt acknowledged...
575
00:44:16,946 --> 00:44:19,734
...that the Russian armies
are killing more Axis personnel...
576
00:44:19,949 --> 00:44:26,116
...and destroying more Axis material than
all the other 25 united nations put together.
577
00:44:26,414 --> 00:44:32,706
He publicly announced the U.S. would open a
second front in Europe by the end of 1942.
578
00:44:32,879 --> 00:44:35,246
And Army Chief of Staff
George Marshall...
579
00:44:35,590 --> 00:44:38,924
...instructed his European Commander
General Dwight Eisenhower...
580
00:44:39,135 --> 00:44:42,093
...to draw up plans
for an invasion of Europe...
581
00:44:42,263 --> 00:44:45,756
...in the spring of '43 at the latest.
582
00:44:45,933 --> 00:44:47,970
The Soviets were elated...
583
00:44:48,144 --> 00:44:51,978
...but Churchill was facing a huge crisis
in North Africa.
584
00:44:52,148 --> 00:44:55,812
Thirty thousand British troops
had just surrendered humiliatingly...
585
00:44:55,985 --> 00:44:59,603
...to a Nazi force half their size.
586
00:44:59,780 --> 00:45:01,987
Fearing a bloodbath
on the shores of France...
587
00:45:02,158 --> 00:45:05,276
...he said the British
could not muster enough ships...
588
00:45:05,578 --> 00:45:08,036
...to transport invading forces
across the channel...
589
00:45:08,206 --> 00:45:11,915
...and convinced Roosevelt
to postpone the second front...
590
00:45:12,168 --> 00:45:16,002
...and instead mount an invasion
of North Africa.
591
00:45:16,172 --> 00:45:18,755
When the U.S. agreed to this...
592
00:45:18,966 --> 00:45:23,051
...Eisenhower predicted that this
would be the blackest day in history.
593
00:45:23,346 --> 00:45:27,590
He had said previously, "We should
not forget that the prize we seek...
594
00:45:27,767 --> 00:45:31,101
...is to keep eight million Russians
in the war."
595
00:45:31,395 --> 00:45:32,556
To George Marshall...
596
00:45:32,730 --> 00:45:36,644
...who dismissed the invasion
of Africa as periphery pecking...
597
00:45:36,817 --> 00:45:41,812
...it appeared that the British, unlike the
Soviets, were afraid to take on the Germans.
598
00:45:42,031 --> 00:45:45,023
The shadows of World War I
still hung too heavily...
599
00:45:45,326 --> 00:45:48,819
...over the imagination
of Churchill's government.
600
00:45:49,872 --> 00:45:52,830
But the British had a different strategy.
601
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:58,086
Relying on sea power and attacking
Hitler's softer southern front in Italy...
602
00:45:58,256 --> 00:46:04,002
...Churchill wanted to avoid directly
taking on the German war machine...
603
00:46:04,345 --> 00:46:08,509
...instead seeking to secure North Africa
and the Mediterranean around Gibraltar...
604
00:46:08,683 --> 00:46:12,176
...and then the Middle East, in
order to hold on to their oil reserves...
605
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:15,182
...and well as maintaining
access to India...
606
00:46:15,481 --> 00:46:19,645
...and the rest of their eastern empire
through the Suez Canal.
607
00:46:19,819 --> 00:46:24,689
The resulting paranoia of the Soviets
cannot be underestimated.
608
00:46:24,865 --> 00:46:29,530
Britain and Russia
had been rivals since the 19th century.
609
00:46:29,704 --> 00:46:33,242
Stalin mistrusted especially the British,
but also the Americans...
610
00:46:33,541 --> 00:46:37,250
...because of their intervention
against the communists...
611
00:46:37,545 --> 00:46:40,503
...20 years earlier
in the Russian Civil War.
612
00:46:43,009 --> 00:46:46,752
Churchill had then promised
to strangle Bolshevism in its cradle.
613
00:46:46,929 --> 00:46:49,796
And up until his non-aggression pact
with Hitler...
614
00:46:49,974 --> 00:46:52,682
...Stalin even harbored
the fear that Churchill...
615
00:46:52,852 --> 00:46:55,810
...and the British Empire
might ally with Nazi Germany...
616
00:46:55,980 --> 00:47:00,144
...and launch a grand crusade
against the Soviet Union.
617
00:47:03,779 --> 00:47:06,646
NARRATOR:
Fighter command ready.
618
00:47:06,907 --> 00:47:08,523
Bomber command ready.
619
00:47:08,743 --> 00:47:13,032
Artillery in position. Tanks manned.
620
00:47:14,248 --> 00:47:18,583
Cavalry in position. Infantry ready.
621
00:47:21,797 --> 00:47:24,835
Beyond those hills is the enemy.
622
00:47:25,009 --> 00:47:26,966
[SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
623
00:47:31,057 --> 00:47:36,928
STONE: Yet against all odds
and to the shock of much of the world...
624
00:47:37,188 --> 00:47:42,103
...it was to be the Red Army itself
that would reverse the course of the war.
625
00:47:42,443 --> 00:47:45,856
It would need a Tolstoy
to describe the heroic endurance...
626
00:47:46,030 --> 00:47:49,568
...of Soviet men and women
who made this possible.
627
00:47:49,742 --> 00:47:53,485
Few saw its meaning then,
but as it happened to Napoleon...
628
00:47:53,662 --> 00:47:56,620
...in the winter of 1812 at Moscow...
629
00:47:56,791 --> 00:48:02,207
...the crack German war machine
was, for the very first time, stopped.
630
00:48:03,255 --> 00:48:06,464
But because the Japanese
had marched south...
631
00:48:06,717 --> 00:48:08,628
...Stalin was able to bring back...
632
00:48:08,803 --> 00:48:12,592
...Marshal Zhukov's 40 Siberian divisions
to Moscow.
633
00:48:13,682 --> 00:48:19,018
Zhukov made the difference. German
losses that Winter were around 400,000.
634
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:24,350
Meanwhile, at the capital of Leningrad,
once called St. Petersburg...
635
00:48:24,610 --> 00:48:28,569
...the Germans besieged the city
over 900 consecutive days...
636
00:48:28,739 --> 00:48:32,573
...that included the two winters
of '41 and '42.
637
00:48:32,785 --> 00:48:37,951
The population of the city in 1941
was two and a half million people.
638
00:48:38,207 --> 00:48:40,949
One out of three would die.
639
00:48:41,127 --> 00:48:43,619
Bombs, the cold, starvation...
640
00:48:43,796 --> 00:48:48,962
...eating soups made of glue from
wallpaper, or rats or fellow human beings...
641
00:48:49,218 --> 00:48:55,009
...this went on in far greater proportion
than has ever been officially admitted.
642
00:48:55,266 --> 00:48:58,099
Such was their pride that many civilians...
643
00:48:58,269 --> 00:49:01,728
...refused to evacuate the city
when given the chance.
644
00:49:02,022 --> 00:49:06,061
Composer Dmitri Shostakovich
wrote his great Seventh Symphony...
645
00:49:06,235 --> 00:49:08,021
...in honor of this sacrifice.
646
00:49:08,362 --> 00:49:11,480
The orchestra continuing to play
throughout the siege...
647
00:49:11,657 --> 00:49:14,820
...until most of its members
had dropped from starvation.
648
00:49:17,121 --> 00:49:22,457
The Germans never took Leningrad.
Soviet losses were over a million.
649
00:49:22,626 --> 00:49:27,746
Much of the art collection from the famous
Hermitage was shipped to the Ural Mountains.
650
00:49:27,923 --> 00:49:30,460
The Soviets
were salvaging what they could.
651
00:49:30,634 --> 00:49:34,002
Much was burned
to deny the Germans anything.
652
00:49:34,180 --> 00:49:39,175
Not relying on the west to open a
second front or to send much more in aid...
653
00:49:39,477 --> 00:49:44,722
...Stalin now began the greatest forced
migration in known human history...
654
00:49:45,024 --> 00:49:48,892
...evacuating some 10 million people
to the east of the Ural Mountains...
655
00:49:49,069 --> 00:49:53,484
...in Central Asia and Siberia,
and to the south to Kazakhstan...
656
00:49:53,657 --> 00:49:58,026
...to rebuild the USSR
in a second industrial revolution...
657
00:49:58,204 --> 00:50:02,072
...that matched that of the 19203 and '308.
658
00:50:02,249 --> 00:50:07,585
To fight the German war machine,
almost 2000 new factories were built.
659
00:50:07,755 --> 00:50:09,086
Housing followed.
660
00:50:09,340 --> 00:50:12,048
The transfer of the greatest part
of the Soviet economy...
661
00:50:12,384 --> 00:50:14,375
...was accomplished
in two incredible years.
662
00:50:14,553 --> 00:50:20,549
And by 1943, the USSR was the equal
of any industrial power in Europe...
663
00:50:20,726 --> 00:50:24,094
...and was now able
to out-produce Germany itself.
664
00:50:24,271 --> 00:50:29,766
Forty thousand T-34 tanks,
superior to the German panzers, were built.
665
00:50:29,944 --> 00:50:33,608
Fifty thousand Ilyushin planes,
the famous IL-2...
666
00:50:33,781 --> 00:50:37,274
...were superior in fact
to the German Luftwaffe.
667
00:50:37,576 --> 00:50:43,538
The steel, Wheat and ores that were lost in
the Ukraine in 1941 were gradually replaced.
668
00:50:43,707 --> 00:50:47,621
An entire society
made up mostly of women and children...
669
00:50:47,795 --> 00:50:51,004
...labored 12 to 18 hour shifts to survive.
670
00:50:51,173 --> 00:50:53,631
All was for Mother Russia.
671
00:50:54,718 --> 00:50:56,834
The patriotism of the people
was extraordinary.
672
00:50:57,012 --> 00:51:00,630
They gave their personal treasures
to finance the war.
673
00:51:00,808 --> 00:51:03,175
Heirlooms, jewelry, anything.
674
00:51:03,477 --> 00:51:07,220
An entire society facing
extermination from Hitler had no choice...
675
00:51:07,523 --> 00:51:10,311
...but to fight
with every last drop of blood...
676
00:51:10,609 --> 00:51:13,192
...for their own lives
and for their country.
677
00:51:13,362 --> 00:51:15,899
ALL [IN RUSSIAN]:
678
00:52:06,373 --> 00:52:09,456
STONE:
By late 1942, the United States was...
679
00:52:09,627 --> 00:52:13,871
...despite early setbacks,
coming through with lend-lease.
680
00:52:14,048 --> 00:52:18,542
Almost two million tons of supplies,
approximately 400,000 trucks...
681
00:52:18,719 --> 00:52:23,634
...52, 000 jeeps, 7000 tanks,
artillery, combat vehicles...
682
00:52:23,807 --> 00:52:28,677
15,000 aircraft,
18,000 anti-aircraft guns...
683
00:52:28,854 --> 00:52:32,563
...and 8000 railway cars and food.
684
00:52:35,569 --> 00:52:39,563
Behind German lines, Russian, Ukrainian,
and Belarusian partisans...
685
00:52:39,740 --> 00:52:43,233
...were attacking from forests and caves,
blowing up trains...
686
00:52:43,577 --> 00:52:45,818
...interfering with transportation...
687
00:52:45,996 --> 00:52:48,738
...and, in any way possible,
tampering with the German war machine...
688
00:52:48,916 --> 00:52:53,786
...and engaging up to 10 percent
of the German occupation forces.
689
00:52:53,962 --> 00:52:56,579
The partisans
became an indispensable factor...
690
00:52:56,757 --> 00:53:00,546
...in the ultimate victory
of the Soviet troops.
691
00:53:00,719 --> 00:53:03,051
But the consequences were devastating.
692
00:53:03,347 --> 00:53:07,056
The Germans behaving
with more and more terrorism.
693
00:53:07,351 --> 00:53:10,059
Hanging partisans and innocents alike.
694
00:53:10,229 --> 00:53:13,017
No one knows how many,
but estimates range...
695
00:53:13,440 --> 00:53:16,273
...from 4 to 8 million Ukrainians
killed in the war.
696
00:53:16,568 --> 00:53:21,608
And it is estimated that Byelorussia
lost a quarter of its population...
697
00:53:21,782 --> 00:53:23,739
...at least two and a half million dead.
698
00:53:23,951 --> 00:53:29,446
Approximately 200 cities and 9000 villages
were burned to the ground.
699
00:53:29,623 --> 00:53:35,619
It is estimated that at least 100,000
partisans were killed or missing.
700
00:53:35,796 --> 00:53:41,132
Hitler's generals warned him that a
longer war of attrition was now a reality.
701
00:53:41,301 --> 00:53:44,839
The Soviets seemed able
to withstand huge losses.
702
00:53:45,055 --> 00:53:50,641
The only victory for Hitler lay not
in wiping out the Slavic peoples...
703
00:53:50,811 --> 00:53:54,975
...but in now acquiring the resources
of the Soviet Union.
704
00:53:55,149 --> 00:53:57,857
Thus, the Germans
under General Friedrich Paulus...
705
00:53:58,026 --> 00:54:01,860
...now drove south
toward the oil-rich port of Baku.
706
00:54:02,030 --> 00:54:04,647
The Soviets
under Marshal Georgy Zhukov...
707
00:54:04,825 --> 00:54:08,034
...were determined to
stop them at all costs.
708
00:54:08,328 --> 00:54:11,491
Without oil, the Soviet Army
would not be able to fight.
709
00:54:11,665 --> 00:54:15,704
The loss of Baku
would force Stalin to surrender.
710
00:54:16,962 --> 00:54:21,752
One city barred the road to Baku.
Stalingrad.
711
00:54:22,009 --> 00:54:26,719
And in the winter of 1942,
the German army finally met its match.
712
00:54:26,889 --> 00:54:29,722
In the single greatest battle in history...
713
00:54:29,892 --> 00:54:36,013
...the Soviets lost more men than the
British or Americans in the entire war.
714
00:54:40,235 --> 00:54:42,897
An estimated half a million men
were killed.
715
00:54:43,155 --> 00:54:48,741
The Germans lost at least 200,000
of their best troops, but likely far more.
716
00:54:51,121 --> 00:54:53,579
The civilian dead, unknown.
717
00:54:56,710 --> 00:55:01,170
Germans could destroy Stalingrad,
but they could never take it.
718
00:55:01,340 --> 00:55:04,878
Under Stalin's strict orders,
anyone retreating or surrendering...
719
00:55:05,052 --> 00:55:09,011
...was to be treated as a traitor,
his family subject to imprisonment.
720
00:55:09,306 --> 00:55:13,550
It was his feared
Not One Step Back policy.
721
00:55:13,727 --> 00:55:19,268
At Stalingrad, more than 13,000 Soviet
soldiers were shot by their own side.
722
00:55:19,566 --> 00:55:23,855
During the course of the war,
135,000 were killed in this manner.
723
00:55:24,071 --> 00:55:27,564
Four hundred thousand
served in punishment battalions.
724
00:55:27,741 --> 00:55:31,826
In that year, there were still
4 million prisoners in gulags.
725
00:55:32,079 --> 00:55:35,822
Nonetheless, with motives
ranging from patriotism to terror...
726
00:55:36,083 --> 00:55:39,621
...Soviet soldiers, with their backs
against the Volga River...
727
00:55:39,837 --> 00:55:44,582
...fought from street corner to street
corner in that cruelest of winters.
728
00:55:44,758 --> 00:55:47,125
By January 1943...
729
00:55:47,427 --> 00:55:50,260
...the end finally came
when General Von Paulus...
730
00:55:50,597 --> 00:55:53,840
...surrendered the remainder
of his Sixth Army.
731
00:55:54,017 --> 00:55:57,885
He had started with 300,000 men
and 91, 000 now surrendered...
732
00:55:58,063 --> 00:56:03,433
...of whom approximately 9000
returned alive after the war to Germany.
733
00:56:03,610 --> 00:56:05,897
Hitler is said to have lamented.
734
00:56:06,071 --> 00:56:08,608
HITLER [IN GERMAN]:
735
00:56:10,033 --> 00:56:14,778
NARRATOR: After 162 days of the heaviest
fighting in the history of warfare...
736
00:56:15,038 --> 00:56:17,200
...the last shot was fired.
737
00:56:19,501 --> 00:56:21,993
Peace came to Stalingrad.
738
00:56:22,296 --> 00:56:25,584
STONE: And with their resources kicking in,
new aircraft, new artillery...
739
00:56:25,757 --> 00:56:27,998
...the Soviets now took the offensive.
740
00:56:29,845 --> 00:56:34,715
At Kursk, the greatest tank battle in
history, they beat the Germans again.
741
00:56:36,310 --> 00:56:41,851
Seventy thousand German dead,
and several times that number, Soviet dead.
742
00:56:43,692 --> 00:56:49,483
After their colossal defeat, the German army
began a full-scale retreat on the Eastern Front.
743
00:56:49,656 --> 00:56:53,991
NARRATOR: The whole legend of Nazi
invincibility has been shattered.
744
00:56:54,202 --> 00:56:58,662
German armies could retreat too.
German armies could be defeated.
745
00:56:58,832 --> 00:57:00,994
German troops could be captured.
746
00:57:01,168 --> 00:57:03,330
STONE:
Throughout these pivotal years...
747
00:57:03,503 --> 00:57:07,963
...the Soviets were regularly battling
more than 200 German divisions.
748
00:57:08,133 --> 00:57:11,671
In contrast, the Americans and British
fighting in the Mediterranean...
749
00:57:11,845 --> 00:57:16,260
...rarely confronted
more than 10 German divisions.
750
00:57:16,558 --> 00:57:19,721
Germany lost over 6 million men
fighting the Soviets...
751
00:57:20,020 --> 00:57:23,809
...and approximately 1 million
fighting on the Western Front.
752
00:57:23,982 --> 00:57:27,771
Though the myth lives on
that the United States won World War II...
753
00:57:28,946 --> 00:57:33,861
...serious historians agree that it was
the Soviet Union and its entire society...
754
00:57:34,117 --> 00:57:38,202
...including its brutal dictator,
Joseph Stalin...
755
00:57:38,538 --> 00:57:43,283
...who, through sheer desperation
and incredibly stoic heroism...
756
00:57:43,585 --> 00:57:46,668
...forged the great narrative
of World War II...
757
00:57:46,838 --> 00:57:50,923
...the defeat
of the monster German war machine.
74179
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