All language subtitles for Cold War - S01E06 - Reds (1948–1953) (480p x265 EDGE2020).eng

NARRATION:
In the Soviet Union

and in America

the Cold War was
fought by fear.

The Soviet Union raised fences
against the outside world.

The gulag - the secret
universe of labor camps,

swallowed the
lives of millions.

Both sides turned
their fear inwards

against their own people.

They hunted the enemy within.

Communism in reality is
not a political party.

It is a way of life, an evil and
malignant way of life.

It reveals a condition
akin to a disease,

that spreads like an epidemic, and like
an epidemic,

a quarantine is
necessary to keep it

from infecting
this nation.

Invent new images
for American virtue.

ARCHIVE NARRATION:
Men and women in all walks of life,

we are shareholders in the greatest
enterprise on earth:

The United States
of America Unlimited.

Our strength lies in the character of our
people,

young in heart, independent
in thought and nature,

skilled of hand.

American enterprise has harnessed fire
and water, wind,

sun and soil to produce an abundance of
everything.

NARRATION:
Was communism out to destroy all this?

American propaganda
said it was.

ARCHIVE NARRATION: Stalin said 'The
whole world is aware that the Soviet Union

demobilized its forces
after the war.'

Beware the big lie.

NARRATION:
At home, Americans feared Red subversion.

Congress revived
the House Committee

on Urn-American Activities.

In 1947 the committee investigated
Hollywood,

factory of America's imagination.

Have you ever
observed any communistic

information
in any scripts?

Well I've turned down
quite a few scripts

because I thought they were
tinged with communistic ideas.

They haven't
attempted to use me

I don't think because
apparently they know that

I am not very
sympathetic to communism.

There has been
a small group

within the
Screen Actors Guild

that has consistently opposed the
policy of the guild

board of officers

or the guild itself
as evidenced

by the vote on
various issues.

That small clique
has been referred to,

has been discussed
as more or

less following the
tactics that we associate

with the communist party.

If I had my
way about it

they'd all be sent
back to Russia

or some other
unpleasant place.

[crowd clapping ]

NARRATION:
Ten witnesses, the Hollywood Ten,

defied the Committee's right
to ask about their beliefs.

INTERROGATOR:
Are you a member of the Communist Party

or have you ever been a
member of the Communist Party?

It's unfortunate and
tragic that I have to teach

this committee the basic principles
of Americanism.

INTERROGATOR: That's not the
question. That's not the question.

The question is - have you
ever been a member of the

Communist Party?

I am framing my
answer in the only way in

which any American citizen
can frame...

INTERROGATOR:
Then you deny it?

You refuse to answer that question, is
that correct?

I have told you that
I will offer my beliefs,

my affiliations and
everything else to the

American public and they will know
where I stand as they

do from what I have written

INTERROGATOR: Stand away from
the stand. Stand away from the stand.

Officer, take this man
away from the stand.

NARRATION: Others from the
film industry demonstrated their

support for the constitutional rights of
the Ten.

INTERROGATOR: Are you or have you
ever been a member of the communist party?

I believe I have
the right to be

confronted with any evidence that
supports this question.

I should like to
see what you have.

INTERROGATOR:
Oh well, you would?

Yes.
[laughter in court]

INTERROGATOR:
Well you will pretty soon.

The witness is excused.

Either you completely cooperated
with the committee,

which meant
saying yes or no

to the question
about whether you were

a Communist or
ever had been,

and if the answer was yes
as it was in my case,

we knew the next question was, who
else was?

We certainly didn't
want to go into that.

NARRATION:
The Ten were imprisoned.

With hundreds more
they were blacklisted -

their livelihoods taken away.

People generally
in Hollywood

were pretty scared to have anything to
do with us.

Whereas before we went
to prison they had not

been nearly as scared and
there were plenty of undercover

arrangements that were
made to write scripts

under pseudonyms for a good
deal less money than you

were accustomed
to being paid.

There were a couple of possible
suicides as a result of it.

There were, er,

a good deal of,
er, misery.

NARRATION:
Americans feared that the enemy would take

advantage of their freedoms;

that agents of communism
were undermining America.

A Soviet spy ring
unearthed in 1946

led investigators
to Alger Hiss,

who had been a wartime
foreign policy adviser.

He was accused of passing secrets to
the Soviet Union

by a former communist,
Whittaker Chambers.

INTERROGATOR: Have you ever
seen this individual who is standing?

HISS:
I have.

INTERROGATOR:
Do you know him?

HISSI
I identify him.

INTERROGATOR: In 1935 was
the last time that you saw him?

HISS:
According to my best recollection not having

checked the records.

INTERROGATOR: Now would you
remain standing a moment Mr. Hiss?

NARRATION:
Hiss firmly denied

that he had betrayed
his country.

ARCHIVE NARRATION:
New evidence of communist

activities in government
circles is promised by the

House Committee on
Urn-American Activities.

Microfilm reportedly found
in a pumpkin on a Maryland farm

is examined by
investigator Stripling

and Congressman Nixon.

NARRATION:
Richard Nixon,

an ambitious
young Republican,

was convinced that
Hiss was lying.

ARCHIVE- RICHARD NIXON:
It is the intention

of the Committee on
Urn-American Activities

to pursue this
investigation

until we put the spotlight on those high
officials

in the State Department
who are responsible

for selling this country
down the river.

NARRATION:
Hiss was jailed for perjury.

Nixon's name was made;

he turned his crusade
against communism

into a weapon
for Republicans.

RALPH DE TOLEDANO:
It was what made him.

It paved the way for his
whole career afterwards.

Anti-communist was a
gut issue with Nixon.

I mean it was something

he believed sincerely
and deeply but of course

he was a politician too and he was
a Republican politician

and the soft on Communism issue
was hurting the Democrats

and of course he used it.

He would have been a
fool not to.

ARCH IVE NARRATION:
In America,

patriotic enthusiasm for
the democratic way of life

reveals itself in a monster loyalty parade
in New York.

Everyone from vets to
youngsters reveals

his inborn dislike
of communism.

NARRATION:
Anti-Communism

became the language for a new, more
defiant vision of America.

I“ For this is my country,

to have and to hold. I“

NARRATION:
Singer Paul Robeson

was open about his
communist sympathies.

In Moscow he was welcome.

I“ Tote that barge,
lift that bail. J“

I“ You show a little grit
and you land in jail. I“

I“ But I keeps laughing,
instead of crying, I“

I“ I must keep fighting
until I'm dying, I“

I“ and ol' man river he'll
just keep rolling along I“

NARRATION:
In America people were less friendly.

Veterans of the
American Legion turned out

to demonstrate in 1949 when
Robeson was due to

sing in a concert
at Peekskill, New York.

The police expected trouble.

The slogans of the demonstrators.

It went 'go back to
Russia you white niggers

for instance over and over.

'Commies, niggers, Jews.

You got in but you're
not going to get out alive.

Hitler didn't finish the job,
we will. '

NARRATION:
The concert turned into a riot.

PAUL ROBESON JNR: But the
demonstrators have piles of rocks.

What the State police did
is make the cars go out

and go ten miles an
hour through that gauntlet.

So the road, I mean,
cars were smashed,

the windows
were smashed.

The road was actually
slick with human blood.

An inter-racial couple

just driving through happened
to arrive at that moment.

And of course they
pulled the car over.

They yanked the two of
them out and they said

'That's Robeson Junior.
We got him.'

and they were going to bash
the black guy's head in -

a guy was standing over
him with a baseball bat-

and a veteran, a man in uniform,
army uniform,

said, 'Wait a minute.
That's not Robeson.

I know the pictures.

That's not Robeson.
That's not him.'

So the guy said

'Well the blankety-blanks
with a white woman.

Kill him anyway.'

And the soldier said,
held the bat and said,

'No, no, that's not
the American way.

You don't lynch
the wrong nigger'.

And it saved his life.

NARRATION:
Race hatred and the politics of fear

had begun to merge.

At home the nation was
angry and insecure.

Abroad communism was
gaining force.

ARCHIVE NARRATION:
The Atom bomb explodes

again in the headlines
of the world.

President Truman announces an atomic
explosion detected

somewhere in Russia,

three years ahead of the schedule
expected by the West.

NARRATION:
America's nuclear monopoly was over.

Then came China.

NEWSREEL NARRATION:
Tragedy overtook China.

Armed and
equipped by Russia,

red hordes brought ancient
Cathay to its knees.

At the end of '49 all China
sags under the red yoke.

NARRATION:
Communist leader Mao Tse Tung took over.

America's Chinese allies,

the defeated
Chiang Kai Shek regime,

fled with their
followers into exile.

JOHN SERVICE:
Americans have always had,

most Americans,
a special feeling,

a special attachment,
special interest in China.

So it seemed incredible
to most Americans,

uninformed Americans,

that this country which we
had lavished so much care and

affection on and
we thought was so friendly,

so many of their people had studied in
America and so on,

should turn communist,

turn over to
the other side.

Many people felt that that there had to
be some explanation,

there had to be some sort of a
conspiracy, some sort of a plot.

NARRATION:
Republican Senator Joe McCarthy

blamed traitors in
the State Department

for the loss of China.

He launched his
own witch hunt.

Today the most dangerous enemy
agent is not so much concerned

with the secret
information about weapons

as he is with infiltrating
the necessary departments

of the government and shaping and
controlling the actions

of our nation so that the
enemy is progressively winning,

winning without even
firing a single shot.

Now I intend to name names-

John S Service- and remember that
name if you will.

I have never knowingly transmitted
any information

which was a
secret military plan.

NARRATION: Service was
hounded out of the State Dept.

I had trouble
renting a home,

renting an apartment
in New York and the companies,

well vvhafll their
stockholders say, you know.

So the companies that
I had known

and had dealings
with abroad,

export companies
and so on, they said,

sorry we think you're a fine guy but we
don't dare touch you.

One communist,

[ crowd cheers ]

One communist
in the faculty

of one university is
one communist too many.

[ Crowd cheers ]

One communist among the
American advisors at Yalta

was one communist too many.

[ Crowd cheers ]

And even... even if there were
only one communist

in the State Department,
even if there were only

one communist in the
State Department that would

still be one
communist too many.

NARRATION:
President Truman

tried to dismiss
McCarthy's attacks.

Not a single person who has been
adjudged to be a communist

or otherwise disloyal
remains on the

government
payroll today.

[crowd applaud ]

We are not going to turn the United
States into a right wing,

totalitarian country in order
to deal with a left wing

totalitarian threat.

[crowd applaud ]

NARRATION: But leaders of
the American Communist Party

were jailed and
the persecution spread.

Left wing labor
organizations were banned,

radical groups indicted,
demonstrations broken up.

And if they put
the word commie

oh someone that
meant that that person

was an agent
to the Soviets.

That meant that that
person was dangerous

and had to be
done away with.

NARRATION:
The FBI under Edgar Hoover

uncovered several
Soviet spy rings.

They used the national
interest to justify

any method of
locating subversives.

We were using
the same methods that Hoover

accused the Communist Party
of using

and that's
getting people

to spy on their friends and
this was one of the criticisms

that he had of
the Communist Party.

I felt guiltless.

What had I ever done wrong?

I'd never even gotten a traffic ticket
and here I was

called before in public a state senate
investigating committee

about my beliefs.

I felt very very wronged and
I felt that I had to not only

uphold myself,
my reputation,

but that of my
fellow teachers,

my fellow union members,
my fellow citizens.

We would talk to children,

if they were in college
about their parents,

and we talked to parents
about their children and

we'd talk to the neighbors
about those people and

if someone did seem halfway
sympathetic in the communist

party we'd talk to them.

It was totally damaging

to what we deeply
believed America

was supposed
to stand for.

NARRATION:
in the 1952 Presidential election,

General Eisenhower,
the Republican candidate,

chose the red-baiting
Richard Nixon

as his running mate.

Eisenhower mocked the Democrats for
being soft on Communism.

The future of this country belongs to
more courageous men.

It belongs to men,

[crowd applaud ]

It belongs to men who know that
freedom's fight must be forever,

relentless,
uncompromising and fair.

It belongs to men
who today are ready

to bear spiritual and
intellectual arms against

an alien army of
communist ideas.

[crowd applaud ]

NARRATION:
To get elected

Ike needed the support
of Joe McCarthy

and his right
wing followers.

I spent about half ah hour
with the General last night.

While I can't report that we agreed
entirely on everything,

[ laughs ]

I can, I can report that when
I left that meeting with the

General I had the same feeling
as when I went in and that is,

that he's a great American,
will make a great President,

an outstanding President.

[crowd applaud ]

Right from the
beginning he detested,

er, Joe McCarthy.

McCarthy was the
first class demagogue

and Eisenhower just couldn't
stand that type of person.

NARRATION:
Eisenhower's old wartime commander,

General Marshall, was accused by
McCarthy of treachery.

Intimidated,

Ike dropped words praising Marshall
from an election speech

he made in
McCarthy's home state.

He was roundly criticized
for that

because it seemed to
indicate that he was

influenced by McCarthy.

NARRATION: In 1953 two
Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg,

were convicted of spying
for the Soviet Union.

They were sentenced
to death.

They had young children

and their fate roused

protests in America
and across the world.

For some young lawyers,

the sentence breached
the Constitution.

They sought judges to get
a stay of execution.

Judge Frank looked at us

and he said something that we
have never never forgotten.

He said, 'If I were as
young as you are

I would be sitting there saying
the same things you're saying,

arguing the same points
you're arguing,

making the same argument
that these planned executions

are invalid but when
you are as old as I am,

you will understand why
I cannot do it.'

And he stands up,

turns his back to us
and walks away

and we were devastated.

We began to sense something
which in later years

we understood so clearly.

And that was
that Jerome Frank,

as the leading
liberal judge,

was terrorized himself and
frightened by the atmosphere

of fear in the country.

That if he as a liberal
would do something to save

Julius and
Ethel Rosenbergs life,

he would be charged
as a commie.

NARRATION:
The Rosenbergs were executed.

He died quickly,

there didn't seem to be too
much life left in him when

he entered behind the Rabbi.

He seemed to be walking in a
cadence of steps as if

keeping in time with the muttering
of the 23rd Psalm.

She died a lot harder.

When it appeared that she had
received enough electricity

to kill an ordinary person and had
received the exact amount

that had killed her husband,

the doctors went over and pulled
down the cheap prison dress,

a little dark green printed job,
and placed the

steto ...stetho
can't say it...

placed the
stethoscopes to her and

then looked around and
looked at each other rather

dumb founded and seemed
surprised that she was not dead.

And she was given
more electricity

which started again and

a kind of a ghastly plume of
smoke rose from her head and

went up against the
skylight overhead.

After two more
of those jolts

Ethel Rosenberg had met
her maker she'll have a,

lot of explaining
to do to.

Thank you.

NARRATION: McCarthy now
denounced leading Republicans

and even senior Army officers
as communist sympathizers.

But he had gone too far.

Political opinion swung
away from him,

and his enemies
gained courage.

Would give you the
names of communists,

you said in the Army.

You've done enough.

Have you no sense of
decency sir at long last?

Have you left no
sense of decency?

It all sort of
came to pieces

and then there was this
move to censure him

and he fought
that very badly.

Now a number of us were advising
him on how to handle that

and he agreed to
everything we said

and then he did
just the opposite.

You have been here
trying to smear

the staff of
this committee,

the young men who have been
working to uncover communists.

Do you jump up and run away,
without answering

NARRATION: McCarthy's
power collapsed as the politicians

walked away from him.

But the spirit of McCarthyism, the
smearing of dissent

as communist treason,

stained American democracy
for decades.

In the Soviet Union,

all dissent was suppressed.

The Cold War heightened
tensions and reinforced fears,

not just of internal subversion but
of another world war.

Obsessively Stalin spoke
of the danger to world peace,

the need for vigilance
against internal enemies.

Conformity was enforced
by police terror,

and by a slavish cult
of Stalin's personality.

He became God-like, his icon
worshipped everywhere.

For those who
did not conform,

there was silence and
death behind the barbed wire.

The glfiag '

the secret empire of
concentration camps -

stretched over
four thousand miles from

the Baltic to the Pacific.

In the Cold War years,
the camps continued to

devour the
lives of millions.

Stalin's control now extended
beyond the Soviet Union.

This was a new empire,

run by local communists
trained to obey Moscow.

American propaganda targeted the fate
of these satellite nations.

The battleground of peace
today is that strip of

strategically located
countries stretching

from the Baltic to
the Black Sea.

They are not big
countries geographically

but they contain seventy
million freedom loving people,

our kind of people,

who share our culture and who have
sent millions of their sons

and daughters to become part
of these United States.

Some call these countries
the satellite nations.

More accurately they're the
captive nations of Europe.

My name is Ronald Reagan.

Last year the contributions of
sixteen million Americans

to the Crusade For Freedom

made possible the
World Freedom Bell-

symbol of hope
and freedom

to the Communist dominated
peoples of Eastern Europe.

ARCHIVE NARRATION:
In western Berlin

great crowds turned out to
see it raised to the tower

of the
West Berlin city hall.

NARRATION: The campaign
was secretly funded by the CIA.

As well as fine words
Americans sent armed exiles

back into the
Soviet empire.

This was the effort of
the CIA and the young

refugees were recruited.

They were trained
in haste

in all kinds of subversion, sabotage,

intelligence, they were given cameras,
the short radio

stations codes and
were simply sent there.

But the regime
did penetrate it.

All these training camps
and the reception committee

was waiting for these people
and arresting them.

NARRATION:
For the Polish authorities,

these intrusions justified
even harsher repression.

The Party called for
vigilance against

spies and saboteurs.

In 1948,

Stalin began to tighten the Soviet
grip on eastern Europe.

In Yugoslavia, Marshall Tito
had defied Stalin

and broken away from
the Soviet bloc.

Moscow abused him
as a traitor,

a deserter to the camp of American
imperialism.

Stalin moved fast to prevent

Tito's mutiny spreading
to other satellite states,

like Czechoslovakia.

At first,

the satellites were
allowed to find their

own paths to communism.

Now Stalin forced the Soviet
model on them all.

Everyone must march,
shout, obey.

[ Applause ]

NARRATION: To subdue protest,
Moscow ordered show trials of

leading East European communists.

In Czechoslovakia,

Rudolf Slansky,
Party Secretary,

was among those chosen for sacrifice.

Stalin needed to
discipline his new camp,

his new empire,

and he disciplined it to such
an extent that people living in

those countries should not
develop any idea of being

able to do anything except
what he orders them to do.

And one of the methods
of disciplining was terror.

NARRATION:
Slansky was charged with Titoism,

spying and sabotage.

His confession was fiction,
drafted by Soviet advisers.

[speaking Russian ]

The initial investigation

results were prepared
and checked.

If the evidence in these
cases didn't meet the aims

of the Security Services,
then it was altered.

Really it was a fabrication,

to prove what otherwise
couldn't be proved.

The key was the confession
of the indicted person.

And then there was no
need of any proofs.

As soon as the confession was
obtained that was enough

for the trial
and the sentence.

So we were put at the
disposal of the Secret Police,

with almost unlimited
powers over us,

to bring us into
a state where

we prepared to make
that confession.

[Speaking Czech ]

It was torture.

They were shouting
and swearing at me.

I had to look
into their eyes.

At the beginning I
avoided this but

then I had to repeat
their Obscenities.

Then I started to make
up fairy tales for my son.

I got into the imaginary
world of castles

and princes and animals
so when they shouted at me

I didn't have
to answer them.

I only looked into
their eyes while

I was making up
these fairy tales.

It's not easy.

I don't feel
sorry for myself.

Everything was rehearsed.

The final text prepared
for the trial,

consisting of questions
which were put

to one by the
General Attorney and

the president of
the court and so on,

were listed and
your answers were listed.

NARRATION: Slansky and ten
others were hanged in December 1952,

their ashes scattered over the ice
on an unknown country road.

Stalin had
shown his power.

While he survived,
it meant death to disobey him.

In the Soviet Union itself,

culture and science
were kept insulated from the

infection of
all Western influence.

The arts -
painting, literature, music -

were regimented by the
doctrine of Socialist Realism.

[ Applause ]

[speaking Russian ]

Stalin's interference with the
work of the Bolshoi Theater

was done with
love and good taste.

But the fear that it created
and the fact that people

were under his spell,

this produced a
lot of negative effects.

It not only made
people nervous but

destroyed the
principles of art.

NARRATION:
Fear of Stalin's disapproval paralyzed

the creative arts.

Dmitri Shostakovich
was reprimanded by

the party for
departing from the

principles of
Socialist Realism.

Official art showed
the Soviet Union as a

promised land of plenty
and of opportunity,

guided by wise and
selfless leaders.

But those who discussed
real change,

even in private,

like Susanna Pechuro
and her student friends,

risked punishment.

[speaking Russian ]

We discussed a lot and
we came to the conclusion

that what was happening
then was completely different

from what we were
taught to believe.

It wasn't socialism.

NARRATION:
Susanna joined the secret discussion group.

Aged seventeen she was arrested,
charged with treason

and terrorism.

Three of her friends
were executed.

[speaking Russian ]

They said, 'Get ready.

You come with us'.

I went to get dressed behind
the screen in the room

and I clearly
realized then

that I would not be
coming back.

At that moment I could see myself in the
prison cell.

Later, when I really was
in the prison cell

I kept thinking back
to that moment.

NARRATION: Over the years,
millions shared Susannafs fate.

They vanished,
often without trace.

Even to ask about them
was to risk arrest.

[speaking Russian ]

There are some things
that are so awful

I don't let
myself remember them,

because if I do I
can't sleep for weeks.

They pulled children
out of the arms

of their screaming mothers,

and then beat the mothers.

The children
just disappeared,

they never knew what
happened to them aften/vards.

There was nothing
more awful than that,

even though I
saw them killing people,

and anything else
they felt like doing.

NARRATION: In 1952, Stalin
presided over the 19th Congress

of the
Soviet Communist party.

The hall was packed with
foreign delegations

gathered to honor him.

Stalin was old now,

but still the unchallenged leader of world
communism.

Cold War - military
competition with America -

was already putting a
heavy load on Soviet society.

In public, Stalin's
analysis of the world class

struggle was hopeful.

NARRATION:
But Stalin still feared the enemy within.

He saw treachery everywhere.

Above all, he suspected so-called
cosmopolitans,

mostly Jewish intellectuals
and professionals,

who had already been persecuted for
their Western contacts.

[speaking Russian ]

Stalin needed
an internal enemy,

a fifth column
that could be

blamed for the difficult situation in the
country.

And the Jews fitted
that role very well.

Because many Jewish families
in the post war years had

someone in the United States -
relatives or acquaintances.

So to present Jews
as the fifth column,

agents of American imperialism,
was very convenient.

NARRATION:
In January 1953,

nine Kremlin doctors
were accused

of plotting
with Western intelligence

to kill Soviet leaders.

[speaking Russian ]

The doctor's plot was instigated with
Stalin's approval.

Stalin had been
suspicious of doctors

for a long time
before that.

This was all due to
his illness made worse

by his old age and
by his life-long ideology

that the enemies who always
surround you should be

constantly eliminated.

NARRATION:
One of the doctors Yakov Etinger,

died under torture.

His son was arrested
and interrogated.

[speaking Russian ]

They wanted me to
make a confession,

to make a statement
that I was in the know,

that I was familiar with
certain facts which showed

that my father and
other doctors

were wrongly treating
certain patients.

They wanted me to make
this kind of statement but

they didn't get
it from me,

even though twice I was
sent to the punishment cell.

NARRATION:
Five of the nine doctors were Jewish.

The affair inflamed
Russian anti-semitism.

Jews were denounced
and purged throughout

the medical profession
and beyond.

Suddenly,
one winter night

Stalin collapsed with
a brain hemorrhage.

No-one dared to treat
him as he lay,

half-conscious,
on the floor.

Eventually,
on the 5th of March 1953,

he died.

VLADIMIR YEROFEYEV:
[speaking Russian ]

Like the majority of people
we saw it as a tragic event.

It caused a lot of anxiety:

how were we
going to live now

when the foundations
of our lives were shattered?

The image of Stalin
created by propaganda

was of someone who
was irreplaceable.

NARRATION:
Stalin had towered over the Soviet Union,

in peace and war,

for more than
twenty years.

Even those who hated
him could not imagine

a future without him.