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00:00Berlin, August 12th, 1961.
00:18The residents of West Berlin awake to the barbed wire that separates them from East Berlin, like this mother from her daughter.
00:30East German soldiers build a wall to separate their part of the city from the western half, occupied by the Allies.
00:48Since 1945, the world was already cut in half by an invisible iron curtain.
00:54Between the West, the democracies that rallied around the United States, and the East, communist nations dominated by Russia, known as the Soviet Union, and China.
01:07Nuclear weapons prevented a global confrontation, but this balance of terror brought forth local conflicts, like in Indochina in 1946, or in Korea in 1950.
01:20And now, in Berlin.
01:22The East and West are in a state of war, which can, at any moment, lead to the apocalypse.
01:31Oohooo!
01:46Crabby Mellon! Crabby Mellon!
02:03East Berliners try to flee before the wall is completed.
02:07One of them anonymously attests to this.
02:31The American bulldozer tanks forge ahead.
02:35Will they destroy the wall?
02:45Five years before the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1956,
02:50three years after Stalin's death,
02:53Nikita Khrushchev is the leader of the Soviet Union.
02:58Khrushchev is a Ukrainian.
03:00A political emissary during the Russian Civil War,
03:04he climbed the ladder to the highest echelons of the party.
03:07As Stalin's henchman, he starved Ukraine.
03:14During the Second World War, he was merciless on the Stalingrad Front.
03:17Yet now, Khrushchev surprises the entire world.
03:24Like Beria, his predecessor, he feels the need to save the regime and its faltering economy.
03:31He wants to ease tensions with the West, to limit military expenditures.
03:36Without turning his back on his ideology, he wants to distance himself from Stalin.
03:40At the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party on February 24th, 1956,
03:47Khrushchev has the assembly applaud the Frenchmen Jacques Duclos and Maurice Torres,
03:53because they are staunch Stalin supporters.
03:55But then, suddenly, Khrushchev reads a secret report that denounces Stalin's crimes.
04:09This stupefying act awakens hopes of freedom in the eastern countries colonized by the Russians,
04:17such as Poland, and especially Hungary.
04:22In Budapest in the fall of 1956, Hungarian students begin to protest peacefully.
04:28Moscow cannot accept this.
04:39After fierce internal debate, Khrushchev decides to forcibly intervene in Hungary.
04:46The stakes seem so essential that the issue of the West's reaction becomes secondary.
04:51The elites may not be killing one another anymore, but they still reject any change.
05:02Marshal Konev, one of the heroes in the victory over Germany,
05:06is placed in charge of keeping Hungary in check in the name of the Warsaw Pact,
05:11which regroups the eastern countries to counterbalance the Atlantic Alliance.
05:16Konev sets the Red Army tanks loose on Budapest.
05:19The officers tell their soldiers that they'll be fighting against German fascists.
05:27The entire population is against them.
05:30The Hungarian army trained by the Russians are on the insurgents' side,
05:35and its first targets are Soviet symbols.
05:37October 23rd, 1956, a massive armed uprising in Budapest.
05:53The city is surrounded by Konev's army.
06:05Budapest's radio launches a desperate plea.
06:10The Soviet troops have begun their attack.
06:13We fight them in the name of freedom.
06:162,500 Hungarian civilians and military, and 800 Soviet soldiers die during these few days of fighting.
06:34On November 10th, 1956, the Russian tanks launch their final attack.
06:43The Hungarian rebellion is definitively crushed in bloodshed.
06:49Budapest is in ruins.
06:51The Russians, and those who continue to support them, go wild, and order thousands of arrests, hangings, and deportations to the gulags.
07:00200,000 Hungarians managed to escape to Austria, and then Switzerland, Canada, the United States, and France.
07:13The whole world protests, but does nothing.
07:16Because at the same time, the world is being shaken by another major crisis.
07:24All eyes are on the Suez Canal.
07:27It's the vital oil route owned by a Franco-British private company.
07:32It was just nationalized by Colonel Gamel Abdul Nasser, the Ra'is, the leader, who just came into power in Egypt.
07:39Nasser proclaims,
07:42There's no shame in being poor.
07:45What is shameful is the exploitation of people.
07:48We are taking back our rights, and the canal belongs to Egypt.
07:56November 6th, 1956, British and French forces arrived to occupy the zone of the Suez Canal with the help of the Israeli army.
08:05After taking the towns along the canal, soldiers are ready to move into the operation's final phase, overthrowing Nasser's regime.
08:15Suddenly, they are given the order to cease hostilities.
08:18Suddenly, they are given the order to cease hostilities.
08:21London and Paris have just been seriously threatened with nuclear retaliation by Moscow.
08:25In the United States, President Eisenhower refused to refuse the invasion.
08:32Suddenly, they are given the order to cease hostilities.
08:36London and Paris have just been seriously threatened with nuclear retaliation by Moscow.
08:52In the United States, President Eisenhower refuses to get involved in the conflict.
08:59With his Secretary of State Foster Dulles, he backs down before the threat of the Arab
09:04world joining the Soviet camp.
09:09Nasser is the leader of the Arab nations.
09:17The French paratroopers head back to Algiers where they came from to fight against the insurgents
09:22from the FLN, the Algerian National Liberation Front.
09:27They are welcomed by the French community who is under great threat.
09:35Nasser sinks 40 ships in the canal, rendering it inoperative for several months and cutting
09:41off 90% of oil supplies.
09:44In just a few days, France has no more fuel.
09:48A voucher system is instituted and factories stop production.
09:53Drivers abandon their cars in the Place de la Concorde.
09:59In Moscow, the Suez crisis has strengthened Khrushchev's power.
10:04He has just won his first duel against the West.
10:07The master of the Kremlin is still master of the world.
10:14Especially since he has gained new supporters in what is called the Third World.
10:20Non-aligned is the term invented by Indian Prime Minister Nehru to refer to countries who
10:26don't belong to the communist or capitalist camps.
10:33But the Soviet Union and China compete to rally the non-aligned countries.
10:38These African or Asian nations whose independence is often recent.
10:47In 1956, Mao condemns the rebellions of the Eastern European countries.
10:52For him, they are the result of the famous Khrushchev report on Stalin's crimes.
10:59Mao sees himself as Stalin's true successor.
11:03He sees himself as the master of the world's one billion communists.
11:08For him, the détente with the West that Khrushchev is aiming for can only weaken the socialist
11:14camp.
11:17The war is the glue of communism.
11:19And as such, war must continue in Vietnam.
11:24Mao has already greatly contributed to the communist victory in the North.
11:29Their leader, Ho Chi Minh, has never missed an opportunity to go to China.
11:34To show Mao his gratitude.
11:40And in the Soviet Union, to show his gratitude to the Politburo.
11:47Ho Chi Minh comes out of Lenin and Stalin's mausoleum in tears.
12:05Khrushchev will say, Ho Chi Minh is truly one of communism's saints.
12:14Ho Chi Minh obtained the equivalent of 100 million euros from the USSR.
12:18Along with the 200 million Mao gave him, he can now confront the famine that ravages his country.
12:24As soon as they came into power in North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh and his regime launched a major agrarian reform.
12:39Vietnamese farmers make up 95% of the population.
12:43To control them, the government takes their land.
12:47It's called forced collectivization, which begins with the destruction of their land titles.
12:53Small landowners are forced by the police to wear bourgeois or Mandarin clothing and are humiliated with mock trials.
13:05They are accused of terrible crimes by their family, even by their children.
13:17Tens of thousands of these poor people are executed or thrown into re-education camps, immediately established by the regime.
13:28Following the Stalinist model, two and a quarter million acres are transformed into collective farms whose profits revert to the state.
13:37Since 1954, hundreds of thousands of peasants managed to escape to the south.
13:44Amongst them are many city dwellers, civil servants, or employees of the French.
13:51The roads are quickly closed off, so they climb onto anything that floats.
14:03Overloaded bamboo rafts are picked up by American ships.
14:12They leave everything behind, their land and their ancestors.
14:17They bring only their Christian faith, which they display like a laissez-passer.
14:26The South Vietnamese leader is a Catholic as well, in a country which is primarily Buddhist.
14:32His name is Jean-Baptiste Nodin Diem.
14:35He is 53 years old.
14:38Exiled for years, he is the main face of non-communist anti-colonialism.
14:44His plans are guided by his fear of the communists, who he hunts down and imprisons.
14:54With the help of his brother, Nodin Diem, the head of the secret police.
14:59And his wife, Mrs. Diem, quickly renowned for her beauty and outspokenness,
15:05when it comes to denouncing the opposition and the Western medias that she believes are manipulated by the communists.
15:17In Hanoi, North Vietnam, the communists gathered around Ho Chi Minh are now preparing to go back to war.
15:24The Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos and Cambodia must be reopened as it was during the Indochina War.
15:35But it will be expanded into a complex network of paths and trails invisible from the sky.
15:41Over 1,200 miles through mountainous jungles stretching to the south.
15:50One of the communist fighters, Tran Tuna, recalls...
15:54The density of the forest is suffocating. Cut one vine and ten more grow. Clear a path and it disappears the next day.
16:02How strange it feels to defy nature this way.
16:14Most of the time, the soldiers are very young and very indoctrinated.
16:20Their faith gives them strength even in the worst conditions.
16:27Their capitalist enemies quickly give them a nickname. Viet Cong, meaning Viet Camis.
16:36To secure their trail, they line it with as many booby traps as possible.
16:40Just like their elders did, but with more imagination and cruelty.
16:50Unsecured zones grow in size.
16:57The survivors receive attention from Diem, the president of South Vietnam, who demands an increase in American aid.
17:12The first American military advisors arrive.
17:16A diabolical war machine is activated.
17:20The southern soldiers have the means to retaliate against the Viet Cong.
17:28They show no clemency when they manage to flush them out.
17:32And they are merciless towards the villages that sheltered them.
17:51This repression feeds hatred.
17:58These are also the Khrushchev years.
18:04The 50s.
18:05A break in the Cold War.
18:07The USSR begins to slowly open up to tourism and amateur filmmakers.
18:14In France, the magazine of Renault's CGT Union publishes an article entitled,
18:23A Renault Steelworkers' Visit to the USSR.
18:26Steelworkers here work six hours a day.
18:29And they retire at 55 years old.
18:32The USSR is a paradise on earth for steelworkers.
18:35Khrushchev wants to pursue an easing of tensions and peaceful coexistence.
18:50And in July 1959, the Russians are stunned to see the United States Vice President, Richard Nixon.
18:57He is invited to inaugurate the first exhibition in Moscow of American products.
19:03Khrushchev begins by drinking a Pepsi, forbidden in the USSR.
19:12Is this strong symbol of detente a sign of renouncing the Cold War?
19:18It is just the opposite.
19:20The Soviets are not ready to abandon their ideology.
19:24The conquest of new countries and progress in military and space programs
19:29put Khrushchev in a position to stand tall before capitalism's representative
19:33in a very unexpected dialogue.
19:36Nixon then invites Khrushchev to the United States.
19:49Khrushchev flies to Washington on the Tupolev 114 to impress the Americans.
19:54A huge 180-ton aircraft with a glass nose like the bomber it was derived from.
20:14The Americans are also astounded.
20:16Both flags side by side.
20:18The Soviet anthem performed by the U.S. Air Force Orchestra.
20:23A warm welcome from their president, General Eisenhower.
20:26A review of the Marines.
20:28And the two men striving to appear well-intentioned.
20:32Our common purpose should be, as always, a just, universal, and enduring peace.
20:41It is in this spirit, Mr. Chairman, that I greet you and welcome you to Washington and to the United States.
20:51When Mrs. Khrushchev-Nina climbs into the presidential Lincoln,
20:55Eisenhower hesitates for a moment.
21:01Journalist David Garroway accurately summarizes what is happening.
21:09We had never seen him so close up.
21:13His pudgy physique doesn't correspond to the vision of the world's most powerful dictator.
21:18How did this bulky fellow with a round, clownish face reach his present pinnacle?
21:32All smiles.
21:34He presents Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon with a space probe.
21:40Similar to the one he sent up to the moon the previous day.
21:43Eisenhower gives a forced laugh.
21:50He is mortified by the series of failed American space launches, still far from manned flights.
21:56Holy, holy, holy, holy.
21:57Lord God Almighty, early in the morning, my soul shall rise to thee.
22:18The Russians are able to send a dog, Leka, into space, which proves that they will soon be able to send a man, a satellite, or a bomb.
22:35The balance of terror is dangerously threatened.
22:38Convinced of his superiority, Khrushchev takes the liberty of entertaining the press, playing on his Mr. K persona, gregarious and reassuring.
22:56He visits Hollywood, where he's invited to a lavish dinner, broadcast using all the latest television technology of the time.
23:10Every movie star attends, wanting to see the strange creature who has come from the cold, including Frank Sinatra, David Niven, Tony Curtis, and most importantly, the Queen of Hollywood and the world, Marilyn Monroe.
23:26In Peking, attractions of another kind await Khrushchev.
23:33On September 28, 1959, only 15 days after his visit to the United States, he is in China to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Mao's rise to power.
23:44Khrushchev fears Mao and has decided to break his commitment to supply him with the latest prototype of a nuclear bomb.
23:55Mao continues to openly criticize Khrushchev and his peaceful coexistence with the West.
24:08This signals the split between the Chinese and the Soviets.
24:11For Ho Chi Minh, who is also invited, it is a sign that the Vietnam War is going to intensify.
24:19Khrushchev writes, China holds Vietnam in its claws and it won't loosen its grip.
24:25Communist North Vietnam trains its army to invade the South.
24:32Weapons and supplies travel along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which goes through Laos and drags the country into the war.
24:47The chain of events remains the same.
24:57American military advisors are now joined by the mighty Green Berets, who have come to train the young Laotian army.
25:04The Green Berets are part of the American army's special forces, created in the 1950s.
25:20In South Vietnam, the Green Berets gather the villagers in highly guarded strategic hamlets.
25:25This triggers increasing hostility among the farmers.
25:32The Viet Cong has little difficulty finding informants and creates an entire spy network, enabling them to carry off their attacks accurately and successfully.
25:55The Green Berets begin to fear their elusive enemy.
26:08This is one of the most striking images of the War of Worlds.
26:12The one the East wants to project, that of a small heroic nation in holes and tunnels entirely devoted to the cause.
26:20But in fact, entire divisions with powerful artillery are confronting the steel monsters from the West.
26:36A Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft flies regularly over the Soviet Union at more than 65,000 feet.
26:44A record.
26:46This altitude shields it from anti-aircraft missiles.
26:49It can safely photograph Russia's ballistic missile sites.
26:55It is quickly spotted by Soviet radar, but is far too high to be targeted.
27:05Khrushchev, feeling betrayed by the West in his attempt to ease tension and weaken vis-Ã -vis the party and the Chinese, decides to launch his fighter squadrons and his new anti-aircraft missiles.
27:17At first, these Soviet missiles shoot down their own fighter planes as they approach the U-2.
27:30But in the end, they manage to hit the American plane.
27:33The U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers, ejected himself.
27:42After heavy interrogation, his trial begins on August 24th, 1960, in Moscow.
27:48In Moscow.
27:49In the famous Column Hall in the House of the Unions, the old throne room.
27:55Ever since the revolution, this hall has served to honor communism's great deceased figures and to celebrate other important regime events.
28:03This trial has worldwide impact.
28:13The prosecutor asks powers.
28:16Do you plead guilty to the charges listed?
28:18Yes, I plead guilty.
28:19Yes, I plead guilty.
28:24Who gave you these instructions?
28:27The commander of my detachment.
28:32In his defense, he says,
28:33Not as an enemy, but as a human being.
28:36Who is not a personal enemy of the Russian people.
28:48Powers is not sentenced to death, the usual punishment for such a case in the Soviet Union.
28:53He is sentenced to 10 years in prison and is rapidly exchanged for the head of Russian espionage in America, Colonel Rudolf Abel.
29:10In November 1960, Khrushchev closely follows the American elections.
29:16A face-off between a brilliant young Democrat Senator John Kennedy and the Republican Vice President Richard Nixon.
29:23Khrushchev hates Nixon, whom he considers to be very anti-communist, and applauds when Eisenhower hands over power on January 20th, 1961, to Kennedy, who Khrushchev believes to be a progressive.
29:40Is he a new Roosevelt?
29:41At his inauguration, Kennedy and his vice president, Lyndon Johnson, have chosen Marian Anderson to sing the American anthem, traditionally sung on such an occasion.
29:53On such an occasion.
29:54She is a hero in the fight for civil rights.
29:56But contrary to Khrushchev's hopes, Kennedy reveals himself to be a determined adversary of the Soviet Union.
30:14His brother, Robert Kennedy, had worked with Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had hunted down American communists 10 years earlier.
30:25Robert Kennedy becomes United States Attorney General and the main advisor to his brother, the new president.
30:32As soon as they step into office, John Kennedy and his vice president, Lyndon Johnson, have urgent matters to handle.
30:42The first is the issue of Cuba, the largest Caribbean island situated right next to the United States.
30:49Two years earlier, on January 3rd, 1959, Fidel Castro and his guerrillas marched triumphantly into Havana.
31:11Castro had defeated the army of Colonel Batista, accused of being a corrupt dictator.
31:16Castro had promised to keep his beard until social justice, as he called it, was victorious.
31:30The beard had become a symbol of the revolutionaries.
31:35Castro firmly turned towards his only possible means of support, the Soviet Union.
31:39One month after Castro seized power, Mikoyan, the Soviet Minister of Foreign Trade, hurried to Havana to sign a $100 million loan and a promise to buy Cuba's sugar production.
31:53The Americans have only one goal, to overthrow Castro.
32:00Soon after taking office in 1961, Kennedy discovers a plan formulated by his predecessor, Eisenhower, and the CIA.
32:10A military expedition composed solely of Cuban exiles.
32:13They must land, rally the population, and appeal to America for help.
32:23Kennedy approves this plan.
32:26He chooses the landing spot.
32:28A beach 125 miles from Havana, the Bay of Pigs, named after a local fish.
32:35On April 17th, 1961, 1,400 anti-Castro Cubans land.
32:46Castro gathers all the troops he has.
32:50His modest air force fires on the shores of the Bay of Pigs and sinks the anti-Castro ships.
33:16However, Castro remains concerned.
33:19What will the population do?
33:22It doesn't react.
33:25Either terrified, or won over by the revolution.
33:29Kennedy gives the order to abandon the Cuban exiles to their fate.
33:35The anticipated uprising doesn't take place.
33:381,000 surviving anti-Castroists surrender.
33:53They are later exchanged by Cuba for medicine.
33:59Barely three months after his inauguration, Kennedy has just experienced a terrible setback with the failure of the Bay of Pigs.
34:06He fears the worst.
34:10He says, we moved on Cuba.
34:12Now, Khrushchev will move on Berlin.
34:17Berlin remains the central issue of the Cold War.
34:22Three million East Germans have already escaped to the West via Berlin.
34:26This is an unbearable situation for the communists, who demand that the western part of the city be annexed.
34:40In an attempt to end the escalation, Kennedy goes to Vienna to meet with Khrushchev.
34:45He wants to prevent him from occupying West Berlin, which would mean war.
34:53On the way to Vienna, Kennedy stops in Paris with his wife Jackie.
34:57Kennedy is impressed by the French President, General de Gaulle, a historic personality.
35:10De Gaulle advises him to remain firm about Berlin.
35:14The big meeting takes place the next day in Vienna.
35:21Kennedy knows perfectly well that he is in a weakened position, barely two months after the Bay of Pigs disaster.
35:29Khrushchev, on the other hand, is empowered by his planetary success.
35:32He has just sent the first man, Yuri Gagarin, into space.
35:47In the Vienna salons, when the incredibly elegant Jackie meets Khrushchev,
35:52and President Kennedy meets Mrs. Khrushchev,
35:55it's the collision of irreconcilable cultures.
35:58A dialogue between the two men is impossible.
36:06Kennedy has no idea what Khrushchev has brewing.
36:10Building a 90-mile wall to isolate Berlin West from East Berlin,
36:16the rest of Germany, and all other Eastern Bloc countries.
36:22Three million refugees have already managed to get to the other side.
36:26Khrushchev chose the solution the Western world least expected.
36:37A French diplomat, Henri Fromont-Maurice, recalls,
36:42We had imagined everything except the wall, because it is difficult for democracies to imagine the kinds of things dictatorships could do.
36:53We had considered blocking off access to the city, but we hadn't pictured the adversary suddenly blocking himself off,
37:01locking in his own population to stop them from reaching the West.
37:05But the wall is also a relief for the West.
37:11Berlin is better locked up than under Russian control.
37:16But for Khrushchev, the offensive continues.
37:33He honors the Cuban revolution and says,
37:35Now we will put a hedgehog in America's underwear.
37:43With Castro, he decides to install nuclear missiles 125 miles from the U.S. coast.
37:49October 1962, an American reconnaissance plane brings back photos from Cuba of ballistic missile sites,
38:05which could strike American towns in a matter of minutes.
38:08This balance of terror has already been upset by the Americans.
38:16President Eisenhower had installed Jupiter ballistic nuclear missiles in Turkey.
38:23These Jupiters are close to the Russian border, even closer than the Soviet missiles in Cuba are to America.
38:30This situation, intolerable for the leaders in Moscow, has forced Khrushchev to put Kennedy in the same situation.
38:47Kennedy alerts the UN and seizes the Security Council, showing pictures of the construction of the missile sites.
38:54The Americans are called upon. Their president is going to address them.
39:02I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to haul and eliminate this clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace.
39:11The U.S. Navy establishes a blockade around Cuba, closing off the route for the Russian ships carrying the missiles.
39:17But suddenly, four Soviet nuclear submarines surface inside the blockade.
39:28This round has just become extremely dangerous.
39:32Pope John XXIII launches a solemn appeal to the governments.
39:43We beg all governments not to remain deaf to this cry of humanity.
39:48Castro rallies his population to the notes of the Internacional.
39:51Brother countries loudly relay slogans in support of Castro.
40:06On the beaches of Florida, the Americans strengthen their defense, concentrate their troops, and put their air force on maximum alert.
40:14The whole world sees this as the beginning of World War III.
40:31The universal reflex is to urgently build food reserves.
40:35And to identify anything that could be used as a fallout shelter.
40:45In school, children begin learning how to protect themselves in a nuclear threat.
40:50And their parents create shelters to save the human race.
40:53After days of secret negotiations, like this game of badminton with U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk,
41:09Khrushchev wins by obtaining the disarming of the U.S. Jupiter missiles in Turkey.
41:14As though he were surrendering to Kennedy, on October 28th, 1962, Khrushchev orders his fleet to head home with its Soviet missiles.
41:31The Americans film them, covered in tarps on the decks of the Russian ships.
41:36The images travel the world.
41:43The Murphy family comes out of its fallout shelter in Vermont.
41:48Barbara in New York and Max and Rachel in Texas let out a huge sigh of relief, as does the whole world.
41:58They are all convinced that Kennedy saved them.
42:02Their president expresses his thanks to God at mass with his family on Sunday, October 28th, 1962, in a small church.
42:15Yet Khrushchev is the real winner.
42:18He secured the withdrawal of the American missiles and their commitment to leave Cuba alone.
42:24But Khrushchev has accepted to lose face, which will eventually result in his fall.
42:29Kennedy comes out of the crisis strengthened.
42:34In June 1963, he goes to West Berlin, split in two by the Wall of Shame, and still under the threat of a Russian invasion.
42:47Kennedy gives his most direct and explicit speech.
42:502,000 years ago, the proudest boast was Kiwis Romanis Sum.
43:03Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is Ich bin ein Gelina.
43:12There are some who say, there are some who say that communism is the wave of the future.
43:26Let them come to Berlin.
43:28And while visiting the Berlin Wall, he adds,
43:34Our democracy is not perfect, but we have never needed to build a wall to stop our people from escaping.
43:42The wall provides glaring proof of the failure of the communist system.
43:53The priority that now awaits Kennedy is Vietnam, where the war will drag the West and the East towards the abyss.
44:01The abyss.
44:02The abyss.