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00:01Next on Secrets of War.
00:04Kennedy versus Khrushchev on the brink of oblivion.
00:07How close the superpowers actually came to nuclear holocaust.
00:11A terrifying doomsday machine built to end the world.
00:15A new information on brutal power struggles behind the Iron Curtain.
00:20Nuclear madness and the Cold War.
00:23The Strangelove Factor is next on Secrets of War.
00:30...
00:32...
00:40...
00:48...
00:52The End
05:00Their troops were exhausted,
05:02hoping to go home at last.
05:04But the task of rebuilding Europe still lay ahead.
05:08They were also engaged in a brutal war with the Japanese.
05:11U.S.
05:44It immediately informed Stalin that the United States had a super weapon.
05:49Stalin gave no indication that he understood what Truman was talking about.
05:53But he already knew from his spies inside the American Manhattan project.
05:58The first nuclear bluff was that Stalin did not show his fear.
06:05Months later, Truman would use that bomb to end the war against the Japanese.
06:13The successful American test had changed the odds.
06:17At the Potsdam summit, Stalin had to return three-quarters of Berlin to his former allies.
06:24Stalin kept the East, the Allies got the West.
06:29Before long, Stalin realized he'd made a mistake.
06:33The U.S. Marshall Plan revitalized and rebuilt Western Europe.
06:38Berlin was a beacon of freedom in a tyrannical communist state.
06:43The standard of living in West Berlin rapidly rose, much higher than that in the East.
06:50U.S. aid was offered to Stalin, but fearful of Western influence behind the Iron Curtain, he turned it down.
06:58Eastern Europe would have to rebuild as a collection of impoverished Soviet-ruled states.
07:05Hundreds of thousands of Germans fled to the West.
07:09Nothing the communists did could stop them.
07:12Facing a growing crisis, Stalin developed a simple, ruthless plan.
07:18Surrounded by communist territory, West Berlin depended on rail and road corridors.
07:24Stalin decided to starve the Berliners into submission.
07:28Suddenly, all traffic arteries were cut off.
07:32Neither trains nor trucks could get into besieged Berlin.
07:38Planes still flew, but Stalin expected Berlin, with its 2,500,000 inhabitants left without heat, food or electricity, to surrender.
07:49I believe that the blockade of Berlin was a bad mistake on the part of Stalin.
07:59His hopes, apparently, Western powers would either have to withdraw from West Berlin.
08:08I do not think that he envisaged the possibility that they would be able to set up an air bridge.
08:20Allied air forces under U.S. General Lucius Clay took up the challenge.
08:25A call went out for volunteer pilots.
08:28There was one route the Soviets couldn't close, the bridge in the sky.
08:34The Berlin airlift would attempt to supply a city of millions totally by air.
08:40For eight months, every two minutes, day and night, in spite of the danger, in spite of threats from East German interceptors, in all kinds of weather, the Allied pilots brought in supplies.
08:53Two hundred and seventy thousand flights.
08:57A million eight hundred thousand tons of cargo.
09:00From coal, to milk, to food.
09:03A fantastic, heroic operation of mercy and of defiance.
09:09The kindness of the Allies toward their recent mortal enemy took the world by surprise and astonished the Russians.
09:16Stalin was infuriated in his massive land force of two million troops and tens of thousands of tanks outnumbered the Allies.
09:26Worried that Stalin would risk a war to occupy West Berlin, the Allies concentrated 90 nuclear bombers in Britain.
09:35President Truman made it clear that he would order a nuclear strike at Soviet bases in East Germany.
09:42The first atomic confrontation had begun.
09:46For 270 days, the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war.
09:51Then Stalin weakened.
09:53On May 12, 1949, he lifted the blockade.
09:57Humbled by American nuclear power, Stalin urged his scientists to hurry.
10:03Soon, the Soviet A-bomb was completed and tested.
10:10The dangerous game of nuclear brinkmanship, of threat and block, had begun.
10:15The world was on a potentially fatal collision course when suddenly fate took a hand.
10:24On the 5th of March, 1953, Joseph Stalin suddenly died.
10:34His successor would likely be one of three men.
10:37Prime Minister Georgi Malenkov, Communist Party boss Nikita Khrushchev, or Lavrenti Beria, the sinister chief of Stalin's secret service, master of the gulag, head of the Soviet military complex.
10:53But Beria was not a true communist, not even a true believer.
10:59He was an opportunist.
11:01He was also more worldly than his provincial Politburo rivals.
11:06His secret agents had given him a window on the West, and he knew the main secret of the Cold War.
11:12The West was economically superior.
11:16Free trade and modern government was a powerful engine.
11:21Communism, in the long run, could not win.
11:26After the death of Stalin, people find it very hard to believe that the Soviet Union offered to join NATO.
11:33And this was the deal that Beria did, or attempted to do.
11:38Beria wanted to turn to the West.
11:42His first step would be in Berlin.
11:45According to Beria's plan, all of East Germany would be returned to the West.
11:50The Soviets would be paid $10 billion in reparations.
11:54In the summer of 1953, Beria arrived in Berlin to speak with the East German government.
12:01But he made a fatal mistake.
12:04He underestimated the East German ruler's desire to remain in power, even as puppets of the Soviet Union.
12:12As soon as Beria left for Moscow, an uprising broke out in East Berlin.
12:21For many years, it's been believed that this riot had purely economic roots.
12:27That people were demonstrating for food, for a better living standard.
12:34But in fact, this insurrection was planned, provoked by the East German government.
12:41They requested Soviet tanks to involve Moscow to compromise Beria's plans and to prevent Germany from being reunited.
12:54When Beria returned to Moscow, he was arrested, the result of a plot by Khrushchev.
13:00He was declared an imperialist agent and executed in December 1953.
13:06The new actor took the world stage.
13:09Nikita Khrushchev, the gruff, bear-like, strong-willed party boss, became head of the Soviet Union.
13:16He would lead the Soviet Empire during the most dangerous period in world history.
13:21In 1953, new leaders came into office on both sides of the Cold War.
13:31Retired General Dwight David Eisenhower was elected President of the United States.
13:36And Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev became Premier of the Soviet Union.
13:42The Cold Warriors had first met in Moscow in 1946 at a May Day parade when Stalin invited General Eisenhower to the reviewing stand on the mausoleum in Red Square.
13:55Eisenhower's style was to lead by consensus.
13:59He'd held together a fractious coalition against the Nazis and now held out hope for a rapprochement with the Soviet Union.
14:08But in the following years, mutual distrust grew.
14:12Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union rapidly deteriorated.
14:17By 1959, the tension surrounding West Berlin became critical.
14:24We will not let anybody into West Berlin.
14:31All rights to decide who enters belongs to the government of East Germany and to nobody else.
14:40Unlike Beria, Khrushchev had no intention of giving either West Berlin or Germany to the West.
14:49Attempts to arm West Germany were continued.
14:55The division of Germany was continued.
14:58And there was no return move on the part of the United States.
15:04When, in 1960, Eisenhower asked Khrushchev to visit the United States,
15:09the Soviet leader interpreted the invitation to be a result of his pressure on West Berlin.
15:14It seemed that face to face, the two ex-generals might find it easier to understand each other.
15:21Hard-nosed and ambitious, Khrushchev respected Eisenhower.
15:26He was eager to reform his country and to position it as one of the two world powers.
15:31To achieve his goals, Khrushchev was prepared to take risks.
15:36East and West agreed to meet in Paris in 1960.
15:42Khrushchev invited Eisenhower to visit the Soviet Union.
15:45But soon events took place which would prolong the Cold War for another three decades.
15:51The West was deeply concerned about Russian nuclear developments.
15:56Since the early 50s, the US had conducted active air reconnaissance over Soviet territory.
16:01The Soviets were aware of the US flights. They hunted these planes.
16:08252 American airmen were shot down.
16:1324 were killed.
16:1690 survived.
16:19138 were missing in action.
16:22But for their own reasons, each side kept the secret.
16:27The destiny of dozens of these Americans remains unknown.
16:33As losses grew, the flights were stopped.
16:36But in 1956, the US developed a new weapon of the Cold War.
16:40A reconnaissance plane which flew at extremely high altitudes, the U-2.
16:45This plane seemed impervious.
16:48Soviet anti-aircraft missiles and interceptors simply could not reach it.
16:54Overflights of Soviet territory were ordered.
17:00During Khrushchev's visit to the United States, the missions were stopped.
17:04But soon after his departure, the flights were renewed.
17:08And the first flight was blown in his face.
17:12He told that Americans told that we are not equal.
17:16They can do everything what they want over our territory.
17:20He refused after the first flight even to send the notes of the protest.
17:26He told, I am just C.
17:29How all of them laughing on me in Washington D.C.
17:34That I can do nothing with them.
17:36Infuriated, Khrushchev hastily announced the formation of new strategic missile forces.
17:43It was more bluff and bluster than substance.
17:46They had only a few dozen missiles.
17:48But Khrushchev managed to keep this weakness a secret.
17:51These missiles were seen as a new and dangerous threat by the West.
17:57The Americans were concerned.
17:59What kind of forces? Where are they located?
18:02Though Eisenhower was against it, CIA director Alan Dulles convinced him to allow a few more flights.
18:11Eisenhower preferred caution, especially before the summit in Paris.
18:15But under pressure, he reluctantly gave permission for two overflights.
18:19The last would take place no later than May 1, 1960.
18:26On the 9th of April, a U-2 plane appeared in the Soviet sky.
18:30Anti-aircraft stations tried to reach it with missiles.
18:34Fighters were sent up to intercept it, all without results.
18:38It passed over Russian territory safely and returned with vital photo reconnaissance.
18:46The second flight was scheduled for the very end of April.
18:49But the weather turned bad.
18:51The missions were cancelled.
18:53Then, on the last day allowed by the President on the 1st of May, the weather cleared.
18:59The plane, piloted by a civilian employee of the CIA, took off from a secret air base in Peshawar, Pakistan.
19:09Once more, its route went over the top secret semi-Palatinsk nuclear test ground,
19:14over military space fields and missile test grounds in Baikonur in Plisetsk.
19:19In the US, nobody paid attention to the date.
19:23But in the Soviet Union, May Day was the most important national holiday,
19:28celebrated by a traditional military parade through Red Square.
19:35Khrushchev took the U-2 flight on this day as a personal insult.
19:40Our stations spot the plane, follow it.
19:43In the morning of May Day, they immediately report everything to Khrushchev.
19:48We're all summoned to headquarters, all very nervous, telephones steaming.
19:53The plane goes on.
19:57Two Soviet fighters were scrambled to attempt a high-altitude intercept.
20:02The U-2 approached the missile station in Sverdlovsk.
20:06Unknown to the Americans, new C-75 missiles were based there.
20:11These missiles could reach 80,000 feet.
20:15One of them hit the U-2's tail.
20:17The plane started falling, but Russian radar could not discern this.
20:23To the radar operators, it looked like the U-2 was creating interference to mask its position.
20:28The Russians fired again.
20:31A missile hit a Russian interceptor.
20:34The Russian pilot was killed as the American bailed from his stricken craft.
20:38As he reviewed the military parade, Khrushchev got a report.
20:46The American U-2 had been intercepted.
20:50The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, captured.
20:52Then my father, after parade, he called and laughed and he told,
20:57we shot him, we could put in this guy, now we will show these Americans
21:02that they cannot do this anymore on our territory.
21:06Khrushchev was ready to accept Eisenhower's apologies.
21:12He suggested that Eisenhower come to Paris one day early to settle the problem.
21:17Eisenhower refused.
21:20Khrushchev was in high spirits on the way to Paris.
21:22He said the decision has been taken that at the summit I will say that Eisenhower should say he is sorry about the U-2 plane.
21:39Khrushchev tried to use the incident to pressure Eisenhower to force a western retreat from Berlin.
21:45He wanted Eisenhower to apologize, to punish those responsible.
21:52Eisenhower refused.
21:55Khrushchev cancelled the summit.
21:57When British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan arrived, he was surprised to learn the summit was over before it began.
22:05An infuriated Khrushchev held a press conference once more threatening the West.
22:11We did not finish you off at Stalingrad, in the Ukraine, at Belarusia.
22:22But if you dare try to scare us again, planning attacks on us, we'll kick you so hard you'll never risk it again.
22:33Khrushchev and General Eisenhower were allies during the war.
22:37They'd fought against fascism and defeated it.
22:41But they were unable to overcome the hostility and mistrust born in the Cold War.
22:46Now, Khrushchev prepared for clashes with a new U.S. Commander-in-Chief.
22:51John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected president in November 1960.
22:56He was young and vigorous. He represented change.
22:59People were tired of the Cold War.
23:03Both sides eagerly awaited the results of a summit in Vienna in June 1961.
23:09The topics were West Berlin and the problem of nuclear missiles, which, according to Khrushchev, the Soviet Union was producing like sausages.
23:17At the summit, Khrushchev said that if the Berlin problem could not be solved jointly, he himself would settle it once and forever.
23:30Kennedy suggested that there could be a war.
23:33Well, if a war is to begin, let it be sooner rather than later, Khrushchev replied.
23:40Khrushchev told him that we can destroy you. Not all United States, but your main cities. You can destroy us.
23:50Then Kennedy told, we can destroy you 20 times. He told, we are not so bloody as you. We don't need to destroy you many times. We will kill you only once. It's enough.
24:04Returning from Vienna, Kennedy was worried. He said this winter will be rather cold.
24:11Khrushchev, an experienced politician at the Stalin school, was looking for a solution to the Berlin problem.
24:20Now he thought he had found it.
24:28On August 13th, 1961, news from Germany shocked the world.
24:34East German soldiers were surrounding West Berlin with barbed wire.
24:37When Kennedy got the news, he was stunned.
24:41The U.S. had developed several plans for dealing with such a crisis.
24:45Now Kennedy was briefed.
24:48He learned that all the plans included one extremely drastic provision.
24:53The question was, how do you defend Berlin with 12,000 troops when they've got 2 million?
24:58Or how do you, what do you do? And the answer is always,
25:02well, you go this way and you go that way and then you use nuclear weapons.
25:05If that had happened, the first thing that would have occurred is that the Americans would have used tactical nuclear weapons.
25:11And they would have probably destroyed most of East Berlin and all the Soviet soldiers in it.
25:15And now what happens after that, after you've already started a nuclear war?
25:20Neither Kennedy nor the military knew what Khrushchev and the East Germans intended.
25:26Did they risk war to drive the West out of Berlin?
25:29For several days, tension grew.
25:32Then the East Germans eased the crisis.
25:36They declared that closing the border did not affect the Allies' rights.
25:40They still had open access to West Berlin.
25:43Closing the border was not to trap the Westerners in Berlin, as the West feared,
25:47but to prevent East Germans from escaping to the West.
25:52Kennedy and the military breathed a sigh of relief.
25:58The time for extreme measures had not yet come.
26:02Soon, East Germany started replacing the barbed wire surrounding the city with a concrete wall.
26:08The conflict built.
26:10On October 25th, American tanks rushed to Checkpoint Charlie, the primary border crossing between East and West.
26:18Russian tanks drove up to confront them.
26:21The tanks faced off, engines running 50 yards apart.
26:26Tension grew rapidly.
26:28Nerves could fail.
26:30Someone could open fire.
26:32For three days, shocked Berliners watched the standoff.
26:34A clash seemed unavoidable.
26:38What nobody knew was that neither Kennedy nor Khrushchev had ordered this confrontation.
26:44Even today, nobody can explain why the American and Russian tanks were sent to Checkpoint Charlie, or who sent them.
26:53It's a mystery of the Cold War.
26:57The leaders of both countries kept silent during the standoff.
27:00Both tried to play down the incident, undertaken without their consent.
27:06Russian and American tanks stood facing each other, eyeball to eyeball, rounds in the chamber.
27:13The Russians knew the American saying,
27:17He who blinks first, loses.
27:19But Khrushchev winked.
27:21He moved the Russian tanks into side streets where they were unseen.
27:24Relieved, the American commanders pulled out.
27:29Again, the world had barely escaped a nuclear confrontation.
27:35Kennedy later expressed the American view, admitting in private conversation,
27:43The wall is better than the war.
27:45But then, three days later, shattering news.
27:49The Russians had detonated a super bomb.
27:51When I worked in general headquarters, I heard Soviet generals discussing the scientists, who are the most bloodthirsty beasts.
28:02Sometimes they bring such plans to us that we say,
28:06God, it's terrible.
28:09It's really inhuman.
28:10The designers of the super bomb gave it a very Russian name, Ivan.
28:17It equaled 50 million tons of TNT, or 1 million train boxcars loaded with explosives.
28:252,500 times the power of the bomb that leveled Hiroshima.
28:30The bomber had a special coating to protect it from the heat wave.
28:34The enormous bomb had to be fixed to the belly of the plane. It was too big for the bomb bay.
28:43The explosion took place at an altitude of 15,000 feet.
28:50It had to be that high.
28:52At that altitude, the fireball did not touch the ground.
28:55It sucked in less soil, diminished radioactive contamination of the atmosphere.
29:04A 5,400 square foot parachute would delay its fall.
29:11The bomber needed time to get away.
29:13These cameras were 60 miles from the epicenter.
29:19We were in the devil's jaws, the pilots said.
29:23The leg of the mushroom cloud was six miles wide.
29:28The radioactive fireball reached an altitude of 40 miles above the surface of the Earth.
29:34The explosion was beautiful, if I may say so as a scientist.
29:48The shock wave of the monstrous explosion traveled a thousand miles.
29:53It broke windows in Norway and Finland.
29:56These pictures were taken 500 miles from the epicenter.
30:00But then the scientists had the most monstrous idea of all.
30:11It had been written as fiction, but the plan was all too real.
30:15But there was another, even more terrible, savage project, codenamed Doomsday.
30:29It was developed as the ultimate measure.
30:32If we lose a war, if communism is dying, why should anybody survive?
30:37The project was to design a bomb, which if exploded, would cause all life on Earth to be terminated.
30:45This bomb was to be built inside a huge ship.
30:54The Ivan bomb, some 30 feet in length, had shocked the entire world.
30:59This nuclear device would destroy it.
31:02The ship itself would be the bomb.
31:05The entire hole would be filled with fissionable material.
31:07The structure of the vessel and the water it sailed in would vaporize.
31:12It would fill Earth's atmosphere with a radioactive cloud.
31:16The ship was to sail along the Soviet borders, its meters constantly monitoring radiation levels.
31:23If ever they registered radiation that indicated nuclear apocalypse in the Soviet Union, they would automatically trigger the monstrous bomb.
31:37Mankind would be destroyed.
31:40But the bomb to win the world would be automatic, out of control.
31:47Even a Cold War risk-taker such as Khrushchev could not take that risk.
31:52He banned the idea that doomsday machine was never built.
31:59The new year in 1962 could have become the last in human history.
32:09Doomsday might have come as a consequence of the Cold War, perhaps as its logical conclusion.
32:191961, maybe into 1962, that little period was the period in which the United States, for the last time, would enjoy such superiority over the Soviet Union and both bombers and missiles and any other kind of delivery systems that it would conceive of that it would be the first time.
32:37the theory systems that it would conceivably be possible, this was the theory, to attack the Soviet Union, destroy Soviet communism forever and have no damage.
32:46By 1962, the Russians had a problem.
32:50The United States had a 17 to 1 superiority in nuclear missiles and warheads.
32:56More frightening was the fact that the US missiles were based in Great Britain, Italy and Turkey.
33:02They could reach population centers in the Soviet Union in under 10 minutes.
33:05The Soviets had no forward bases. Their missiles had to be launched from Soviet territory and needed 25 minutes to reach US targets.
33:15To the Soviets, this disadvantage gave the US the opportunity to launch a first strike.
33:23Khrushchev desperately sought a means to balance the nuclear threat.
33:31And I do not believe, and I never have believed, by the way, that the Soviet Union was unequivocally, permanently, unmistakably aggressive.
33:40We've never taken, and this is one of the origins of the Cold War problem, as a matter of fact, taken at least regard for Russian legitimate defensive interests.
33:49In 1962, Khrushchev made a dangerous and secret move. For a while, it remained secret.
33:58Then, on October 14, 1962, an American U-2 plane on a reconnaissance mission over Cuba took a series of high-resolution exposures.
34:07Experts in the CIA laboratories analyzed the photos and came to a highly alarming conclusion.
34:16Soviet medium-range missiles had been installed in Cuba, 90 miles from the United States.
34:22They were discovered by chance. One day, the Soviets forgot to camouflage their sights.
34:33The discovery shocked the Americans. On the 22nd of October, President John Kennedy addressed the nation.
34:42It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.
35:02I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace.
35:10At any minute, the developing crisis could turn into a global nuclear war, with Cuba as its trigger.
35:18The roots of this drama go back to 1959, when Fidel Castro seized power.
35:24As a communist, he had reason to worry that the United States would take action against his regime.
35:30An alliance with the Russian was his best hope for survival.
35:35For Khrushchev, the enemy of his enemy was his friend.
35:40First, Raul Castro, in the summer of 1961, goes to Moscow to ask for help.
35:50Che Guevara and a bunch of his people go in August to ask for help.
35:54It turns out that in April, a trip was made that we didn't know about, we found out recently.
35:58Che Guevara goes back and asks, and I've seen the document, the document says, we need help qualitatively different than anything we have received before.
36:11He didn't ask for nuclear weapons, but what could he possibly be talking about, because they've already got tanks and MiGs and soldiers and guns and boats and so forth.
36:20Khrushchev loved the style of diplomacy that relied on a nuclear bluff.
36:27He wrote to Castro, now with our missiles we can hit a fly.
36:30That's great, Castro replied, but how about hitting the U.S.?
36:36Perhaps at that moment, Khrushchev got the idea.
36:39In June 1962, under the cover of large-scale war games, the Russians brought troops, equipment and arms to Soviet seaports.
36:49The troops were secretly loaded into dozens of cargo ships, destination unknown.
36:56Only later, the ship captains were informed.
37:00They were headed for Cuba.
37:0342,000 soldiers were kept in the ship's holds under top security.
37:08Only at night could they go on deck for fresh air.
37:13It was Khrushchev who did it all, with his closest associates.
37:18I was chairman of the KGB, and I still did not know of nuclear warheads being delivered there.
37:22Nobody asked my advice.
37:28It was one of the greatest secret operations of the 20th century.
37:32But the secrecy itself was very nearly a catastrophic mistake.
37:37When the Americans discovered the missiles, the Russians needed only two and a half hours more to make the missiles operational.
37:45Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko and Ambassador Dobrynin tried to convince President Kennedy
37:50that there were no Soviet missiles in Cuba.
37:54They lied.
37:56The secret installation, and continued lying by the Russians, indicated to the American government that these missiles were intended for a secret strike against the U.S.
38:08To Kennedy and his advisers, the nuclear threat was very real.
38:13They discussed and argued over their options, to find a response, to safeguard their people and their country, while preventing an all-out nuclear war.
38:24Of all possible countermeasures, from invasion to threat to nuclear first strike, Kennedy chose the most balanced one.
38:37He ordered a sea blockade of Cuba.
38:38Americans lived through terrifying days. Panic started. People bought out food supplies.
38:49They feared U.S. military action against Cuba and a retaliatory strike at the U.S.
38:54The nuclear nightmare had become reality. The American Navy took positions along a blockade line around Cuba.
39:07Because of the time difference, it was evening when the Russians got the news of Kennedy's speech and the American response.
39:12Khrushchev had misjudged Kennedy. He'd sensed weakness at the summit in Vienna.
39:19Now he was surprised and frightened by the U.S. resolve.
39:23U.S. nuclear missiles, now on alert, were targeted at 200 Soviet cities in strategic sites.
39:30The Americans were enraged.
39:33Khrushchev immediately summoned his closest circle. He was extremely nervous.
39:38He was at a loss. He did not expect such reaction, such behavior from the Americans. He looked for a way out.
39:49Soviet ships were nearing the blockade line. Some carried R-14 nuclear missiles with enough warheads to cover the entire United States.
40:02The U.S. had indicated its intent to prevent this by force.
40:05He said, well, the missiles are now approaching Cuba. They will be in place there. And we were approaching a big blow up.
40:17He said, well, it's too late to change anything now.
40:22The missile carrying ships were accompanied by Soviet submarines equipped with nuclear torpedoes.
40:28U.S. Coast Guard planes registered their engine noise.
40:33Tensions grew. The distance between the American and Soviet ships grew smaller.
40:40Smaller. Soviet freighters were now two hours from the quarantine zone.
40:45The crisis crackled and sparked. You know, like a high tension cable, which has dropped on you. And sparking in all directions.
40:56And speaking for myself, actually, I just wondered, how are we going to get out of this?
41:01I mean, it was Wednesday. Then you've got this other problem, you know, of the naval blockade, of the Soviet ships moving to the blockade. Would they stop? What happens if they didn't stop?
41:11Khrushchev still delayed his decision, hoping for a miracle. But there was no way out. He ordered the missile carrying ships to stop, then to turn back.
41:26On the 24th of October, the military clash was avoided. But what would have happened if Khrushchev's orders had come too late?
41:42The Americans won the first round. The Soviet ships carrying missiles turned back. But the key problem remained. Soviet nuclear weapons were still in Cuba. The U.S. prepared for military action.
41:56Troops were sent to Florida and to the Caribbean. Moscow became extremely worried.
42:04On the 27th of October, the CIA ordered a U-2 on a reconnaissance mission over the Soviet pads to determine whether they were ready to launch missiles.
42:13Cuban anti-aircraft guns opened a barrage fire, but the U-2's altitude was too great. They could not reach it.
42:28Then the U-2 appeared on Russian radar screens. One of the Russian officers gave the order to fire.
42:35The battery was equipped with the new Russian C-75 missiles. Unknown to the Americans, they could reach the U-2's altitude.
42:46The missile tracked the American reconnaissance plane. Neither Moscow nor the commander of the Soviet troops in Cuba had given the order.
42:57Neither Moscow nor the commander was aware of the launch. The American plane was hit.
43:03The pilot, Major Rudolph Anderson, died in the crash.
43:11It was clear to Kennedy and his advisers that only a Russian missile could reach the plane.
43:17They couldn't imagine that it could have been launched without a direct order from Moscow.
43:21Did it mean the Russians were starting the war? To the Cold Warriors it seemed so.
43:28The American generals insisted that Kennedy order an immediate pre-emptive strike on Cuba
43:34before the Russians could launch their remaining missiles at the United States.
43:39At this moment, Kennedy received a telegram from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
43:43The embassy had just received the most urgent message from Khrushchev.
43:49The future U.S. Ambassador Matlock was to translate it.
43:53He speaks excellent Russian, so they rely on him.
43:56But everybody in Washington is saying, hurry up, I need it now.
43:59He's saying, do you know how hard it is to translate Khrushchev?
44:02I mean, Khrushchev is a peasant, and he uses all this sort of not-so-nice language.
44:07You know, back in Washington they're wringing their hands, you know,
44:09trying to figure out when the next piece of the letter is coming in.
44:11When Washington got the message, the Americans were confused.
44:17Then it became clear Khrushchev was still trying to bargain.
44:22He didn't realize how critical the situation had become.
44:26It seemed he didn't know about the attack on the U-2,
44:30and therefore hadn't intended it.
44:34Pressed by his advisers and by the clear threat to U.S. security,
44:37Kennedy had no choice but to send Khrushchev an ultimatum.
44:42All he could do was to soften its style.
44:45Robert Kennedy informed the Russian ambassador that if the Soviet Union didn't remove the missiles from Cuba,
44:53the U.S. was ready to start a large-scale operation to destroy them.
44:57To back up the ultimatum, Kennedy alerted the U.S. military forces.
45:03Now the U.S. and Soviet Union were one step away from nuclear war.
45:09But now the American position was fixed.
45:15The initiative, the sole decision over whether the world would plunge into nuclear war,
45:21was in the heart of one man.
45:24Nikita Khrushchev.
45:25This is the only time in history that the nuclear missile sites in North Dakota and in Nebraska had the lids removed.
45:36But clearly there's a message being sent here.
45:40I've hit that button and there's only one button left to hit.
45:42The Soviets reacted immediately.
45:46The lids on their launch pads opened to bear the missiles.
45:50Both American and Soviet strategic nuclear bombers took off.
45:55The Soviet Army declared a red alert.
45:58Along with their East European satellites, NATO went to full alert.
46:04In the night of October 27th, 28th, Castro sent a coded telegram to Moscow.
46:09According to his information, the United States intended to invade Cuba within 24 hours.
46:16Only then did Khrushchev realize the gravity of the situation.
46:22If Americans landed in Cuba, the disaster was inevitable.
46:27For Khrushchev had another deadly secret.
46:30The greatest Soviet secret, one that was not revealed for 30 years,
46:34was that beside the medium range nuclear missiles known to the Americans,
46:40there were other nuclear weapons in Cuba.
46:42Weapons unknown to the US president, to the generals, to the CIA.
46:49In Cuba, the Soviets had secretly placed winged tactical Luna missiles with nuclear warheads.
46:55They had bombers on Cuban airstrips and boats armed with nuclear missiles.
47:02These weapons had no fail-safe devices.
47:05They could be triggered by their crews.
47:08Moscow was not in control.
47:09But he tried to avoid invasion, because he understood he will lose the control over the situation,
47:25because communications are very poor at that time.
47:29And who will make decision to use nuclear weapons? Nobody knows.
47:32Nobody knows.
47:33Because it was very easy at that time.
47:36You can switch the key, like in the car, and then push the button.
47:42It was a nightmare to my father.
47:44You can imagine, in all this fire, explosion, dying,
47:50captain, surgeon, will push this button.
47:54And then, at last, it will be the end of the world, the end of the civilization.
47:58Khrushchev gave instructions to call a Politburo meeting the next morning, on the 28th.
48:06And I was there, and it took place at a dacha outside of Moscow.
48:12It was decided to give an answer as soon as possible.
48:19Nikita Khrushchev loved the nuclear bomb.
48:23He loved the power it gave him.
48:25He embraced the policy of nuclear bluff.
48:30He was comfortable on the brink of nuclear war.
48:34He was the biggest brinksman of the 20th century.
48:38But now he'd come too close to the edge,
48:42to within a blink of nuclear disaster,
48:46of the end of civilization.
48:49It sobered him.
48:52And he realized the only way to preserve peace,
48:57to protect his country,
48:59to prevent a worldwide catastrophe,
49:01was to remove the missiles from Cuba.
49:03In return, President Kennedy agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey.
49:16The Cuban crisis was over, but not the Cold War.
49:22It would last for another 30 years.
49:26There would be wars in Africa, Vietnam,
49:31Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan,
49:34uprisings in Eastern Europe, and many other conflicts.
49:39But never again did one side directly threaten the other with nuclear weapons.
49:43The weapons were too deadly,
49:51too final,
49:54and finally too hard to control.
49:59The two superpowers backed off from direct confrontation.
50:02From now on, the war would be fought by surrogates armed with everything but nuclear devices.
50:13The leaders, and the world, had been scared straight.
50:21By the end of the 20th century, the Cold War had become history.
50:25And the strange love factor,
50:28the realization of the inherent insanity of nuclear conflict,
50:33may have saved the world.
50:55A friendship...
50:56...to save the world fromSS but to mental health and to any other,
50:58the security of the nuclear conflict.
51:00After a short story,
51:01the military will remain severe the possibility of the nuclear force,
51:04and the CEO who should take electricity for,
51:06and the fossil fuel for their defeat.
51:09In the future,
51:11like the u-s Championship,
51:12or Holy Spirit,
51:13the country who should take energy into the nuclear weapons.
51:16The education of the nuclear weapons,
51:18the control of the nuclear weapons,
51:20and the power of the nuclear weapons,
51:22the ability to take energy into the nuclear weapons,