People's Century

Details

Despite being allies against Hitler, disagreement and rivalry soon break out between the Soviet Union and the West, leading to the Cold War. The Soviet Union installs puppet regimes across Eastern Europe with planned economies, prompting Churchill to deliver his Iron Curtain speech. Both sides increasingly distrusts the other, and use propaganda to promote their cause. In 1949 McCarthyism and the Mosinee mock Soviet coup demonstrate US anxiety about communism following Soviet acquisition of the atom bomb and the victory of communism in China. The Berlin Blockade, the Korean War and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 become flashpoints, although both sides eventually begin to believe in peaceful coexistance and accept a division of spheres of influence. The Soviet Block remains wary of the influence of Western ideas and its superior standard of living, and in 1962 reinforces its divide with the West by building the Berlin Wall. The introductory scene shows the fracternal relationship that had existed between Soviet and Western forces when they finally met in Germany in 1945. Interviewees include Manny Fried and Gail Halverson.

• Genres: Documentary
• Language:  English