- For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation)
COLD WAR is a twenty-four episode television documentary series about the Cold War (1945–1989), the events that led to it and those that followed the end of the Second World War. It was first broadcast in 1998, and was produced by Jeremy Isaacs in a style similar to his previous historical documentary series, The World at War (1973). Businessman Ted Turner created the series as a joint production between the Turner Broadcasting System and the BBC, originally broadcast on CNN in the U.S. and the BBC Two in the U.K. Kenneth Branagh narrated the series that featured interviews with leading political figures and people who witnessed and lived through the Russo-American Cold War. The complete Cold War series was released on VHS in the U.S. and the U.K., but not yet on DVD.
COLD WAR episodes
The twenty-four episodes are:
- Comrades (1917–1945)
- Iron Curtain (1945–1947)
- Marshall Plan (1947–1952)
- Berlin (1948–1949)
- Korea (1949–1953)
- Reds (1948–1953)
- After Stalin (1953–1956)
- Sputnik (1949–1961)
- The Wall (1958–1963)
- Cuba (1959–1962)
- Vietnam (1954–1968)
- MAD (1960–1972)
- Make Love Not War (The 60s)
- Red Spring (The 60s)
- China (1949–1972)
- Detente (1969–1975)
- Good Guys, Bad Guys (1967–1978)
- Backyard (1954–1990)
- Freeze (1977–1981)
- Soldiers of God (1975–1988)
- Spies (1944–1994)
- Star Wars (1981–1988)
- The Wall Comes Down (1989)
- Conclusions (1989–1991)
Declassified footage
The Cold War documentary series was first broadcast in 1998 and released in VHS videocassette. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the G.W. Bush administration re-classified as "secret" many already declassified documents and much film — specifically documents and film that might compromise American military operations occurring in Afghanistan in November 2001 — incidentally the month when Cold War officially went out of VHS print, with only few warehouse stock copies remaining for retail sale until the middle of 2002. Episodes number 19, "Freeze", and number 20, "Soldiers of God", contain film evidence of the United States — per Cold War policy — the Afghan mujahideen with weapons and military aid via the intermediary Pakistani ISI. The episodes feature mujahideen leaders and soldiers and Afghan citizens telling of life under Russian Soviet occupation, and shows Muslim soldiers demonstrating how they fought and defeated the Soviet Army in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan. Episode 20, "Soldiers of God", shows a Central Intelligence Agency officer, in 1980, encouraging the Muslim Afghan mujahideen to fight the Russians — while assuring them of unconditional American government support; and interviewed State Department officials confirming that the United States uncritically supported the Pakistani government for the sake of American interests in Afghanistan.
