Cold war. Vol. 4. Episodes 13-16: Dirty wars

Volume four of the six volume television series “Cold War” features episodes 13 to 16 and covers the period from 1949 to 1975. “Make love not war” begins with the 1960 presidential race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon who both shared a patriotic anti-communist fervour. In the West, the sixties have always been synonomous with “love, peace, sex, drugs and rock’n’roll” and in this episode we see the rise of the Black American Civil Rights Movement, the anti-Vietnam peace movement, the emergence of the hippie generation, the “Pill”, sexual freedom, parallelled with increased US Government military spending on the defence industry, the sending in of US ground troops to Vietnem, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr and the rise of the Black Panthers. And in the background, always the fear of a Soviet nuclear attack. “Red spring” focuses on the Soviet Union during the sixties and Khrushchev’s attempts to rid the Soviet of Stalin’s terror regime and bring in a new democratic form of socialism. Life began to improve for the Soviet people and particularly in Czechoslovakia where the reformers began to take over, to bring communism up-to-date - a socialism with a human face. However things change when Brezhnev replaces Khrushchev and Prague is invaded by Soviet and Warsaw Pact Armies in 1968. Moscow is feaful of losing control and the hard-line Communists feel threatened by the new democratic socialists. The emergence of the People’s Republic of China led by Mao Tse-tung and the People’s Liberation Army signals a new and dangerous phase in the Cold War. Allegiances between China and Russia are formed, putting the United States out in the cold. However, when a split between Moscow and Beijing occurs, the United States are very quick to step in and improve their relations with China resulting in the well-known “pingpong diplomacy” and the vist to China by Richard Nixon in 1972. Finally detente! Treaties are signed, US/Russia/UK agree to ban nuclear testing, American troops are pulled out of Vietnam and an agreement to co-existence rather than war. Narrated by Kenneth Branagh. (For more information see www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war)