The Cold War

Episodes • 1999

Charlton Heston
Eisenhower's Operative

1. Eisenhower's Operative

60 min

The Supreme Allied Commander of World War II relied on the covert arm of the CIA to an unprecedented scale during his presidency. From his education on clandestine warfare from Winston Churchill to CIA missions all over the world, Eisenhower unleashed his operatives like no other U.S. leader.

Watch Episode
The Hunt for Atomic Secrets

2. The Hunt for Atomic Secrets

60 min

The all-important race to develop an atomic bomb led to some of the most daring Russian spy operations in the United States. Exclusive interviews with Russian agents detail the inside story of the Soviet atomic spy ring.

Watch Episode
The Strangelove Factor

3. The Strangelove Factor

60 min

How close did the Superpowers actually come to a nuclear holocaust? New information on brutal power struggles behind the Iron Curtain, the Cuban missile crisis and the terrifying "Doomsday Machine" built to end the world.

Watch Episode
Inside the CIA

4. Inside the CIA

60 min

From revolutionary coups and election rigging to embassy spying, the West employed the CIA in controversial ways to win the Cold War.

Watch Episode
Inside the KGB

5. Inside the KGB

60 min

Hear the untold stories behind the headlines in the unseen cold war battles between the Western intelligence agencies and the KGB.

Watch Episode
The Kennedy Years

6. The Kennedy Years

60 min

This youngest of American presidents took over in the most tense period of the Cold War. Hear the stories from within the White House, on the front lines of CIA operations in Cuba and in the espionage capital of Berlin.

Watch Episode
Khrushchev's Regime

7. Khrushchev's Regime

60 min

Although he tried to distance himself from Stalin's ruthless regime, Khrushchev brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Take a look at the Cuban Missile Crisis from the Soviet point of view, as well as brutal repressions in Poland and Hungary against Communist resistors.

Watch Episode
Nixon's Secrets

8. Nixon's Secrets

60 min

The story behind Richard Nixon's resounding triumphs and crushing defeats, included are his stinging investigation of alleged Communist Alger Hiss, the covert missions carried out during his presidency in Vietnam and the secrets behind his foreign policy victories with China and the Soviet Union.

Watch Episode
Castro's Revolution

9. Castro's Revolution

60 min

From CIA assassination attempts foiled by Cuban Intelligence agents to Castro's secret pacts with the Soviets and his survival after the Cold War, a look at one of the most enduring revolutionaries of the twentieth century.

Watch Episode
Brezhnev's Kremlin

10. Brezhnev's Kremlin

60 min

Before Leonid Brezhnev signed nuclear arms reduction agreements with the West, he led the Soviets into one conflict after another. From Soviet involvement in Vietnam and its role in Arab-Israeli conflicts to the untold stories of the invasion of Afghanistan.

Watch Episode