Chapters

1. WAR’S AFTERMATH (13 minutes, 25 seconds). Covers the postwar discovery of Nazi atrocities, the ceding of Eastern Europe and portions of Asia to Soviet control, the communist influence over the United Nations, the convening of war crimes tribunals, Douglas MacArthur’s democratic reform of vanquished Japan, President Truman’s betrayal of Chiang Kai-shek, the geopolitical break-up of postwar Germany, and the Venona code-breaking revelations of a Soviet infiltration in the executive branch of the US government.

2. GLOBAL COMMUNISM (18 minutes, 2 seconds). Covers the postwar labor union strikes, the granting of independence to the Philippines, Joseph Stalin’s control over Soviet satellite nations in Europe, Mao Tse-tung’s communist drive across China, the Truman Doctrine in Greece and Turkey, passage of the Taft-Hartley “right to work” act, the implementation of the Marshall Plan in Europe, the Supreme Court’s hostile ruling on the Everson v. Board of Education case, the Soviet blockade of East Berlin, the U.S. commencement of the Berlin Airlift (continual supply drops by air), the uncovering of Soviet spy rings in America), the arrests of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (spies who delivered America’s atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets), and the close election of 1948.

3. CHINA, KOREA, AND THE LOSS OF AMERICAN RESOLVE (18 minutes, 58 seconds). This segment begins with the formation of NATO, the Soviet Union’s detonation of an atomic bomb, the communist overthrow of China and the exile of Chinese nationalists to Formosa (Taiwan), the Soviet-backed communist invasion of South Korea, and the political exploitation of the communist threat by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Thereafter, the segment focuses on the events surrounding the Korean War, including: the near-defeat of American forces at the time of General MacArthur’s arrival, the strategically-brilliant US invasion at Inchon, the liberation of South Korea, the U.N.’s shocking about-face on war goals (no longer victory in Korea – just “containment of the aggressor”), Communist China’s invasion of Korea , the restoration of Japan as an independent nation, President Truman’s removal of General MacArthur from command, the public backlash against Truman, and MacArthur’s “Old Soldiers” address to Congress.

4. THE EISENHOWER YEARS (23 minutes, 58 seconds). Covers the ratification of the 22nd Amendment, the communist scandal in the American film industry, the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the political backlash against Senator Joseph McCarthy, the struggle against racial segregation, the Geneva Accords mandate to create North and South Vietnam, the signing of the SEATO alliance, Nikita Khrushchev’s rise to power in the Soviet Union, the formation of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (a Soviet counterpart to NATO), the Supreme Court ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education case, Rosa Parks' role in the fight against racial segregation on public buses, the Soviet crackdown in Poland and Hungary, and the military skirmish over the Suez Canal.

5. COEXISTENCE (13 minutes, 8 seconds). Recounts the Soviet launch of the world’s first space satellite (Sputnik), the launch of the US Explorer satellite, the founding of NASA, the admission of Alaska to the union, the communist overthrow of Cuba, Vice President Nixon’s tour of the Soviet Union, the U-2 spy plane incident, the admission of Hawaii as the fiftieth state, the wave of lunch-counter “sit-ins” to oppose racial segregation, the presidential campaign of 1960 (including the Nixon – Kennedy debate), passage of the 23rd Amendment, the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, the Soviet launch of the first human in space (Yuri Gagarin), the launch of the first American in space (Alan Shepard), Khrushchev’s construction of the Berlin Wall, Kennedy’s dispatch of military personnel to Vietnam, the establishment of the Peace Corps, and the activist Supreme Court’s legal assault against school prayer.

6. KENNEDY AND JOHNSON (26 minutes, 50 seconds). Covers the Cuban Missile Crisis, the escalation of US military presence in South Vietnam, the civil rights march on Washington, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the passage of a new Civil Rights Act, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (allowing President Johnson to escalate American presence in Vietnam), the onset of Operation Rolling Thunder (sustained bombing of North Vietnam), the unfurling of Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” wealth redistribution program, the eruption of the Watts Riots, the upsurge in campus anti-war protests, the government’s imposition of “rules of engagement” restrictions on American troops, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, the youth riots at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, Richard Nixon’s election victory, and the advancement of the American space program (from the Apollo 1 tragedy to the lunar orbit of Apollo 8).