Journalist Charles Moore, who wrote Margaret Thatcher's authorised biography, explores her extremely close relationship with US President Ronald Reagan. These two leaders came together in the shadow of the Cold War and nuclear armageddon, and Charles meets the people who were in the room with them as they faced the great challenges of their age.
Legend has it that there is a treasure of immense value buried in the Philippine jungle - now a team of American experts, with the help of the only surviving witness, try to uncover the clues to solve the greatest mystery of WW2.
Submarines today are highly complex machines crammed with technology and weapons. As impressive as their construction is, as terrifying is their destructive power. Hardly any other weapon triggers as many emotions as the submarine. It strikes from ambush and can use nuclear missiles to drag the whole world into the abyss. Submarines originated from a completely non-military idea, namely to be able to view the world under water. But the interest in the military use of submarines soon prevailed.
Betray your country, save the world. Spies and traitors play a dangerous game in the 1980s as the Cold War brings two superpowers to the brink of nuclear war.
The story of how the Battleship was used and not used as the ultimate weapon of war during its day up to its demise.
'Nuclear Sharks' explores the silent, stealthy symbol of the Cold War. A war waged outside public view. A war about strategy and world domination. A war of technological advancement, with lethal consequences. By the early 1950's, the United States and the Soviet Union are entrenched in a harrowing conflict many fear will bring an end to humanity. This gripping series reveals the stories of submarines sunk to the bottom, their nuclear power plants in meltdown. Such incidents remained closely guarded military secrets both on the American and the Soviet sides.
Combat in the Air
Helicopter Wars
The story of this fantastic period of history between 1945 and 1991, which was defined by the confrontation of two worlds and two systems. The capitalist West, dominated by the ever-powerful United States, is pitted against the Communist East, the Soviet Empire.
Montagu, Garbo, Fuchs, Penkovsky... they were the greatest spies of the twentieth century. Through analysis of declassified documents, archives, reconstructions, and interviews, “Spies of War” offers you a glimpse into the minds and methods of undercover operatives. Discover the tactics for transmitting top secret information. See how one man assumed 24 identities to simulate the existence of a spy ring. Witness how scientists provided the USSR with ultra-confidential plans for the atomic bomb.
The three part series explores the presidency, policies and long term impact of Ronald Reagan's two terms in office. The series includes notable members of Reagan's team as well as many who opposed his policies. Interview subjects include Walter Mondale, Condoleezza Rice, Sandra Day O'Connor, Andrew Young, Robert Reich, Bud McFarlane, George Shultz, Reza Aslan, Trita Parsi, Douglas Brinkley, Svetlana Savranskaya, Oscar Arias and others.
Myths die hard, and the history of the 20th century is no exception to this rule. Even today, we hold popular beliefs that we take for Evangelical truths. Thus, we believe that Hiroshima caused Japan to surrender, that the Marshall Plan saved Europe, that Adolf Hitler was a military genius, or that Mao Zedong was a necessary evil for China’s modernization. Of course, these judgements contain some truth; but, too broad-stroked to be accurate, they contradict the historical reality by denying its complexity. What if the truth was slightly different? Through an exploration of great national or international myths, this full archive documentary collection revisits the key moments of the 20th century with a new perspective in order to provide a new, smarter and more subtle interpretation, bringing elements to light that have been forgotten or sometimes overshadowed.
Pandora's Box is a six-part 1992 BBC documentary television series which examines the consequences of political and technocratic rationalism. The episodes deal, in order, with communism in The Soviet Union, systems analysis and game theory during the Cold War, economy in the United Kingdom during the 1970s, the insecticide DDT, Kwame Nkrumah's leadership in Ghana during the 1950s and 1960s and the history of nuclear power.
Taking viewers back to the Atomic Age of the mid-20th century by going on a mission to identify the endless possibilities of atoms as an energy source.
Designed in partnership with HISTORY and using a distinctly European perspective, this series offers a fresh lens through which to study the European Theater’s major battles, larger-than-life personalities, twists of fate, and tales of intrigue. You’ll uncover the strategic decisions behind Operation Barbarossa, D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, the invasion of Italy, the fall of Berlin, and more.
Machine Gun: History Down the Barrel of a Gun
He fired cannon on his own countrymen, wooed the mistress of a formidable opponent and even threatened the Pope. He was Napoleon, one of the most brilliant and complex figures in history. This absorbing appraisal of his life offers a new perspective of the little man from Corsica, who rose to new heights of power by seizing every brutal, outrageous opportunity in his path. Step inside Napoleon's world through dramatic recreations of key events. Ride into the heat of battle with large-scale reconstructions of his campaigns. From the glory of his empire to his defeat at Waterloo and miserable exile on Elba, here is an entertaining and complete portrait of an extraordinary life
How did the Soviet Union impose its communist ideology on central and eastern Europe after the Second World War? From 1945 until the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, citizens of central and eastern Europe tell their stories of how their countries were occupied and transformed into communist states.
The warplane has evolved over nearly a century to become what it is today, in 2004. This series is the story of how, through life-and-death necessity, invention, ingenuity and sheer hard work that warplane technology evolved. The Warplane series is not a history of every military plane but rather a look at the major stepping stones that advanced military aviation.
The only major fleet engagement of World War I, the Battle of Jutland has been surrounded by controversy ever since. The British public felt Admiral Jellicoe had failed – a reaction rooted in a hundred years of the 'Nelson cult', a conviction that anything short of a Trafalgar-style annihilation was letting the side down. On the 31st of May 1916 – 251 British and German battleships set out to annihilate one another in the North Sea. In a vicious engagement that lasted over 12 hours – 25 ships were sunk and 8,600 lives were lost. The German Fleet had sunk more ships and suffered fewer casualties, but the British had forced them to disengage and run for port. This two-hour special tells the true story of the battle. An international team of marine divers and historians set out to explore the wrecks of the great Dreadnoughts that lie 100 miles from shore and up to 60 metres deep. The dives will at last reveal why the British navy failed to score a decisive victory.