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History is usually presented
as a set of facts and dates,

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of victories and defeats,

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of monarchs and presidents...

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So, come on in
to the launch control centre.

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..consigned to an unchangeable past.

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But it's not like that at all.

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History is the knitting together
of rival interpretations,

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deliberate manipulations
of the truth

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and, sometimes, alternative facts.

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In this series,
I'll be lifting the lid

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on three of American
history's national legends.

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The Revolutionary
War Of Independence -

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is the story of the
Founding Fathers full of fibs?

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The Civil War -

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was it really a battle
to reunite the nation

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and liberate the slaves
in the southern states?

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And, in this programme,

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the American Dream

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and the tall tales told by the
world's greatest superpower.

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We blotted out the real story,
even after we heard what it was.

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America's supremacy
over other nations,

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whether that's military, economic,
cultural,

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is often taken for granted...

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..and the idea that America
is a special country,

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destined for greatness,

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is a powerful part
of the American Dream...

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..but history's always
a murky business,

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and the story of how
the United States

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came to be a superpower

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is full of some of American
history's biggest fibs.

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You have lift-off.

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Lift-off has happened. It's gone.

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If ever an American era
was idolised,

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it's the 1950s and early 1960s.

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The years after the Second World War

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are often remembered as a peaceful
and harmonious time -

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a world where mums made apple pie

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and dads made go-carts.

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Marriages were sweeter,
colours richer.

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Doors could be left unlocked
without fear.

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The poverty of the 1930s
and the austerity of war

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were left far behind
as the United States soared.

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America truly was supreme.

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It was the American Dream
brought to life.

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This was the world of Happy Days,

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and I Love Lucy - obviously -

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and America was a beacon
of freedom and democracy.

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It was helping humanity
all around the globe,

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but this perfect world
was constructed on fibs -

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some of them dangerous ones.

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The United States was emerging
as a superpower in 1945,

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but its leader was no Superman.

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He wasn't a war hero,
or a film star,

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and he certainly wasn't
a property tycoon.

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One reporter said that he was
just like an ordinary man

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plucked at random off the street -

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but this man was going to be
President of the United States.

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This is the rather ordinary-looking
apartment block

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that was the home of the
very ordinary Harry S Truman.

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Truman himself said he came to power
by accident

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because he was vice president

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when the popular Democrat
Franklin D Roosevelt died in office

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on April the 12th 1945.

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He suddenly found himself shoulder
to shoulder with wartime allies

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Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin

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as the conflict in Europe
was coming to an end...

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..but a brutal war with Japan

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was still raging in the East.

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Americans were still fighting
in battles to the death...

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..and this ordinary man's
extraordinary response

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announced America's arrival
as a superpower.

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Truman made a decision
that I think you could describe

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as THE most controversial
presidential decision in history.

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He unleashed
what he himself described

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as the most terrible bomb
in the history of the world.

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The target was the city
of Hiroshima.

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70,000 people were instantly killed.

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The city was destroyed.

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A few days later,
Nagasaki shared the same fate.

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Jubilant crowds poured into
Times Square in New York

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to celebrate the great American
victory over Japan...

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..but the victory wasn't
quite what it seemed.

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Traditionally,
the story goes like this -

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6th of August, Hiroshima bombed.

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9th of August, Nagasaki bombed.

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15th of August, Japan surrenders.

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A plus B leads to C,

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and in this version of events,

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the atom bomb is a terrible thing,
but it ends the war,

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saving the lives of millions
of Americans...

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..but, in this official version,
there are so many evasions and fibs.

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The traditional story makes the two
atomic bombs the critical factor...

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..but Japan's leaders
were already discussing surrender

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when Nagasaki was bombed.

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It can't have been the cause.

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The first bomb on Hiroshima
would go down in history,

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but it wasn't as decisive
as it seems.

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In fact, the decision to surrender

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was triggered by something else,
as well.

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The usual account ignores
the other big player -

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Stalin.

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An ally against the Nazis,

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the Soviet Union had remained
neutral in the war in the East...

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..but on August the 8th,
1.5 million Russian troops

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launched a surprise assault against
the Japanese army in Manchuria.

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Russia formally declared war
on the 9th of August.

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Now, Japan could deal
with one superpower,

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but two was just too much.

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Japan surrendered - but, of course,
nobody in America wanted to admit

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that Russia had played this role
in ending the war,

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so the story was sold that
the atom bomb had done the trick.

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And that story really stuck.

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Just as the Cold War got started,

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this belief that the atom bomb
alone had won the war

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would mould America's
superpower psyche.

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The United States had fought the war
to preserve four freedoms.

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Artist Norman Rockwell
made four paintings

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to celebrate this American Dream.

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Freedom From Want...

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..Freedom Of Worship...

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..Freedom From Fear...

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..and Freedom Of Speech.

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Rockwell captured the values

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that inspired confidence
in the new supremacy.

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The American Dream
could now become a reality.

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Professor Sarah Churchwell
has studied the history

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of this powerful idea.

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So, the American Dream didn't
become a national catchphrase,

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the way that we now know it,
until 1931.

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It was used by an American historian
called James Truslow Adams

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in a book called
The Epic Of America,

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and Adams' point was that the
American Dream of higher ideals,

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the American Dream which he saw
as a spiritual dream

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of self-fulfilment,

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of becoming the best person
that you could be,

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living the best
life that you could live,

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creating the best country
that you could create,

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was by no means going to be
measured by materialism

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and he wanted to return America
to thinking about values,

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and about things that mattered more
than merely making money.

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And when did it start to flip over?

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When did it start to mean
having a car and a house

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and a nice little wife and a lawn

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and a swimming pool
and all that kind of thing?

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Around the time that the post-war
boom began

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and that American ideas about
prosperity were starting to shift.

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went hand-in-hand with new
aspirations and desires.

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This would be an era of peace,
prosperity,

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and homes fit for heroes.

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There was a housing boom.

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First up, a new town in Long Island,
named after its builder,

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William Levitt.

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Welcome to Levittown.

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Inspired by Henry Ford,
Levitt broke down the process

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of building a house
into 27 separate tasks.

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Now, most builders aimed to produce
three or four houses a year,

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but Levitt's target
was 30-40 houses a day.

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1,000 acres of potato fields
on Long Island sprouted a new crop.

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In March 1949, 1,400 homes sold
in just three hours.

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It looked like a perfect world

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where anyone could live
the American Dream.

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Were I lucky enough
to have a GI husband,

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the government would reward his
service with a generous loan.

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Other buyers rushed here
to escape the city

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with an affordable house
in the suburbs.

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Long Island's success
led to seven replica Levittowns,

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from Philadelphia to Maryland.

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The homes were particularly popular
with newlyweds.

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In fact, if you got pregnant,

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it became known as having
"the Levittown look."

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Levittown came to stand
for everything

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that was great about the suburbs -

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higher standards of living,
and very, very affordable.

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As a child, Pat Heegan experienced
the move to Levittown.

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You'd been living in an apartment
in Brooklyn, is that right?

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Yeah, yes, a two-family house.

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We lived on the second floor,

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and we were really confined.

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We were just looking forward
to coming out to the country

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and getting a brand-new house.

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And now you had
your own front door...

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Yes. ..television.

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What else was exciting about it?

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Also a washing machine
for my mother.

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She was very excited
about the washing machine.

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Your mum, was she happier?

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Oh, yes, much happier.

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She didn't have to worry about us.

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She didn't have to look out
the window constantly,

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you know, to see where we were.

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We had bicycles to ride, something
which we didn't have in Brooklyn.

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You've made it sound like it was
a golden age living here.

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Is that what it was like?

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Yes, it really was.

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It was like coming into the rainbow.

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Mr Levitt made it possible
for people to buy a house,

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to have the American Dream
come true.

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In this new American Dream,

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the chance to own your own home
was open to all -

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but there was a problem
with that word "all".

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In almost all respects,
the Myers family is close

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to the Levittown norm,
except in one respect.

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William Myers Jr
and his family are Negroes

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in an all-white community.

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Daisy and William Myers
were the first black family

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to try to buy into
the Levittown dream.

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The Myers didn't get
much of a welcome.

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Protesters clashed with police.

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Rocks were hurled
through their windows

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and a burning cross appeared
outside their home.

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An anonymous caller warned
Daisy Myers that they would,

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"Shoot William down on sight."

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Residents didn't try to hide
their prejudice.

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The whole trouble with this
integration business

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is that, in the end, it probably
will end up with mixing socially,

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and you'll have, well, I think
their aim is mixed marriages

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and becoming equal with the whites.

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I moved here...

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One of the main reasons was because
it was a white community,

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and that's the only place
I intend to live.

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If I have to leave Levittown,
I will do so.

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The Levittowns across America
hadn't remained all-white by chance.

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It was the result of a clause
in the sales documents.

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The terms and conditions included
something called a racial covenant.

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This was a legal clause -
and it was also a euphemism.

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It really meant racial segregation.

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The covenant stated the premises
could not be used

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by anyone other than members
of the Caucasian race.

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It didn't apply
when houses were sold on

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to families like the Myers...

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..but these racist clauses
weren't outlawed until 1968.

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As the American Dream
was taking hold in the suburbs,

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00:14:25,620 --> 00:14:28,420
Truman's atomic supremacy
seemed secure...

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00:14:31,700 --> 00:14:35,060
..but in 1950 that changed.

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A secret National Security Council
report, codenamed NSC-68,

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claimed that America's new
superpower status

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was already under threat.

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"The issues that face us are
momentous,

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"involving the fulfilment
or destruction

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"not only of this Republic,

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"but of civilisation itself."

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Peter Kuznick
has studied the report.

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00:15:02,380 --> 00:15:05,740
Peter, what is NSC-68?

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NSC-68 is a top-secret memo

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that was drafted in early 1950,

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in order to set America's
new defence strategy.

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What the report says

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is that America's period of maximum
vulnerability

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is going to come in 1954,

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00:15:26,180 --> 00:15:30,660
because the Soviets are out for
world conquest, world domination,

251
00:15:30,660 --> 00:15:34,340
and it poses it in these stark,
Manichaean, black and white terms.

252
00:15:34,340 --> 00:15:37,780
It's the US versus the Soviets
in this battle to the death -

253
00:15:37,780 --> 00:15:40,060
but we had this idea that we need
an enemy

254
00:15:40,060 --> 00:15:42,660
to justify America's
defence spending,

255
00:15:42,660 --> 00:15:46,500
enemies with the capability
of doing you in, and conquering you.

256
00:15:46,500 --> 00:15:51,500
What, in your opinion, was the
reality of the Soviet capability?

257
00:15:51,860 --> 00:15:54,780
Soviet capability
was pretty limited.

258
00:15:54,780 --> 00:15:56,940
You have to realise that the
Soviet economy

259
00:15:56,940 --> 00:15:58,620
was destroyed in World War II.

260
00:15:58,620 --> 00:16:02,020
John Kennedy said it was as if
the entire United States

261
00:16:02,020 --> 00:16:05,420
east of Chicago had been wiped out,
was what the Soviets suffered.

262
00:16:05,420 --> 00:16:08,700
The Soviets lost 27 million people
in World War II.

263
00:16:08,700 --> 00:16:11,660
They were always on the defensive,
in that sense. I'm not surprised!

264
00:16:11,660 --> 00:16:14,740
They knew how much stronger
the US was than they were,

265
00:16:14,740 --> 00:16:17,300
and they knew that the US was
building up its capabilities,

266
00:16:17,300 --> 00:16:19,580
so they were seeing themselves
as the victims.

267
00:16:19,580 --> 00:16:22,700
What effect do you think
that NSC-68 had

268
00:16:22,700 --> 00:16:26,260
on the next 10, 15 years
of American politics?

269
00:16:26,260 --> 00:16:30,140
It's going to put us
in a permanent war economy,

270
00:16:30,140 --> 00:16:33,700
a permanent alert, and we're going
to build up a nuclear arsenal

271
00:16:33,700 --> 00:16:36,740
as part of this that can end life
on the planet.

272
00:16:36,740 --> 00:16:40,620
"The proposed programme hangs
ultimately on recognition

273
00:16:40,620 --> 00:16:45,660
"by this government, the American
people and all free peoples

274
00:16:48,940 --> 00:16:52,380
"in which the survival
of the free world is at stake."

275
00:16:53,420 --> 00:16:58,460
So, NSC-68 made it seem like the
President only had three options.

276
00:16:59,220 --> 00:17:02,340
First, pre-emptive strike on Russia,

277
00:17:02,340 --> 00:17:05,260
second, do nothing - isolationism -

278
00:17:05,260 --> 00:17:08,420
or third, rapid arms build-up.

279
00:17:08,420 --> 00:17:10,820
Now, the first two options
didn't really work -

280
00:17:10,820 --> 00:17:12,700
nobody wanted to go to war,

281
00:17:12,700 --> 00:17:16,980
and isolationism was thought to have
led to the rise of the Nazis.

282
00:17:16,980 --> 00:17:21,620
That left just option three,
rapid arms build-up.

283
00:17:21,620 --> 00:17:24,140
The report somehow made it seem

284
00:17:24,140 --> 00:17:26,980
like that was the only
sensible thing to do.

285
00:17:28,580 --> 00:17:33,620
NSC-68 hit President Truman's desk
in April 1950,

286
00:17:33,620 --> 00:17:37,100
seven months after Russia's first
atom bomb test.

287
00:17:39,140 --> 00:17:41,980
The report's distortions
scared Truman

288
00:17:41,980 --> 00:17:44,700
into tripling defence spending...

289
00:17:46,820 --> 00:17:50,580
..from $14 billion to $47 billion.

290
00:17:51,900 --> 00:17:54,740
The military now swallowed
nearly 15%

291
00:17:54,740 --> 00:17:57,140
of America's gross national product.

292
00:17:59,780 --> 00:18:03,900
The Cold War nuclear arms race
suddenly lurched forward.

293
00:18:09,700 --> 00:18:14,700
The drive for better nuclear weapons
led to a new test site in Nevada.

294
00:18:16,460 --> 00:18:20,660
It was described as
"relatively uninhabited" desert -

295
00:18:20,660 --> 00:18:25,180
but the test site was just 65 miles
away from Las Vegas.

296
00:18:27,700 --> 00:18:29,860
Where the military saw cheap land...

297
00:18:31,100 --> 00:18:34,940
..Vegas hoteliers
saw an opportunity.

298
00:18:34,940 --> 00:18:37,580
Atomic tourism began.

299
00:18:38,860 --> 00:18:42,180
Every mushroom cloud
had a golden lining.

300
00:18:42,180 --> 00:18:45,980
Casinos even offered
an explosive new drink.

301
00:18:48,300 --> 00:18:52,900
This is the must-have drink of 1953,

302
00:18:52,900 --> 00:18:54,940
vodka, brandy, sherry!

303
00:18:54,940 --> 00:18:56,220
Oh, yeah!

304
00:18:56,220 --> 00:18:57,900
And...

305
00:18:59,260 --> 00:19:01,460
..all topped up with champagne.

306
00:19:04,380 --> 00:19:06,580
Then you drive into the desert,

307
00:19:06,580 --> 00:19:10,220
you stay up all night
drinking your atomic cocktail

308
00:19:10,220 --> 00:19:12,740
and you watch the nuclear testing.

309
00:19:12,740 --> 00:19:15,580
It's the greatest light show
on Earth.

310
00:19:18,020 --> 00:19:21,020
LUCY CHOKES AND SPLUTTERS

311
00:19:21,020 --> 00:19:22,420
Cheers.

312
00:19:26,060 --> 00:19:28,860
# It's the drink that you don't pour

313
00:19:28,860 --> 00:19:32,820
# Now when you take one sip
you won't need any more

314
00:19:33,860 --> 00:19:36,860
# You're small as a beetle
or big as a whale

315
00:19:36,860 --> 00:19:40,020
# Boom! Atomic cocktail. #

316
00:19:41,180 --> 00:19:46,060
People came to Las Vegas to feel the
ground shake beneath their feet.

317
00:19:48,100 --> 00:19:51,460
Tourists could stay
at the Atomic View Motel...

318
00:19:53,700 --> 00:19:57,180
..see the annual crowning
of Miss Atomic Bomb...

319
00:19:59,620 --> 00:20:03,060
..or enjoy an atomic ballet.

320
00:20:04,500 --> 00:20:06,060
ON TANNOY: Put on your goggles.

321
00:20:06,060 --> 00:20:08,580
Five, four...

322
00:20:08,580 --> 00:20:11,300
..three, two, one...

323
00:20:11,300 --> 00:20:13,020
..zero.

324
00:20:16,220 --> 00:20:18,340
Tourists sat on hotel balconies

325
00:20:18,340 --> 00:20:21,300
waiting for a mini Armageddon
on the horizon.

326
00:20:22,700 --> 00:20:25,700
This was what being a superpower
was all about.

327
00:20:28,820 --> 00:20:31,140
As they say, the Earth moved.

328
00:20:31,140 --> 00:20:32,980
# Atomic Cocktail. #

329
00:20:35,860 --> 00:20:38,060
The message was, don't worry.

330
00:20:40,540 --> 00:20:43,100
Soldiers waiting for their own
nuclear test

331
00:20:43,100 --> 00:20:45,340
were reassured by the army chaplain.

332
00:20:46,780 --> 00:20:48,420
There's no need to be worried,

333
00:20:48,420 --> 00:20:51,460
as the Army has taken
all of the necessary precautions

334
00:20:51,460 --> 00:20:53,660
to see that we're
perfectly safe here.

335
00:20:53,660 --> 00:20:55,660
What's it like, chaplain?

336
00:20:55,660 --> 00:20:59,580
It contains all of the rich colours
of the rainbow

337
00:20:59,580 --> 00:21:03,900
and then, as it rises
up into the atmosphere,

338
00:21:03,900 --> 00:21:07,260
it turns a beautiful pale yellow.

339
00:21:07,260 --> 00:21:09,660
It's a wonderful sight to behold.

340
00:21:12,580 --> 00:21:14,820
One of the things that's missing

341
00:21:14,820 --> 00:21:18,580
from our nostalgic, glamorous image
of 1950s America

342
00:21:18,580 --> 00:21:21,260
is...the fear.

343
00:21:21,260 --> 00:21:23,180
The sirens going off.

344
00:21:23,180 --> 00:21:25,220
Drills at schools.

345
00:21:25,220 --> 00:21:28,820
100 million people
going to fallout shelters.

346
00:21:28,820 --> 00:21:32,020
The knowledge that,
within a matter of hours,

347
00:21:32,020 --> 00:21:34,940
humanity could be wiped
off the face of the Earth.

348
00:21:36,780 --> 00:21:39,660
SIREN WAILS

349
00:21:39,660 --> 00:21:42,260
That signal means to stop whatever
you are doing

350
00:21:42,260 --> 00:21:45,180
and get to the nearest
safe place fast.

351
00:21:46,500 --> 00:21:51,540
The Nevada tests were seen as vital
for staying ahead of the Russians.

352
00:21:51,620 --> 00:21:54,420
America was honing its weapons,

353
00:21:54,420 --> 00:21:58,140
but also learning what impact
enemy bombs could have.

354
00:21:59,660 --> 00:22:04,420
In the race to outwit the Soviets,
safety took a back seat.

355
00:22:04,420 --> 00:22:08,140
Mushroom clouds frequently
filled the sky.

356
00:22:08,140 --> 00:22:12,700
For the town of St George,
tests became routine.

357
00:22:12,700 --> 00:22:15,500
RADIO: Ladies and gentlemen,
we interrupt this programme

358
00:22:15,500 --> 00:22:17,180
to bring you important news.

359
00:22:17,180 --> 00:22:19,420
Due to a change in wind direction,

360
00:22:19,420 --> 00:22:23,220
the residue from this morning's
atomic detonation

361
00:22:23,220 --> 00:22:26,100
is drifting in the direction
of St George.

362
00:22:26,100 --> 00:22:29,420
It is suggested that everyone
remain indoors

363
00:22:29,420 --> 00:22:32,220
for one hour.
or until further notice.

364
00:22:32,220 --> 00:22:34,660
There is no danger.

365
00:22:34,660 --> 00:22:37,740
Locals became known
as "downwinders".

366
00:22:39,460 --> 00:22:42,420
They began to see
their livestock dying.

367
00:22:42,420 --> 00:22:45,380
Cancer and leukaemia rates soared.

368
00:22:47,180 --> 00:22:50,700
Officials denied any link
to the tests.

369
00:22:53,740 --> 00:22:57,940
In 1957, a Congressional hearing
justified the decision

370
00:22:57,940 --> 00:23:01,300
to expose the downwinders
to nuclear fallout,

371
00:23:01,300 --> 00:23:03,100
citing the greater risk

372
00:23:03,100 --> 00:23:06,580
of the Soviets annihilating
the United States.

373
00:23:06,580 --> 00:23:09,980
So, the government did know
that the fallout was dangerous,

374
00:23:09,980 --> 00:23:14,060
but it was more important to them
to stay ahead in the arms race.

375
00:23:14,060 --> 00:23:18,180
The downwinders believed that the
government had been lying to them -

376
00:23:18,180 --> 00:23:20,500
and they were right.

377
00:23:20,500 --> 00:23:24,540
This was one of American history's
cruellest fibs.

378
00:23:26,540 --> 00:23:28,460
Years after the tests,

379
00:23:28,460 --> 00:23:32,340
the downwinders were paid
over $1 billion in compensation

380
00:23:32,340 --> 00:23:35,180
for their "sacrifices".

381
00:23:36,340 --> 00:23:40,420
Health officials estimate nuclear
fallout has resulted in the deaths

382
00:23:40,420 --> 00:23:43,260
of at least 11,000 Americans.

383
00:23:46,340 --> 00:23:49,260
MUSIC: Yankee Doodle

384
00:23:49,260 --> 00:23:54,260
One part of the American Dream
is the idea that America is unique.

385
00:23:54,660 --> 00:23:58,780
That no other nation was formed
in quite the same way.

386
00:23:58,780 --> 00:24:01,180
Travelling across the States,

387
00:24:01,180 --> 00:24:04,220
you can't miss the nation's
self-belief.

388
00:24:04,220 --> 00:24:06,380
It seems to me, as a British person,

389
00:24:06,380 --> 00:24:09,700
that America is incredibly
well-branded as a country.

390
00:24:09,700 --> 00:24:11,740
Well, I think it probably is,
you know?

391
00:24:11,740 --> 00:24:14,020
It kind of had to be, right?

392
00:24:14,020 --> 00:24:17,660
America is a nation that imagined
itself into existence.

393
00:24:17,660 --> 00:24:22,380
It is an experiment
that is built around ideas,

394
00:24:22,380 --> 00:24:25,740
so how do you hold all of these
people from all over the world

395
00:24:25,740 --> 00:24:27,980
with absolutely no common ground?

396
00:24:27,980 --> 00:24:30,180
No common religion,
no common language,

397
00:24:30,180 --> 00:24:31,860
no common cultural background.

398
00:24:31,860 --> 00:24:35,420
All we have that holds us together
is this set of ideas.

399
00:24:35,420 --> 00:24:38,540
MUSIC: The Star-Spangled Banner

400
00:24:38,540 --> 00:24:41,940
Today, we might see that the
American Dream is flawed,

401
00:24:41,940 --> 00:24:45,260
but back in the '50s
it seemed that these ideals

402
00:24:45,260 --> 00:24:46,860
could lead the free world...

403
00:24:52,060 --> 00:24:53,460
..and, for some,

404
00:24:53,460 --> 00:24:58,020
self-belief extended the nation's
influence beyond planet Earth.

405
00:25:00,500 --> 00:25:05,580
There were reports of UFOs,
unidentified flying objects.

406
00:25:09,020 --> 00:25:12,660
Arizona appeared to be
in the thick of the action.

407
00:25:12,660 --> 00:25:14,940
Well, I have heard
that this is the place

408
00:25:14,940 --> 00:25:17,980
to be on the lookout for them.

409
00:25:18,980 --> 00:25:21,020
Stop, stop, stop!

410
00:25:21,020 --> 00:25:23,780
What the aliens wanted wasn't clear,

411
00:25:23,780 --> 00:25:26,940
but many Americans were certain
of one thing...

412
00:25:26,940 --> 00:25:28,860
..if there are UFOs out there,

413
00:25:28,860 --> 00:25:33,100
then, obviously, America is going to
be the first country in the world

414
00:25:33,100 --> 00:25:34,540
they want to visit.

415
00:25:34,540 --> 00:25:36,860
It's got to be America first.

416
00:25:39,580 --> 00:25:42,820
This self-belief has a long history.

417
00:25:42,820 --> 00:25:45,860
In the 19th-century,
the idea began to take root

418
00:25:45,860 --> 00:25:50,380
that the USA had a God-given mission
to spread Christianity

419
00:25:50,380 --> 00:25:52,700
and democracy across America.

420
00:25:55,020 --> 00:26:00,060
In 1845, a New York newspaper named
it manifest destiny.

421
00:26:03,220 --> 00:26:06,900
Deep in its heart, America knows
that it's a special country,

422
00:26:06,900 --> 00:26:08,860
a chosen nation...

423
00:26:08,860 --> 00:26:11,980
..and, obviously, aliens
appreciate that, too.

424
00:26:13,780 --> 00:26:18,780
In 1997, one visitation in Arizona
became known as the Phoenix Lights.

425
00:26:21,100 --> 00:26:25,420
It was witnessed by thousands -
including the state governor.

426
00:26:25,420 --> 00:26:29,500
He described it as "otherworldly".

427
00:26:29,500 --> 00:26:33,180
He's not the only person to think
that the truth is out there.

428
00:26:35,740 --> 00:26:40,500
Former FBI agent John DeSouza
investigates UFOs.

429
00:26:41,860 --> 00:26:44,500
The thing wanted to be seen
by as many people as possible

430
00:26:44,500 --> 00:26:49,500
and it was not...it had no
propulsion, no human propulsion.

431
00:26:50,060 --> 00:26:53,180
There was no thrust,
we don't know how it was floating,

432
00:26:53,180 --> 00:26:56,220
we don't know what physical methods
that were used

433
00:26:56,220 --> 00:26:57,900
to make it travel so slowly -

434
00:26:57,900 --> 00:27:00,260
so, this was not a
terrestrial vehicle,

435
00:27:00,260 --> 00:27:03,340
and there were thousands of
people that witnessed

436
00:27:03,340 --> 00:27:04,780
it and saw what it was.

437
00:27:04,780 --> 00:27:07,820
I'm a historian,
and for many centuries

438
00:27:07,820 --> 00:27:11,940
people have seen comets,
or shooting stars, or ghosts,

439
00:27:11,940 --> 00:27:15,980
and I see UFOs of being kind of
an extension to that.

440
00:27:15,980 --> 00:27:18,220
Do you think there's
a basic human need

441
00:27:18,220 --> 00:27:20,420
to believe in something
bigger than us?

442
00:27:20,420 --> 00:27:23,300
Instinctually, people know
that there's something out there

443
00:27:23,300 --> 00:27:25,660
that is greater than physical,

444
00:27:25,660 --> 00:27:29,580
that leads into greater realities
of what life is really all about,

445
00:27:29,580 --> 00:27:32,860
and that's why people
want to believe in these things.

446
00:27:32,860 --> 00:27:36,780
I mean, we're right here
in Tucson, Arizona,

447
00:27:36,780 --> 00:27:39,540
which is a major hot spot for UFOs

448
00:27:39,540 --> 00:27:43,420
and we have these experiences
here all the time.

449
00:27:43,420 --> 00:27:45,860
I think it's because the aliens
all want a green card,

450
00:27:45,860 --> 00:27:47,620
they want to be here,
in this country!

451
00:27:47,620 --> 00:27:49,460
Yes! I think they do.

452
00:27:49,460 --> 00:27:51,980
The question is, is that good?

453
00:27:51,980 --> 00:27:53,740
Is that a good way for them to go?

454
00:27:53,740 --> 00:27:55,700
And we'll find out very soon.

455
00:27:55,700 --> 00:27:57,700
That's ominous. Yes.

456
00:27:57,700 --> 00:28:00,940
Yes, because they will be revealing
themselves very soon.

457
00:28:03,420 --> 00:28:06,300
UFOs may choose America first,

458
00:28:06,300 --> 00:28:10,500
but they might also be a barometer
for a nation's paranoia.

459
00:28:11,900 --> 00:28:14,300
Sightings soared in the 1950s,

460
00:28:14,300 --> 00:28:18,860
just as fears about the decline
of the nation gripped America.

461
00:28:18,860 --> 00:28:23,860
Innumerable psychologists attribute
the moral decay among our people

462
00:28:24,460 --> 00:28:27,860
to the obscene
and pornographic literature

463
00:28:27,860 --> 00:28:30,540
so prevalent in our society.

464
00:28:31,860 --> 00:28:35,820
This moral decay weakens
our resistance

465
00:28:35,820 --> 00:28:39,980
to the onslaught of the
Communist masters of deceit.

466
00:28:41,140 --> 00:28:43,700
Some believed that Communist
infiltration

467
00:28:43,700 --> 00:28:46,180
was the biggest threat to America.

468
00:28:47,380 --> 00:28:51,460
One senator did more than anyone
else to hype the fear.

469
00:28:51,460 --> 00:28:56,500
Joseph McCarthy's reign of terror
began with a little piece of paper

470
00:28:57,220 --> 00:28:59,820
and a great big whopper of a fib.

471
00:28:59,820 --> 00:29:03,740
At a political meeting,
he produced what he claimed

472
00:29:03,740 --> 00:29:06,940
was a list of 205 names,

473
00:29:06,940 --> 00:29:10,300
that had been made known
to the Secretary of State,

474
00:29:10,300 --> 00:29:12,700
of members of the Communist Party -

475
00:29:12,700 --> 00:29:16,820
but all of them were still involved
in shaping State Department policy.

476
00:29:16,820 --> 00:29:19,060
There was a sensation!

477
00:29:19,060 --> 00:29:21,900
But the next day,
a funny thing happened.

478
00:29:21,900 --> 00:29:23,780
The list had been downgraded.

479
00:29:23,780 --> 00:29:27,100
Now, there were just 57 names on it.

480
00:29:30,420 --> 00:29:33,740
The numbers fluctuated,
but America was hooked.

481
00:29:35,900 --> 00:29:40,260
Government workers lived in fear
of McCarthy's accusations.

482
00:29:41,940 --> 00:29:44,500
A letter arrives at your house.

483
00:29:44,500 --> 00:29:48,820
It tells you to report here
to the offices of the Senate.

484
00:29:48,820 --> 00:29:51,220
You have to appear in an
investigation room -

485
00:29:51,220 --> 00:29:53,620
this one's very often used.

486
00:29:53,620 --> 00:29:57,460
The people in here are going to ask
you a simple question,

487
00:29:57,460 --> 00:30:00,540
but on your answer
may depend your job,

488
00:30:00,540 --> 00:30:04,220
your place in society,
possibly even your life -

489
00:30:04,220 --> 00:30:06,500
and the question is...

490
00:30:06,500 --> 00:30:11,500
..are you, or have you ever been,
a member of the Communist Party?

491
00:30:13,140 --> 00:30:16,340
McCarthy's team would grill subjects
for hours,

492
00:30:16,340 --> 00:30:19,140
hoping they'd crack under pressure.

493
00:30:20,380 --> 00:30:24,900
Senate historian Katherine Scott
has studied McCarthy's impact.

494
00:30:26,300 --> 00:30:28,980
When attorneys to some
of the witnesses

495
00:30:28,980 --> 00:30:31,700
would be allowed to read the
transcripts

496
00:30:31,700 --> 00:30:35,460
of their clients' testimony
in the closed-door session,

497
00:30:35,460 --> 00:30:37,700
they would find, to their horror,

498
00:30:37,700 --> 00:30:40,060
that the transcripts
had been altered.

499
00:30:40,060 --> 00:30:43,260
That they had literally been
changed and typed up

500
00:30:43,260 --> 00:30:47,020
to say things so that the client
had made confessions,

501
00:30:47,020 --> 00:30:50,180
had named names -
none of which had transpired

502
00:30:50,180 --> 00:30:52,580
in the course of
the closed-door hearing -

503
00:30:52,580 --> 00:30:57,180
and in the era of McCarthyism,
a claim or an inference

504
00:30:57,180 --> 00:31:00,620
that you were sympathetic or
had been sympathetic to communism

505
00:31:00,620 --> 00:31:03,420
was enough to ruin
your life forever.

506
00:31:04,620 --> 00:31:07,940
McCarthy is most famous for his
Communist witch hunts,

507
00:31:07,940 --> 00:31:10,060
but he had another target, too.

508
00:31:10,060 --> 00:31:12,220
Homosexuals.

509
00:31:12,220 --> 00:31:16,580
One of the people who was picked up
in one of these arrest efforts

510
00:31:16,580 --> 00:31:21,460
was the son of a United States
Senator named Lester Hunt.

511
00:31:21,460 --> 00:31:23,340
They blackmailed Lester Hunt.

512
00:31:23,340 --> 00:31:27,260
They tried to get him
to not seek re-election.

513
00:31:27,260 --> 00:31:31,780
Lester Hunt decided to take his own
life. And he actually did that?

514
00:31:31,780 --> 00:31:35,860
He actually committed suicide
here in this office building.

515
00:31:35,860 --> 00:31:37,060
That's horrific.

516
00:31:38,380 --> 00:31:43,380
I consider him to be one of the
victims of the McCarthy era.

517
00:31:45,340 --> 00:31:49,620
Americans were absolutely consumed
by fear and paranoia

518
00:31:49,620 --> 00:31:54,620
and I think it made
people desperately cautious

519
00:31:54,620 --> 00:31:56,420
about their own behaviour.

520
00:31:56,420 --> 00:32:01,180
There were staff members who were on
Senate staff at the time

521
00:32:01,180 --> 00:32:04,620
who recalled, walking through
the halls, how quiet it was.

522
00:32:04,620 --> 00:32:07,620
People wouldn't talk,
they wouldn't talk to each other,

523
00:32:07,620 --> 00:32:10,140
they wouldn't talk
to their colleagues...

524
00:32:10,140 --> 00:32:13,780
Literally, they had been silenced by
McCarthy and his tactics.

525
00:32:13,780 --> 00:32:16,540
How many people would you say -
is it possible to say? -

526
00:32:16,540 --> 00:32:18,540
were affected by this witch hunt?

527
00:32:18,540 --> 00:32:20,860
I would say
tens of thousands of people,

528
00:32:20,860 --> 00:32:25,860
people who...believed that their
secrets would come out

529
00:32:26,580 --> 00:32:30,980
and so chose to quietly resign
from their positions,

530
00:32:30,980 --> 00:32:34,860
people who were identified through
loyalty security programmes

531
00:32:34,860 --> 00:32:37,860
as homosexuals and were fired.

532
00:32:37,860 --> 00:32:41,420
I don't think we'll ever know
the exact number of people

533
00:32:41,420 --> 00:32:45,420
whose lives were ruined
by these types of policies.

534
00:32:48,620 --> 00:32:52,940
In 1953, a new Republican president
was inaugurated,

535
00:32:52,940 --> 00:32:55,060
Dwight Eisenhower.

536
00:32:56,180 --> 00:32:59,900
Eisenhower wanted to
save taxpayers' money.

537
00:32:59,900 --> 00:33:03,260
He spoke of the futility
of Cold War military spending.

538
00:33:04,380 --> 00:33:08,820
Every gun that is made,
every warship launched,

539
00:33:08,820 --> 00:33:13,060
every rocket fired signifies,
in the final sense,

540
00:33:13,060 --> 00:33:17,220
a theft from those
who hunger and are not fed,

541
00:33:17,220 --> 00:33:20,220
those who are cold
and are not clothed.

542
00:33:22,460 --> 00:33:26,820
The cost of one modern heavy bomber
is this...

543
00:33:26,820 --> 00:33:30,020
..a modern brick school
in more than 30 cities.

544
00:33:33,460 --> 00:33:36,860
A large standing army
cost a fortune.

545
00:33:36,860 --> 00:33:39,700
Eisenhower was advised
that conventional warfare

546
00:33:39,700 --> 00:33:42,860
would quickly escalate
to nuclear war,

547
00:33:42,860 --> 00:33:46,980
so he cut the army and pushed
nuclear weapons instead.

548
00:33:48,220 --> 00:33:50,660
Here in Arizona, you can get a taste

549
00:33:50,660 --> 00:33:53,500
of this monstrous new
superpower force.

550
00:33:56,660 --> 00:34:00,660
This is the B-52 Stratofortress.

551
00:34:00,660 --> 00:34:03,900
It's really quite monstrously big -

552
00:34:03,900 --> 00:34:07,220
but, to Eisenhower,
this represented a bargain.

553
00:34:07,220 --> 00:34:11,300
Because one of these could travel
9,000 miles, all by itself.

554
00:34:11,300 --> 00:34:15,420
It eliminated the need for having
expensive air force bases in Europe.

555
00:34:15,420 --> 00:34:18,620
One of these could get
all the way to Russia -

556
00:34:18,620 --> 00:34:23,580
and it could carry 35 tonnes
of nuclear bombs.

557
00:34:23,580 --> 00:34:27,500
This is how America
would rule supreme.

558
00:34:29,260 --> 00:34:31,900
The Soviet Union would be deterred
from attacking

559
00:34:31,900 --> 00:34:34,260
as it would risk its own
annihilation.

560
00:34:35,940 --> 00:34:40,260
This was the Cold War's ever more
heavily armed front line.

561
00:34:42,380 --> 00:34:44,700
At the start of Eisenhower's
presidency,

562
00:34:44,700 --> 00:34:47,740
the US had 1,000 nuclear bombs.

563
00:34:47,740 --> 00:34:52,020
By the end of it, though,
there were 22,000 of them.

564
00:34:53,620 --> 00:34:57,980
Yet still, many in the military
talked up the Soviet threat

565
00:34:57,980 --> 00:35:02,020
and campaigned for even more
defence spending.

566
00:35:02,020 --> 00:35:05,820
Eisenhower knew the Soviet threat
was being exaggerated

567
00:35:05,820 --> 00:35:09,140
by a shadowy alliance
of arms companies and generals.

568
00:35:09,140 --> 00:35:12,900
He would dub this
the Military Industrial Complex.

569
00:35:16,740 --> 00:35:20,060
Eisenhower could see that this
Military Industrial Complex

570
00:35:20,060 --> 00:35:22,900
could become a danger to democracy

571
00:35:22,900 --> 00:35:25,580
because the whole thing
was based on fear,

572
00:35:25,580 --> 00:35:28,580
it was circular, threats to America
would be exaggerated,

573
00:35:28,580 --> 00:35:32,540
America's response would be
to get more arms -

574
00:35:32,540 --> 00:35:36,220
and this enormous defence industry
that was the result

575
00:35:36,220 --> 00:35:38,900
was based largely on paranoia

576
00:35:38,900 --> 00:35:42,980
and on some fibs as big
as the B-52 bomber itself...

577
00:35:44,660 --> 00:35:48,420
..and something of that attitude
persists to this day.

578
00:35:48,420 --> 00:35:52,620
According to the United Nations,
America spends more on defence

579
00:35:52,620 --> 00:35:55,780
than China, Russia,
Saudi Arabia, India,

580
00:35:55,780 --> 00:35:58,580
Britain, France and Japan combined.

581
00:36:01,940 --> 00:36:06,940
A new, long-range weapon system,
Titan II, was also swallowing cash.

582
00:36:09,380 --> 00:36:11,300
This bunker is now a museum.

583
00:36:11,300 --> 00:36:13,940
Yvonne Morris was once
its commander.

584
00:36:16,060 --> 00:36:18,740
So, you see, we're going to enter
the launch duct now,

585
00:36:18,740 --> 00:36:21,660
and you're going to be standing just
a few feet away

586
00:36:21,660 --> 00:36:25,180
from Titan II
intercontinental ballistic missile.

587
00:36:32,740 --> 00:36:35,780
It's such a huge,
evil-looking thing.

588
00:36:35,780 --> 00:36:39,620
It's 103 feet tall,
from the top of the warhead

589
00:36:39,620 --> 00:36:42,620
to the bottom, where the engines
are mounted.

590
00:36:42,620 --> 00:36:45,900
So, it's the height of
a skyscraper building, nearly.

591
00:36:45,900 --> 00:36:47,220
Yes.

592
00:36:47,220 --> 00:36:50,220
What can this missile actually do?

593
00:36:50,220 --> 00:36:53,060
Well, it has a nine-megaton
warhead on it,

594
00:36:53,060 --> 00:36:57,980
that's the explosive equivalent
of 9 million tonnes of TNT.

595
00:36:57,980 --> 00:37:03,020
It'll actually decimate an area
of 900 square miles.

596
00:37:06,380 --> 00:37:07,900
And when you say decimate,

597
00:37:07,900 --> 00:37:10,700
does that mean kill all the people
within that area?

598
00:37:10,700 --> 00:37:13,020
A very large percentage of them,

599
00:37:13,020 --> 00:37:17,700
and then radiation will pretty much,
over the next few weeks,

600
00:37:17,700 --> 00:37:20,500
kill off a large portion
of the rest of the population.

601
00:37:20,500 --> 00:37:24,100
Titan II can be up and out of the
silo in less than a minute

602
00:37:24,100 --> 00:37:26,260
after receipt of launch command,

603
00:37:26,260 --> 00:37:29,940
hurling its payload at speeds
of 15,000 mph

604
00:37:29,940 --> 00:37:32,220
nearly halfway around the world.

605
00:37:33,300 --> 00:37:36,500
Should Russia attack,
America could destroy Russia

606
00:37:36,500 --> 00:37:38,380
in just 30 minutes.

607
00:37:38,380 --> 00:37:42,100
It was called
mutually assured destruction.

608
00:37:43,660 --> 00:37:47,500
You have to be visible in order
to be perceived as a credible threat

609
00:37:47,500 --> 00:37:50,180
and that's what deterrence
is based on,

610
00:37:50,180 --> 00:37:53,020
the projection of a
credible threat

611
00:37:53,020 --> 00:37:57,540
and so the assumption is that
each of these missile sites

612
00:37:57,540 --> 00:38:01,940
were targeted with multiple
incoming missiles.

613
00:38:01,940 --> 00:38:04,380
So, the expectation for the crew

614
00:38:04,380 --> 00:38:08,900
is hopefully we're going to live
long enough to launch our missile,

615
00:38:08,900 --> 00:38:12,340
but we are on the other end
of that 30 minutes,

616
00:38:12,340 --> 00:38:16,340
where target two from here
is going to be a smoking hole,

617
00:38:16,340 --> 00:38:20,620
eventually, this site
is going to be a smoking hole.

618
00:38:20,620 --> 00:38:22,260
So, let me get this right -

619
00:38:22,260 --> 00:38:25,900
the Russians knew that this site
was here, that was the point?

620
00:38:25,900 --> 00:38:27,900
You wanted them to know
that this site was here...

621
00:38:27,900 --> 00:38:29,380
Yes, that is exactly true.

622
00:38:29,380 --> 00:38:31,540
..and if you ever had to launch
in anger,

623
00:38:31,540 --> 00:38:33,740
then you would be pretty sure

624
00:38:33,740 --> 00:38:36,780
that they were going to send one
straight back here

625
00:38:36,780 --> 00:38:38,220
and you would be dead. Yes.

626
00:38:38,220 --> 00:38:39,660
And we would be dead.

627
00:38:42,420 --> 00:38:44,540
ALARM BELL RINGS

628
00:38:45,780 --> 00:38:48,780
COUNTDOWN BEGINS

629
00:38:48,780 --> 00:38:52,100
If the President hit
the nuclear red button,

630
00:38:52,100 --> 00:38:56,340
over 50 Titan silos like this one
would spring into action.

631
00:38:58,180 --> 00:39:01,540
As commander,
Yvonne would fire her missile.

632
00:39:02,660 --> 00:39:05,180
She was never told
what it would destroy -

633
00:39:05,180 --> 00:39:07,380
to her it was just target two.

634
00:39:09,260 --> 00:39:11,380
All right, so,
to launch the missile,

635
00:39:11,380 --> 00:39:14,580
we're going to act together,
you and I.

636
00:39:14,580 --> 00:39:16,340
We would insert the launch keys,

637
00:39:16,340 --> 00:39:20,380
the deputy crew commanders would go
over here, underneath this clock.

638
00:39:20,380 --> 00:39:22,060
Yours would go right there -

639
00:39:22,060 --> 00:39:26,380
and you'll notice, Lucy,
that the keys are too far apart

640
00:39:26,380 --> 00:39:28,460
to be turned by one person.

641
00:39:28,460 --> 00:39:29,980
Are you ready?

642
00:39:29,980 --> 00:39:31,700
I suppose so.

643
00:39:31,700 --> 00:39:35,380
Three, two, one, turn.

644
00:39:37,020 --> 00:39:41,700
Four, three, two, one, release. Ooh!

645
00:39:41,700 --> 00:39:42,860
The lights are going on.

646
00:39:42,860 --> 00:39:44,100
Do you have launch enable?

647
00:39:44,100 --> 00:39:45,340
Launch enabled.

648
00:39:49,900 --> 00:39:53,260
So, very shortly, you're going
to hear a loud bell.

649
00:39:53,260 --> 00:39:55,340
BELL RINGS
Oh!

650
00:39:57,020 --> 00:39:58,100
Things are happening.

651
00:39:58,100 --> 00:39:59,940
The lights are going on.
Things are happening.

652
00:39:59,940 --> 00:40:01,820
Guidance go. Guidance go -

653
00:40:01,820 --> 00:40:04,660
and then you're going to get
fire in the engine...

654
00:40:04,660 --> 00:40:07,220
..as soon as the stage one
engine fires. Fire, fire!

655
00:40:09,020 --> 00:40:13,540
You and I have now started something
that we can't stop.

656
00:40:13,540 --> 00:40:17,300
Only a malfunction will stop
the launch sequence

657
00:40:17,300 --> 00:40:19,340
from this point on.

658
00:40:20,300 --> 00:40:21,980
And you have lift-off.

659
00:40:21,980 --> 00:40:23,820
Lift-off. Lift-off has happened.
It's gone.

660
00:40:29,860 --> 00:40:33,180
And in about 30 minutes from now,
target two

661
00:40:33,180 --> 00:40:35,500
is going to cease to exist.

662
00:40:40,140 --> 00:40:44,260
The entire Titan programme was built
on the premise that Communist Russia

663
00:40:44,260 --> 00:40:45,660
was roaring ahead.

664
00:40:47,180 --> 00:40:49,500
The American public were persuaded

665
00:40:49,500 --> 00:40:52,300
millions of dollars
must be spent to keep up.

666
00:40:54,060 --> 00:40:56,860
In 1960, the air force predicted

667
00:40:56,860 --> 00:40:59,860
the Soviets would have 185
long-range missiles

668
00:40:59,860 --> 00:41:01,820
within 18 months.

669
00:41:01,820 --> 00:41:04,140
The CIA said 200.

670
00:41:05,820 --> 00:41:09,940
One newspaper cited an official
forecast of 500.

671
00:41:11,660 --> 00:41:14,340
All of them were wild exaggerations.

672
00:41:16,260 --> 00:41:20,780
Years later, declassified Russian
documents revealed the truth.

673
00:41:20,780 --> 00:41:24,220
The Soviets didn't have thousands
of weapons,

674
00:41:24,220 --> 00:41:25,500
or even hundreds,

675
00:41:25,500 --> 00:41:26,820
or even tens.

676
00:41:26,820 --> 00:41:28,860
They had four.

677
00:41:28,860 --> 00:41:32,900
While the risks from long-range
missiles were overblown,

678
00:41:32,900 --> 00:41:34,940
the next President would discover

679
00:41:34,940 --> 00:41:38,020
how threatening even medium-range
missiles could be.

680
00:41:41,300 --> 00:41:45,300
The Eisenhower era came to an end
in November, 1960.

681
00:41:48,820 --> 00:41:51,420
The new President, John F Kennedy,

682
00:41:51,420 --> 00:41:54,580
appeared to be a youthful,
vibrant leader,

683
00:41:54,580 --> 00:41:57,620
with a beautiful wife
and young children...

684
00:41:59,740 --> 00:42:03,700
..but the Kennedy administration
was built upon deception.

685
00:42:05,060 --> 00:42:08,940
Kennedy's image of perfect health
was an illusion.

686
00:42:08,940 --> 00:42:11,700
Chronic illnesses made him dependent

687
00:42:11,700 --> 00:42:14,580
on a cocktail of steroids
and painkillers...

688
00:42:16,220 --> 00:42:21,180
..and his family man image
concealed insatiable promiscuity.

689
00:42:21,300 --> 00:42:23,700
He was even linked
with Marilyn Monroe.

690
00:42:24,980 --> 00:42:28,420
Most of the cover-ups were only
revealed long after his death...

691
00:42:30,260 --> 00:42:34,300
..but one Kennedy legend
remains remarkably intact.

692
00:42:34,300 --> 00:42:38,420
The time when the President's
bravado saved America

693
00:42:38,420 --> 00:42:40,780
from nuclear war.

694
00:42:40,780 --> 00:42:43,860
It's one of the biggest myths
of the 20th century.

695
00:42:46,540 --> 00:42:50,260
I'm just off K Street
in Washington, DC.

696
00:42:50,260 --> 00:42:52,980
It's a quiet,
low-key neighbourhood -

697
00:42:52,980 --> 00:42:54,660
and that was the point,

698
00:42:54,660 --> 00:42:58,300
because standing near here,
in a boring looking building,

699
00:42:58,300 --> 00:43:00,740
hidden in plain sight, if you like,

700
00:43:00,740 --> 00:43:04,580
was the National
Photographic Interpretation Centre.

701
00:43:04,580 --> 00:43:08,340
In 1962, armed couriers came
to this building

702
00:43:08,340 --> 00:43:13,380
with some footage that a spy plane
had shot over Cuba -

703
00:43:13,380 --> 00:43:16,620
and this is the photo
that shocked the analysts,

704
00:43:16,620 --> 00:43:19,180
because here are missiles.

705
00:43:20,380 --> 00:43:23,060
The Cuban Missile Crisis had begun.

706
00:43:26,500 --> 00:43:30,420
Cuba was just 100 miles
from US soil.

707
00:43:30,420 --> 00:43:33,180
The photos proved
this Communist island

708
00:43:33,180 --> 00:43:37,300
had medium-range nuclear missiles,
able to strike America.

709
00:43:37,300 --> 00:43:39,780
Kennedy's generals plotted
an invasion of Cuba,

710
00:43:39,780 --> 00:43:41,500
close in size to D-Day.

711
00:43:43,860 --> 00:43:47,780
Experts used spy planes to estimate
enemy troops on the ground.

712
00:43:49,060 --> 00:43:53,100
The CIA told Kennedy
6,000-8,000 Russian troops

713
00:43:53,100 --> 00:43:55,060
protecting 32 missiles.

714
00:43:56,740 --> 00:43:59,340
The reality was even more chilling.

715
00:44:00,420 --> 00:44:05,060
On Cuba were 40,000 Russians
and over 90 nuclear warheads.

716
00:44:07,740 --> 00:44:11,340
This included over 50 battlefield
nuclear missiles,

717
00:44:11,340 --> 00:44:14,900
each with the power of the bomb
that destroyed Hiroshima.

718
00:44:16,780 --> 00:44:20,300
Had the US invaded, it could have
triggered nuclear war...

719
00:44:22,500 --> 00:44:25,100
..but Kennedy overruled his
generals.

720
00:44:25,100 --> 00:44:26,660
Rejecting invasion,

721
00:44:26,660 --> 00:44:30,300
he went for the softer option
of a blockade instead.

722
00:44:31,420 --> 00:44:35,540
The legend says JFK
strong-armed Khrushchev

723
00:44:35,540 --> 00:44:37,780
into removing his missiles.

724
00:44:37,780 --> 00:44:42,340
He stood tall, eyeball to eyeball,
and Khrushchev blinked first.

725
00:44:44,460 --> 00:44:47,860
Under powerful pressure,
Russia turned its ships around

726
00:44:47,860 --> 00:44:50,060
and pulled out the missiles.

727
00:44:53,020 --> 00:44:57,340
After serving three presidents,
elder statesman Doctor Leslie Gelb

728
00:44:57,340 --> 00:45:01,100
knows when a story
is just too good to be true.

729
00:45:01,100 --> 00:45:04,580
Les, what was
the official Kennedy line

730
00:45:04,580 --> 00:45:07,460
on how the crisis came to an end?

731
00:45:07,460 --> 00:45:10,300
He faced Khrushchev down.

732
00:45:10,300 --> 00:45:13,540
They were at the gunfight
at OK Corral,

733
00:45:13,540 --> 00:45:15,860
Khrushchev dropped his guns.

734
00:45:15,860 --> 00:45:18,260
And what really happened?

735
00:45:18,260 --> 00:45:21,140
The real story was quite different.

736
00:45:22,220 --> 00:45:25,860
In the secret negotiations
that were taking place,

737
00:45:25,860 --> 00:45:28,260
there were two things agreed upon.

738
00:45:28,260 --> 00:45:32,860
One was that the Soviets would take
their missiles out of Cuba.

739
00:45:32,860 --> 00:45:36,780
The other, the one that got hidden
for years and years,

740
00:45:36,780 --> 00:45:41,420
was that we agreed that we would
take our Jupiter missiles,

741
00:45:41,420 --> 00:45:44,820
our nuclear Jupiter missiles
out of Turkey,

742
00:45:44,820 --> 00:45:48,100
which was on the border of the
Soviet Union -

743
00:45:48,100 --> 00:45:50,620
and it was almost ten years later

744
00:45:50,620 --> 00:45:54,220
that the story, the true story,
began to come out.

745
00:45:54,220 --> 00:45:57,420
Why did Americans want to believe
this story?

746
00:45:57,420 --> 00:46:00,900
Because it was a story
about American toughness,

747
00:46:00,900 --> 00:46:05,220
and American toughness is at the
very heart of American folklore,

748
00:46:05,220 --> 00:46:09,460
of how you win in politics,
how you win in foreign policy -

749
00:46:09,460 --> 00:46:13,860
and Kennedy proved it,
and we liked to believe it was true,

750
00:46:13,860 --> 00:46:16,300
so we blotted out the real story,

751
00:46:16,300 --> 00:46:18,500
even after we heard what it was.

752
00:46:18,500 --> 00:46:22,220
And you yourself, Les, you were
taken in by this, is that right?

753
00:46:22,220 --> 00:46:23,780
No question about it.

754
00:46:23,780 --> 00:46:27,300
All of your experience in digging
down and discovering secrets

755
00:46:27,300 --> 00:46:29,740
and you thought that they were
telling the truth, too?

756
00:46:29,740 --> 00:46:31,420
Yes, I sure was.

757
00:46:31,420 --> 00:46:35,460
I didn't know the truth
and I didn't find it out privately -

758
00:46:35,460 --> 00:46:40,300
and when it was revealed,
I was both shocked and...

759
00:46:41,460 --> 00:46:44,980
..felt, "Of course,
that's what must have happened.

760
00:46:44,980 --> 00:46:47,500
"How else could he
have made the deal?"

761
00:46:47,500 --> 00:46:50,660
Do you think that the Cuban Missile
Crisis had consequences

762
00:46:50,660 --> 00:46:52,660
for American foreign policy?

763
00:46:52,660 --> 00:46:57,100
It became a myth that affected
decisions almost forever thereafter.

764
00:46:58,580 --> 00:47:03,620
That the way to end these crises
was by threatening to go to war,

765
00:47:05,020 --> 00:47:07,660
not by trying to negotiate

766
00:47:07,660 --> 00:47:12,580
where you'd have to, heaven forbid,
compromise,

767
00:47:12,580 --> 00:47:17,180
which was an awful word
in American foreign policy -

768
00:47:17,180 --> 00:47:19,340
but toughness? That's the best word,

769
00:47:19,340 --> 00:47:22,820
and the Cuban Missile Crisis
proved it.

770
00:47:24,340 --> 00:47:28,300
After Cuba, American supremacy
was restored.

771
00:47:29,500 --> 00:47:33,300
This idea that military strength
would bring the Soviets to heel

772
00:47:33,300 --> 00:47:34,980
was stronger than ever...

773
00:47:36,300 --> 00:47:39,420
..but the fissures buried in
the American Dream

774
00:47:39,420 --> 00:47:41,540
were rising to the surface.

775
00:47:41,540 --> 00:47:43,660
The racial conflict seen
in Levittown

776
00:47:43,660 --> 00:47:45,900
was spreading across the nation...

777
00:47:46,940 --> 00:47:51,980
..and now the world began to see
the ugly reality of segregation.

778
00:47:51,980 --> 00:47:56,940
White America was refusing to share
schools with African-Americans.

779
00:47:57,180 --> 00:48:00,300
Black parents demanded change.

780
00:48:00,300 --> 00:48:03,100
White parents dug in.

781
00:48:03,100 --> 00:48:08,140
In 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges
claimed her right to a place

782
00:48:08,660 --> 00:48:10,860
at the local Louisiana school.

783
00:48:12,180 --> 00:48:16,100
Risking attack, she was protected
by US marshals.

784
00:48:17,980 --> 00:48:21,260
Norman Rockwell, who had brought
the country together

785
00:48:21,260 --> 00:48:24,420
with his popular images
of the four freedoms,

786
00:48:24,420 --> 00:48:27,460
now showed a country
tearing itself apart.

787
00:48:28,580 --> 00:48:31,580
Less an American Dream,
more a nightmare.

788
00:48:33,140 --> 00:48:37,860
Civil rights leaders sent out a call
to march on Washington.

789
00:48:37,860 --> 00:48:41,980
Their leader, Martin Luther King,
would speak to the crowd.

790
00:48:41,980 --> 00:48:46,180
Broadcast live, he'd be talking
directly to the American people

791
00:48:46,180 --> 00:48:49,660
about the cracks beneath the surface
of their national story.

792
00:48:52,980 --> 00:48:56,460
King fretted here,
in the Willard hotel,

793
00:48:56,460 --> 00:48:58,860
about how to meet this challenge.

794
00:49:01,060 --> 00:49:03,100
Hm...

795
00:49:03,100 --> 00:49:06,460
Should he preach in this speech?

796
00:49:06,460 --> 00:49:09,220
Or should he taunt the audience?

797
00:49:09,220 --> 00:49:13,060
Someone said, you know, you have to
make it challenging to America...

798
00:49:14,380 --> 00:49:17,420
..but then again, perhaps
the most important thing

799
00:49:17,420 --> 00:49:20,380
is that it would be inspirational -

800
00:49:20,380 --> 00:49:24,220
and so, in this hotel,
in this pressure cooker,

801
00:49:24,220 --> 00:49:27,340
last-minute atmosphere,
he put the words together

802
00:49:27,340 --> 00:49:30,540
to create a new vision of America.

803
00:49:30,540 --> 00:49:33,780
It was a new version
of the American Dream.

804
00:49:35,340 --> 00:49:39,300
King would do this by pointing out
the harsh reality

805
00:49:39,300 --> 00:49:41,020
of life in the USA.

806
00:49:41,020 --> 00:49:44,580
The continued exclusion
of African-Americans.

807
00:49:46,180 --> 00:49:50,980
On August 28, 1963,
marchers began to arrive.

808
00:49:55,940 --> 00:49:59,580
Over 200,000 Americans
heard the call.

809
00:50:00,740 --> 00:50:04,060
This square, here,
was totally full of people,

810
00:50:04,060 --> 00:50:06,060
they were all coming from the
station

811
00:50:06,060 --> 00:50:09,380
and they were rushing up
to where the march was going to be.

812
00:50:09,380 --> 00:50:14,420
I have the pleasure now to present
the moral leader of our nation,

813
00:50:18,700 --> 00:50:23,740
in the Southern area of the nation
against the citadel of racism,

814
00:50:24,180 --> 00:50:26,420
Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

815
00:50:28,020 --> 00:50:30,740
That day, many speakers
called out America

816
00:50:30,740 --> 00:50:33,300
for its racist policies
and job market...

817
00:50:33,300 --> 00:50:36,940
Let's hear you!
Freedom, freedom, freedom, now!

818
00:50:36,940 --> 00:50:42,020
..but it's King's I Have A Dream
speech that endures.

819
00:50:43,620 --> 00:50:46,660
Nathan Connolly explains why
it became part

820
00:50:46,660 --> 00:50:49,140
of America's national mythology.

821
00:50:49,140 --> 00:50:52,020
So, the march had this very clear
economic agenda,

822
00:50:52,020 --> 00:50:53,820
but what we actually remember

823
00:50:53,820 --> 00:50:56,060
is the speech about the dream,
isn't it?

824
00:50:56,060 --> 00:50:57,180
Yeah, that's right.

825
00:50:57,180 --> 00:50:59,740
The I Have A Dream speech
takes up all the air.

826
00:50:59,740 --> 00:51:02,780
It was much more about the moral
charge of the march itself

827
00:51:02,780 --> 00:51:05,380
and whether it was going
to be possible to, in fact, make

828
00:51:05,380 --> 00:51:07,540
the country's stated ideals
a reality

829
00:51:07,540 --> 00:51:10,460
in ways that had not yet
happened at that point.

830
00:51:10,460 --> 00:51:13,060
So, we look back
on the I Have A Dream speech

831
00:51:13,060 --> 00:51:16,740
as, in some ways, tapping into
the best ideals of the country,

832
00:51:16,740 --> 00:51:20,980
because it was very effective in
speaking in those idyllic terms.

833
00:51:20,980 --> 00:51:24,260
Martin Luther King emerged
as a national hero,

834
00:51:24,260 --> 00:51:26,500
an icon of equality -

835
00:51:26,500 --> 00:51:30,180
but his own dream had its limits
and exclusions.

836
00:51:31,420 --> 00:51:33,420
Going back to the march
on Washington,

837
00:51:33,420 --> 00:51:35,260
no women were allowed to speak.

838
00:51:35,260 --> 00:51:38,580
It could easily have been
Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King -

839
00:51:38,580 --> 00:51:43,020
and King was not going to, in some
ways, break from the male norm

840
00:51:43,020 --> 00:51:44,900
of that political moment.

841
00:51:44,900 --> 00:51:48,380
Also, Coretta Scott King had
accompanied Martin Luther King

842
00:51:48,380 --> 00:51:51,100
to the White House after JFK's
invitation

843
00:51:51,100 --> 00:51:54,540
and King basically left her on the
doorstep of the White House.

844
00:51:54,540 --> 00:51:59,420
So, it becomes, I think, one of the
lesser markers of King's greatness

845
00:51:59,420 --> 00:52:01,140
to think about his gender politics.

846
00:52:01,140 --> 00:52:03,300
What do you think the difference is

847
00:52:03,300 --> 00:52:05,740
between who Martin Luther King
really was

848
00:52:05,740 --> 00:52:09,140
and this sort of saint-like figure
that we remember today?

849
00:52:09,140 --> 00:52:11,220
Well, King's politics
are very inconvenient

850
00:52:11,220 --> 00:52:12,580
to the political mainstream.

851
00:52:12,580 --> 00:52:14,180
Redistributing private property

852
00:52:14,180 --> 00:52:15,940
in ways that will make it more
equitable -

853
00:52:15,940 --> 00:52:18,380
these are things that are
considered beyond the pale

854
00:52:18,380 --> 00:52:20,460
in most mainstream
political conversations.

855
00:52:20,460 --> 00:52:23,220
King as an image, however,
is considered essential

856
00:52:23,220 --> 00:52:26,220
to how anybody is going to think
and frame civil rights -

857
00:52:26,220 --> 00:52:29,540
and so, immediately upon
King's assassination,

858
00:52:29,540 --> 00:52:32,540
you see people begin to recast
his image

859
00:52:32,540 --> 00:52:35,060
and his message and his meaning.

860
00:52:35,060 --> 00:52:36,620
People who fled from him

861
00:52:36,620 --> 00:52:39,420
found themselves in the pews
at the funeral,

862
00:52:39,420 --> 00:52:42,580
so there's a very strange,
I think, meeting of the agendas

863
00:52:42,580 --> 00:52:45,140
in terms of conservative
and liberal positions,

864
00:52:45,140 --> 00:52:48,140
because King was a problem for both
of those camps in life.

865
00:52:49,780 --> 00:52:52,460
But Martin Luther King
had drawn attention

866
00:52:52,460 --> 00:52:55,660
to those who were excluded
from the American Dream -

867
00:52:55,660 --> 00:52:58,420
and now, the floodgates opened.

868
00:52:58,420 --> 00:53:00,980
Once you start to make that argument
about equality

869
00:53:00,980 --> 00:53:03,940
and about the exclusion of other
communities and groups,

870
00:53:03,940 --> 00:53:06,260
it becomes very, very,
infectious, right?

871
00:53:06,260 --> 00:53:08,060
Everybody's going to start realising

872
00:53:08,060 --> 00:53:10,500
that there are other groups
that have been excluded.

873
00:53:10,500 --> 00:53:11,740
Access to opportunity,

874
00:53:11,740 --> 00:53:15,220
which, of course, is so intrinsic to
the idea of the American Dream,

875
00:53:15,220 --> 00:53:19,660
was limited to a very small group
of people who all happen to be male.

876
00:53:19,660 --> 00:53:23,100
So, a writer called Betty Friedan
wrote The Feminine Mystique

877
00:53:23,100 --> 00:53:25,940
and she was talking about the fact
that women were miserable,

878
00:53:25,940 --> 00:53:27,780
that it was repressive
and conformist,

879
00:53:27,780 --> 00:53:30,460
that women were drugging themselves
to get through it.

880
00:53:30,460 --> 00:53:32,740
A poet called it the
tranquillised '50s, right?

881
00:53:32,740 --> 00:53:33,900
That people were...

882
00:53:33,900 --> 00:53:36,620
You had to take Valium to get
through this life, right?

883
00:53:36,620 --> 00:53:40,340
The failure of the American Dream
very much extends to the fact

884
00:53:40,340 --> 00:53:43,380
that it was only ever available -
if it existed at all -

885
00:53:43,380 --> 00:53:47,380
it was only ever available to a very
small proportion of the population.

886
00:53:50,420 --> 00:53:55,460
In the late '60s and the '70s,
American self-confidence was shaken

887
00:53:55,820 --> 00:53:57,860
by an economic crisis...

888
00:53:57,860 --> 00:53:59,820
..the Vietnam War...

889
00:53:59,820 --> 00:54:02,860
..and Soviet determination
to win the arms race.

890
00:54:05,340 --> 00:54:07,820
Was the dream finally over?

891
00:54:10,060 --> 00:54:11,540
Not quite.

892
00:54:12,700 --> 00:54:16,900
In 1967, to encourage
musical diversity,

893
00:54:16,900 --> 00:54:19,660
America's AM and FM radio stations

894
00:54:19,660 --> 00:54:24,100
were banned from airing
identical content to the top 40.

895
00:54:27,860 --> 00:54:30,820
FM radio sought cheap alternatives -

896
00:54:30,820 --> 00:54:33,260
'50s records fitted the bill.

897
00:54:34,420 --> 00:54:38,260
Older - and richer - listeners
suited advertisers, too.

898
00:54:39,700 --> 00:54:42,460
Golden oldie stations blossomed.

899
00:54:43,780 --> 00:54:46,900
So, America's fondness
for 1950s music

900
00:54:46,900 --> 00:54:51,060
had as much to do with economics
as it did to nostalgia

901
00:54:51,060 --> 00:54:52,900
and where music led,

902
00:54:52,900 --> 00:54:57,180
movies followed - films like Grease
or Back To The Future -

903
00:54:57,180 --> 00:55:01,100
and there was one politician
who seemed particularly well-suited

904
00:55:01,100 --> 00:55:02,860
to this '50s revival.

905
00:55:02,860 --> 00:55:04,220
Ronald Reagan.

906
00:55:06,740 --> 00:55:11,060
Reagan loved the era - the movies,
some of which he'd starred in,

907
00:55:11,060 --> 00:55:13,020
and the homely family values.

908
00:55:14,220 --> 00:55:18,100
His mentor was none other
than 1950s icon

909
00:55:18,100 --> 00:55:19,340
Dwight Eisenhower.

910
00:55:20,740 --> 00:55:24,580
Reagan's rhetoric harked back
to a lost world.

911
00:55:24,580 --> 00:55:29,260
Every promise, every opportunity
is still golden in this land

912
00:55:29,260 --> 00:55:33,020
and through that golden door
our children can walk into tomorrow,

913
00:55:33,020 --> 00:55:36,260
with the knowledge that no-one
can be denied the promise

914
00:55:36,260 --> 00:55:38,180
that is America.

915
00:55:38,180 --> 00:55:41,940
Thank you, God bless you,
and God bless America.

916
00:55:41,940 --> 00:55:46,940
Reagan's rise to power coincided
with a broader Republican strategy

917
00:55:47,100 --> 00:55:52,100
to present America as a country
yearning for lost greatness.

918
00:55:52,220 --> 00:55:54,900
Ready for a return to form.

919
00:55:54,900 --> 00:55:57,700
It seemed that Reagan
and his supporters

920
00:55:57,700 --> 00:56:01,820
wanted to recreate the 1950s version
of the American Dream.

921
00:56:03,620 --> 00:56:08,660
Reagan's aim was to wipe away
the decades when it all went wrong.

922
00:56:08,660 --> 00:56:13,340
Michael, what didn't he like
about the 1960s and '70s?

923
00:56:13,340 --> 00:56:17,740
Certainly, Reagan's speeches and
rhetoric consistently

924
00:56:17,740 --> 00:56:22,100
would present the 1960s as a space
where America lost the plot.

925
00:56:22,100 --> 00:56:25,340
The substance of that,
which goes unsaid in the speeches,

926
00:56:25,340 --> 00:56:28,540
is about civil rights,
it's about feminism,

927
00:56:28,540 --> 00:56:31,020
it's about Vietnam and Watergate,

928
00:56:31,020 --> 00:56:34,060
but instead of sort of conjuring
the negative feelings

929
00:56:34,060 --> 00:56:36,900
and the contentious feelings
of the '60s,

930
00:56:36,900 --> 00:56:39,940
he invokes a sort of
idyllic vision of the '50s.

931
00:56:39,940 --> 00:56:43,020
So, it was unspoken,
but in the 1950s,

932
00:56:43,020 --> 00:56:45,700
we didn't have civil rights,
we didn't have feminism,

933
00:56:45,700 --> 00:56:48,060
we weren't having all these protests
about Vietnam -

934
00:56:48,060 --> 00:56:49,660
surely it must have been better.

935
00:56:49,660 --> 00:56:52,700
Well, you've just said
the quiet part out loud!

936
00:56:52,700 --> 00:56:57,740
In a lot of ways, it's a television
version of the 1950s

937
00:56:58,580 --> 00:57:03,060
or it's a Hollywood version
of small-town America

938
00:57:03,060 --> 00:57:07,460
that leaves out all of the conflict
and complexity

939
00:57:07,460 --> 00:57:11,060
that we know that real life
and real history has.

940
00:57:12,660 --> 00:57:15,700
There are two 1950s.

941
00:57:15,700 --> 00:57:20,700
One real, with paranoia,
racial hatred and nuclear terror...

942
00:57:22,220 --> 00:57:26,180
..and then there's the
reinvented Hollywood 1950s,

943
00:57:26,180 --> 00:57:28,900
a cosy, confident country.

944
00:57:30,860 --> 00:57:34,060
In this series, we've seen
that since its first steps

945
00:57:34,060 --> 00:57:37,340
as a nation, America's had its
history twisted,

946
00:57:37,340 --> 00:57:40,420
exaggerated and misrepresented.

947
00:57:42,300 --> 00:57:45,820
Fibs have been passed down
the centuries,

948
00:57:45,820 --> 00:57:50,220
from the American Revolution
to the Civil War to the Cold War.

949
00:57:52,260 --> 00:57:55,700
Now that I've travelled
all over America,

950
00:57:55,700 --> 00:57:59,620
I think that I can still detect
the fibs and the half-truths

951
00:57:59,620 --> 00:58:01,300
of the Cold War era

952
00:58:01,300 --> 00:58:04,100
affecting Americans today.

953
00:58:04,100 --> 00:58:07,940
It seems to me that a lot of them
are distrustful of the government,

954
00:58:07,940 --> 00:58:11,860
think that it's lying to them -
and, in the later 20th-century,

955
00:58:11,860 --> 00:58:13,940
it very often was...

956
00:58:13,940 --> 00:58:16,660
..but lying and mythmaking

957
00:58:16,660 --> 00:58:21,420
are really just two sides
to the same coin, aren't they?

958
00:58:21,420 --> 00:58:25,260
And you can't deny that America's
national mythology

959
00:58:25,260 --> 00:58:29,100
is one of the most powerful
in the history of the world.