Preserving Personal Cold War Stories & Insights of Daniel Ellsberg

Exploring the significance of capturing individual Cold War memories to gain insights into history, featuring a compelling interview with Daniel Ellsberg on nuclear disarmament activism.

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Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War, is a nine-part documentary series from director Brian Knappenberger, that provides a comprehensive appraisal of the events that led to the Cold War and traces the conflict around the world and through the decades.

While the Cold War ended in 1991, even a casual appraisal of current headlines reveals that relations between the United States and Russia — the one-time centre of the Soviet Union — remain tense, to say the least. The global repercussions of the Cold War continue to ripple through the current geopolitical landscape to this day, but it can be difficult to understand just how a mid-20th century struggle for ideological dominance continues to ensnare countless nations in ongoing unrest.

To tell this story, the series draws on more than 100 interviews with subjects ranging from past and present world leaders (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas) to historians as well as everyday people whose lives were drastically altered by the events of the Cold War. As the history unfolds, each episode considers the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine as an example of how the history being examined is directly tied to the events of today. “Nearly every part of the war in Ukraine is an echo of the Cold War,” Knappenberger explains.

Watch the series here https://www.netflix.com/title/81614129

Watch the trailer here https://youtu.be/qHuuLo-CSRo?si=ZaNGZyeP0nZe5Nwp

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00:00 The Chilling Call: A Cold War Nightmare

00:21 Welcome to Cold War Conversations

00:39 Inside 'Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War' Documentary

01:02 The Cold War's Legacy and Today's Nuclear Threats

03:15 The Making of a Cold War Documentary