In the midst of the trauma of the Vietnam War, a U.S. diplomatic strategy evolves that begins the unraveling of the Soviet Empire. This program on the Cold War of the 1970s and 80s, hosted by David Frost and featuring historian Michael Beschloss, focuses on such key events and tactics as détente, the manipulations that sparked Middle East tensions between Soviet-supported Egypt and American-backed Israel, Nixons historic trip to China, the SALT talks, the "dirty little wars" in Central America, the Reagan Revolution and his Strategic Defense Initiative, the fall of the Berlin Wall, "perestroika" and "glasnost," and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union. Exclusive Frost interviews with Margaret Thatcher, Norman Schwarzkopf, Mikhail Gorbachev, Presidents Carter, Reagan, and Bush, and others, along with the use of previously classified U.S. and Russian documents, bring the story of the last decades of the Cold War to life. (50 minutes)
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