0:00 I've decided that in order to sell more merch, I should do a face reveal wearing it. So are you ready?
0:04 Here we go!
0:05 Boom.
0:06 New minimalist and Cold War merch available now.
0:08 And get the new limited edition Churchill character pin before it sells out,
0:12 with more characters coming in the future.
0:14 Link in the description down below.
0:16 The year is 1917.
0:19 Fighting rages on the eastern front of the First World War.
0:22 Both Germany and Russia are on the brink of collapse.
0:25 - "Soldier, I need you to bring me this man."
0:28 - "Got it."
0:30 - "Found him, sir."
0:31 - "Wha-... who ... NO..."
0:32 "Not LennON!"
0:34 "LenIN! The Russian communist! What!?"
0:36 "Why would I need a Beatle?! Lenin! The Russian communist! He was exiled to Switzerland!"
0:40 - "You know what? I'll do it myself."
0:48 - "Who wants to start a revolution?!!"
0:50 *USSR ANTHEM STARTS TO PLAY*
1:06 - The Germans put Lenin on a train and sent him all the way back to Russia,
1:09 hoping he and his mates would create an internal crisis.
1:11 And create an internal crisis they did.
1:13 The government was overthrown and Lenin was in charge.
1:16 He immediately pulled out of the First World War,
1:18 made the country Communist,
1:19 started a three-year long civil war,
1:21 got shot,
1:22 broke the economy,
1:22 caused a famine,
1:23 and then he died.
1:25 On his deathbed, he said,
1:26 - "Hey, man, tell whoever's in charge of giving people jobs not to let that jerk Stalin become the next leader."
1:31 "By the way, who did I put in charge of giving people jobs?"
1:33 - "That would be Stalin, sir."
1:37 *dies*
1:38 - Stalin was a rising force in the Communist Party.
1:40 He still had some opponents but conveniently, all of them were arrested or disappeared.
1:44 So that was lucky.
1:45 And so Stalin took over.
1:47 He implemented his Five-Year Plans
1:48 which transformed the country from an agriculture-based economy
1:51 to an industrial one.
1:52 And like Lenin before him, he reigned with terror.
1:55 Anyone who dared criticize or oppose him
1:57 would either be killed or left to rot
1:59 in the horrendous Soviet work camps.
2:01 Then, a short man with a silly mustache
2:03 tried to take over the world,
2:04 punched the Russians all the way to Moscow,
2:06 and then the Russians,
2:07 with some help from their faithful ally,
2:08 the Winter,
2:09 punched them all the way back to Berlin.
2:11 At this point, being allies,
2:12 America, the UK and the Soviet Union were good chums.
2:15 They held a couple of conferences near the end of the war
2:17 to decide what would happen next.
2:19 - "Hey Stalin, after all your trials and tribulation,"
2:21 "you must be pretty happy to be standing here in Berlin."
2:23 - "Tsar Alexander made it all the way to Paris."
2:27 - "Uhhh..."
2:28 "Hey, uh,"
2:29 "j-just"
2:29 "give me a second"
2:30 (whispering) "Hey man, I think something's up with Stalin."
2:33 - "I know, right?"
2:34 "What should we do?"
2:35 - "Shall I tell him about the bomb?"
2:37 - "Yeah, tell him about the bomb."
2:38 "That will scare him."
2:40 - "Sooo..."
2:40 "we got this crazy new big A-bomb"
2:42 "that can destroy an entire city in one go."
2:44 - "Yes, my spies told me already."
2:46 "Oh wait, I meant to act surprised."
2:48 "WOW! THAT'S AMAZING!"
2:50 - "He already knew!"
2:51 "How?!"
2:51 - "Ummm..."
2:53 - "Am I sure I want to send nuclear secrets via"
2:55 "unsecure, public, coffee-shop Wi-Fi?"
2:57 "AM I EVER!"
2:59 - "Dude, use a VPN."
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3:55 Now, where were we?
3:56 Oh, yeah.
3:57 - "Does the 'A' stand for atomic or ass?"
4:00 - Then America dropped their big 'A' bomb on Japan
4:02 and World War II officially came to an end.
4:04 - "Hooray! We won!"
4:05 "Okay, so now it's time to establish the New World Order."
4:08 "Stalin, you're in charge of Eastern Europe."
4:10 "Now, we want you to let them all hold elections."
4:12 - "Oh, yes, of course."
4:13 "Elections."
4:14 - "And these elections will be free and fair, right?"
4:16 - "Oh yes. Certainly."
4:18 "Free and fair."
4:18 "Definitely free and fair."
4:20 "Communist, Communist, Communist, Communist, Communist, Communist."
4:23 "If that's not free and fair, I don't know what is."
4:26 - Throughout Eastern Europe,
4:26 Soviet puppet governments were established
4:28 as a buffer zone between the USSR and the West,
4:31 with Churchill proclaiming an Iron Curtain
4:32 had descended across the continent.
4:34 The relationship between the old Allies
4:36 was deteriorating fast.
4:38 Over the next few years,
4:39 the British intervened in the Greek Civil War
4:40 to prevent a communist takeover.
4:42 In Turkey, the Russians began demanding more control
4:44 of Turkey's sea access routes,
4:45 which prompted the US
4:46 to send their largest battleship to Turkey
4:48 for a friendly visit.
4:49 After World War II,
4:50 Iran was now occupied
4:51 by both the Soviets and the British,
4:53 with an agreement to both pull out
4:55 once the war was over.
4:56 The British pulled out;
4:57 Stalin was like,
4:57 - "You know what, I think I might stick around."
5:00 - "All in favor of kicking Russia out of Iran?"
5:03 - "You want to know something?"
5:06 - "You guys suck."
5:06 - Pressure from the UN forced the Soviets to leave,
5:09 and with the establishment of NATO,
5:10 the Soviets had no doubt
5:11 that the West was out to encircle and destroy them.
5:14 And America announced the Truman Doctrine,
5:15 in which they basically said,
5:17 - "Those guys are not cool,"
5:18 "cannot be trusted,"
5:19 "and we will do everything we can"
5:20 "to prevent the spread of Communism around the world."
5:23 - Many view this moment as the official declaration of the Cold War.
5:27 Back in Europe...
5:27 Everyone was living in a post-apocalyptic void
5:29 brought on by the Second World War.
5:31 Cities reduced to rubble,
5:32 not enough food...
5:33 It was terrible.
5:34 - "This is great!"
5:35 "The more they suffer,"
5:36 "the more likely it is they'll turn to communism!"
5:38 - "Dude, you're really messed up."
5:40 "What's wrong with you?"
5:41 - "My father used to punish me severely."
5:43 - America realized what was going on,
5:44 and quickly made a move.
5:46 Under the Marshall Plan,
5:47 they sent 12 billion dollars to Western Europe for its economic recovery.
5:50 The countries of Stalin's Eastern Bloc looked on with envy.
5:53 - "Hey Czechoslovakia."
5:54 "You want to come get some economic aid?"
5:55 - "Yeah, but I have to check with my mom first."
6:01 - "Sorry America..."
6:02 "I can't come."
6:03 This was a full-on economic battle
6:05 raging between capitalism and communism in Europe.
6:08 If the Western nations developed faster and better than the East,
6:11 that would be a defeat for Stalin.
6:12 So he set up his own rival economic recovery plan,
6:14 which he called 'COMECON'.
6:16 And he also set up 'COMINFORM',
6:17 which gave him more political control
6:19 over the Eastern Block.
6:20 But nowhere did this economic battle rage harder
6:22 than in the city of Berlin.
6:24 Caught over a 100 miles (160 km) behind Soviet lines,
6:27 the city had been divided up between the Allies.
6:29 And the western segments were still under Western control.
6:32 East Berliners could travel freely to West Berlin,
6:34 see the economic prosperity and think,
6:36 - "Hmmm..."
6:36 "Maybe this communism thing ain't so great after all."
6:39 "I'm gonna have fun tonight!"
6:42 *opens door*
6:43 *turn on lights*
6:44 - "You're home late."
6:45 - "Oh,"
6:46 "Stalin..."
6:47 "I was just out with my friends."
6:48 - "Friends?!"
6:49 "You stink of capitalism!"
6:50 "You wrere out engaging in imperialist debauchery again!"
6:52 "I swear, Ivan, I can't keep doing this."
6:55 - Stalin wanted the West out.
6:56 So he said,
6:57 - "Hey, guess what?"
6:58 "I'm blockading all of your supply routes to West Berlin."
7:00 "What are you gonna do about it?"
7:02 - "I suppose we'll just fly the supplies in."
7:09 - "Alright Truman,"
7:10 "You win this round."
7:12 The Berlin Airlift was an incredible undertaking
7:14 and a major success for the Western Allies.
7:16 And Stalin ended his blockade of West Berlin.
7:19 His aggressive actions worried the West,
7:21 but not as much as this did.
7:23 *A-Bomb kaboom*
7:26 The Soviet Union had developed their very own atomic bomb.
7:28 The USA no longer had a nuclear monopoly.
7:31 The world now knew that if a major war broke out
7:33 between the two superpowers,
7:34 It would be more destructive
7:35 than anyone could imagine.
7:36 So it was comforting when Stalin came out and said
7:38 that war between the Soviet Union and the West
7:40 was unlikely.
7:42 Oh wait, inevitable!
7:43 He said it was inevitable.
7:44 - "Hey, you know who I haven't checked in on in a while?"
7:47 "My good friend, China!"
7:48 - "Whoa, what happened to you?"
7:50 What happened to them was
7:51 a full-blown civil war that had been going on since 1927.
7:54 The People's Liberation Army,
7:55 under the leadership of Mao Zedong,
7:57 successfully defeated the Republic of China,
7:59 who fled to Taiwan.
8:00 The now communist China and the Soviet Union
8:02 signed a mutual defense treaty.
8:03 This was terrible news for the West.
8:05 But wait!
8:06 There's more!
8:07 After the Second World War,
8:08 Korea was divided along the 38th parallel.
8:10 In the north, the Soviets set up a communist regime.
8:13 In the south, America set up an anti-communist regime.
8:15 Both were led by very sweet-looking old men.
8:17 But don't let that deceive you.
8:18 They were both ruthless dictators,
8:20 and both dreamed of reuniting Korea
8:22 under their own regime.
8:23 Now that he had the bomb,
8:24 Stalin was feeling a little more cocky
8:26 and he finally gave Kim permission to attack.
8:28 The North launched a surprise invasion of the South
8:30 on June 25th, 1950.
8:32 With Soviet aid,
8:32 the North Koreans steamrolled through,
8:34 taking Seoul in just three days,
8:36 and replacing one ruthless dictator
8:37 with another.
8:39 The UN were freaking out,
8:40 and quickly created an emergency force
8:41 made up of troops from 16 countries
8:43 to defend the south.
8:44 The West still held Busan,
8:45 and made landings at Incheon near Seoul.
8:47 They pushed the North Koreans out of Seoul,
8:49 replacing the ruthless dictator
8:50 that had replaced the first ruthless dictator
8:51 with the same ruthless dictator
8:52 that had previously been replaced by the new ruthless dictator.
8:55 And the West then continued
8:56 all the way up the Korean Peninsula.
8:58 At this point China was getting worried
8:59 that the UN may just keep going.
9:01 The US had sent this guy to lead the operation.
9:03 After winning the Pacific theater of World War II,
9:05 General Douglas MacArthur's head was big,
9:07 and his balls were bigger.
9:08 He reassured President Truman
9:09 that there was absolutely no way at all
9:11 that the Chinese would ever get involved.
9:13 Meanwhile, half a million Chinese troops
9:15 were crossing into Korea.
9:16 - "Nuke 'em."
9:17 - "No."
9:17 - "NUKE 'EM!"
9:18 - "NO!"
9:18 - "Aw, c'moooon."
9:19 - "You're fired!"
9:20 - The US considered the nuclear option,
9:22 but now that the Soviets also had the bomb,
9:24 they didn't want to risk all-out global destruction.
9:26 The Communists pushed the West right back
9:27 almost to the exact same spot they had all started from,
9:29 and they ended up in a stalemate,
9:31 where they remained until both sides finally agreed
9:33 to work towards a peace settlement in 2018.
9:35 Back in America,
9:36 Americans decided they wanted a new president
9:38 who would be tough on communism.
9:40 So they elected famed World War II general,
9:42 Eisenhower,
9:42 who is really hard to draw.
9:44 It's 1953.
9:46 Hey Stalin, how you doing--
9:47 Oh, he's dead.
9:48 He had a cerebral hemorrhage,
9:49 and his reign of terror kinda came back
9:51 to bite him in the ass.
9:52 Because he had imprisoned all of his best doctors,
9:54 and those that were left were too terrified to treat him.
9:56 The new leader, Nikita Khrushchev,
9:58 called a meeting, and said,
9:59 - "Hey guys."
10:00 "You know how Stalin was imprisoning"
10:01 "and murdering us all for doing basically nothing?"
10:03 "Yeah, he was kind of a jerk."
10:05 *gasp omg*
10:06 - "I'm really not sure how this is news to you."
10:08 Khrushchev went on a campaign of
10:09 de-Stalinization.
10:10 Statues of Stalin were taken down,
10:12 Stalingrad was renamed,
10:13 and Khrushchev announced
10:14 that he wanted the Soviet people to be happy
10:16 and would allow greater freedom in the Soviet Union.
10:19 So how did that work out?
10:20 Well, an uprising in East Germany
10:22 was brutally suppressed.
10:23 A revolution in Hungary
10:24 was brutally suppressed.
10:25 And demonstrations in Poland
10:26 were brutally suppressed.
10:28 Although he did finally allow some mild reforms.
10:30 Back in the Soviet Union,
10:31 he permitted more cultural expression,
10:33 but then began banning stuff
10:34 based on his own personal taste.
10:36 - "Modern art looks like a child"
10:37 "urinated on a canvas."
10:38 "Banned!"
10:39 - "Jazz music sounds like"
10:40 "the feeling of needing to fart."
10:41 "Banned!"
10:42 - "Your poetry is really depressing!"
10:44 "How could anyone in the Soviet Union be depressed?"
10:46 "You're banned!"
10:47 Khrushchev wanted the Soviet people to be happy,
10:49 but not like that,
10:49 or that,
10:50 or that.
10:51 Young people began enjoying
10:53 abhorrent Western pop culture.
10:55 - "Son, remove that disgusting imperialist apparel at once!"
10:58 - "Shut up, Dad!"
10:59 "You can't tell me what to do!"
11:00 "Well would you look at that."
11:01 "Turns out he CAN tell me what to do."
11:04 The West had initially liked the cut of Khrushchev's jib,
11:06 but world events soon soured relations even more.
11:09 The two sides were spying on each other a whole lot
11:12 throughout the Cold War.
11:13 The KGB had spies and informants
11:14 in nearly every aspect of Western life and government;
11:17 so much so that whenever the US tried to send spies
11:19 into the Soviet Union,
11:20 the KGB were usually ready to arrest them on the spot.
11:23 Members of the Manhattan Project aided the Soviet Union in acquiring the bomb.
11:27 Some American officials believed they were on the wrong side.
11:30 - "I'll sell you three secrets for five million dollars."
11:32 - "Okay, go ahead."
11:33 - "The Allies are digging a tunnel under East Berlin to tap your communications,"
11:36 there's an American agent living at this address in Moscow,"
11:38 "and sometimes when I'm home alone,"
11:40 "I like to put on my wife's dresses, sit in the corner,"
11:42 "and cry for hours" *weird*
11:44 - "Very interesting."
11:45 In America fear took hold during the Red Scare and the McCarthy trials.
11:49 American values imploded as fear of communism collided with freedom of thought and expression,
11:53 and "Communist" kind of became a buzzword thrown around to describe anything people didn't like;
11:57 Hollywood?
11:58 Communist!
11:58 Your next-door neighbor's dog?
12:00 Communist!!
12:01 When the grocery store cashier asks If you need a bag
12:03 when you clearly can't carry ten tups of Baconnaise in your hands?
12:05 COMMUNIST!!!!!!!*that face tho*
12:06 But one area in particular where the US had an edge
12:08 over the Soviet Union was in its espionage technology. In particular,
12:11 U-2 spy planes flew across Russia carrying out surveillance from the skies
12:15 There was a nasty incident in 1960 though, when one was shot down and Khrushchev was furious.
12:21 - "Who the hell is this?"
12:21 - "He's a... high-altitude weather enthusiast, who flew off course."
12:25 - "OK, that sounds plausible... Waaaaaiit a minute,"
12:27 "Why does he have a gun and a poison needle?"
12:29 - "Because..."
12:30 "He's a... very NAUGHTY high-altitude weather enthusiast."
12:34 But much to America's concern,
12:35 the Soviet Union appeared to be ahead in the space race.
12:38 Everyone freaked out when Russia launched the world's first satellite,
12:40 and then they actually sent a man into space. (Yuri Gagarin)
12:43 Even worse, there also appeared to be a missile gap in the Soviets favor,
12:46 and Khrushchev was so confident that he even allowed the US to set up a technology exhibit in Moscow,
12:51 attended by a certain Vice President Richard Nixon.
12:53 - "Check this out. We have color TV."
12:55 - "Yes, but we've been to space and can obliterate you with our massive nuclear arsenal."
13:00 - "Check out this vegetable peeler."
13:02 Tensions increased further when both sides upgraded their atomic bombs to hydrogen bombs.
13:06 And after West Germany was allowed to join NATO in 1955,
13:09 Khrushchev set up the defensive Warsaw Pact,
13:11 strengthening the military ties between the Soviet Union and its satellites states.
13:15 In 1960, Americans decided they wanted a new president who would be tough on communism.
13:19 So they elected John F. Kennedy.
13:21 The Soviet Union was advancing its technology,
13:23 but it was also bleeding its coffers dry
13:25 and all of the money was going towards the military,
13:27 not the people.
13:28 Life under communism was still as hard as ever, and Berlin remained a thorn in the Soviet side.
13:33 The contrast between the economically prosperous West
13:35 and the struggling East was clearer day-by-day
13:38 and East Berliners were still able to freely travel to the West.
13:41 Now, many of them were deciding to stay there.
13:43 Millions defected to West Germany via West Berlin,
13:46 causing Eastern factories to lose workers, and taking a heavy toll on the economy.
13:50 Soviet leaders decided this couldn't continue any longer.
13:53 First, Khrushchev tried this:
13:54 - "Leave West Berlin... or else"
13:57 - "Or else what?"
13:58 - "Or else... I'll be really mad at you."
14:00 - "Yeeeeah, no, we're gonna stay. Listen man. "
14:02 "West Berlin is ours, East Berlin is yours."
14:04 "That's just how it is.”
14:06 Kennedy felt pretty good about the show of American resolve.
14:08 But wait a second. Did you catch that? Let's replay it.
14:12 - "Eeeeeaaaasssst Beeeeeeeerrrliiiinn iiiissssss yooouuurrrrsss."
14:16 Uh-oh. Kennedy just told Khrushchev that the USA wouldn't interfere
14:19 in what the Soviets did with their section of Berlin.
14:21 So Khrushchev came up with a new idea:
14:23 - "We're gonna build a wall, and it's gonna be a big beautiful wall,"
14:26 "and it's gonna keep out all the Mexicans."
14:27 *Whisper* No, Sir that's wrong, its going to keep in the East Berliners.
14:29 - "Oh, sorry. It's gonna keep IN all the Mexicans."
14:32 *facepalm*
14:33 On August 13th, 1961,
14:35 Berliners woke up to find their city divided into two;
14:37 with barbed wire and guards blocking the border
14:40 between East and West.
14:40 Over time, a wall was constructed throughout the city.
14:43 Families were torn apart.
14:45 Thousands would risk their lives escaping over the wall
14:48 and hundreds would die trying.
14:49 To the despair of Berliners, the West were unable to do anything about it.
14:53 But the wall did put on full display the failure of the communist system.
14:56 As Kennedy said:
14:57 "Democracy is not perfect,"
14:59 "but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in."
15:02 As part of the agreement between the two sides
15:04 US diplomats were still allowed to travel to East Berlin.
15:06 But suddenly East Berlin crossing guard started giving them the business
15:10 and Kennedy was like: "nu-uh".
15:12 In October the US rolled tanks up to the crossing point at Checkpoint Charlie as a show of strength.
15:16 The Soviets did the same and the two were in a standoff.
15:19 They stayed like that for sixteen hours and the world braced for nuclear Armageddon.
15:23 Thankfully though, Kennedy called Khrushchev directly and was like:
15:26 - "Hey man, this is getting way too hot!"
15:28 "How about you back your tanks up by an inch and we'll do the same?"
15:30 - "Sounds good. Okay."
15:31 - "How about you back your tanks up by another inch and we'll follow suit?"
15:34 - "All right... Hey, you wanna do another inch?"
15:36 And they both very slowly inched away from the apocalypse.
15:39 - "PHEW! Let's hope that's the biggest crisis of my presidency!"
15:42 It wasn't...
