Greetings motherfactors! Today we’re having a bit of a history lesson and going back to the latter half of the 1900s to a war that spanned decades and involved several countries including The USA and USSR. Don’t get those confused, that’s quite important. So grab your notebooks and join us in this educational journey where nuclear oblivion could come at any moment, as we tell you Facts You Have Never Heard Before! About The Cold War.
Facts You Have Never Heard Before! About The Cold War.
greetings motherfactors my name is sam
and today i thought we’d dive knee deep
into some history
it’s a topic we’ve wanted to cover for a
while but the fact the new call of duty
game is centered around it certainly
helped us
usher it along yes it’s the cold war an
unbelievably tense period of human
existence in which death and destruction
on a massive scale was almost constantly
a threat
lovely it’s also extremely complicated
so sorry if we’ve missed bits out
but what invention do we owe to the cold
war happening
how is the cold war bad for humans but
also bad for deer and bears
and what’s the weirdest thing that the
editors can make using some stock
footage spoiler probably this
two answer three of those questions are
going to be answered so get ready for
some complex geopolitical history and be
grateful it’s all over now and the world
is definitely
absolutely fine nothing to worry about
these days nope nothing
as we go through 101 facts about the
cold war
number one no by the way the cold war is
not what happened when frozone iceman
and mr freeze all got into a big cold
fight although i would love to see that
essentially the cold war is a rivalry
that developed after world war
ii between the united states and the
soviet union that lasted between 1946
and 1991. number two
they both wanted to be the most powerful
nation on the planet and were scared and
unsure of what the other would do
and with all this suspicion both
countries used extensive spying
techniques against one another
in the u.s corner for example they had
the cia
the central intelligence agency whereas
in the soviet corner they had the kgb
the committee for state security number
three
now where did the term cold war come
from it came from one of the uk’s most
prestigious writers
dick king smith oh no sorry george
orwell
he wrote it in an essay published in
1945 to describe a potential nuclear
stalemate between two or three monstrous
superstates each possessed of a weapon
by which millions of people can be wiped
out in a few seconds
number four by 1948 the soviets had
installed far left-wing governments in
the countries of eastern europe that had
been liberated by the red army
the americans and the british quaked in
their boots a little worried about
permanent soviet domination of eastern
europe and the threat of
soviet-influenced communist parties
coming to power in the democracies of
western europe
ah communism number five a nuclear arms
race began between the two states which
later inspired fallout boy to release
that song i imagine
after world war ii americans began to
fund things specifically
more knowledge about nuclear weaponry
and the raw materials for them
they hoped to have exclusive ownership
over this knowledge but behind the
scenes the soviet government was working
on building its own
number six the soviets had a lack of
uranium which gave them the equivalent
of a missing trainer at the start of
this race
american experts have predicted that the
soviet union would not have nuclear
weapons until the mid-1950s
but the first soviet bomb was detonated
on august 29
1949 which failed to say shocked the
entire world
number seven the bomb named thirst
lightning by the west was more or less a
copy of fat man
one of the bombs the united states had
dropped on japan in 1945
number eight the soviet union later
detonated the largest nuclear weapon
the world had ever seen in 1961 called
the tsar obama the king of bombs
it released the equivalent of over 50
megatons of tnt
which was more than all explosives used
in world war ii
combined number nine
it made sense the us were fearful of the
soviet union because at its peak the
ussr was able to stockpile around 40
000 weapons while the u.s had around 30
000
and if you know your maths you’ll know
that that’s less number ten
in case you weren’t done with nice names
for abstract things the iron curtain was
a non-physical line that separated the
two sides of europe after world war ii
it was a term that had been used in the
winston churchill speech in 1946 however
joseph goebbels
had used it previously while talking
about the soviet union
number 11
there were bits of this curtain that
were real and did appear and were made
of iron too
the berlin wall for instance which we’ll
go into more detail on in a bit
but also a soviet-built wall between
russia and finland and norway
number 12. there was also a fence that
divided the czech republic from the old
west
germany these fences though were
electrified and extremely dangerous a
great combination funnily enough deer
actually still don’t cross this border
an experiment found despite the fact
it’s been decades since
it’s just been shocked into them not to
do so
number 13. even though it was a cold and
some would say invisible war it’s
estimated that through the conflict and
the side conflicts throughout
fought by the us and the soviet union
over 11 million people died
number 14. so let’s talk about the
berlin blockade the first major crisis
of the cold war you see after world war
ii germany was divided up and
the allies got a slice as
military-occupied zones and that’s
included berlin the soviet union got the
east of berlin
and wanted to treat the germans harshly
in economic terms to help fund
themselves after the cost of the war
number 15. eventually in 1948 the
soviets tried to stop the other allies
i.e france the uk and the us from
getting into their part of berlin
while the soviets were a little bit
perturbed by the fact that the us and
other allies wanted to bring a new
currency and economic age to their area
of germany
so they blocked off their area of berlin
from road rail and
water meaning that the 2.5 million
civilians there suddenly couldn’t get
access to electricity
medicine or food number 16
two days after berlin’s blockade was
announced the u.s and britain took to
the skies in their planes well
obviously dropping 2.3 million tons of
supplies to help said civilians
over 11 months not at the same time
because that would be madness and
probably not help at all
over 100 of these planes belong to
civilians and it was the largest relief
operation by air
in history number 17.
so it was after this that things really
began to get spicy because as you can
imagine the ussr weren’t best pleased
with what just happened
in 1949 the u.s and its european allies
formed nato the naughty apple
termination ordinance
oh sorry that’s something else no i mean
the north atlantic treaty organization
number 18. now nato was and indeed still
is a collective defense agreement and
article 5 of its rules is probably the
key one
it states that an attack on one member
is an attack on all its members a bit
like what that construction worker says
in the first spider-man movie to put it
in terms that i understand
basically if the soviet union attacked
one of these countries all 12 would
return
favor to the ussr number
at the time the founding members were
belgium canada denmark france iceland
italy luxembourg the netherlands
norway portugal the uk and of course the
usa usa
usa number 20. interesting thing about
article 5 it was never invoked during
the whole of the cold war and has only
ever been used
once by the usa in 2001 following the 9
11 attacks
number 21 just a few months after the
nato treaty was signed communist leader
mao
zedong otherwise known as chairman mao
was declaring a huge win for the
communists
namely that they were now in control of
china that’s right a new challenger had
entered the ring
these communist forces were quickly
recognized by the soviet union and the
eastern bloc as the legitimate
government
of china
however the nationalist forces in china
who had been defeated fled to taiwan and
formed their own government on the
island
china and taiwan continued to have let’s
say difficult relations to put it mildly
to this day so the fallout of the cold
war is very much still with us
it is getting a bit chilly number 23.
in 1950 the cold war turned really hot
for the first time with the advent of
the korean war a conflict that’s still
technically not finished even now
seriously this period really didn’t mess
things up for the world
number 24 the war was started when
youtube’s favorite communist north korea
led by kim il-sung and backed by the
soviet union and china
invaded south korea number 25
the usa and its allies under the banner
of the united nations and driven by
freedom stepped in to protect south
korean independence
the war lasted until 1953 and was
essentially a stalemate that cost at
least
2.5 million lives
number 26 just as the korean war was
coming to a close yet another area of
conflict was brewing for the ussr
they just don’t stop these lads do they
in june 1957
anti-government protesters and unhappy
workers were rebelling in their segment
of east
germany number 27 now this wasn’t just
your uncle gerald with the placard
outside sainsbury’s we’re talking about
approximately 40 000 protesters gathered
with leaders calling for a general
strike free elections and the end of the
now communist government that ran it
number 28. and how did they respond to
this
the soviet troops backed up with tanks
moved to crush the protesters killing up
to 20 people and wounding up to a
hundred
martial law was declared you know to
calm things down and east germany would
remain
communist number 29 something similar
happened in 1956 actually when a popular
uprising saw in renegade become the
leader of hungary
declaring neutrality and even offering a
multi-party political system
wow number 30. the ussr wasn’t too keen
on this idea and once again brutally
suppressed the revolution using military
force
over 2500 hungarians were killed and 200
000 more fled the country
number 31 but it wasn’t just the soviet
union that was overthrowing governments
that might turn against them
over in central america the usa was
getting a little bit worried by the
democratically elected president
chicago arbenz guzman of guatemala
number 32 president arbenz was all about
land reform robin hood style in that he
wanted to take
it and give it to the poor problem was
that a lot of that land was in the hands
of the united fruit company
the american-owned united fruit company
number 33 it all smelled a bit too
communist and so president eisenhower
had the cia overthrow the guatemalan
government
it was replaced with a repressive
military junta and the country would
later collapse into a civil war lasting
for 36 years
number 34 so it may be apparent by now
that the us did not
like communists in fact the pledge of
allegiance was added to during the cold
war specifically the
under god bit as a sort of no way jose
to the atheistic tendencies of communism
number 35 jumping ahead a bit while
we’re on the subject the us did another
supply delivery to an eastern european
country in the 1970s to romania
specifically they sent 20 000 bibles
there to combat atheist communism
congress later said that these had been
seized and turned into toilet paper
number 36 jumping back a bit again but
still ahead of where we were before
sorry in 1956 the soviet chairman nikita
khrushchev
tried to visit disneyland when he was on
a state’s visit he was apparently denied
entry which just goes to show hallelujah
with the ussr already trust today
disneyland said it was because they were
worried about crowds forming around him
so
word has it he went to sea world instead
number 37
during the cold war the fear of nuclear
attack was very real in many nations on
earth
american school children for example
were taught to duck and cover should an
alarm sound
which means hide under their desks an
action that would do absolutely nothing
to protect them from a nuclear blast
it would be like wearing a paper suit of
armor against a well nuclear blast
number 38 citizens would be alerted of
an incoming nuclear attack via air raid
sirens in the states
these were built by chrysler and powered
with v8 motors
you could hear one 16 miles away number
39
here’s something kind of messed up in
the 1950s the us air force were testing
out the ejector seats on their new
supersonic b-58 hustler jets
that’s fine right well they tested them
not with dummies but with bears
sedated bears all the bears apparently
survived this process but
still calm down lads number 40.
okay let’s rewind a little bit again in
1955 west germany joined nato and the
soviet union asked
itself hold on why don’t we have our own
version of nato and thus the warsaw pact
was born
this was a mutual defense organization
with the unified command and handily for
moscow
allowed the ussr to maintain troops in
all other countries in the pact
number 41 so in the red corner we have
albania bulgaria tech slovakia east
germany hungary poland romania and of
course the ussr
then there was nato as we mentioned
earlier in the other corner
let the games begin the meaning of life
during the cold war specifically on the
27th of october 1962
the world nearly ended yeah for realsies
on that day a soviet sub was on its way
to cuba it was in international waters
but the united states navy started
dropping signaling depth charges
which were meant to make the submarine
surface so they could see who the hell
it was
number 43 somewhat panicked the captain
of the sub
valentin ragurovich zavitsky decided
that a war might have already started
having not heard anything from moscow
he therefore wanted to launch a nuclear
torpedo oh
slow down there the second command a man
named vasily arkapov
stepped in and disagreed with launching
the nuke preferring instead to rise on
up and wait to hear from russia number
44
now it’s because of him that we’re alive
today there’s even a documentary about
archibald called the man who saved the
world
russia didn’t agree though apparently
seeing him as a disgrace apparently he
was even told it would have been better
if you’d gone down with your ship
not a nice way of thanking people that
saved your life
number 45 historian and jfk advisor
arthur m
schlesinger jr states this moment was
not only the most dangerous moment of
the cold war
it was the most dangerous moment in
human history
so yeah important stuff to mention
number 46.
anyway another important event the bay
of pigs nothing to do with babe pig in
the city which is
what my mind goes to for some reason
funded by the us cuban exiles failed a
landing operation
on the southwest of cuba in april of
1961 in what we now call the bay of
picks
the plan was to overthrow the communist
prime minister fidel castro
because as we’ve learned usa does not
get on with communism
number 47 eisenhower the bloke who was
the potus at the time gave 13.1 million
dollars to the cia to begin the
operation
this money went to training the exiles
as well as providing resources like
weapons and planes
number 48 but the operation went a bit
boulon lair for the us you see said bay
was near a radio tower so castro knew
the invasion was coming already by
intercepting intel
number 49 the soviets then covertly
shipped thousands of russian troops to
cuba
while the united states estimated that
around eight thousand russian troops
were stationed in cuba
the real number was over forty thousand
it also made cuba get a little bit
cozier with the soviets you know the
enemy of my enemy and all that
number fifty this thing kicked off the
cuban missile crisis on october of 1962
a 13-day confrontation that came after
the bay of pigs between the us and the
soviet union where once again the cold
war
could have got really bloody hot number
51
after the u.s failed to overthrow them
cuba didn’t really want to repeat so
soviet leader nikita khrushchev agreed
to their request to play some nuclear
missiles on the island to deter a future
invasion
cuba being 90 miles from the usa america
wasn’t really happy with this
and meanwhile had missiles aimed at
russia from italy and turkey
number 52 to try and stop the ussr from
delivering any more weapons to cuba john
f kennedy set up a naval blockade around
the country obviously not by himself he
ordered it to happen by other people
this heightened attention as khrushchev
saw this as an act of war
rot rule number 53 khrushchev wrote a
threatening letter to the president
stating the violation of the freedom of
navigation in international waters and
airspace
constitutes an act of aggression
propelling humankind into the abyss of a
world nuclear missile war
alright mate chill out number 54.
this crisis eventually came to a close
after a couple of letters from
khrushchev
one saying they’d take the missiles off
cuba if the us promised to never invade
again
another saying that they would dismantle
them if the u.s took theirs away in
turkey
officially they did the first but
actually did both and they all lived
happily ever on over halfway through
number 55.
it’s worth noting that during this cold
war the us and the soviet union wanted
to be better at each other at
everything including science this meant
kicking off the space race in 1955 which
involved seeing which superpower
was going to be the first in space
number 56
the soviet union achieved the first
successful launch in october 4th 1957
chucking sputnik 1 all the way up there
and sent the first human to space with
the orbital flight of yuri gagarin on
october 12 1961.
number 57 some think though that the us
won the space race because they were the
ones who in 1969 popped some men up to
the moon
and as you can imagine there are
arguments and debates about this even to
this day because nobody can decide on
anything
number 58 right remember that warsaw
pact i mentioned earlier
well countries in the warsaw pact
invaded czechoslovakia in 1968
which you’ll remember was a country in
the warsaw pact
so why would they do this well that year
the prague spring took place not a big
trampoline like i thought but a
liberalization of life in the country
things like elections freedom of
expression and close of relations with
the west
number 59 worried that communism might
be on its way out of czechoslovakia the
soviet union and most of its satellites
decided to once again send in tanks
almost 200 000 troops from east germany
poland hungary bulgaria
and the ussr were involved number 60
the invasion was a success and the
reforms of the prague spring were halted
however the eagle-eyed among you may
have noticed not all the warsaw pact
countries took part
both albania and romania refused to join
in and albania even withdrew from the
treaty all together in 1968 as a result
number 61 an even bigger communist
divide also took place in the 1960s the
sino-soviet split
this began during the 1950s and would
ultimately see the soviet union and
china the two most powerful communist
countries become rivals instead of
allies on the world stage
number 62 why did this happen then well
there were ideological differences the
soviets refusal to share nuclear weapon
technology and mao’s dislike of soviet
leaders after stalin had all contributed
to this divide
aren’t breakups horrible number 63
the usa eventually made the most of this
divide in the communist bloc
in 1972 president nixon visited china
and in 1979
president carter officially recognized
communist china and ended diplomatic
relations with taiwan
nintendo 64. the result of this was that
america now had access to trade with
china and its huge market
the usa could also use its relationship
with china to put pressure on the
soviets diplomatically on things like
arms agreements sneaky number 65.
there were also hopes in the early 1970s
that normalizing relations with china
might help america come to a resolution
in vietnam
remember vietnam well there’s a war
going on there but how did that happen
well
it wasn’t too dissimilar to what
happened in korea really
number 66. okay the tldr version is that
communist north vietnam sought to take
over the western line south vietnam
using escalating guerrilla tactics
throughout the 1960s to try and win
oh and naturally they had support from
china and the ussr
number 67 the usa as always sought to
contain the spread of communism and
after a few years providing support to
south vietnam
decided to go in all guns blazing in
1964 after the uss maddox was allegedly
attacked by north vietnamese vessels
number 68 approximately 2.6 million u.s
troops would serve in south vietnam and
the conflict would cost
around 200 billion dollars the result
not a good one for america who withdrew
in 1973 before south vietnam fell to the
communist north in 1975.
number 69 doing the usual thing does not
feel appropriate
while we’re on the topic of u.s
invasions it’s probably worth mentioning
that in 1965 washington
also landed over 20 000 us troops in the
dominican republic
you don’t need to be a historian to know
why by now number 70.
that’s right a reformist former
president castro was gaining popularity
there
the us only saw another cuba in the
making and intervened to stop a
communist dictatorship
instead they installed a more agreeable
conservative government but casualties a
doctor of numbered
six thousand number 71
okay we’re not quite done this is the
last u.s invasion we’ll mention i
promise
in 1983 they also toppled a left-wing
government in grenada ultimately sending
six thousand troops under the pretext to
protecting american citizens on the
island they also happened to dabble in a
bit of regime change while they were
there
number but we’re not done with soviet
invasions
on christmas eve 1979 30 000 troops were
sent to afghanistan to maintain the
communist government that had seized
power in 1978.
must have really messed with santa’s
plans number 73
this government had embarked on reforms
that were massively unpopular and it
brutally crushed any opponents to them
the muslim population also resented
being governed by atheists too
number 74 so opposition to this regime
was fierce and led to the creation of
the mujahideen
islamic resistance fighters who declared
a jihad or holy war against the
soviet-backed government
one of the key members of this
resistance was a guy called osama bin
laden
number 75. by 1982 the afghan war had
led to 1.5 million afghans fleeing to
iran and 2.8 million heading to pakistan
for asylum
by 1989 when the war ended an estimated
1 million civilians had been killed
number 76 the soviets withdrew having
failed to suppress the musha hiding
rebels who were backed by iran pakistan
china and of course the usa
it’s been claimed that it was
american-made anti-aircraft missiles
so-called stingers that helped turn the
tide from 1987.
as it meant the muhajirdin could shoot
down soviet aircraft
regularly number 77 the invasion of
afghanistan by the ussr brought to an
end a period in the cold war known as
detente which is said to have lasted
from the 1960s to 1979.
number 78. i know what you’re thinking
what the hell does that mean well
detente is a french word that means
relaxation of tension
in practice this meant the usa and
soviet union made an effort to
de-escalate potential conflict
and improve relations number 79
in 1972 nixon became the first u.s
president to visit moscow and
while there he and soviet leader
brezhnev agreed to expand trade
cooperate on research and arms control
crucially the salt or strategic arms
limitation talks aimed to reduce the
manufacture of nuclear missiles
number eight e the 1980s were very much
the end game of the cold war though
the decade began with ronald reagan
becoming president of the usa and he
dubbed the ussr
the evil empire and ramped up military
spending number 81
one of the results of this was the
so-called strategic defense initiative
otherwise known as
star wars hey that’s a good name they
should use that for a i don’t know
netflix series or something this was
essentially a system of space-based
lasers that would detect and deflect
nukes
on their way to the usa in other words
it would make nuclear weapons completely
pointless
number 82 after more than a decade of
research and 30 billion dollars in
spending the project much like my hopes
and dreams of becoming a thomas the tank
engine steam train was scrapped in 1993.
number 83 another big thing happened for
the cold war in 1985 mikhail gorbachev
became the leader of the ussr and
embarked on a series of reforms that
aimed to transform soviet society
number 84 one of those key policies was
perestroika which sounds like a west
country way of talking about a
footballer but it isn’t because it was
in russia
obviously it was to limit state economic
controls and encourage more competition
in business
number 85. his other big reform was
glasnost
this encouraged a more open society with
more freedom for the media the ability
to criticize government officials and
even
democratic elections roll there
number 86. in 1989 poland big part of
the warsaw pact remember
held partially free elections that were
won by non-communist candidates
showing a bit of a changing tide in
europe number 87
that year also saw pro-democracy
protests in hungary while there were
pro-independence protests in the baltic
republics too
people there formed a 370 mile human
chain while calling for freedom
number 88 all across eastern europe in
fact communist governments were
struggling to maintain control
in november of that year half a million
people gathered in east berlin to
protest for democracy
number 89 you see the berlin wall had
been built decades earlier and the total
people killed trying to cement it
under over or through it numbered 171.
more than 5000 east germans actually
managed to cross it though
using a number of methods which often
involved climbing over barbed wire
number 19. one successful escaped
attempt that seemed the most dramatic
was via hot air balloon
a homemade hot air balloon peter
strzelzak and gunter vetzel were friends
who worked together and decided in 1959
to plot their families escape from
communism they considered building a
helicopter but apparently that’s
difficult
number 91 they then decided instead to
build a hot air balloon which of course
took
several attempts they also had to create
a makeshift burner to make the actual
balloon lift and put the hot in the
title
which took about a year and a half to
perfect number 92
and even then on the ninth day and their
families escaped it wasn’t perfect
the eight people on the makeshift
gondola made of metal and clothesline
travelled in the air for 25 minutes but
a miscalculation meant
there was too much fire ripping the
balloon they then had to turn the burner
off and on again several times while
being high enough not to be detected by
radar
number 93 this game worked though that’s
why we’re talking about it
they couldn’t control the balloon
because of the win so they just had to
hope for the best but the best
came and worked out the families had
escaped eventually settling down where
they landed
in nayla number 94 though the erection
of the berlin wall was a symbol of the
soviet depression in east germany the
tension over berlin
as seen from the airlift we mentioned
earlier had dissipated with jfk saying
he didn’t like it but a wall was better
than a war
number 95 jfk actually gave a speech in
1963 two years after the war was built
that later became one of the most famous
speeches of all time and the most well
known of the cold war
in west berlin he gave a speech
basically assuring the people there of
the us policy towards them
number 96 this involved the now
well-known phrase ich bin ein berliner
after which an urban legend somehow
arose that by using the word ein kennedy
had somehow said i
am a berliner which was a type of donut
effectively stating that he is a
doughnut
it even appeared a novel set at the time
as well as other media outlets but it
just
isn’t true according to german grammar
fans
number 97 [ __ ] forward to 1987 when the
president ronald reagan also made a
speech at the wall in west berlin urging
the leader of the soviet union gorbachev
to tear down this wall
a speech that’s been remembered decades
later and even led to a statue of him
being erected there
number 98 when the government announced
an easing of travel restrictions on
november 9th 1989 east germans flocked
to and overran the berlin wall which was
opened by guards
people from east and west berlin marched
to the wall with beer and champagne
charting
tall off which is german for open up
that gatelet and let’s have a bloody
party
number 99 one journalist at the time
wrote it was the greatest party in the
history of the world
people brought hammers not essential for
great party that but they used it to
quiet the wall
eventually bringing it down even david
hasselhoff was there the cold war was
coming to an end
number 100 by the end of 1991
even the soviet union had collapsed each
of the republics that formed the ussr
instead declared their independence and
the cold war as we know it was over
number 101 oh yes by the way here’s the
answer to the thing i said
in the intro one expected consequence of
the cold war was that the internet the
thing that you’re on right now
basically came about as a result of it
the u.s funded a project called darpa
defense advanced research projects
agency the aim of which was to find a
way of military computers to send data
very quickly to one another
it was the first ingredient into making
the internet we now know and love today
so those were 101 facts about the cold
war is this your favorite period of
history let me know in the comments down
below
do you want to see us cover any other
important points in history also let us
know in the comments down below
also while you’re there give this video
a like and be sure to subscribe because
ah i mean we’re just having a great time
here aren’t we in subscribe party
there’s punch coming too
in the meantime though two videos on
your screen which you’re really gonna
really really enjoy i think i honestly
do think that and um why don’t you prove
me right by clicking on one and watching
it and i’ll see you there
bye-bye for now
Greetings motherfactors! Today we’re having a bit of a history lesson and going back to the latter half of the 1900s to a war that spanned decades and involved several countries including The USA and USSR. Don’t get those confused, that’s quite important. So grab your notebooks and join us in this educational journey where nuclear oblivion could come at any moment, as we tell you Facts You Have Never Heard Before! About The Cold War.Facts You Have Never Heard Before! About The Cold War.greetings motherfactors my name is samand today i thought we’d dive knee deepinto some historyit’s a topic we’ve wanted to cover for awhile but the fact the new call of dutygame is centered around it certainlyhelped ususher it along yes it’s the cold war anunbelievably tense period of humanexistence in which death and destructionon a massive scale was almost constantlya threatlovely it’s also extremely complicatedso sorry if we’ve missed bits outbut what invention do we owe to the coldwar happeninghow is the cold war bad for humans butalso bad for deer and bearsand what’s the weirdest thing that theeditors can make using some stockfootage spoiler probably thistwo answer three of those questions aregoing to be answered so get ready forsome complex geopolitical history and begrateful it’s all over now and the worldis definitelyabsolutely fine nothing to worry aboutthese days nope nothingas we go through 101 facts about thecold warnumber one no by the way the cold war isnot what happened when frozone icemanand mr freeze all got into a big coldfight although i would love to see thatessentially the cold war is a rivalrythat developed after world warii between the united states and thesoviet union that lasted between 1946and 1991. number twothey both wanted to be the most powerfulnation on the planet and were scared andunsure of what the other would doand with all this suspicion bothcountries used extensive spyingtechniques against one anotherin the u.s corner for example they hadthe ciathe central intelligence agency whereasin the soviet corner they had the kgbthe committee for state security numberthreenow where did the term cold war comefrom it came from one of the uk’s mostprestigious writersdick king smith oh no sorry georgeorwellhe wrote it in an essay published in1945 to describe a potential nuclearstalemate between two or three monstroussuperstates each possessed of a weaponby which millions of people can be wipedout in a few secondsnumber four by 1948 the soviets hadinstalled far left-wing governments inthe countries of eastern europe that hadbeen liberated by the red armythe americans and the british quaked intheir boots a little worried aboutpermanent soviet domination of easterneurope and the threat ofsoviet-influenced communist partiescoming to power in the democracies ofwestern europeah communism number five a nuclear armsrace began between the two states whichlater inspired fallout boy to releasethat song i imagineafter world war ii americans began tofund things specificallymore knowledge about nuclear weaponryand the raw materials for themthey hoped to have exclusive ownershipover this knowledge but behind thescenes the soviet government was workingon building its ownnumber six the soviets had a lack ofuranium which gave them the equivalentof a missing trainer at the start ofthis raceamerican experts have predicted that thesoviet union would not have nuclearweapons until the mid-1950sbut the first soviet bomb was detonatedon august 291949 which failed to say shocked theentire worldnumber seven the bomb named thirstlightning by the west was more or less acopy of fat manone of the bombs the united states haddropped on japan in 1945number eight the soviet union laterdetonated the largest nuclear weaponthe world had ever seen in 1961 calledthe tsar obama the king of bombsit released the equivalent of over 50megatons of tntwhich was more than all explosives usedin world war iicombined number nineit made sense the us were fearful of thesoviet union because at its peak theussr was able to stockpile around 40000 weapons while the u.s had around 30000and if you know your maths you’ll knowthat that’s less number tenin case you weren’t done with nice namesfor abstract things the iron curtain wasa non-physical line that separated thetwo sides of europe after world war iiit was a term that had been used in thewinston churchill speech in 1946 howeverjoseph goebbelshad used it previously while talkingabout the soviet unionnumber 11there were bits of this curtain thatwere real and did appear and were madeof iron toothe berlin wall for instance which we’llgo into more detail on in a bitbut also a soviet-built wall betweenrussia and finland and norwaynumber 12. there was also a fence thatdivided the czech republic from the oldwestgermany these fences though wereelectrified and extremely dangerous agreat combination funnily enough deeractually still don’t cross this borderan experiment found despite the factit’s been decades sinceit’s just been shocked into them not todo sonumber 13. even though it was a cold andsome would say invisible war it’sestimated that through the conflict andthe side conflicts throughoutfought by the us and the soviet unionover 11 million people diednumber 14. so let’s talk about theberlin blockade the first major crisisof the cold war you see after world warii germany was divided up andthe allies got a slice asmilitary-occupied zones and that’sincluded berlin the soviet union got theeast of berlinand wanted to treat the germans harshlyin economic terms to help fundthemselves after the cost of the warnumber 15. eventually in 1948 thesoviets tried to stop the other alliesi.e france the uk and the us fromgetting into their part of berlinwhile the soviets were a little bitperturbed by the fact that the us andother allies wanted to bring a newcurrency and economic age to their areaof germanyso they blocked off their area of berlinfrom road rail andwater meaning that the 2.5 millioncivilians there suddenly couldn’t getaccess to electricitymedicine or food number 16two days after berlin’s blockade wasannounced the u.s and britain took tothe skies in their planes wellobviously dropping 2.3 million tons ofsupplies to help said civiliansover 11 months not at the same timebecause that would be madness andprobably not help at allover 100 of these planes belong tocivilians and it was the largest reliefoperation by airin history number 17.so it was after this that things reallybegan to get spicy because as you canimagine the ussr weren’t best pleasedwith what just happenedin 1949 the u.s and its european alliesformed nato the naughty appletermination ordinanceoh sorry that’s something else no i meanthe north atlantic treaty organizationnumber 18. now nato was and indeed stillis a collective defense agreement andarticle 5 of its rules is probably thekey oneit states that an attack on one memberis an attack on all its members a bitlike what that construction worker saysin the first spider-man movie to put itin terms that i understandbasically if the soviet union attackedone of these countries all 12 wouldreturnfavor to the ussr numberat the time the founding members werebelgium canada denmark france icelanditaly luxembourg the netherlandsnorway portugal the uk and of course theusa usausa number 20. interesting thing aboutarticle 5 it was never invoked duringthe whole of the cold war and has onlyever been usedonce by the usa in 2001 following the 911 attacksnumber 21 just a few months after thenato treaty was signed communist leadermaozedong otherwise known as chairman maowas declaring a huge win for thecommunistsnamely that they were now in control ofchina that’s right a new challenger hadentered the ringthese communist forces were quicklyrecognized by the soviet union and theeastern bloc as the legitimategovernmentof chinahowever the nationalist forces in chinawho had been defeated fled to taiwan andformed their own government on theislandchina and taiwan continued to have let’ssay difficult relations to put it mildlyto this day so the fallout of the coldwar is very much still with usit is getting a bit chilly number 23.in 1950 the cold war turned really hotfor the first time with the advent ofthe korean war a conflict that’s stilltechnically not finished even nowseriously this period really didn’t messthings up for the worldnumber 24 the war was started whenyoutube’s favorite communist north korealed by kim il-sung and backed by thesoviet union and chinainvaded south korea number 25the usa and its allies under the bannerof the united nations and driven byfreedom stepped in to protect southkorean independencethe war lasted until 1953 and wasessentially a stalemate that cost atleast2.5 million livesnumber 26 just as the korean war wascoming to a close yet another area ofconflict was brewing for the ussrthey just don’t stop these lads do theyin june 1957anti-government protesters and unhappyworkers were rebelling in their segmentof eastgermany number 27 now this wasn’t justyour uncle gerald with the placardoutside sainsbury’s we’re talking aboutapproximately 40 000 protesters gatheredwith leaders calling for a generalstrike free elections and the end of thenow communist government that ran itnumber 28. and how did they respond tothisthe soviet troops backed up with tanksmoved to crush the protesters killing upto 20 people and wounding up to ahundredmartial law was declared you know tocalm things down and east germany wouldremaincommunist number 29 something similarhappened in 1956 actually when a popularuprising saw in renegade become theleader of hungarydeclaring neutrality and even offering amulti-party political systemwow number 30. the ussr wasn’t too keenon this idea and once again brutallysuppressed the revolution using militaryforceover 2500 hungarians were killed and 200000 more fled the countrynumber 31 but it wasn’t just the sovietunion that was overthrowing governmentsthat might turn against themover in central america the usa wasgetting a little bit worried by thedemocratically elected presidentchicago arbenz guzman of guatemalanumber 32 president arbenz was all aboutland reform robin hood style in that hewanted to takeit and give it to the poor problem wasthat a lot of that land was in the handsof the united fruit companythe american-owned united fruit companynumber 33 it all smelled a bit toocommunist and so president eisenhowerhad the cia overthrow the guatemalangovernmentit was replaced with a repressivemilitary junta and the country wouldlater collapse into a civil war lastingfor 36 yearsnumber 34 so it may be apparent by nowthat the us did notlike communists in fact the pledge ofallegiance was added to during the coldwar specifically theunder god bit as a sort of no way joseto the atheistic tendencies of communismnumber 35 jumping ahead a bit whilewe’re on the subject the us did anothersupply delivery to an eastern europeancountry in the 1970s to romaniaspecifically they sent 20 000 biblesthere to combat atheist communismcongress later said that these had beenseized and turned into toilet papernumber 36 jumping back a bit again butstill ahead of where we were beforesorry in 1956 the soviet chairman nikitakhrushchevtried to visit disneyland when he was ona state’s visit he was apparently deniedentry which just goes to show hallelujahwith the ussr already trust todaydisneyland said it was because they wereworried about crowds forming around himsoword has it he went to sea world insteadnumber 37during the cold war the fear of nuclearattack was very real in many nations onearthamerican school children for examplewere taught to duck and cover should analarm soundwhich means hide under their desks anaction that would do absolutely nothingto protect them from a nuclear blastit would be like wearing a paper suit ofarmor against a well nuclear blastnumber 38 citizens would be alerted ofan incoming nuclear attack via air raidsirens in the statesthese were built by chrysler and poweredwith v8 motorsyou could hear one 16 miles away number39here’s something kind of messed up inthe 1950s the us air force were testingout the ejector seats on their newsupersonic b-58 hustler jetsthat’s fine right well they tested themnot with dummies but with bearssedated bears all the bears apparentlysurvived this process butstill calm down lads number 40.okay let’s rewind a little bit again in1955 west germany joined nato and thesoviet union askeditself hold on why don’t we have our ownversion of nato and thus the warsaw pactwas bornthis was a mutual defense organizationwith the unified command and handily formoscowallowed the ussr to maintain troops inall other countries in the pactnumber 41 so in the red corner we havealbania bulgaria tech slovakia eastgermany hungary poland romania and ofcourse the ussrthen there was nato as we mentionedearlier in the other cornerlet the games begin the meaning of lifeduring the cold war specifically on the27th of october 1962the world nearly ended yeah for realsieson that day a soviet sub was on its wayto cuba it was in international watersbut the united states navy starteddropping signaling depth chargeswhich were meant to make the submarinesurface so they could see who the hellit wasnumber 43 somewhat panicked the captainof the subvalentin ragurovich zavitsky decidedthat a war might have already startedhaving not heard anything from moscowhe therefore wanted to launch a nucleartorpedo ohslow down there the second command a mannamed vasily arkapovstepped in and disagreed with launchingthe nuke preferring instead to rise onup and wait to hear from russia number44now it’s because of him that we’re alivetoday there’s even a documentary aboutarchibald called the man who saved theworldrussia didn’t agree though apparentlyseeing him as a disgrace apparently hewas even told it would have been betterif you’d gone down with your shipnot a nice way of thanking people thatsaved your lifenumber 45 historian and jfk advisorarthur mschlesinger jr states this moment wasnot only the most dangerous moment ofthe cold warit was the most dangerous moment inhuman historyso yeah important stuff to mentionnumber 46.anyway another important event the bayof pigs nothing to do with babe pig inthe city which iswhat my mind goes to for some reasonfunded by the us cuban exiles failed alanding operationon the southwest of cuba in april of1961 in what we now call the bay ofpicksthe plan was to overthrow the communistprime minister fidel castrobecause as we’ve learned usa does notget on with communismnumber 47 eisenhower the bloke who wasthe potus at the time gave 13.1 milliondollars to the cia to begin theoperationthis money went to training the exilesas well as providing resources likeweapons and planesnumber 48 but the operation went a bitboulon lair for the us you see said baywas near a radio tower so castro knewthe invasion was coming already byintercepting intelnumber 49 the soviets then covertlyshipped thousands of russian troops tocubawhile the united states estimated thataround eight thousand russian troopswere stationed in cubathe real number was over forty thousandit also made cuba get a little bitcozier with the soviets you know theenemy of my enemy and all thatnumber fifty this thing kicked off thecuban missile crisis on october of 1962a 13-day confrontation that came afterthe bay of pigs between the us and thesoviet union where once again the coldwarcould have got really bloody hot number51after the u.s failed to overthrow themcuba didn’t really want to repeat sosoviet leader nikita khrushchev agreedto their request to play some nuclearmissiles on the island to deter a futureinvasioncuba being 90 miles from the usa americawasn’t really happy with thisand meanwhile had missiles aimed atrussia from italy and turkeynumber 52 to try and stop the ussr fromdelivering any more weapons to cuba johnf kennedy set up a naval blockade aroundthe country obviously not by himself heordered it to happen by other peoplethis heightened attention as khrushchevsaw this as an act of warrot rule number 53 khrushchev wrote athreatening letter to the presidentstating the violation of the freedom ofnavigation in international waters andairspaceconstitutes an act of aggressionpropelling humankind into the abyss of aworld nuclear missile waralright mate chill out number 54.this crisis eventually came to a closeafter a couple of letters fromkhrushchevone saying they’d take the missiles offcuba if the us promised to never invadeagainanother saying that they would dismantlethem if the u.s took theirs away inturkeyofficially they did the first butactually did both and they all livedhappily ever on over halfway throughnumber 55.it’s worth noting that during this coldwar the us and the soviet union wantedto be better at each other ateverything including science this meantkicking off the space race in 1955 whichinvolved seeing which superpowerwas going to be the first in spacenumber 56the soviet union achieved the firstsuccessful launch in october 4th 1957chucking sputnik 1 all the way up thereand sent the first human to space withthe orbital flight of yuri gagarin onoctober 12 1961.number 57 some think though that the uswon the space race because they were theones who in 1969 popped some men up tothe moonand as you can imagine there arearguments and debates about this even tothis day because nobody can decide onanythingnumber 58 right remember that warsawpact i mentioned earlierwell countries in the warsaw pactinvaded czechoslovakia in 1968which you’ll remember was a country inthe warsaw pactso why would they do this well that yearthe prague spring took place not a bigtrampoline like i thought but aliberalization of life in the countrythings like elections freedom ofexpression and close of relations withthe westnumber 59 worried that communism mightbe on its way out of czechoslovakia thesoviet union and most of its satellitesdecided to once again send in tanksalmost 200 000 troops from east germanypoland hungary bulgariaand the ussr were involved number 60the invasion was a success and thereforms of the prague spring were haltedhowever the eagle-eyed among you mayhave noticed not all the warsaw pactcountries took partboth albania and romania refused to joinin and albania even withdrew from thetreaty all together in 1968 as a resultnumber 61 an even bigger communistdivide also took place in the 1960s thesino-soviet splitthis began during the 1950s and wouldultimately see the soviet union andchina the two most powerful communistcountries become rivals instead ofallies on the world stagenumber 62 why did this happen then wellthere were ideological differences thesoviets refusal to share nuclear weapontechnology and mao’s dislike of sovietleaders after stalin had all contributedto this dividearen’t breakups horrible number 63the usa eventually made the most of thisdivide in the communist blocin 1972 president nixon visited chinaand in 1979president carter officially recognizedcommunist china and ended diplomaticrelations with taiwannintendo 64. the result of this was thatamerica now had access to trade withchina and its huge marketthe usa could also use its relationshipwith china to put pressure on thesoviets diplomatically on things likearms agreements sneaky number 65.there were also hopes in the early 1970sthat normalizing relations with chinamight help america come to a resolutionin vietnamremember vietnam well there’s a wargoing on there but how did that happenwellit wasn’t too dissimilar to whathappened in korea reallynumber 66. okay the tldr version is thatcommunist north vietnam sought to takeover the western line south vietnamusing escalating guerrilla tacticsthroughout the 1960s to try and winoh and naturally they had support fromchina and the ussrnumber 67 the usa as always sought tocontain the spread of communism andafter a few years providing support tosouth vietnamdecided to go in all guns blazing in1964 after the uss maddox was allegedlyattacked by north vietnamese vesselsnumber 68 approximately 2.6 million u.stroops would serve in south vietnam andthe conflict would costaround 200 billion dollars the resultnot a good one for america who withdrewin 1973 before south vietnam fell to thecommunist north in 1975.number 69 doing the usual thing does notfeel appropriatewhile we’re on the topic of u.sinvasions it’s probably worth mentioningthat in 1965 washingtonalso landed over 20 000 us troops in thedominican republicyou don’t need to be a historian to knowwhy by now number 70.that’s right a reformist formerpresident castro was gaining popularitytherethe us only saw another cuba in themaking and intervened to stop acommunist dictatorshipinstead they installed a more agreeableconservative government but casualties adoctor of numberedsix thousand number 71okay we’re not quite done this is thelast u.s invasion we’ll mention ipromisein 1983 they also toppled a left-winggovernment in grenada ultimately sendingsix thousand troops under the pretext toprotecting american citizens on theisland they also happened to dabble in abit of regime change while they weretherenumber but we’re not done with sovietinvasionson christmas eve 1979 30 000 troops weresent to afghanistan to maintain thecommunist government that had seizedpower in 1978.must have really messed with santa’splans number 73this government had embarked on reformsthat were massively unpopular and itbrutally crushed any opponents to themthe muslim population also resentedbeing governed by atheists toonumber 74 so opposition to this regimewas fierce and led to the creation ofthe mujahideenislamic resistance fighters who declareda jihad or holy war against thesoviet-backed governmentone of the key members of thisresistance was a guy called osama binladennumber 75. by 1982 the afghan war hadled to 1.5 million afghans fleeing toiran and 2.8 million heading to pakistanfor asylumby 1989 when the war ended an estimated1 million civilians had been killednumber 76 the soviets withdrew havingfailed to suppress the musha hidingrebels who were backed by iran pakistanchina and of course the usait’s been claimed that it wasamerican-made anti-aircraft missilesso-called stingers that helped turn thetide from 1987.as it meant the muhajirdin could shootdown soviet aircraftregularly number 77 the invasion ofafghanistan by the ussr brought to anend a period in the cold war known asdetente which is said to have lastedfrom the 1960s to 1979.number 78. i know what you’re thinkingwhat the hell does that mean welldetente is a french word that meansrelaxation of tensionin practice this meant the usa andsoviet union made an effort tode-escalate potential conflictand improve relations number 79in 1972 nixon became the first u.spresident to visit moscow andwhile there he and soviet leaderbrezhnev agreed to expand tradecooperate on research and arms controlcrucially the salt or strategic armslimitation talks aimed to reduce themanufacture of nuclear missilesnumber eight e the 1980s were very muchthe end game of the cold war thoughthe decade began with ronald reaganbecoming president of the usa and hedubbed the ussrthe evil empire and ramped up militaryspending number 81one of the results of this was theso-called strategic defense initiativeotherwise known asstar wars hey that’s a good name theyshould use that for a i don’t knownetflix series or something this wasessentially a system of space-basedlasers that would detect and deflectnukeson their way to the usa in other wordsit would make nuclear weapons completelypointlessnumber 82 after more than a decade ofresearch and 30 billion dollars inspending the project much like my hopesand dreams of becoming a thomas the tankengine steam train was scrapped in 1993.number 83 another big thing happened forthe cold war in 1985 mikhail gorbachevbecame the leader of the ussr andembarked on a series of reforms thataimed to transform soviet societynumber 84 one of those key policies wasperestroika which sounds like a westcountry way of talking about afootballer but it isn’t because it wasin russiaobviously it was to limit state economiccontrols and encourage more competitionin businessnumber 85. his other big reform wasglasnostthis encouraged a more open society withmore freedom for the media the abilityto criticize government officials andevendemocratic elections roll therenumber 86. in 1989 poland big part ofthe warsaw pact rememberheld partially free elections that werewon by non-communist candidatesshowing a bit of a changing tide ineurope number 87that year also saw pro-democracyprotests in hungary while there werepro-independence protests in the balticrepublics toopeople there formed a 370 mile humanchain while calling for freedomnumber 88 all across eastern europe infact communist governments werestruggling to maintain controlin november of that year half a millionpeople gathered in east berlin toprotest for democracynumber 89 you see the berlin wall hadbeen built decades earlier and the totalpeople killed trying to cement itunder over or through it numbered 171.more than 5000 east germans actuallymanaged to cross it thoughusing a number of methods which ofteninvolved climbing over barbed wirenumber 19. one successful escapedattempt that seemed the most dramaticwas via hot air balloona homemade hot air balloon peterstrzelzak and gunter vetzel were friendswho worked together and decided in 1959to plot their families escape fromcommunism they considered building ahelicopter but apparently that’sdifficultnumber 91 they then decided instead tobuild a hot air balloon which of coursetookseveral attempts they also had to createa makeshift burner to make the actualballoon lift and put the hot in thetitlewhich took about a year and a half toperfect number 92and even then on the ninth day and theirfamilies escaped it wasn’t perfectthe eight people on the makeshiftgondola made of metal and clotheslinetravelled in the air for 25 minutes buta miscalculation meantthere was too much fire ripping theballoon they then had to turn the burneroff and on again several times whilebeing high enough not to be detected byradarnumber 93 this game worked though that’swhy we’re talking about itthey couldn’t control the balloonbecause of the win so they just had tohope for the best but the bestcame and worked out the families hadescaped eventually settling down wherethey landedin nayla number 94 though the erectionof the berlin wall was a symbol of thesoviet depression in east germany thetension over berlinas seen from the airlift we mentionedearlier had dissipated with jfk sayinghe didn’t like it but a wall was betterthan a warnumber 95 jfk actually gave a speech in1963 two years after the war was builtthat later became one of the most famousspeeches of all time and the most wellknown of the cold warin west berlin he gave a speechbasically assuring the people there ofthe us policy towards themnumber 96 this involved the nowwell-known phrase ich bin ein berlinerafter which an urban legend somehowarose that by using the word ein kennedyhad somehow said iam a berliner which was a type of donuteffectively stating that he is adoughnutit even appeared a novel set at the timeas well as other media outlets but itjustisn’t true according to german grammarfansnumber 97 [ __ ] forward to 1987 when thepresident ronald reagan also made aspeech at the wall in west berlin urgingthe leader of the soviet union gorbachevto tear down this walla speech that’s been remembered decadeslater and even led to a statue of himbeing erected therenumber 98 when the government announcedan easing of travel restrictions onnovember 9th 1989 east germans flockedto and overran the berlin wall which wasopened by guardspeople from east and west berlin marchedto the wall with beer and champagnechartingtall off which is german for open upthat gatelet and let’s have a bloodypartynumber 99 one journalist at the timewrote it was the greatest party in thehistory of the worldpeople brought hammers not essential forgreat party that but they used it toquiet the walleventually bringing it down even davidhasselhoff was there the cold war wascoming to an endnumber 100 by the end of 1991even the soviet union had collapsed eachof the republics that formed the ussrinstead declared their independence andthe cold war as we know it was overnumber 101 oh yes by the way here’s theanswer to the thing i saidin the intro one expected consequence ofthe cold war was that the internet thething that you’re on right nowbasically came about as a result of itthe u.s funded a project called darpadefense advanced research projectsagency the aim of which was to find away of military computers to send datavery quickly to one anotherit was the first ingredient into makingthe internet we now know and love todayso those were 101 facts about the coldwar is this your favorite period ofhistory let me know in the comments downbelowdo you want to see us cover any otherimportant points in history also let usknow in the comments down belowalso while you’re there give this videoa like and be sure to subscribe becauseah i mean we’re just having a great timehere aren’t we in subscribe partythere’s punch coming tooin the meantime though two videos onyour screen which you’re really gonnareally really enjoy i think i honestlydo think that and um why don’t you proveme right by clicking on one and watchingit and i’ll see you therebye-bye for now