Facts You Have Never Heard Before! About The Cold War.

RockedBuzz
By RockedBuzz 42 Min Read

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.

101 Facts About The Cold War101 Facts 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

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

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

 

 

Contents
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 

 

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