The Cold War: How the Board Was Set (Episode 3)

Key takeaways

• The US and the Soviet Union were never real friends: they only shared one enemy, Hitler's Germany, and believed in two opposite ways of running a society.
• In 1948–49 the Soviets blockaded West Berlin for almost a year; the West fed more than two million people by air, with more than 270,000 flights, and not a single shot was fired.
• NATO, signed by 12 countries on 4 April 1949, made an attack on one member an attack on all, and was announced openly so no enemy could guess wrong.
• The first Soviet atomic test on 29 August 1949 came years earlier than Americans expected, helped by spies such as Klaus Fuchs, and started a 40-year arms race.
• Because a direct war could destroy both sides, the superpowers fought through other countries instead: first in Korea, and soon in Indochina, including Cambodia.