The Cold War

In WWII, the U.S. stayed ahead of the Soviet Union in the race for atomic bombs, but the Soviets' genius for espionage allowed them to acquire atomic secrets of their own.

Mine formerly guarded vaults and archives around the world to reveal untold stories about the brutal life and catastrophic death of the Berlin Wall, a central symbol of the 20th century's longest and deadliest war.

One of the former Soviet Union's greatest espionage operations ended in 1951 when two young English diplomats at the British Foreign Office were revealed to have spent a decade funneling secrets to the KGB.

Learn about the history and reach of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoe Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security), the agency of the former Soviet Union responsible for state security from 1954 to 1991.

Take a look back at two colossal miscalculations: the attempt by U.S. Special Forces to rescue hostages in the U.S. Embassy during the Iranian Revolution in 1980, and the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion against Castro.

A disillusioned Soviet colonel volunteers his services to the CIA and discovers the trump card in a deadly game of nuclear politics; a CIA officer sneaks Stalin's only daughter out of Soviet-friendly India.

Deep within the former Soviet Union lays a classified subterranean world of Cold War secrets. Join host Don Wildman as he ventures behind the Iron Curtain to reveal how the Soviets really prepared for a nuclear war.

Review the shooting down of South Korean commercial airliner KAL 007 by Soviet fighters after Moscow claimed it had strayed into their airspace.

By the mid-1930s, Soviet Armed Forces ranked with the world's most modern - but a purge of senior officers would have disastrous consequences. Then, a look at the failed 1991 coup against Mikhail Gorbachev.

Take a closer look at the many technologies needed for the United States' U-2 spy plane and the Soviets' SA-2 surface-to-air missile to meet on May Day 1960.

Created by President Harry Truman, the CIA became a global agency for collecting and evaluating intelligence through covert action. Learn its fascinating Cold War story and its changing role in the post-Cold War world.

Take a look inside America's Office of Strategic Services, the famous U.S. World War II intelligence and sabotage agency (and precursor of the CIA) established by William J. Donovan.