101 Facts 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

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Keywords: 101 facts, 101, 101facts, the cold war, the cold war era, facts about the cold war, cold war facts, cod cold war, call of duty cold war, history, ussr, communism, usa, cold war trailer, cold war history lesson, cold war history, gorbachev, bay of pigs, moon landings, space race, jfk, ich bin ein berliner, john f kennedy, berlin wall, soviet union, cia, kgb, vietnam, vietnam war, eisenhower, warsaw pact, iron curtain, khrushchev, nasa, nato, soviet war, new cold war, korean war

Id: qrMgQUxL1pk

Length: 28min 0sec (1680 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 05 2020