2020 Paley Archive Elements 3840x1536 Banner2

COLD WAR: DETENTE: 1969-1975 {PART 16 OF 24} (TV)

Summary

Part sixteen of twenty-four. One in this documentary series examining the events of the Cold War, from 1917 to the early 1990s. This series consists of interviews and archival footage, accompanied by historical narration by Kenneth Branagh. This episode charts the development of detente between the United States and the U.S.S.R. It begins with Richard Nixon's willingness to accept Russia as a nuclear equal as he assumes the presidency of the United States in 1969. U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird talks about Nixon's desire to extricate the nation from its involvement in Vietnam, as well as the development of the term "Vietnamization." South Vietnam's Information Minister, Nha Duc Hoang, expresses his country's wish to see the United States leave behind a well trained indigenous army to control South Vietnam's destiny. Winston Lord, aide to U.S. National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, comments on Nixon's concern that involvement in Vietnam might distract the U.S. from other foreign-policy initiatives. Laird and senior White House aide John Ehrlichman discuss Nixon's decision to bomb North Vietnamese bases in neutral Cambodia and the protests to which that decision led. Footage is then shown of Nixon's famous speech asking the nation's "silent majority" to support him in his programs in Southeast Asia, and of four students on the Kent State campus gunned down by the National Guard. Leonid Brezhnev's adviser, Georgi Arbatov, says that the Soviet Chairman sincerely wished to prevent war between his country and the U.S., a thought echoed by the Soviet Ambassador to the U.S., Antonin Dobrynin. Egon Bahr, adviser to West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, tells of Brandt's decision to accept East Germany officially as a separate state, which symbolized a fundamental change in his country's position and initiated an era of hope. Kissinger expresses his initial doubts and suspicions about this policy, and Bahr calls the resulting Moscow Accord the key to a bilateral treaty system between East and West. Ehrlichman explains Americans' desire for a similar treaty with Russia. Kissinger then talks about the need for the U.S. to forge an agreement with China and describes the Soviet Union's reaction to American-Chineses talks; the U.S.S.R. quickly agreed to a long postponed summit. Lord comments on concerns that Nixon's new offensive in North Vietnam might interfere with the plans for a Russian summit, and Dobrynin and Kissinger recall how both sides dealt with this matter. Following a clip of Nixon's 1972 speech to Congress declaring an American-Soviet agreement to advance arms limitations, Kissinger aide John Negroponte looks at Nixon's desire to restore peace in Vietnam on the eve of the upcoming U.S. Presidential election. He goes on to describe the stalemate in the peace talks that ended when the president ordered a massive air raid on Hanoi. Next, CIA analyst in Saigon Frank Snepp talks about the difficulties inherent in the American withdrawal of troops from South Vietnam. Ehrlichman then gives a brief history of the Watergate affair, and Dobrynin comments on the Soviets' astonishment at, and suspicion of, Nixon's resulting resignation. As detente between the two superpowers drew near, the issue of treatment of Soviet dissidents surfaced to provoke disagreement between the two superpowers, a development discussed in the documentary by Dobrynin, Morris, and Kissinger, and shown in footage of a speech by Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D-Washington) from 1974. The resulting Helsinki Accord was a success, according to President Gerald Ford, if only because the Soviets agreed to the clause concerning human rights, despite their belief to the contrary. Clips of Soviet and American spacecraft docking together symbolize the growing spirit of cooperation, elaborated upon in the close of this program by Soviet cosmonaut Valeri Kubasov. Commercials deleted.

Cataloging of this program was made possible by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, 1999.

This selection from the Alan Gerry Cable Collection has been made available by the Gerry Foundation, Inc.

Details

  • NETWORK: CNN
  • DATE: February 6, 1999 Sunday 8:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:46:46
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: T:58631
  • GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Cold War; Detente; Vietnam War; Watergate; U S - Foreign relations - U S S R; U S - Foreign relations - China; U S S R - Foreign relations - U S; Summit meetings - Helsinki; Paris Peace Talks (Vietnam War); Kent State University - Demonstrations, 1970; She Made It Collection (Pat Mitchell)
  • SERIES RUN: CNN - TV series, 1998-1999
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Pat Mitchell … Executive Producer
  • Jeremy Isaacs … Executive Producer
  • Vivian Schiller … Senior Producer
  • Martin Smith … Series Producer
  • James Barker … Producer
  • Isobel Hinshelwood … Series Associate Producer
  • Alison McAllan … Series Associate Producer
  • Gillian Widdicombe … Production Executive
  • Ted Turner … Series Concept by
  • Joe Zak … Editor
  • Dunja Noack … Research
  • Svetlana Palmer … Research
  • Steve Bergson … Film Research
  • Miriam Walsh … Film Research
  • Mark Frankland … Writer
  • Carl Davis … Music by
  • Kenneth Branagh … Narrator
  • Georgi Arbatov
  • Egon Bahr
  • Willy Brandt
  • Leonid Brezhnev
  • Antonin Dobrynin
  • John Ehrlichman
  • Gerald R. Ford
  • Henry M. Jackson
  • Henry A. Kissinger
  • Valeri Kubasov
  • Melvin Laird
  • Winston Lord
  • John Negroponte
  • Nha Duc Hoang
  • Richard M. Nixon
  • Frank Snepp