he couldn't come to grips with the fact the soviet union had developed the bomb long before anyone assumed they would do so. truman also could not believe that the soviets were now a nuclear power. he very famously said "i couldn't understand how "those asiatics were able to match what we had done so quickly." after 90% of u.s. atomic physicists looked at the data brought back by this one flight, they concluded, without any real equivocation, yes, the soviet union had in fact detonated their first atomic bomb. so truman had no choice but to accept this and to announce to the american public in september that the arms race had begun. now congress did what it did best -- they rallied very quickly and started pointing fingers at everybody they could possible point fingers at. how could this possibly happen? how could we be so surprised that the soviet union had detonated a bomb long before we thought they were going to? how did they get it so quickly? the estimate the intelligence community had given them was 1953 as the most probable date for a soviet bomb. but the worst case scenario that t

he gave a detailed description of the fat man plutonium bomb to the soviet union. and also gave several processes for purifying plutonium that the soviets couldn't have gotten on their own. the interesting part about this is that the bomb that went off, joe 1, the first soviet atomic bomb was almost a mere image of the nagasaki fat man bomb. so hall's information directly led to this design. he also gave them a lot of information about the little boy bomb which is the hiroshima bomb, the uranium-based nuclear weapon including what we call the critical plas. this is the amount of fissle material, the amount of uranium necessary to create a chain reaction. this is a calculation that not only took the americans years to figure out but actually is what derails the german atomic bomb program. they just couldn't figure out the critical mass. they made some math errors and they thought the critical mass was going to be huge. americans took some time to figure out what it was. hall landed this over to the soviets. they didn't have to do a lot of the same calculation that it

inside the soviet union. so there are people, we call it the scientific underground passing information from scientist to scientist to scientist. that becomes really problematic. it's like the game of telephone. you whisper something in one person's ear and then it goes around the room because by the time it gets back to the united states it's gone through 15 different iterations and all of a sudden who knows whether it's real or not. the real issue we flun at that time is double sided. one is the american intelligence apparatus collapses after the war. with the collapse of the oss, the cia takes a long time to get going. the cia gets going, but intelligence gets left behind a little bit. you don't have the office of scientific intelligence, which is the office created to do foreign intelligence towards the atomic program. until the very beginning in 1949. that's when the program is created. it takes some time to get their act together. by the time the russians had the bomb, you could see what they are puttin

it and all this comes together to make it a particularly savage affair. >> how did they protect soviet union in the general population and how did it affect the soviets how the soviets looked at germany? >> well, it is interesting at least they go through the baltic states. lithuania, latvia and estonia. these people have been forcibly incorporated into the soviet union in 1939 1940 as a result of the molotov treaty packed. so they agreed to germans as liberators. they are excited that they are going to get rid of the communists. as the germans pushed deeper into out of the baltic states and into russia proper on their way, there are some rations to create them in a welcoming manner are the germans are opening up -- the soviets see them as allowing to this their religion again. there's many people the soviet union were certainly not thrilled with stalin's policies during the 19 dirtiest, but as the europeans is we see that this initial support of the germans dissipates and this is most noteworthy in the town of path loss, which is one of the smaller -- a small city large town that sits outsi

the soviet union's plan is blitzkrieg. what i mean by that is quick moving units and groups in this case that would drive deep into the soviet union circles soviet troops impress on while the infantry is closed. the group that i looked at we don't see that same kind of blitzkrieg campaign. this is primarily due to the fact that they only have one group so doesn't have as many tanks as the other army groups. it also has to do with the terrain of the area. it's kind of a swampy area not conducive to armor. so our dance becomes one of the interesting -- infantry against the soviet forces. al-sisi the ideological war. we have one of the orders issued to the german army is in order that states that all political officers attached to red army are to be immediately separated from other red army prisoners and either delivered to ss units to be shot for shot on the authority of the office in the front so here we see that ideological nothing similar. we also see this ideological war emerge from a look at food policy and what the ger

what i mean by that is quick moving units in this case that would drive deep in the soviet union, circle large numbers of soviet troops and then press on. now, the group that i looked at army group north we don't see that same kind of blitz campaign. this is primarily due to the fact that army group north only has one panser group. it also has to do with the terrain of that area. kind of a swampy forested area not really conducive to armor. so army group north's advance becomes one of infantry, slogging ahead existence the soviet t concern against the soviet forces. but we also see the flipside the ideological war. we have one of the orders that is issued to the german army is the commissar order, and it basically stays all commissars are to be immediately separated from other red army prisoners and either delivered to ss units to be shot or to be shot on the authority of the officer at the front. so here we see that ideological war. there's really nothing similar to this in war that the germans fought against the french, the british or later the americans. we also see this ideological w

hot till in 1945 when -- has still in 1945 when the chinese decided to align themselves with the soviet union. this is about ap hour. .. standard tropes of publishing a book is it has to answer the question why did you write about this topic in the question in the first place? you are supposed to have a thoughtful answer about how you had a lifelong interest in this topic and you always dreamed about exploring it more deeply. this topic was proposed to me by my publisher. i had a lifelong interest in china or almost a lifelong interest, having studied it, studied chinese going back many years and how they lived there a few years, and travels even today i go almost every year but my publisher actually finished my previous book and asked me to pick a year and write a book about it in china. started looking through years and i've thought about 1938, interesting year in china. 1944, the year kicked out of china by shanghai check but barbara tuchman that topic, forever. so i started looking at 1945 until the end of world war ii until the an end of world war ii. it was a good topic. really truly up

when he started destalinizing the soviet union the last summary execution of the stalin period. t was a karmic justice for him in the end. then the soviet intelligence resident and the chief of station. he was the top intelligence person in the united states. not in washington, d.c. actually he was stationed out of new york city, the main base for soviet intelligence during the war. the hierarchy continues with them and the case officer, the person who will be running the spies on a day to day basis. he came under the pretense that he was the general council and pretending he was the lawyer. this was his cover as the senior case officer. what makes him interesting is because the specialty was intelligence. you don't want to just send anybody. especially in the 1940s when few understood what was going on with nuclear fission. you wanted somebody who understood the intelligence that made him the perfect person for this. he was also the resident where he was the fact channel for the tube an missile risz and the man who robert kennedy and others spoke to to portray the jupiter missil

the soviets stripped all the japanese factories from manchuria who brought it back to the soviet unionand a protest about nationalists communist. and they're such a terrible irony because roosevelt was pleading with stalin to do with stalin was anxious to do anyway which is once the war in europe was over to occupy manchuria and give himself a voice in the post-war settlement and put himself into a position of decisive importance. i think the critical event actually and i should've mentioned this before was the soviet occupation of manchuria. one facility that occupied manchuria chiang kai-shek was finished basically. >> one quick question. do you find mao was unsavory of the other the real mao? he comes across to me as very despicable. a guy in many respects did you find anything redeeming about the man? [laughter] >> the official chinese verdict on mao was that he was 70% good and 30% bad for 70% right in 30% wrong. i don't want to use the word bad, is right and wrong. i think he was 85% wrong or bad. i will use the word bad in 15%. i mean he did do things -- he had the advantage of

thanare even more poor they used to be as part of the soviet union. the mother of my wife is getting a pension of 200 euro per month as a pension. the finland pensioner would get 1000 euro. countryld be the same -- why would be the same country in the e.u. get five times the pension? [indiscernible] i agree with you they don't want to be russian, and that is clear for many reasons. is not as good as american pr. russia is not the best country, but our pr is terrible. >> when you sit on facebook that you were ready to sign up as a soldier and go to crimea, was that a joke? to beit comes that i need signed as a soldier to defend my own country, i will do that. >> but crimea is part of ukraine. >> it is all part of russia. it is russian territory. >> coming up, we talk professional cycling. of -- are a proud owner >> the best team in the world. >> before returning to politics. >> i am so much obsessed with obama and his administration and internal policy. it is a total disaster. >> we have to talk about cycling. you are the proud owner of -- >> the best

they are more poor than they used to be in the soviet union.ife, she is my getting pensions of 200 euros a month. that is a pension. the finland pensioner it's 1000 euros. -- gets 1000 euros. it is a dream. ukraine thinks once they are part of the euro, they will reach. they would never be. they agree with you, they do not want to be with russians for many reasons. we have to admit that. our pr as not as good as american pr. our pr is terrible. we do not know how to come up with what when you said on facebook you are ready to sign up as a soldier and go to crimea, was that a joke? beif it comes that i need to signed as a soldier to defend my old country, i will do that. i would do that for your country. >> but crimea is part of ukraine. >> it is russian territory. >> we talk professional societally -- cycling coming up. >> the best team in the world. obsessed with obama and his administration. what they do externally is a total disaster. ♪ >> we have to talk about cycling. -- are the proud owner >> the best team in the world. how big can your b

from the kremlin, nikita khrushchev said the soviet union is extending a helping hand to the people of in the case of necessity, he threatened, soviet artillery men can support the cuban people with rocket fire. meeting in san jose, costa rica, the foreign ministers of the american republics declared such extra continental intervention endangered the security of this hemisphere. in response, castro's foreign minister walked out. in havana, and a rambling monologues which is now famous fidel castro attacked the organization of american states and denied the soviet union or communist china had interventionist intentions. moreover, said castro, cuba would establish relations with the chinese people's republic. as castro speaks, no amount of bluster can disguise the people's unrest. people's brigades are rapidly formed. children are encouraged to inform against their parents. anyone protesting work criticizing is a counterrevolutionary and as such can be sentenced to the wall. a brazilian journalist revisited cuba during this time. >> i return to cuba in march of 1960 and things had still

he would not side with the soviet union in the postwar. this is a topic that i found absolutely fascinating and i want to read a couple of short passages on this topic. the chapter called hiding the knife in takes place of good relations with the communists and the americans the relationship between the russians and chinese communist is something broader and deeper than moral support and an entire political transmission and a vocabulary, and manner of dallas's a set of practices and preoccupied vision involving the triumph of the progressive forces of history through exploitation and reaction. never departing from that division from a charter member of the party in 1921 until his death 55 years later. he made his lean to one side speech in june when he would side with the soviets and the cold war now attributed his success as a superior tool of marxism their brilliance and comments - - promise that can now with the bolshevik revolution. he said their larger celebrating the 20th anniversary of the sec cp founding. these understand of losses

the soviet union hadn't fallen yet. so how was a company going to get access to property to set up a branch in st. petersburg? putin would have to assign it. >> narrator: even as his star rose, there was an early example of his ambition. he commissioned a documentary about himself. it was called "power," made by igor shadkhan. >> (translated): putin had an agenda. he wanted to admit that he had been a kgb agent in foreign reconnaissance. >> narrator: for putin, it was an effective way to "out" himself as a former member of the reviled kgb. but for mayor sobchak, putin's past would prove useful. after all, he was running a city with a notorious criminal history, and according to prominent political analyst stanislav belkovsky, he needed someone who could work in its shadows. >> st. petersburg, called the bandit capital of russia gangster capital of russia at that moment, and the mayor's office should communicate with those groups in some way. but of course anatoly sobchak could not be involved in such contacts, and it wa

it will be castro ejects soviet union from western hemispheric. u.s. brings cuba back into western orbit. this was the then he put on it. he cast the baton being an intermediary to extraordinary reporters from abc news. it was a woman named lisa howard. anybody remember seeing her? she was the most famous female journalist of her time. she was the first female correspondent for abc news. the first to have her own new show. she has been called the first barbara walters. her whole scheme was to find powerful world leaders and interview them, and make headlines with that. her first was with nikita khrushchev when he came to the u.n. then she set her sights on fidel castro and pepper the human mission in new york to let her go to cuba the camera to -- camera crew. he had not given any major interview since 1959. she finally got permission to go in april of 1963. as wayne smith will tell you, it is hard to get to him. after being there and waiting for three weeks, she went to donovan who was there and said please broker an introduction. he went to castro an

after the german invasion of the soviet union in summer 1941, operation barbarossa, the soviets also begin to rely on czech connections or intelligence about where to find germans and they begin to funnel matÉriel, material assistance, to the czech resistance and that gave them an advantage against their german occupiers. meanwhile in addition to the czech government index island britain, there were maybe 5000 czech soldiers who had been evacuated from france with the british expeditionary force in 1940 during the fall of france. there were lots of soldiers sitting around britain with not much to do and they began to be trained with members of the british several operations executives or soe which is an outfit established by the british government to engage in espionage, sabotage, and other secretive activities in occupied europe. naturally, one of the particular targets of interest for these czechs would have been the german occupiers object was a voc you -- czechoslovakia, including this man, called the butcher of frog. he was in charge of what they variously called the jewish prob

so the idea is that the soviet union is to be as india. the germans think about this food that we are going to have to get the other aspect is the war against false reason. the immortal enemy. for hitler if we can destroy the bolshevik state we get rid of the jews as well. so these things come together. this leads to an ideological war that is perhaps the most savage in european history. >> what was the german approach to back. >> works well, here we have that dichotomy. this is the 1st complained to the campaign that they planned as a blitzkrieg. quick moving panzer units, groups such. press on while the infantry army closed. the group that i looked at we we don't see the same kind of blitz campaign. primarily due to the fact that army group north only has one panzer group. also has to do with the terrain of the area kind of a swampy, for city area. so becomes one of infantry but we also see the flipside, the ideological war, one of the orders issued basically states that all the political officers attached to red army are to be immediate

september 3rd 1991 when armenia formally denounced its claims to the region because they need the soviet union was collapsing and just like the bosnians serbs thought that the union was collapsing, that you say once along the lines of annexation they would be denounced by the whole world. but again the nation principle works sometimes like the same is done by the russian separatists in ukraine. the same was done and most of the and georgia. so there are case is. >> okay thank you very much. your presentation is complete showing the complexities of the conflict. and the azerbaijani government but on trial, all information regarding is the official trial in budapest. >> okay yeah, i did. what i found in translation will try issues. it's very hard sometimes. right now honestly i write the next of the and use the killing and now the trial with a lot of the same weekend put some of the people that doubt was beaten. they save people on the streets get completely different ideas. very interesting. they are completely different description of what happened. he's also published there. so in the book i

the cold war ends. 1991, soviet union breaks apart.there is a serious re-examination, even within the conservative movement, about are nations permanent? think about what we saw in scotland with the vote on secession. there is a new criticism of lincoln that develops out of what i would call an anarcho-capitalists viewpoint. rothbard broke with national review over what he thought was there international stance, with regard to the cold war. buckley, i think, was a cold warrior and argued that the united states was going to have to fight that and use the state to fight that war. rothbard disagreed with that entirely, and thought the united states had at least as much responsibility as anyone else did, as the russians did, for the cold war. rothbard became a leader of this criticism of lincoln that stems from this libertarian community. to read you a quote, he says this, and this was not long after the soviet union broke up. didn't lincoln use force and violence, and on a massive scale, on behalf of the sacred union to prevent the south

18991, when armenia formally deoffense its claims to azerbaijan region because they knew that soviet union was collapsing and just like the bosnian serbs, thought that union was collapsing, that if they went along the lines of annexation that would be denounced by the whole world but self-determination principle works sometimes same as done by the pro-russian separatists in ukraine. so there are a lot of cases. >> okay. thank you very much. exactly what you are -- your presentation is great as far as one more showing the complexities of the conflict there. i didn't use -- i used both information from azerbaijany government and armenian government, but all information regarding the killings is good from the official documents of trial in budapest. all published. [inaudible] >> i did. what i found in translation of trial. now, it's very hard sometimes. i know. and right now, honestly i'm writing next book on insult and using the killing of the brown and i'm reading now all this documents of the trial like grand jury of the brown, and a lot of the same. we see that some people tell he was put

when the soviet union collapsed in 1991, the lata's became hard to come by. and the program all but disappeared. >> the government gets involved if i want to sell it to an american but between us cubans if a cuban wants to buy it from me i just sell it to them, no problem. >> reporter: but what happens if and when the united states drops its embargo and the two countries reestablish normal relations, cuba could become a gold mine for car collectors. >>> some innovative cubans who were desperate to get out of the country used some of those old cars to try to get into the united states. in february of 2004 the coast guard intercepted an unusual vehicle off the coast of florida. it was actually a buick from the 1950s that had been turned into a boat. 11 cubans were using it in an effort to come to the united states. the coast guard captured the cubans and then sank the buick. two of the cubans had tried to make the same trip months earlier in a 1951 chevy truck they also modified so it would float. >>> still to come here on a second look, making due with what th

to be on the superpower that it would become eventually spending three months of the soviet union in 1938 of overseeing these and is horrified and leader writes russia is the land of hunger and misery and terror. he returns home vowing to do everything he can to stop the spread of communism. in the ensuing years he becomes very a spokane anti-communist with the american businessmen who are summoned to indianapolis by a former executive by the name of robert welch to was note as the anti-communist views brought there under the strictest secrecy they did not know what they're going to indianapolis to say less they attract attention this and said to be the founding meeting of the john birch society and literally in the room at the birth of their organization and to go on to play a very prominent role. he becomes a national council member and it becomes tough hotbed which is where the coca family lives. >> i was speaking with you gsa earlier the birch society really targeted her talk about researching the of booked taking place in wichita at this time. there were many stories about stude

i grew up in the cold war and the soviet union was dissolved. anything this possible. >> history changes and people -- you get the sense, sometimes, that the participants in this conflict feel their battle is entitled to be eternal. don't the personalities matter? as you say, sadat and begin unlikely people to be at the table. to broker peace. different personalities might have had different attributes going in that -- a reason to be more optimistic and may not have accomplished it. mr. yaw hue inetanyahu is said a difficult person, or are the issues so retractable. you're say, correctly, civil rights, came and went, soviet union came and went, this could come and go, but the personalities seem not -- >> this is why i'm trying to create this language for me to explain this. i think within the logic of war, you know, just recently, you know, netanyahu led the strike on georgia aand within the logic of war when you have missiles flying, then you retaliate. but missiles will always fly out of gaza until peace comes. and the other big area of confli

in my lifetime in the 1970s there was the soviet union that would have the better economic system, they were going to take over the world didn't work out so well so japan in the 1980s bought rockefeller center they going to run things and in 1990s was the european union. everybody had the euro. the with the model we were looking for. it didn't work out and now is china. president obama was in beijing and was treated like a lame duck leader of a has been nation and the chinese media was full of articles about america is finished, now it is china's turn america's days are over and they agree with some of the leaders of our country that that is probably a good thing. let me tell you why they are wrong. i think america is in fact a few political decisions and a couple years away from its second great american century. i don't say that like republicans who stand-up debating in the primary season of our electoral annual four year elections where they say i believe america is a great country and remember peter pan where if you close your eyes and peter pan sprinkles fairy dust and will come ba

soviet union and china. it's almost like the old exploration who could originally sail around the world, who is going to take those risks, invest that amount to try and reap the benefits of it? the fact now that it's a proven technology in the united states, a proven technology in russia and oproblem offing technology in china i think -- and a proving technology in china oops that carmona managed to land a rover on the moon that drove around on the moon for a while shows a lot of potential but how do you put it all together how much cooperation should there be, ul how much competition should there be? and the international space station that is up there now is an interesting and new model for us all. 15 of those leading nations of the world working together countries that always have serious arguments on the surface, that were fighting the second world war against each other against each other -- >> you make a good point. >> what is the right model for which we gauge rest of the earth? the international spac

there were only two actors in space at that point: the united states and the soviet union. and the key provision in there is "no property rights in space." absent property rights how can we engage in moon mining extraction? that's going to be an interesting question that has to be worked out. and there's lots of lawyers who deal with space law who've been debating this for years. but until there's actually a test case it probably won't be resolved. >> all of the international laws that's and all the regulations we have about space exploration are designed for states. so we don't really have any laws or regulations in place for corporations. >> if we put too many rules in place right now that lead to us not being able to open space, i think it would be an obscenity. i think it is anti-life. >> the most vocal supporters of a space free-for-all are the corporations and their billionaire backers. they insist it is not only their right to stake a claim in space, they're scratching a fundamental human 'itch'. it may appear rather abstract -- but 7 billion people back on earth, se

that illusive freedom was finally won after the fall of the soviet union in 1989, and since then, the city has blossomed. today, hungary rules only hungary, and it's ruled not by an emperor, but by democratically elected representatives who legislate from what's now a palace of democracy. like vienna, budapest feels more grandiose than the capital of a relatively small country, but the city remains the cultural capital of eastern europe, with a keenly developed knack for good living. you can enjoy that hungarian joy of life at the széchenyi baths. soak with the locals. of the city's two dozen or so traditional mineral baths, this is the most accessible and fun. budapest is hot, literally. it sits on a thin crust over thermal springs, which power all these baths. both the ancient romans and ottoman turks enjoyed these same mineral springs. they still say, "poke a hole in the ground anywhere in hungary, and you'll find hot water." magyars of all shapes and sizes squeeze themselves into tiny swimsuits and strut their stuff. babushkas float blissfully in the warm water. the speedo-clad ol

it's weakened to the soviet union, russia to an extraordinary degree. i don't think we have an idea of how critical that is. >> you're right. something that i said last week. >> well, i try. >> that's right. >> that's right. and feel free to use it any time that you want. >> i would have given you credit, but i didn't have time. [ laughter ] >> most underreported story was the importance of manufacturing to the u.s. economy. and it accounts for one-third of our gross domestic partner. the manufacturing sector is a driver for other parts of the economy. this year a sharp upturn in manufacturing index to help generate the dramatic upturn in jobs at the years end. where is the reporting on it? that's what i would like to know. would you like to know? >> it has contracted dramatically over the last 40 years that i don't want to get in to it, let's move on. >> remind me to put it alone. >> okay. the most overreported story, pat? >> the post-ferguson protest of people lining down on the streets going in to the apple store in new york, block bridges, all the r

in fact, by words and deeds, the soviet union has threatened peace and stability in the world forever seven decades. i remind you i am talking to the hierarchy of the soviet military. it is my strong view that president reagan has mentally sincere in his desire to rid the world of nuclear weapons. in fact, mock -- far more sincere than any other chief of state since the first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945. one of the greatest concerns was that the arms race is rapidly getting out of control. you are building bigger and more accurate and offensive weapons at the same time attempting to reduce the effectiveness of hours by hardening your silos and putting your command control facilities underground. where we would have a problem with president reagan's view that by technology we could render to the level of strategic weapons, we could demonstrate a folly with which we could eventually destroy mankind. whether or not you agree, i sincerely hope that you would give the subject serious consideration. i believe that sdi has played to -- played a major role in bringing the talks to where

the vladivostok negotiations with the soviet union represent a major step in moderating strategic arms competition. my recent discussions with the leaders of the atlantic community, japan and south korea have contributed to meeting the common challenge. but we have serious problems before us that require cooperation between the president and the congress. by the constitution, and tradition, the execution of foreign policy is the responsibility of the president. in recent years under the stress of the vietnam war, legislative restrictions on the president's ability to execute foreign policy and military decisions have proliferated. as a member of the congress, i opposed some and i approved others. as president, i welcome the advice and cooperation of the house and the senate. [applause] but if our foreign policy is to be successful, we cannot rigidly restrict in legislation the ability of the president to act. the conduct of negotiations is ill-suited to such limitations. legislative restrictions intended for the best motives and purposes can have the opposite result, as we have seen mo