Then and Now: Global History and Culture

(Bonus) The Day After  is an American  television film  that first aired on November 20, 1983 on the  ABC  television network. The film postulates a fictional war between the  NATO forces  and the  Warsaw Pact  over  Germany  that rapidly escalates into a full-scale  nuclear exchange  between the  United States  and the  Soviet Union . The action itself focuses on the residents of  Lawrence, Kansa...

(Bonus) The  Strategic Defense Initiative  ( SDI ), nicknamed the " Star Wars  program ", was a proposed  missile defense  system intended to protect the United States from attack by  ballistic   strategic nuclear weapons  ( intercontinental ballistic missiles  and  submarine-launched ballistic missiles ). The concept was announced on March 23, 1983, by President  Ronald Reagan , [1]  a vocal crit...

(Bonus) The  post –Cold War era  is a period of history that follows the end of the  Cold War , which represents history after the  dissolution of the Soviet Union  in December 1991. This period saw many former  Soviet republics  become  sovereign  nations, as well as the introduction of  market economies  in  eastern Europe . This period also marked the  United States  becoming the world's sole ...

S16-E01 Topics: Strategic Defense Initiative, The Day After movie, Eastern Europe Collapse, Post Cold War Era. The following links allow you to subscribe: iTunes and Apple Podcast , Amazon Music/Audible , Castbox.fm , Deezer , Facebook , Gaana, Google Podcast , iHeartRadio , Player.fm , Radio Public , Samsung Listen, Stitcher , TuneIn , Twitter , Vurbl , and YouTube . Automatically available throu...

(Bonus) The  Korean conflict  is an  ongoing conflict  based on the division of  Korea  between  North Korea  (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and  South Korea  (Republic of Korea), both of which claim to be the sole  legitimate government  of all of Korea. During the  Cold War , North Korea was backed by the  Soviet Union ,  China , and  other allies , while South Korea was backed by the ...

(Bonus) The  domino theory  is a  geopolitical  theory which posits that increases or decreases in  democracy  in one country tend to spread to neighboring countries in a  domino effect . [1]  It was prominent in the  United States  from the 1950s to the 1980s in the context of the  Cold War , suggesting that if one country in a region came under the influence of  communism , then the surrounding...

(Bonus) The  Balfour Declaration  was a public statement issued by the  British Government  in 1917 during the  First World War  announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in  Palestine , then an  Ottoman  region with a small minority  Jewish  population. The declaration was contained in a letter dated 2   November 1917 from the United Kingdom's  Foreig...

S16-E05 Topics: Korean Conflict, Domino Theory of Communist Conquest, Cuban Missile Crisis, Israel Established, Arab-Israel Wars. The following links allow you to subscribe: iTunes and Apple Podcast , Amazon Music/Audible , Castbox.fm , Deezer , Facebook , Gaana, Google Podcast , iHeartRadio , Player.fm , Radio Public , Samsung Listen, Stitcher , TuneIn , Twitter , Vurbl , and YouTube . Automatica...

(Bonus) The  Truman Doctrine  is an  American foreign policy  that pledges American "support for  democracies  against  authoritarian  threats." [1]  The doctrine originated with the primary goal of countering the growth of the  Soviet bloc  during the  Cold War . It was announced to  Congress  by President  Harry S. Truman  on March 12, 1947, [2]  and further developed on July 4, 1948, when he pl...

(Bonus) The  Marshall Plan  (officially the  European Recovery Program ,  ERP ) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to  Western Europe . The  United States  transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $173 billion in 2023) in economic recovery programs to Western European economies after the end of  World War II . Replacing an earlier proposal for a  Morgenthau Plan , it...

(Bonus) During the  Cold War , the  Iron Curtain  is a political metaphor used to describe the political boundary dividing  Europe  into two separate areas from the end of  World War II  in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the  Soviet Union  (USSR) to block itself and its  satellite states  from open contact with  the West , its allies and neutral stat...

(Bonus) The  Berlin Blockade  (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the  Cold War . During the  multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany , the  Soviet Union  blocked the  Western Allies ' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of  Berlin  under  Western control . The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew t...

S16-E04 Topics: Marshall Plan for Western Europe, Truman Doctrine to protect democracies, Berlin Airlift to Avoid Russian Blockade. The following links allow you to subscribe: iTunes and Apple Podcast , Amazon Music/Audible , Castbox.fm , Deezer , Facebook , Gaana, Google Podcast , iHeartRadio , Player.fm , Radio Public , Samsung Listen, Stitcher , TuneIn , Twitter , Vurbl , and YouTube . Automati...

(Bonus) The  Warsaw Pact  ( WP ), [d]  formally the  Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance  ( TFCMA ), [e]  was a  collective defense  treaty signed in  Warsaw ,  Poland , between the  Soviet Union  and seven other  Eastern Bloc   socialist republics  of  Central and Eastern Europe  in May 1955, during the  Cold War . The term "Warsaw Pact" commonly refers to both the treaty itse...

(Bonus) The  Cold War  originated in the breakdown of relations between the two main victors in  World War II :  United States  and the  Soviet Union , and their respective allies, the  Western Bloc  and the  Eastern Bloc , in the years 1945–1949. The origins derive from diplomatic (and occasional military) confrontations stretching back decades, followed by the issue of political boundaries in Ce...

(Bonus) The  North Atlantic Treaty Organization  ( NATO   / ˈ n eɪ t oʊ /   NAY-toh ;  French :  Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord ,  OTAN ), also called the  North Atlantic Alliance , is an  intergovernmental   military alliance  of 31  member states  – 29 European and two North American. Established in the  aftermath of World War II , the organization implemented the  North Atlantic Tr...

(Bonus) The  Eastern Bloc , also known as the  Communist Bloc , the  Socialist Bloc , and the  Soviet Bloc , was the coalition of  communist states  of  Central and Eastern Europe ,  Asia ,  Africa , and  Latin America  that were aligned with the  Soviet Union  and existed during the  Cold War  (1947–1991). These states followed the ideology of  Marxism–Leninism , in opposition to the  capitalist...

S16-E03 T opics: Arming of the East and the West, formation of NATO pact, formation of the WARSAW pact. The following links allow you to subscribe: iTunes and Apple Podcast , Amazon Music/Audible , Castbox.fm , Deezer , Facebook , Gaana, Google Podcast , iHeartRadio , Player.fm , Radio Public , Samsung Listen, Stitcher , TuneIn , Twitter , Vurbl , and YouTube . Automatically available through thes...

(Bonus) On the Beach  is a 1959 American  post-apocalyptic   science fiction  drama film from  United Artists  starring  Gregory Peck ,  Ava Gardner ,  Fred Astaire , and  Anthony Perkins . Produced and directed by  Stanley Kramer , [2]  it is based on  Nevil Shute 's 1957 novel  On the Beach  depicting the aftermath of a nuclear war. [3]  Unlike the novel, no one is assigned blame for starting th...

(Bonus) Fail Safe  is a 1964  Cold War   thriller film  directed by  Sidney Lumet , based on the  1962 novel of the same name  by  Eugene Burdick  and  Harvey Wheeler . The film follows a crisis caused by a critical error that sends a group of U.S. bombers to destroy  Moscow , and the ensuing attempts to stop the bomber group before it can deploy a  nuclear first strike . The film features perform...

(Bonus) Duck and Cover  is a 1952 American  civil defense   animated   live-action   social guidance film [1]  that is often mischaracterized [2] [3]  as  propaganda . [4]  It has similar themes to the more adult-oriented  civil defense  training films. It was widely distributed to United States schoolchildren in the 1950s, and teaches students what to do in the event of a nuclear explosion. [5] T...

(Bonus) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb  (known simply and more commonly as  Dr. Strangelove ) is a 1964  political satire   black comedy film  directed, co-written, and produced by  Stanley Kubrick  and starring  Peter Sellers in three roles, including the title character. The film, which satirizes the  Cold War  fears of a  nuclear conflict  between the  Sovi...

S16-E02 Topics: Fail Safe movie, Dr. Strangelove movie, On the Beach movie, Duck and Cover movie. The following links allow you to subscribe: iTunes and Apple Podcast , Amazon Music/Audible , Castbox.fm , Deezer , Facebook , Gaana, Google Podcast , iHeartRadio , Player.fm , Radio Public , Samsung Listen, Stitcher , TuneIn , Twitter , Vurbl , and YouTube . Automatically available through these podc...

(Bonus) This article provides an overview of the "Red Scare" during the 1950s and 1960s: the fear of worldwide Communism. The article is from Wikipedia.

(Bonus) This article from Wikipedia, the "McCarthy Era," which he led generated fear among the American people of Communist infiltration.