Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1801 in VHS
• Released on: 1998-11-10
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Original language: Czech, English, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish
• Number of tapes: 8
• Running time: 1120 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
If anything defined the 20th century as the age of anxiety, it's the cold war with its ultimate no-win nuclear endgame. While conflicts in Korea and Vietnam dragged on, providing the traditional images of modern warfare, some of the conflict's most dangerous battles were invisible--tactical, intellectual, and fought primarily in the minds and war rooms of U.S. and Soviet leaders: Kennedy, Krushchev, Castro, Kissinger, Gorbachev, and Reagan. This 8-volume, 24-episode series, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, is a comprehensive history that examines the key events of the arc of the Soviet Union, from its birth to its fall, and provides a thorough analysis of what was going on behind closed doors. Informed by the stories of 500 eyewitnesses--from citizens and soldiers to historians and statesmen--and strengthened by painstaking reconstruction of archival historical film footage, CNN's Cold War is a heroic undertaking and a sweeping chronicle of the world's most fragile decades. --Susan Benson

Customer Reviews

Wonderful set!....Get it now because you will never see it properly released
This is beyond a shadow of a doubt the best documentary I have ever seen on the Cold War, but it will never be released on DVD, at least not for the forseeable future, much to the chagrin of many.

This film series first aired in 1998 and was released on VHS after DVD's came into vogue, but before the explosion of movies and documentaries released on DVD in 2001-2002 -- so CNN at the time would have been in no initial rush to get it out on DVD since prior to 2001, documentaries on the new medium were an anomaly rather than the rule.

Then 9/11 occured. After 9/11, the Bush Administration had many documents and much declassified film footage reclassified -- specifically those documents and clips which potentially compromised U.S. military operations then underway in Afghanistan (Nov. 2001) -- incidently the same month in which the CNN Cold War series went out of print on VHS, although a few copies remained in stores for purchase out of warehouse stocks until mid-2002.

Episodes 19 and 20, "Freeze" and "Soldiers of God," contain footage and evidence of the U.S. as a result of Cold War tensions supplying the Mujahadeen (a.k.a. Taliban & Islamic Fundamentalists of which Osama Bin Laden was a part of) with hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid through Pakistan as an intermediary. Mujahadeen leaders, soldiers, as well as ordinary Afghan citizens are interviewed, and many clips of Afghan warriors, including the way and style in which they fought the Soviets, were shown, with an explanation of just how they defeated them time and time again in those rocky mountains and the deserts down below -- those same rocky mountains that in 2001, as now, Osama Bin Laden is presumed to be hiding out with the help of those like the people interviewed on these episodes.

Incidently, "Soldiers of God" includes a scene with Former Sec. of State Zbigniew Brezizinski in 1980 telling the Islamic Fundamentalists that "God is on their side," urging them to fight on with the assurance that America was behind them. State Department officials are interviewed as well to confirm that the United States turned a blind eye (like it is now) to the human rights violations, Islamic radicalism, and totalitarian regime within Pakistan for the sake of its own interests in Afghanistan.

With the Middle Eastern film footage reclassified, CNN quit manufacturing the series because it would have meant selling an incomplete product to a potential consumer who it was assumed would not otherwise purchase it unless complete (kudos to this faithful and traditionalist outlook). Who would want a VHS series on the Cold War in which two episodes covering the years 1977 to 1988 had to essentially be deleted? They couldn't really be redone properly without the reclassified footage, but since Ted Turner -- the reason the Cold War was made in the first place -- was no longer at the helm of CNN in 2001, why would the Time-Warner Board of Directors want to waste the time and effort to make two replacement episodes to "glorify" the narcissistic tendencies of the guy they had just pressured to resign from the V-P slot? Considering that only recently there has been talk that Ted Turner might be trying to gain the Board Chairmanship through backchannel means, one can only guess that, assuming its either untrue or he fails, the Time-Warner Board is not particularly interested in reissuing, even in part, a series that was the brain child of the man they are trying to fight off a potential takeover bid from.

So you see, there really is little chance that this documentary will be released on DVD anytime in the near future, not unless the "War on Terror" is miraculously won and the film footage from Iran and Afghanistan declassified, which probably won't happen anytime soon. The point of all this is, BUY THIS SET USED OR HOWEVER YOU CAN OBTAIN IT. IT IS WORTH VIEWING AND WILL BLOW YOUR MIND EVEN IF THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE EVERYTHING ON IT.

Outstanding History Information for the Next Generation!
This is an outstanding series! As a member of the Defense Nuclear Weapons School in Albuquerque New Mexico, I recommend this excellent look at our history to middle, high schools and universities around the country. Perhaps around the world. I believe with the age of some of the experts and people that were alive during this time fading; we must ensure that this information is past on to generations to come. Ensuring we do not repeat the errors and apply the lessons learned as we move through the 21st century.

Great series, but...
Please release it on DVD. It's far too good to leave it on VHS.