Combat in the Air - The Air Defense of North America

The Missiles of October: What the World Didn't Know

This documentary by ABC News commemorates the 30th anniversary of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. It provides a behind-the-scenes look at how close the U.S. and Soviet Union actually came to catastrophe.

SR-71 Blackbird: The Secret Vigil

Few aircraft have attracted more attention than the ominous black supersonic jet that for years has ranged the world on reconnaissance missions. This is the definitive tribute to an extraordinary peacekeeper, the SR-71 Blackbird. The History. The Technology. The Missions. The Pilots. And compelling, gripping footage of the Blackbird itself, on its "rocket ride" through the world's airspace.

Cold War Submarine Adventures: Cuban Missile Crisis - Secret Subs

Explore the events of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and hear from some of the actual participants in this riveting program. After an American naval blockade intercepted Soviet submarines on a secret mission to set up a military base in Cuba, the two nations engaged in a tense standoff that led the world to the brink of nuclear war. Submariners from both sides talk about the conflict, and viewers get a look inside their subs and the U.S. war room.

From Harlem with Love

Tensions between the USSR and the United States were high in 1959, with the seemingly constant threat of nuclear war. Then some unlikely ambassadors stepped forward to clear all that away: the Harlem Globetrotters. From Harlem With Love is the story of how a group of barnstorming basketball players traveled to the heart of the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War and bridged a cultural gap many thought would stand forever.

Berlin Geheimoperation Tunnel

Die kalten Ringe

19 years after the dropping of atomic bombs in Japan, the Olympic Games of 1964 took place in Tokyo. In the midst of the cold war, the games are supposed to become a symbol for a peaceful world. Especially the divided Germany is expected to prove this: By order of the IOC, both German states must participate in Tokyo with a joint team despite deep ideological rifts. The fact that athletes from both German states still had to compete against each other in order to form a joint team for the 1964 Olympic Games in Innsbruck and in Tokyo is all but forgotten. The film tells the story of the East-West German team of 1964 for the first time and is simultaneously a current document about the relation of sports and politics in international relations.

Out of the Sun

This short film takes viewers on a whirlwind tour of the history of air combat, from World War I through the Vietnam War. It was produced by General Dynamics sometime prior to 1990 and re-released by Lockheed Martin in the mid-nineties. As a promotional short for the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the film reviews the development of aerial combat to place the F-16 in historical context. Informational narration is supplemented with snippets from interviews of top fighter aces. The aces focus on the characteristics that make great fighter pilots and great fighter aircraft. The interviewees include World War I ace W.C. "Bill" Lambert; World War II aces Douglas Bader, Stanford Tuck, Adolf Galland, Erich Hartmann, Gabby Gabreski, Tex Hill, and Svein Heglund; Korean War ace Ralph Parr; and Vietnam War ace Steve Ritchie. The film includes historical footage and stills, along with opening and closing segments briefly featuring the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Nuclear Rescue 911: Broken Arrows & Incidents

Since 1950, there have been 32 nuclear weapon accidents, known as "Broken Arrows." A Broken Arrow is defined as an unexpected event involving nuclear weapons that result in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft or loss of the weapon. To date, six nuclear weapons have been lost and never recovered.Now, recently declassified documents reveal the history and secrecy surrounding the events known as "Broken Arrows". There have been 32 nuclear weapon accidents since 1950. Six of these nuclear weapons have been lost and never recovered. What does this say about our defense system? What does this mean to our threatened environment? What do we do to rectify these monumental "mistakes"? Using spectacular special effects, newly uncovered and recently declassified footage, filmmaker Peter Kuran explores the accidents, incidents and exercises in the secret world of nuclear weapons.

Spartamerika

An essay film exploring the thirteen United States Presidents that have led the country through war and conflict from 1950 to 2025.

Stealing the Superfortress

How the Soviet Union was able to copy the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, and the influence of the resulting Tupolev TU-4 on the Cold War.

The Last Spy

The riveting biography of 102-year-old CIA spymaster Peter Sichel, who unpacks the obscured roots of conflicts that plague today’s world and the toll espionage took on his personal life.

Rich Hall's Red Menace

2019 marks the 30th year since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Rich Hall examines the relationship between the West and the USSR in his inimitable fashion.

Tragedy or Hope

Contrasting radical mobs, anarchy, and 1960s counterculture with footage of American manufacturing and innovation, this film celebrates the concept of American exceptionalism and argues that anti-Vietnam War protesters were influenced by communism, atheism, and immorality. Set mostly in a university library, this political debate between a medical student, his 1770s ancestor, and a history professor is a sequel to the 1972 National Education Program film, Brink of Disaster! Two additional characters appear in this drama: a 19th-century steamboat captain, and the student’s grandfather - an early 20th-century automobile worker. The National Education Program at Harding College in Searcy, Arkansas created a variety of widely-distributed anti-communism films from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s.

Nixon's China Game

THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE presents Nixon’s China Game, the story of an operation so secret that it managed to elude the international press, the members of Nixon’s cabinet, and even the US State Department. The documentary features never-before-seen footage of Kissinger’s secret mission to China, newly released transcripts of the negotiations, private diaries, Nixon’s own handwritten notes, and interviews with American and Chinese officials -- including those who were in on the covert plan, and those who were kept in the dark.

A Very Animated War

From 1945 to 1989, after the capitulation of Nazi Germany, two rival ideologies, communism and capitalism, faced each other in a merciless battle. On one side of the Iron Curtain and on the other, throughout the Cold War, the USSR and the United States sought to shape children’s imaginations through their magazines and films. Never in the history of mankind have so many comic books been published and so many cartoons produced for young people. In November 1989, communism collapsed with the Berlin Wall; capitalism was left to decide the future of the world. What if this victory had been prepared for a long time, and our thinking conditioned, from our early childhood, to ensure this absolute triumph?

More Tomcat Tales

This much anticipated sequel to the 2020 hit film, TOMCAT TALES continues the story and legacy of the one fighter Hollywood loves to feature in their blockbuster movies. MORE TOMCAT TALES showcases phenomenal F-14 footage and iconic cast of officers as they discuss their extraordinary experiences in the legendary Tomcat.

How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin

In August 1962, director Leslie Woodhead made a two-minute film in Liverpool's Cavern Club with a raw and unrecorded group of rockers called the Beatles. He arranged their first live TV appearances on a local show in Manchester and watched as the Fab Four phenomenon swept the world. Twenty-five years later while making films in Russia, Woodhead became aware of how, even though they were never able to play in the Soviet Union, the Beatles' legend had soaked into the lives of a generation of kids. This film meets the Soviet Beatles generation and hears their stories about how the Fab Four changed their lives, including Putin's deputy premier Sergei Ivanov, who explains how the Beatles helped him learn English and showed him another life. (Storyville)

Look at this City

Started in the summer of 1961, even before the Wall was built, the film becomes an explanation after this historical event as to why things can no longer go on as they were before. Unmistakably, as in almost all of Karl Gass' films, the passion with which he treats his subject is unmistakable. If you want to get to know the zeitgeist of the historically significant year 1961, which on both sides knew more the Cold War vocabulary than factual arguments, you can see the Eastern variant in this propaganda film.