1945-1953: From World War to Cold War (2017)

At the outset of the Yalta Conference on February 4, 1945, the «Big Three» were all optimistic: victory was in no doubt, and the accord that they had achieved seemed likely to preserve the values they had fought for.

Part 1: Yalta, the Twilight of the Big Three
Hear how the Yalta Conference of 1945 - in which Franklin D Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin met to discuss Europe's post-war reorganisation - led to enmity.
What really happened in Yalta? For a week in February 1945, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, the leaders of the three great powers allied against Nazism, met to discuss the end of the war and the future of the world, during one of the most important international conferences of all time.
While on the ground, Americans, British and Soviets were fighting against Hitler, in the hushed salons of Yalta the Big Three with different interests and ambitions waged a merciless struggle. Because beyond their common enemy, the "big three" had different ambitions and interests, which they sometimes sought to preserve at all costs. Pressures, bluffs, secrets, espionage, intimidation: this film tells, based on the memories of the participants and their diaries, the captivating backstage of one of the greatest conferences of the 20th century.

Part 2: The Dawn of the Cold War
Learn how, after being brothers in arms during World War II, the Allies would soon become divided in peace. How did a post-war conference in Crimea lead to the Cold War?
This is the story of a face-off that pitted the two most powerful men on the planet for eight years: Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, and Truman, the president of the United States. This confrontation held the world in suspense and led them to the cold war. When Truman came to power in the spring of 1945, with World War II still not over, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies and fought together against Nazi Germany. But, once Hitler was defeated, the antagonisms and ambitions put to sleep during the conflict resurfaced. In a few months, the positions froze and the two blocs stood against each other, irreconcilable… It was the beginning of the cold war. This film recounts this pivotal period in our history. A period of high tension, while the United States and the USSR acquired atomic weapons. Kennan "Long Telegram", Berlin blockade, Korean War… Until the death of Stalin in 1953, crises followed one another. Thanks to declassified archives, the exceptional testimonies of former spies and President Truman's grandson, we relive the story from the inside and understand how the terrible spiral of the Cold War was put in place.