CNN Cold War – Marshall Plan 1947-1952
Excellent history every American should know. CNN was MUCH different during this period when their outstanding Cold War series was made. First aired in 1998, I showed my World History high school students many of the 26 episodes from the series every year until I retired in 2020. This episode was one of my favorites.
When the Parisian woman Marianne Debouzy was shown, I would stop and pause the video tape and refer to her as “that Frog Commie Bitch,” which always both shocked and greatly amused my students.
My students especially loved the segment relating to the Marshall Plan in Greece and the Missouri Mules, how the Greek peasant framers loved their mules and loved the Americans for providing them to help them after WWII. “Long Live America!”
This video focuses upon the highly contested 1948 Italian election between the Communist/Socialist coalition candidate versus the Christian Democrat centrist coalition, and how the US both openly (and covertly) helped defeat the Left.
The role of Pope Pius XII and the Roman Catholic Church is also strongly emphasized, especially when the Pope boldly excommunicated the Communists. After the triumphant results of the election were announced, watch how the Italian Commie bastard Giuseppe Mainardi tells of how he cried crocodile tears because now they were going to be unable to murder anti-communists like they had in the other Stalinist countries of Europe,
The film briefly discusses the CIA role in these matters, the first major covert action undertaken by the Agency.
In the second program below, Mike Benz briefly explains to Tucker Carlson more of the importance of how the CIA then saw its future Cold War role.
Synopsis:
“Cold War is a twenty-four episode television documentary series about the Cold War that aired in 1998. It features interviews and footage of the events that shaped the tense relationships between the Soviet Union and the United States.
“The series was produced by Pat Mitchell and Jeremy Isaacs, who had earlier in 1973 produced the World War II documentary series The World at War in a similar style. Ted Turner funded the series as a joint production between the Turner Broadcasting System and the BBC, and was first broadcast on CNN in the United States and BBC Two in the United Kingdom. Writers included Hella Pick, Jeremy Isaacs, Lawrence Freedman, Neal Ascherson, Hugh O’Shaughnessy and Germaine Greer. Kenneth Branagh was the narrator, and Carl Davis (who also collaborated with Isaacs with The World at War) composed the theme music. Each episode would feature historical footage and interviews from both significant figures and others who had witnessed particular events.
“For both altruistic and self-serving purposes, the United States provides massive grants of aid to the countries of Europe in the form of the Marshall Plan. Stalin, concerned that the intent of the Marshall Plan is to weaken Soviet influence in Europe, prevents countries in its orbit from participating, and establishes the rival Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Communists come to power through a coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948. Tito, while originally aligned to the Soviet Union, adopts a more independent foreign policy and eventually switches to receiving Marshall Aid Assistance. The CIA and the Catholic Church conspire to help oust the Italian Communist Party and its coalition allies in the 1948 Italian election. The Marshall Plan has the effect of modernising European economies and societies, bringing Western Europe closer together, and closer to the United States. Interviewees include Vladimir Yerofeyev, Gianni Agnelli and Giulio Andreotti. The pre-credits scene portrays the squalor in post-war Italy, and Truman delivering his Truman Doctrine speech of 1947.”
8:58 am on June 25, 2025
