Vistopia
Cover of Stories of the Cold War
Stories of the Cold War
A great-power rivalry that never fully ended
Completed · 80 episodes
Buy for ¥198.00
Audio in Chinese
Shen Zhihua: A Dialogue between History and Reality Niu Jun: This Is the Right Time to Tell the Cold War's Story 0. Is the Cold War Era Really Over? 1. The Eve: The Postwar Order Beginning at Yalta 2. The Curtain: Three Turning Points in the Cold War's Origins 3. The Beginning: The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan 4. Causes: Mutual Hostility and the Division of Spheres of Influence 5. Theory: Kennan's “Containment” and Zhdanov's “Two Camps” 6. Nuclear Deterrence: The “Balance of Terror” and Mutually Assured Destruction 7. The Front Line: The Berlin Crisis, NATO, and the Warsaw Pact 8. China: The PRC's Founding and “Leaning to One Side” Year-End Review | Understand the Cold War, Compare It with Today, and Look Ahead 9. East Asia: Hot Wars within the Cold War 10. Thaw: Khrushchev's “Three Peacefuls” after 1953 11. A Dangerous Gamble: The Cuban Missile Crisis 12. China and the USSR: A Thirty-Year “Quasi-Cold War” between Socialist States 13. Détente: The 1963 Hotline and Strategic Parity New Year Bonus | Aid to Vietnam against America in 1965: New Year Memories from the Cold War 14. Rapprochement: Normalization of China–US Relations in the Early 1970s 15. Fear of the Soviets: American Political Thought, Anti-Communism, and McCarthyism 16. Race: The US Civil Rights Movement and Public Diplomacy in the 1950s–60s 17. Rebellion: America's Counterculture and Antiwar Protests 18. Economy: US Economics and Technology Stimulated by the Cold War 19. Japan: The San Francisco Treaty, Flying-Geese Model, and Plaza Accord 20. Germany: Reconstruction amid Division, Economic Revival, and Denazification 21. Britain and France: Great Powers in a Tight Space—Thatcher and de Gaulle 22. Europe: The Winding Road to Integration, Franco-German Reconciliation, and the Schuman Plan 23. Soviet Union: The Secret Speech against Stalin and Khrushchev's Reforms 24. Stagnation: Brezhnev and Reform at a Standstill 25. Nationality: Building Soviet Rule and Early Signs of Ethnic Division 26. First Signs: The Prague Spring and Solidarity's Struggle in the 1980s 27. Eastern Europe: Hungarian Reform, the Berlin Wall, and Bulgaria's Transformation 28. Eve of Upheaval: Titoism, Albania, and Flexible Romania 29. Anticolonialism: The Loosening Colonial System and Independence across Asia, Africa, and Latin America 30. Independence: The Non-Aligned Movement and Bandung Conference 31. Middle East: The Suez Crisis and Arab–Israeli Conflict 32. Sanctions: Two Oil Crises and Their Long-Term Consequences 33. Khomeini: The Islamic Revolution, Hostage Crisis, and Iran–Iraq War 34. India–Pakistan Conflict: Colonial South Asia and Bangladesh 35. Coup: The 1979 Soviet Invasion and Afghan Revolution 36. Africa: From Civil Wars to US–Soviet Proxy Conflict 37. ASEAN: Escaping Western Constraints and the Four Asian Tigers' Economic Transformation 38. Latin America: The Monroe Doctrine, Peronism, and Neoliberalism 39. Expansion: Cuba Exports Revolution and Latin America Experiments with Socialism 40. China: Cambodia's Civil War and Sino-Vietnamese Confrontation and Rapprochement 41. A New Historical Stage: Shifting International Structure, Neoliberalism, and Globalization 42. Change: Entrenched Soviet Problems, Gorbachev's Reforms, and “New Thinking” 43. Transition: US Stagflation, Reagan's Reforms, and the Rise of Neoliberalism 44. Confrontation: Geopolitics, the Westward Shift in Power, and a “New Cold War” 45. Negotiation: Prelude to the End—the 1987 INF Treaty and New Détente 46. Decline: From Afghanistan's Withdrawal to the Gulf War and a Unipolar World 47. Balance: The China–US–USSR Strategic Triangle and China's Peaceful Diplomacy 48. Interaction: China at the Triangle's Apex, Soviet Upheaval, and Strategy's Quiet End 49. The Iron Curtain Vanishes: The Berlin Wall, Eastern European Change, and German Unity 50. Eastern Europe's Upheaval: Overnight Political Change, Economic Transition, and New Alignments 51. Epilogue: Gorbachev's Failed Reform, the August Coup, and the CPSU's Fall 52. The Soviet Union Dissolves: A Community Collapses and the Bipolar Era Ends 53. Cold War Legacies: Unhealed Wars, Third World Politics, and the Global Nuclear Shadow 54. Cold War Lessons: Origins of Confrontation, Deglobalization, and Lasting Internal Wounds 55. Nationalism: The Cold War and the Evolution of Nation-States, an Unfinished Project 56. Socialism: From Utopian Theory to International Movement and Modern State Experiment 57. Liberalism: From Classical to Neoliberalism, Neoconservatism, and the “End of History” 58. Globalization and Multiculturalism: Forces That Upended the Cold War 59. The “Battle for Hearts and Minds”: Lifestyles, Literature, and Art around the Cold War 60. Environment: The Club of Rome Report and the Rise of Environmentalism Bonus | Wang Jisi × Huang Ying: Albania, Once Europe's “Beacon of Socialism” I Bonus | Wang Jisi × Huang Ying: Albania, Once Europe's “Beacon of Socialism” II 61. Technology: Competition and Cooperation from Nuclear Weapons to Aviation and Spaceflight 62. The Contest for Opinion: The US–Soviet “Cultural Cold War” and Rival Propaganda Bonus | Further Topics and Reading on the Cold War 63. Why Did America's Alliance System Survive the Cold War? 64. How Do We Distinguish “Good States” from “Bad States” in Reality? 65. Did a “Clash of Civilizations” Replace Great-Power Conflict after the Cold War? 66. “History Did Not End”: From the Post-Cold War Era to Today's World 67. An Unknown Ending: Ukraine's Past, Present, and Turning Fate 68. Why Are So Many People Talking about a “New Cold War”? Conclusion: How Do We Grasp the Center of Gravity of History and Reality? Bonus | Nationalism, Ideology, and Neoliberalism: What Did the Cold War Give Today's World? Why Do We Still Discuss the Cold War Today? | Special Bonus I After Trump's Rise, Does Cold War Logic Still Operate Today? | Special Bonus II