As Russia, China and the USA flex their military muscles on the global stage today, ‘M.A.D. World’ examines the last time we were threatened by the might of world superpowers: the Cold War. For over forty years the entire world stood on the brink of annihilation, as World War II ended and a new kind of war began; when the push of a single button could trigger all out nuclear war.
‘M.A.D. World’ explores how the world was changed forever by the Cold War. Over eight episodes, remarkable archival film shows how the build up of nuclear arms and the mistrust between West and East instilled terror across the globe. First hand accounts of this conflict are brought to life as we talk to pilots drilled to drop the bomb, families split in two by the Iron Curtain, and escaped dissidents who lived in fear of torture and execution.
We look at wars being fought now, and potential flashpoints in the light of lessons learnt from the Cold War.