Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War

I am watching this new Netflix mini-series (9 episodes) and I am blown away by the honest and brutal criticism of the US government, individuals, politics, actions, and policies. This is a serious look at who is responsible for the Cold War and everything else that lead to today’s war in Ukraine, basically, and it’s fascinating. I have a very cynical view of governments in general and I can honestly say that I would trust the American and French and Canadian governments almost as little as I would trust the Russian or Chinese governments, which is to say, not much. This series confirms that politics is just a game of disinformation and manipulation, money and power, death and pride. Fascinating people are interviewed throughout the episodes, and photos and audio and video recordings of key figures are used, too.

One of the scariest things I’ve learned in this documentary (so far) is that the guy who was Trump’s advisor and mentor at the very beginning of his career was Roy Cohen, the same guy who fought nail and teeth against « the evil communists » during the McCarthy’s witch hunt era and who was instrumental in the Rosenberg trial, among others. Nasty dude! Explains a lot!

Also, I learned the difference between the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb (which is way worse than the atomic bomb). They are both nuclear bombs, but one uses fission and the other one fusion. Yeah, I haven’t seen the movie Oppenheimer and don’t want to, it seems like it’s a glossy recount of a nasty part of world history, and I’m not interested in that.

This Turning Point is one courageous (and much more in-depth and accurate) documentary!

Oh, and obviously, we’re still in the middle of a cold war. Great.