Best Podcasts on the Cold War

The Cold War defined the second half of the twentieth century — a global ideological struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union that shaped every continent, every decade, and almost every major political event from 1945 to 1991. Explaining History has produced over fifty episodes exploring the Cold War in depth: its origins in the ruins of World War Two, its dangerous flashpoints in Korea, Berlin and Cuba, its cultural battles at home, and its unexpected peaceful conclusion.

Browse by theme below, or start anywhere — every episode stands alone.

Origins of the Cold War (1944–1950)

How did wartime allies become bitter adversaries within months of Germany’s defeat? These episodes trace the Cold War’s roots — from the Potsdam Conference to the Truman DoctrineTruman Doctrine Full Description:The Truman Doctrine established the ideological framework for the Cold War. It articulated a binary worldview, dividing the globe into two alternative ways of life: one based on the will of the majority (the West) and one based on the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority (Communism). This doctrine justified US intervention in conflicts far from its own borders, arguing that a threat to peace anywhere was a threat to the security of the United States. Critical Perspective:Critically, this doctrine provided the moral cover for aggressive expansionism. By framing complex local struggles—often involving anti-colonial or nationalist movements—strictly as battles between freedom and totalitarianism, it allowed the US to support authoritarian regimes and crush popular uprisings simply by labeling the opposition as “communist.” and the first great crises of containment.

Harry Truman 1945

Following the death of Roosevelt, the inexperienced Truman entered the Oval Office in the last days of World War Two and immediately charted a new, harder course against Soviet demands.

The Potsdam Conference

The last major meeting of the allied powers drew up the Cold War’s battle lines in Europe and Asia, exposing the deep divisions that would define the next four decades.

The Truman Doctrine

When Truman announced a massive military aid package to Greece in 1947, it signalled America’s full commitment to containing Soviet power — the opening declaration of the Cold War as a global policy.

Cold War America: McCarthyism and the Red Scare

The Cold War was fought at home as well as abroad. These episodes explore how anti-communism reshaped American politics, culture, and civil liberties from the late 1940s through the 1950s.

Eisenhower, the CIA and the Death of StalinStalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician, dictator and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. Read More

When Stalin died in 1953, Cold War certainties collapsed overnight. Eisenhower and CIA chief Allen Dulles faced an intelligence vacuum at the most dangerous moment of the early Cold War.

American Cold War Liberals and the McCarthyite Era 1948–57

Anti-communism became a defining feature of American liberalism as well as conservatism. This episode explores how Democrats and liberal intellectuals shifted rightward under the pressure of McCarthyism.

The Dulles Brothers and Eisenhower — 1954

John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State and Allen Dulles as CIA Director gave the Eisenhower administration an unprecedented concentration of foreign policy power — two brothers with very similar, and dangerous, ideas.

Cold War Europe: Berlin, the Iron Curtain and Détente

Europe was the Cold War’s central theatre — divided Germany, a partitioned Berlin, and restive satellite states behind the Iron Curtain. These episodes explore the European dimension of the conflict.

The Berlin Wall 1961

In August 1961 East German and Soviet forces sealed off West Berlin, stopping the flood of refugees fleeing to the west. This episode explores the crisis and how the Wall paradoxically stabilised Cold War Europe.

The Croat Spring 1971

Yugoslavia’s unique position outside the Soviet bloc gave space for nationalist movements to emerge. The Croatian Spring of 1971 revealed the tensions within Tito’s federation that would eventually tear it apart.

The Cold War in Asia: Korea, Vietnam and Beyond

The Cold War’s hottest conflicts were fought in Asia. From Korea in 1950 to the fall of Saigon in 1975, American and Soviet power clashed through proxy wars that cost millions of lives.

Cold War Assumptions and the Beginning of the Korean War

How did miscalculations by Mao, Stalin, Truman and MacArthur turn Korea from a peripheral Cold War issue into a full-scale war? This episode unpicks the assumptions that led to catastrophe.

Asia After the Atomic Bomb

The bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended Japan’s war but not Asian conflict. This episode traces how the Cold War’s new fault lines fuelled three decades of fighting across the continent.

Nixon and Kissinger 1968–74

By the late 1960s the Cold War was in deadlock and America was drowning in Vietnam. Nixon and Kissinger’s secretive attempt to break out of the impasse reshaped Cold War relations — at devastating cost to Asia.

The End of the Cold War: Gorbachev and 1989

Few people in 1985 imagined the Soviet Union would peacefully dissolve within six years. These episodes explore how Gorbachev’s reforms unleashed forces he could not control, and how 1989 changed everything.

Gorbachev’s Diplomacy 1985–88

Between 1985 and 1988 Gorbachev sought to end the crippling arms race and ease the economic burden of Cold War militarisation. Was his diplomacy bold statecraft or a strategic retreat forced by necessity?

1989: The Year of Global Transformation

In 1989 the Cold War came to an unexpectedly peaceful end. The wars both sides had spent decades preparing for never came. Told through Kristina Spohr’s Post Wall, Post Square, this episode explores what 1989 actually meant and the new world order that followed.

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