AllMovie

Director Barbara Margolis spent five years researching the background and creation of Cold War mythology, beginning before the war began. Scenes that propagandize and promote the alliance between the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. during World War II are eye-opening. People like Noam Chomsky provide great detail as to how and where the Cold War began, and this leads to President Harry S. Truman's statements about containing Communism wherever it arose. Next follows the air raid shelters that took over America, the McCarthy era, and U.S. government films like The Red Nightmare. Margolis interviewed celebrities such as Fred Friendly, who notes that many people working for CBS lost their jobs in the 1950s because of McCarthy's accusations that they were affiliated with the Communist Party in the '30s.