Four satellite launches into the Space Race, and the score—in terms of pounds put into orbit—is Communism, 1300; Capitalism, 33. 

And the humiliations keep on coming. In history's biggest sales pitch ever, the Soviet Union is handing the United States its backside on a platter. But then a new capsule, the space equivalent of a '66 Corvette Stingray convertible starts to get some real traction as the Cold War gets hotter.

Play

What We Saw

Part 2 | The Clock is Running and We're Underway!

What does the cold steel in Soviet Gulags do? It cracks. What does the cold Stalin, or ‘Man of Steel’ in Russian, do? He makes Lenin’s ‘Red Terror’ look like child’s play. Witness the dismal conclusion to An Empire of Terror as Bill Whittle walks you through the physical and psychological suffering of the Russian people, the Soviet government cannibalizing itself, and perhaps some of the most blatant acts of evil the world has ever seen—all at the hands of Joseph Stalin.

Hour 1

Ep 8 - Echoes of Murder

A young Georgian man exudes a charisma, competence, and a rare “hardness” that allows him to quickly rise in the ranks of Lenin’s government. Meanwhile, Lenin’s health becomes a foreboding symbol for the degenerating country of Russia. Journey with Bill Whittle through the rise of Stalin, the fall of Lenin, and the Soviet Union’s brief affair with capitalist economics.

Ep 7 - Collapse

At the seizure of power, Lenin and his Bolsheviks are met with assassination attempts and resistance that turns into a civil war. The retaliation that the Bolsheviks unleash on the failed resistance and the people of Russia is unspeakably and gruesomely horrific. Witness the internal conflict in early Soviet Russia and the consequential atrocities with Bill Whittle.

Ep 6 - Red Terror

Despite the momentum Russia was gaining in prosperity and liberty in the beginning of the 20th century, the dark Bolshevik Revolution would still have its way. Follow Bill Whittle as he details how Lenin forcibly took any power the people had and how he developed a hatred for the very people he should have been fighting for.

Ep 5 - The Victory Over Democracy

Having just succeeded in their revolution, the Bolsheviks lay roots for what would become one of the most oppressive governments the world has ever seen. In order to lay roots, however, they needed to clear ground. Bill Whittle takes you through the bloodshed of the Soviet Union’s infancy, and witnesses how the Bolsheviks lacked common sense and competence, but made up for it with sheer intimidation and dumb luck.


Ep 4 - The Bloodbath Begins

It’s 1917. Lenin and comrades have galvanized large swaths of Russian commonfolk, or the “Proletariat,” and they all want revenge. A provisional government that reminds the masses too much of the previous oppressive monarchy turns a blind eye to Lenin and the people. The conditions are ripe for revolution.

Ep 3 - The Ramshackle Revolution

Russia is still feeling the shock of the long-established autocracy falling with Tsar Nicholas II while they’re completely wrapped up in World War 1. An ambitious Vladimir Lenin is secretly smuggled into Russia to bring chaos, and chaos he certainly brought.

Ep 2 - Bacillus

Over 20 million innocent people were murdered in 20th century Soviet Russia at the hands of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. Unimaginable horror swept the nation, turning the worst nightmares of blameless Soviet citizens into a gruesome reality.

Ep 1 - Innocent People

What We Saw: An Empire of Terror premieres on March 6, 2024.

Season 3: An Empire of Terror

Nixon goes to China and in a masterstroke of diplomacy turns a two-power Cold War into three-power triangular diplomacy. But before anything meaningful can come from it,  Watergate destroys the administration and reduces American morale to its lowest point during the entire conflict. The Soviet perception of American weakness leads to their invasion of Afghanistan quickly becoming a quagmire like the one America emerges from in Vietnam. It is against this backdrop that America's oldest President brings youthful vigor, renewed optimism and a plan to resolve the forty-year running stalemate and end the Cold War with a win.

Part 13: A Pizza Hut Parade

A change of command comes too late to reverse the situation in Southeast Asia as Richard Nixon's program of 'Vietnamization' eases America out of its worst-directed war. But long before the last American serviceman leaves Vietnam, a new generation of liberators rise to the challenge of saving American tactics, weaponry and doctrine from themselves. Fighting an uphill battle against arrogance, ignorance and intransigence, an uncouth warrior’s legendarily irrefutable Pentagon briefings will forever change the way America builds the fighter aircraft. And a kid who grew up hunting in his native Arkansas, will revolutionize American ground tactics through sheer courage and willpower, ushering in the age of Special Forces.

Part 12: The Liberators

Mired not only in the jungles of Southeast Asia but, but from outdated, rigid doctrine, fossilized tactics, and declining morale, a light appears in the middle of America's darkest night. A swaggering fighter jock, married to a movie star, turns an undertrained and under-led group of dispirited American flyers into a snarling Wolfpack that pulls off a supersonic ambush in one of the greatest military operations of all time. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the hopeful spring of Prague’s liberal reforms gets crushed by a Russian bear that remains in full possession of a nasty set of teeth and claws.

Part 11: From The Jaws Of Defeat

They stepped out of a big, air-conditioned silver bird, into the kind of heat, and humidity that even Americans raised in the Deep South weren’t prepared for. Once the immensity of the war in Vietnam hit, someone with more time on the ground might greet them with a wry "Welcome to the suck." An apt name as any for the burgeoning war fought to contain communism in Vietnam. But this policy of containment, and a fatal underestimation of the enemy became a quagmire that plunged the United States into its darkest years of the Cold War.

Part 10: Welcome To The Suck

With the mechanisms of apocalypse firmly in place, both sides accelerate their efforts to determine the actual capabilities of the other. But The United States and the Soviet Union diverge in regard to intelligence gathering. The massive US lead in technology leads to spy satellites, hypersonic reconnaissance planes and the most ambitious intelligence operation in human history. The Soviets, on the other hand, play to their strengths as well: the ability to turn individual human assets. One of these paths will lead to the biggest intel haul of the Cold War.

Part 9: Cloaks and Daggers

As US reconnaissance overflights of Cuba resume after a hiatus following the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion attempt, analysts are shocked to discover Russian medium-range, nuclear-tipped missiles capable of striking the East Coast. Announcing an outright blockade of Cuba would be recognized as an act of war, so President Kennedy employs the Soviet tactic of linguistic sophistry and announces a "quarantine zone." As US Navy warships move to intercept the incoming missiles, the fate of the world hangs in the balance -- and is ultimately in the hands of a single man, not in The White House or the Kremlin, but deep beneath the waves at the edge of the quarantine zone.

Part 8: To The Precipice

The man who returned to his native country with Che Guevara on a leaky tub, bringing communism to the Western Hemisphere with him. Fidel Castro was a thorn in every president’s side from Eisenhower, to Obama, turning Cuba into a potential launching pad for Soviet nuclear missiles. But his first and greatest test would be to repel an American-backed invasion at Playa Giron, a beach on the southern coast of Cuba at the mouth of an inlet called the Bay of Pigs.

Part 7: Playa Giron

As the Apollo program finally starts to take wings, learn how the entire program, and everything it accomplished, was actually NASA's backup plan.

From a fire during a routine test to Christmas messages from the far side of the moon, see how the Apollo Program got to that one giant leap of Apollo 11 with a series of very small steps, and missteps.

Part 3 | In The Beginning... 

Nearly every single human with access to a TV set watched the blurry, almost surreal image of Neil Armstrong stepping live onto the surface of the moon. But after Apollo 11 returned to earth, we got an entirely different view of those first historic moments.

Join us for the journey of Apollo 11, the seven Apollo Missions that followed, and decades of disappointments and shortfalls, crowned at last with a new hope for our future in space.

Part 4 | Magnificent Desolation

Travel through time with Bill Whittle and relive key moments in American history like never before. Using captivating historical footage, experience the triumph of the Apollo 11 mission in Season 1,  explore the Cold War tensions in Season 2, and witness the terrifying rise of the Soviet Union in Season 3. Don’t just read about history, live it!

Menu