Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Narrated by Charlton Heston, Barriers is a NATO documentary from 1983 describing aspects of post-war European history, and of how East and West has been divided by barriers, both figurative (the "Iron Curtain") and literal (the Berlin Wall).
NATO is shown as a stabilising institution, protecting not only the territorial integrity of its members but also their common Western civilisation and its democratic heritage.
Historical events are treated in black and white in a newsreel fashion with telex messages superimposed and the importance of Western civilisation is expressed through color footage of historic European cities (Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Athens and Istanbul).
📺 Quicklinks / Chapters:
▶️ 00:00 Winston Churchill Cabinet Office telex to US President Truman - Iron Curtain is drawn down
▶️ 01:00 Introduction - Barriers / Berlin Wall
▶️ 02:39 The West
▶️ 04:13 NATO Headquarters in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Joseph Luns
▶️ History of our post-war world:
▶️ 05:15 Allies meet on the banks of the river Elbe in Germany on April 25th 1945
▶️ 05:35 Russian dictator Joseph Stalin keeps over 4 million men on a war footing
▶️ 06:10 Soviet expansion - map of Europe turns red
▶️ 06:46 Berlin / Berlin Blockade / Berlin Airlift
▶️ 07:50 Marshall Plan
▶️ 08:07 🇺🇸 US Secretary of State George C. Marshall announces European Aid Programme in Washington on June 5th 1947
▶️ 08:34 🇬🇧 Winston Churchill speaks of European unity on May 7th 1948 at the Congress of Europe in The Hague
▶️ 09:06 Joseph Stalin claims such unity would only spread capitalism
▶️ 09:19 Prague 1948 - Communists threaten government / Czechoslovakia's Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk travels to Moscow / Coup d'état / Death Jan Masaryk
▶️ 10:05 April 4th 1949, Washington D.C. - Signature of the North Atlantic Treaty by 12 NATO founders
▶️ 10:51 Effects of the Marshall Plan on a buzzing Europe
▶️ 11:07 Berlin 1953 - Civil unrest in East Berlin
▶️ 11:27 August 1953 - USSR explodes hydrogen bomb
▶️ 11:38 May 14th 1955 - Nikolai Bulganin forms Warsaw Pact. Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania allied to USSR.
▶️ 12:00 June 28th 1956 - Civil unrest in Poznan, Poland, 48 dead, 481 arrested
▶️ 12:19 October 23rd 1956 - People's rebellion against invading Russian Army in Budapest, Hungary
▶️ 13:05 During the 1950's, the height of the Cold War, three more nations join NATO: Greece, Türkiye and Germany
▶️ 13:52 May 16th 1960, Paris, France - Big Four Summit Meeting scuppered Nikita Khrushchev
▶️ 14:26 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis / Fidel Castro at the United Nations / John Fitzgerald Kennedy / Andrei Gromyko
▶️ 15:27 1960s
▶️ 15:37 Three Power talks ban nuclear tests in atmosphere - August 5th 1963, Moscow
▶️ 15:47 Prague, Czechoslovakia - Prime Minister Alexander Dubček's communism with a human face
▶️ 16:16 August 1968 - Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia
▶️ 17:27 Moon landing - July 1969
▶️ 17:41 May 26th 1972, Moscow - SALT, Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty signed / Richard Nixon
▶️ 17:59 August 1st 1975, Helsinki - 35 Nations sign pact on Security and Co-operation in Europe
▶️ 18:31 December 13th 1981, Warsaw, Poland - Independent Trade Union "Solidarity" banned, martial law declared / Lech Wałęsa / Solidarność
▶️ 18:50 1980's - Spain joins NATO / Margarte Thatcher / Ronald Reagan
▶️ 20:08 Aegean, cradle of democracy / Pericles
▶️ 20:42 Arms race
▶️ 21:42 Paris, France / Auguste Rodin
▶️ 22:12 Freedom / Free speech, free press, free thought, free trade unions, free elections
▶️ 22:51 Berlin, August 12th 1961 - The Wall
▶️ 24:40 Peter Fechter, 18yr old boy shot in Berlin and left to die
▶️ 25:51 Common values of the western world
▶️ 27:17 Credits roll
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
narrated by Charlton Heston
camera
Alf Hicks
Jos De Cock
assistant
Stephen Murray
original music
Donald Frazer
editor
Jean-Pierre Flammang
written and directed by
John Edwards
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Discover the untold stories of NATO. from its birth onwards on: bit.ly/NATOdeclassified
SUBSCRIBE to this NATO History bit.ly/NATOHistorySubscribe
SUBSCRIBE to NATO Channel bit.ly/NATOsubscribe
SUBSCRIBE to NATO News bit.ly/NATONewsSubscribe
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Visit the Official NATO Homepage: bit.ly/NATOhomepage
Find NATO on FACEBOOK: bit.ly/NATOfacebook
Follow @NATO on TWITTER: bit.ly/NATOtwitter
Find NATO on Google+: bit.ly/NATOgoogleplus
Find NATO on LinkedIn: bit.ly/NATOlinkedin
Find NATO on Flickr: bit.ly/NATOflickr
#NATO #NATOHistory
Narrated by Charlton Heston, Barriers is a NATO documentary from 1983 describing aspects of post-war European history, and of how East and West has been divided by barriers, both figurative (the "Iron Curtain") and literal (the Berlin Wall).
NATO is shown as a stabilising institution, protecting not only the territorial integrity of its members but also their common Western civilisation and its democratic heritage.
Historical events are treated in black and white in a newsreel fashion with telex messages superimposed and the importance of Western civilisation is expressed through color footage of historic European cities (Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Athens and Istanbul).
📺 Quicklinks / Chapters:
▶️ 00:00 Winston Churchill Cabinet Office telex to US President Truman - Iron Curtain is drawn down
▶️ 01:00 Introduction - Barriers / Berlin Wall
▶️ 02:39 The West
▶️ 04:13 NATO Headquarters in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Joseph Luns
▶️ History of our post-war world:
▶️ 05:15 Allies meet on the banks of the river Elbe in Germany on April 25th 1945
▶️ 05:35 Russian dictator Joseph Stalin keeps over 4 million men on a war footing
▶️ 06:10 Soviet expansion - map of Europe turns red
▶️ 06:46 Berlin / Berlin Blockade / Berlin Airlift
▶️ 07:50 Marshall Plan
▶️ 08:07 🇺🇸 US Secretary of State George C. Marshall announces European Aid Programme in Washington on June 5th 1947
▶️ 08:34 🇬🇧 Winston Churchill speaks of European unity on May 7th 1948 at the Congress of Europe in The Hague
▶️ 09:06 Joseph Stalin claims such unity would only spread capitalism
▶️ 09:19 Prague 1948 - Communists threaten government / Czechoslovakia's Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk travels to Moscow / Coup d'état / Death Jan Masaryk
▶️ 10:05 April 4th 1949, Washington D.C. - Signature of the North Atlantic Treaty by 12 NATO founders
▶️ 10:51 Effects of the Marshall Plan on a buzzing Europe
▶️ 11:07 Berlin 1953 - Civil unrest in East Berlin
▶️ 11:27 August 1953 - USSR explodes hydrogen bomb
▶️ 11:38 May 14th 1955 - Nikolai Bulganin forms Warsaw Pact. Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania allied to USSR.
▶️ 12:00 June 28th 1956 - Civil unrest in Poznan, Poland, 48 dead, 481 arrested
▶️ 12:19 October 23rd 1956 - People's rebellion against invading Russian Army in Budapest, Hungary
▶️ 13:05 During the 1950's, the height of the Cold War, three more nations join NATO: Greece, Türkiye and Germany
▶️ 13:52 May 16th 1960, Paris, France - Big Four Summit Meeting scuppered Nikita Khrushchev
▶️ 14:26 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis / Fidel Castro at the United Nations / John Fitzgerald Kennedy / Andrei Gromyko
▶️ 15:27 1960s
▶️ 15:37 Three Power talks ban nuclear tests in atmosphere - August 5th 1963, Moscow
▶️ 15:47 Prague, Czechoslovakia - Prime Minister Alexander Dubček's communism with a human face
▶️ 16:16 August 1968 - Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia
▶️ 17:27 Moon landing - July 1969
▶️ 17:41 May 26th 1972, Moscow - SALT, Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty signed / Richard Nixon
▶️ 17:59 August 1st 1975, Helsinki - 35 Nations sign pact on Security and Co-operation in Europe
▶️ 18:31 December 13th 1981, Warsaw, Poland - Independent Trade Union "Solidarity" banned, martial law declared / Lech Wałęsa / Solidarność
▶️ 18:50 1980's - Spain joins NATO / Margarte Thatcher / Ronald Reagan
▶️ 20:08 Aegean, cradle of democracy / Pericles
▶️ 20:42 Arms race
▶️ 21:42 Paris, France / Auguste Rodin
▶️ 22:12 Freedom / Free speech, free press, free thought, free trade unions, free elections
▶️ 22:51 Berlin, August 12th 1961 - The Wall
▶️ 24:40 Peter Fechter, 18yr old boy shot in Berlin and left to die
▶️ 25:51 Common values of the western world
▶️ 27:17 Credits roll
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
narrated by Charlton Heston
camera
Alf Hicks
Jos De Cock
assistant
Stephen Murray
original music
Donald Frazer
editor
Jean-Pierre Flammang
written and directed by
John Edwards
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Discover the untold stories of NATO. from its birth onwards on: bit.ly/NATOdeclassified
SUBSCRIBE to this NATO History bit.ly/NATOHistorySubscribe
SUBSCRIBE to NATO Channel bit.ly/NATOsubscribe
SUBSCRIBE to NATO News bit.ly/NATONewsSubscribe
Connect with NATO online:
Visit the Official NATO Homepage: bit.ly/NATOhomepage
Find NATO on FACEBOOK: bit.ly/NATOfacebook
Follow @NATO on TWITTER: bit.ly/NATOtwitter
Find NATO on Google+: bit.ly/NATOgoogleplus
Find NATO on LinkedIn: bit.ly/NATOlinkedin
Find NATO on Flickr: bit.ly/NATOflickr
#NATO #NATOHistory
