Eisenhower and the CIA played a great part in the shaping of the world in the 1950's; the development of the Cold war and the nerve-wrecking battle against communism, driven on by the U.S.

JFK and the Bay of Pigs; on the brink of total war during Cuban Missile Crisis; early Vietnam; JFK's attempts at peace with Khrushchev; JFK assassinated.

Stone opens the episode on Vietnam with a review of American intervention in Latin America. Lyndon Johnson, according to Stone, disregarded JFK’s “memo” about withdrawing troops and instead escalated. The Cataclysm in Vietnam as the war reaches a turning point - there's no going back. The betrayal by Richard Nixon.

Carter's dreams of change give way to Ronald Reagan. Gorbachev redeems Reagan and fresh opportunities for peace arise. The debate over Reagan's legacy.

George W. Bush's doctrine of endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the continued cannibalization of the U.S. economy. Squandered chances given by the end of the Cold War. A new USA, the National Security Fortress.

Andrew Graham-Dixon explores how Russia changed from a feudal nation of aristocratic excess to a hotbed of revolution at the beginning of the 20th century and how art moved from being a servant of the state to an agent of its destruction. From monuments that celebrate the absolutism of the tsars to the epic Russian landscape as inspiration; from the design and construction of gold and glittering palaces to the minutiae of diamond-encrusted Faberge eggs; and eventually to the stark and radical paintings of the avant-garde, the journey through Russian art history is one of extraordinary beauty and surprise.