Atomic Age Classics, Volume 5: "C" Is For Communist

In the afterglow of victory against tyranny in World War II, the United States found itself as a world superpower with a new potential foe - the Soviet Union. The films on this DVD, pulled from the A/V Geeks Educational Film Archive, hoped to educate the American public about the menace of the Soviet Union as the "battles" of the Cold War were being waged in the Third World.

Russia At War (1945 - March Of Time, 17 minutes): Made months after the end of World War II, this film heralds the Russians as a great ally who helped us defeat Germany. But even as this film was being shown, politicians on both sides of the Iron Curtain were beginning to question each others' postwar motives in occupied countries. Within only a few years, footage like in this film would be shown with narration proclaiming the villainy of the Russian people.

What Is Communism (1963 - National Educational Program / Jerry Fairbanks Prod., 13 minutes: Hosted by Herbert A Philbrick, celebrated double-agent for the FBI and author of "I Led 3 Lives," this film is an excellent record of one of his lectures about the evils of Communism. While some valid points are made about the machinations of the Communist party, films like this helped feed the American public's rabid mistrust of anything remotely communist. Philbrick continued his campaign against the Red menace, even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, until his death in 1993.

Red Myth: International Communism (1960 - KQED / National Educational Television, 29 minutes: Through a series of dramatic vignettes, this film examines how Soviet Communism strayed from its well-intentioned ideological roots to a repressive authoritarian state.

Yankee Go Home (1950 - Communist Propaganda, 45 minutes): In this U.S. propaganda piece about the Soviet's own propaganda, George V. Allen, director of the United States Information Agency, Ernest K. Lindley of Newsweek Magazine and various members of the American Armed Forces engage in a wide-ranging discussion about how the post-war Soviet Union was beating us in the disinformation race.

Crusade Report (1951 - Crusade For Freedom, 10 minutes): This film was a progress report of the Crusade for Freedom, an organization that was initially set up to continue the private fundraising campaign, started by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, to use radio transmitters to broadcast American propaganda to the freedom-hungry listeners in communist countries, in much the same manner as Radio Free Europe would come to do in subsequent decades. Later, it was revealed that the Crusade for Freedom was actually a clandestine C.I.A. front that funneled money into a variety of projects that were designed to destabilize pro-communist regimes.

• documentary