I'm The Cold War. Some call it World War three. We covered in several of our episodes this titanic global struggle between the forces of freedom and the forces of communism

and the many American presidents who led the United States during this time of great tension

where the stakes were higher than ever before. Today's guest, Bill Whittle, has a podcast that we

highly recommend. It's called the Cold War, Prelude to the

present. Bill also did a podcast on the space race side of the Cold War, the culmination of the

space race, called Apollo 11, What We Saw. And he's been quite a prolific content creator. He's been

involved in many different productions. He's also a pilot,

and he's on today on our episode to give us insights on the Cold War, on lessons that we've

learned in hindsight. So, Bill, thanks for being on our episode. My pleasure, Richard, and thanks

for the kind words. Thank you. So I listened to your Cold War podcast, and it's several episodes.

I think it's 13 episodes.

And you talk about really just some of the biggest moments in the Cold War and moments that really are quite terrifying.

And you talk about how the Cold War was a bizarre episode in human history.

You called it World War III.

It's the longest war in American history.

And one thing that really struck out to me, that stuck out to me, was that you said that you doubted during the Cold War when you were growing up, that you doubted whether you would live to 30.

So bring us back to that time.

I mean, I was born in the middle of it.

It was 1983, but I didn't know what was going on.

I didn't really live through it, even though I lived through part of it.

So tell me what it was like and why you thought it was such a bizarre moment in human history.

So I was born in 59 and people who are my parents, obviously, and grandparents, people older than me,

...