War Lords DVD

Warlords is a major four-part history series which reveals an epic untold story of the Second World War: the inside story of the private psychological war waged by the four great 20th-century warlords: Churchill, Hitler, Roosevelt and Stalin.Told through their own contemporaneous words and the words of those who observed them at the time, the documentary explores why while their nations fought a war of weapons, the warlords fought a psychological war of the mind in which they lied, schemed, charmed, flattered and cheated to win. These psychological duels decided the strategy for the greatest battles in history. They were also the epicentre of a seismic shift in world power, from the age of European empires to the age of two ideologically opposed superpowers, with devastating consequences for hundreds of millions of people.Hitler v Stalin reveals the psychological duel between the two great dictators of the modern era during the extraordinary period when they were supposed to be on the same side, and examines the precise, and often very rational, processes which led both men into enormous delusions.Churchill v Roosevelt examines how the first two years of the relationship between the two great leaders of 20th-century democracy was utterly different from the familiar image of friendship and loyalty. Instead it was a mental duel of false promises, evasion and delusion.Churchill v Stalin examines the duel between the British and Russian leaders over what kind of Europe would emerge at the end of the war; a duel during which Roosevelt secretly intervened behind Churchill's back to decide the outcome.Roosevelt v Stalin reveals the American President's enormous gamble in deciding to give Stalin everything he wanted in the hope that the Soviet leader would collaborate with him to create a world of peaceful and free nations; a gamble that went disastrously wrong.