The Secret Weapon Of The Cold War

The Cold War wasn't just a battle for territory.

It was a battle for people's hearts and minds, in which music was a potent weapon.

In this programme IVAN HEWETT reveals how the two superpowers successfully co-opted music into the ideological struggle, through interviews with leading musicians including the pianist, Vladimir Ashkenazy, defectors, State Department officials, and Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB agent who later spied for the British.

But music proved to be an ambiguous weapon.

In the 70s and 80s, music slipped out of the superpowers' grasp, and affected the outcome of the Cold War in ways no-one could have foreseen.