Eye to Eye with Ivan and the Ice Curtain

The Cold War was not fought on any conventional battlefield, and the members of the Alaska National Guard were far from a conventional unit. Alaska Natives stood guard and engaged with the Soviet Union along our nation’s western frontier for 50 years. Paul Gray’s film provides a thoughtful approach to the complicated issues of cultural contact involving the US and USSR, and Alaskan villagers within the dramatically changing times in America during the second half of the 20th century. Through stories, photographs, and archival film clips, the men of the Alaska National Guard recall a time when, while the rest of the country was learning how to duck and cover, they were standing on the shores of the Bering Sea, where the Cold War was the coldest. This video was made possible by a grant from the Department of Defense Legacy Program.