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Terminal Power

Historical events are influenced by the psychological, mental and physical well being of their political leaders. Strong, clear and balanced minds and bodies help political leaders take the right decisions at the right times. But what happens when they are ill or they suffer their well known “gripe”? Under the influence of these illnesses they can take wrong decisions that can cost the lives of millions if not billions of people, can provoke wars, economic blockades, civil disobedience, financial disasters.

What was the effect of the decision making paralysis associated with there aging, ailing leaders in the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, in setting the stage for the vigorous transformational leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev? How much did the rigidity of old age contributed to the decision by the 85 year old Deng Xiaoping, previously known as a liberal reformer, to unleash the violent repression of Tiananmen Square? How did the serious gastrointestinal disease that incapacitated autocrat Erick Honecker influence in the fall of the Berlin Wall? How did Yasser Arafat’s fatal illness influenced his decision not to sign a peace accord with Ehud Bark?

“Terminal Power” will explore the nature of the illness and its effects on decision making, the possibility of masking illness in high office, the effects of prescribed drugs and substance abuse on leadership behavior, the complexities of the medical treatment of the ailing VIP, and the relation between the nature of the political system and illness in high office.

“Terminal Power” will cluster in every episode heads of state who were involved in specific historical events and will show how they related to their illnesses affected the outcome of the history of their nations. 

“Terminal Power” will use the latest CGI  techniques to illustrate how these illnesses develop and will be intercut with archival footage of specific historic moments to try to understand how these illnesses affected the resolution of the events.

“Terminal Power” will also look at prime ministers and presidents’ assassinations, since they are also effects of power that change the destiny of their nations.

Dr. Jerrold M. Post is the lead consultant in “Terminal Power”. Dr. Post is Professor of Psychiatry, Political Psychology and International Affairs at George Washington University. Dr. Post spent 21 years with the Central Intelligence Agency where he founded and directed the Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior, an interdisciplinary behavioral science unit which provided assessments of foreign leadership and decision making for the President and other senior officials to prepare for Summit meetings and other high level negotiations, and for use in crisis situations.

PROPOSED EPISODES

EPISODE 1: The Russian Revolution
Vladimir Illich Lenin
Joseph Stalin 

EPISODE 2: The Fascists
Antonio Salazar
Francisco Franco
Benito Mussolini

EPISODE 3: The Second World War
Adolf Hitler
Neville Chamberlain 

EPISODE 4: The Post War
Winston Churchill
Joseph Stalin
Harry Truman

EPISODE 5: Germany and France after the war
Konrad Adenauer
Charles de Gaulle
Georges Pompidou

EPISODE 6: The Non Aligned
Giuseppe Motta
Pio XII

EPISODE 7: The Partition of India and Pakistan
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Mahatma Gandhi

EPISODE 8: The Suez Crisis
Anthony Eden
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Moshe Dayan

EPISODE 9: The Cold War
John F. Kennedy
Nikita Khrushchev
Richard Nixon
Leonid Brezhnev

EPISODE 10: Argentina
Juan Perón
Evita Perón

EPISODE 11: Communism in China
Chu En-Lai
Mao Tse Tung

EPISODE 12: The Islamic Revolution
Mohammed Reza
Ayatollah Khomeini 

EPISODE 13: The Middle East crisis
Yitzhak Rabin
Yasser Arafat
King Hussein
Ariel Sharon 

EPISODE 14: The War on Terror
George Bush (Senior)
Bin Laden
Tony Blair
Sadam Hussein

Producer: Carlos Alperin

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