The Big Picture: The Cold War on the Small Screen

Capitalizing on thousands of feet of accumulated footage captured by combat camera crews during the early years of the Korean War, a small group of US Army officers conceptualized a film series that would widen viewers’ understanding of the service and its mission. Their efforts produced the documentary television series that in late 1951 would become The Big Picture.

Although it would take years to fully utilize the emerging technologies and develop the concept into a popularly recognized t...