Frontline - Season 3 / Year 1985

Episodes

Year 1985Episode 160 min

A Class Divided

The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, a teacher in a small town in Iowa tried a daring classroom experiment. She decided to treat children with blue eyes as superior to children with brown eyes. FRONTLINE explores what those children learned about discrimination and how it still affects them today.

Mar 26, 1985

Year 1985Episode 1060 min

Potomac Fever

Every two years, a desire to represent their home districts in Washington brings a group of first-time freshmen congressmen to the nation's capital on the shores of the Potomac river. Frontline follows two newly elected representatives from their homes to Washington where they experience the rewards-and the frustrations-of making the transition from citizen to congressman.

Apr 2, 1985

Year 1985Episode 1160 min

Crisis in Central America: Yankee Years (1)

From the Spanish-American War in 1898 until the 1950's, US preeminence in Central America and the Caribbean was never successfully challenged. Part 1 looks at these turbulent years that set the stage for today's crises-from the glory days of building the Panama Canal, through the early US Marine occupation of Nicaragua, to the Cold War crisis in Guatemala in 1954, which resulted in the CIA's first 'covert' war in the region.

Apr 9, 1985

Year 1985Episode 1260 min

Crisis in Central America: Castro's Challenge (2)

The Cuban revolution of the 1950's was the first successful challenge to US preeminence in the Western hemisphere. Part 2 looks at the roots of the revolution, Fidel Castro's rise to power, the establishment of the first Communist state in the Americas, the support for his revolution abroad, and Cuba's troubled history with the United States.

Apr 10, 1985

Year 1985Episode 1360 min

Crisis in Central America: Revolution in Nicaragua (3)

In 1979, the Sandinistas led a revolution that overthrew the Somoza dynasty which had ruled Nicaragua for almost 50 years. It was a revolution the US first tried to prevent, then tried to court, and later tried to undermine. Part 3 traces the evolution of US involvement in Nicaragua and the struggle for control of the revolution.

Apr 11, 1985

Year 1985Episode 1460 min

Crisis in Central America: Battle for El Salvador (4)

Many Americans had never heard of El Salvador until a few years ago. It is now the focus of American policy in Central America. Part 4 traces the evolution of El Salvador's civil war and the US policy toward El Salvador.

Apr 12, 1985

Year 1985Episode 1560 min

Men Who Molest

Experts estimate there are at least four million child sexual abusers in the US, and they do not fit our stereotypes. Almost half of those guilty of incest also molest children outside the family. Many also commit adult rape-and they come from every social background. Should they be treated, punished, or both? Frontline examines a controversial Seattle, Washington, program aimed at treating child sexual abusers.

Apr 16, 1985

Year 1985Episode 1660 min

Catholics in America: Is Nothing Sacred?

One in four American citizens is Catholic, yet few seem to agree with-or follow-every doctrine and practice of their church. Frontline examines the conflicts within the American Catholic Church and its ongoing struggle with the Vatican.

Apr 23, 1985

Year 1985Episode 1760 min

The American Way of War

Frontline examines the complex relationship between the US Army, its fighting doctrine, the American people, and the government in an effort to understand the army's role in fighting modern wars.

Apr 30, 1985

Year 1985Episode 1860 min

Memory of the Camps

Seventy years ago, Allied troops invaded Germany and liberated Nazi death camps. They found unspeakable horrors which still haunt the world's conscience. Frontline presents the world broadcast of a 1945 film made by British and American film crews who were with the troops liberating the camps. The film was directed in part by Alfred Hitchcock and was broadcast for the first time in its entirety on FRONTLINE.

May 7, 1985

Year 1985Episode 1960 min