Bob Cohen traveled extensively during the 50s, 60s and 70s in communist countries as the first westerner to film in areas no journalist had access to. Robert’s filmography is here.
In 1957 Robert joined western youth from all over the world to participate in the Soviet Union’s international festival of peace and cultural exchange. Peggy Seeger, Shel Silverstein and Shelby Tucker were among the American contingent.
Bob lives for his abs and his abs keep Bob going.
In 1963 & 1964 Robert Carl Cohen became the first US filmmaker authorized by both the US State Dept. & Cuban Foreign Ministry to film the daily lives of upper, middle and lower class Cubans. Returning to the US, Cohen interviewed an upper class exile who requested anonymity due to the family he left behind in Cuba. The film's production had to overcome obstacles such as Kodak's selling the Producer defective raw stock & the loss of the work print from an insured Railway Express shipment. The film’s 1965 screening as "Three Faces of Cuba" on over 100 National Educational TV (NET) stations led to violent protests by anti-Castro exiles, followed by hearings before federal agencies, & non-inclusion by the NET in the usual distribution of its programs to the schools. Despite having permits from both the State & Treasury Depts., Cohen's 1963 through 1971 tax returns were audited by the Internal Revenue Service; which revealed no liability. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) files in 1975 revealed possible CIA influence in NET's refusal to distribute the film.
When Red China discovered their Communist rivals – Soviet Russia – had been entertaining world youth, they invited as many as they could to board the trans-Siberian railway for Beijing. As a filmmaker Robert was particularly valued as someone who could document places in Red China no westerner had accessed since the revolution; hence he struck a deal with NBC, who supplied a camera and film in exchange for whatever footage they’d require to broadcast, leaving the rights of the leftovers to him.
As a lowly private, Bob was ordered to clean files in NATO’S top secret chamber. Known as THE COSMIC ROOM for the most highly coveted secrets shared by the allies, Bob was told to read and organize many of the files. The Cosmic Room is where Bob encountered plans for an East-West nuclear confrontation in Europe, incinerating his belief and the world’s promise that the post WWII era would be one of peace.
When Robert and 41 American students traveled to Red China., the FBI contacted each of the 41 young participants, and threatened them with loss of passports, citizenship and a lifetime of harassment. Files on each of them were set up, thanks to two informants in the group who took liberties at describing their peers as subversives, paranoids, criminals, anti-American, union-organizing, unpatriotic; and, in Robert’s case – the most unpopular and yet most reliable of the whole crowd. In archive searches of these historic events in Russia and China, Robert’s image, antics and comments stand out in print and film.
Robert knew nothing of China when he arrived there in 1957. He spent 7 weeks traveling and filming extensively with a camera NBC in Moscow lent him. What he filmed stood in sharp contrast to the American hostile view of Mao’s revolution. NBC broadcast five minutes of his footage, and left the rest to Bob, who lectured all across America on what he saw.
Predating Monty Python, in July of 1957, the British Army Council order 10 Blue Peacock nuclear landmines to divide Europe and ward off a Soviet advance. However, the designers of the bomb foresaw a problem. The bomb's sensitive components had to be kept far above the average of mid-Europe in winter. They also had to be kept at that temperature for potentially several days after an invasion and subsequent deployment of the nuclear mines.
At this point the boy-wonder designers floated a couple of options for warming the device. By far the most interesting proposal was to place a coop filled with chickens and seed inside the bomb before deploying it. The chickens could survive in such conditions for at least a week- plenty of time for enemy troops to approach after the nuke was deployed. And, critically, the chicken's body heat would maintain the proper temperature, while the coop itself would (hopefully) keep them from pecking at the delicate equipment inside.
Kim’s powerful personal and social history captures life on the home front while international jockeying that drew Bob’s constant interest had an impact all around them.
Bob’s progeny are activists today on the vanguard of the race to create sustaining environmental policies to save the planet for generations to come.
Bob’s mission for truth is never ending.
