A COLD WAR

General Matthew Bunker Ridgway, “The Soldier’s General”, takes over command of the 8th Army and his “back to basics” approach was exactly what was needed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By early Feb 1951, it became evident that a military disaster for the UN in Korea wasn’t likely. Under the new command of Ridgway, after Walker had died in a jeep accident, the 8th army were holding on. Meanwhile in China… They also thought they could win the entire Korean Peninsula. So weren’t really trying hard to negotiate a peaceful settlement with two Koreas. But then… On 15 March 1951, MacAr...

In December 1950, MacArthur and Truman are both threatening the use of atomic weapons against China and North Korea. Meanwhile, the British are trying to talk them into making peace with China, while Truman struggles with massive unpopularity back home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While Cam is in the USA, the lads sit down to have a lazy chat about the highlights of the last six years of talking about the Cold War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The big question for the Pentagon was why the US collapsed so quickly. They could blame the winter and the mountains - but the Chinese had to contend with those as well. And the US wasn’t sure what their next move was. Truman wanted a quick settlement, but MacArthur wanted escalation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As they are swiftly kicked out of Korea by Mao’s forces in December 1950, everyone seems to be angry at America. The Chinese, the North Koreans, the South Koreans, the British… even the Americans are angry at themselves. Because, like Mexico, they didn’t send their best people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking to Katharine Gregorio, author of "The Double Life of Katharine Clark, The Untold Story of the American Journalist Who Brought the Truth about Communism to the West". Clark was her great-aunt, a foreign correspondent who, while posted in Belgrade in the mid-1950s, befriended Milovan Djilas, the former heir apparent to Tito in Yugoslavia and author of the classic "Conversations w...

MacArthur can feel victory slipping through his fingers in Korea. He was certain the Chinese had been scared off. He was very, very wrong. His choice lay between escalation or humiliation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back to the Korean War and the Battle of Chosin Reservoir aka Lake Changjin. China and the UN/ROK forces fight in freezing cold temperatures. Well, when I say “fight”, I mean the UN forces were “advancing in a different direction”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is part four of our recent chat about the history of China and Taiwan with James Shone, a teacher who has lived and worked in Taiwan for over a decade. He’s recently started a podcast about the history of Taiwan - https://taiwanthroughtime.com/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Danny Orbach is an Associate professor in general history and East Asian studies, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His new book, Fugitives, is a history of Nazi mercenaries during the Cold War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is part three of our recent chat about the history of China and Taiwan with James Shone, a teacher who has lived and worked in Taiwan for over a decade. He’s recently started a podcast about the history of Taiwan - https://taiwanthroughtime.com/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part two of our recent chat with James Shone about Taiwan. Don't forget to check out this new podcast about the history of Taiwan - https://taiwanthroughtime.com/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We were recently invited by Paul Giordano, a listener of this show, to give a lecture to the kids studying the Cold War at EF Academy in NY where Paul is the Humanities Department Chair. We spoke for about 40 minutes then did some Q&A with the very bright kids in his class. This is a recording of our Zoom call. We're available for more school lectures, kids' parties, wedding and bar mitzvahs. Lear...

The backdrop to the early stages of the Korean War was a US Presidential election which Truman was expected to lose. He also survived his second assassination attempt, this time by Puerto Rican nationalists. The first assassination attempt was by Zionist terrorists. Back in North Korea, China and the US fight over the Chosin Reservoir, aka the Battle of Lake Changjin. Learn more about your ad choi...

In 1949, the Kuomintang retreated from mainland China to the island of Formosa, now known as Taiwan. Ownership of Taiwan would become a major issue during the Cold War, and continues to be a cause of regional tensions, as well as China-US tensions, today. Joining us to talk about it today is James Shone, a teacher who has lived and worked in Taiwan for over a decade. He’s recently started a podcas...

Okay - no more foreplay. By early November 1950, Macarthur thought he had the Chinese scared and on the run and he continued his push to the Manchurian border, aka “the Home-by-Christmas Offensive”, assuring his troops they would all be home by Christmas. Little did he know that his 150,000 men were advancing unwittingly into 300,000 Chinese troops and 80,000 North Korean remnants and guerrillas....

For many years, China’s big bad had been the Kuomintang. As MacArthur and the US/UN forces continued to ignore their warnings about their occupation of North Korea, the USA very quickly became the new Chinese enemy number one. But not all of the Chinese leadership believed they were ready to go to war with the US. Lin Biao, one of the heroes of the revolution, turned down Mao’s request to lead the...

The Chinese sent the US and UN enough warnings that they wouldn’t idly stand by and allow forces to march into North Korea in 1950. But the US refused to listen. Their arrogance and racist worldview made it impossible to listen. Bizarrely, they interpreted Chinese warnings and probes in October as simply evidence of weakness and reluctance to fight. And while most Americans today know little about...

The point of the Wake Island conference, from Truman’s perspective, was to help Douglas MacArthur to understand who was giving the orders. And Dougie Mac understood perfectly. HE WAS. Still convinced the Chinese weren't going to give him any trouble, MacArthur pushed his troops closer to the Chinese border. When Mao attacked in late October, he decimated American and ROK troops. When they managed...

Without permission from the UNSC, the US and ROK forces crossed the 38th parallel. The Truman Administration ordered MacArthur to keep the crossing a secret. He ignored them and broadcast it publicly. He had them by the balls and they knew it. Truman ordered MacArthur to meet with him on Wake Island so he would know who the boss was. MacArthur knew all too well - he was. Learn more about your ad c...

This is part two of our recent interview with Michael Holzman, author of the new book: SPIES AND TRAITORS - Kim Philby, James Angleton and the Friendship and Betrayal That Would Shape MI6, the CIA and the Cold War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is part one of a two-part interview with Michael Holzman, author of the new book: SPIES AND TRAITORS - Kim Philby, James Angleton and the Friendship and Betrayal That Would Shape MI6, the CIA and the Cold War Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While MacArthur plans his Inchon invasion, Stalin and Nehru are trying to negotiate a peace deal, but it was rejected by the USA. The KPA are setting up people’s democratic committees in the South while they have a chance. But then MacArthur’s landing at Inchon goes more smoothly than anyone could have imagined - mostly because the North had already been decimated. MacArthur goes back to Tokyo, co...

American soldiers slaughter hundreds of innocent civilians at No Gun Ri, then deny it for 50 years. Lieutenant Eugene Clark does some brass balls recon of Inchon ahead of Dougie Mac’s big landing, aka “Operation Common Knowledge”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices