Heritage of U.S. - A US History Podcast

Text us your questions! Reagan’s second term was even more significant for the country than his first. His economic plan was bringing down the cost of living. Even more importantly, Americans were once again proud of their country. We will look at highs and lows of this period of time, including the election of 1988 and George Bush, Reagan’s VP taking the helm. Not only did we see a military victo...

Text us your questions! President Reagan almost didn’t make it through his first 100 days in office - he was the victim of a serious attempt to assassinate him in April of 1981! By God’s grace he survived and recovered quickly, even at 70 years old. After we look at this close call with death, we will examine the impact Reagan had on events in his first term and what was happening in the United St...

Text us your questions! It’s not every president that has an ‘era’ named after him, but almost everyone acknowledges that the 80s were ‘Reagan’s Era’. Why is that? We will briefly look at the end of the 1970s and that will help us understand why Ronald Reagan’s presence and plans made such a tremendous impact on our entire country during (and after) his two terms. We will run through a short biogr...

Text us your questions! President Nixon resigned and left his personally appointed, non-elected vice president to take over as President in 1974. His name was Gerald Ford and he was the only president we’ve had from Michigan (my home state). Let’s look at how he handled the job and what else was happening in the United States during his short term. Why was it short and why didn’t he win his own el...

Text us your questions! Not long after one of the most unifying and uplifting events in U.S. history, the moon landing, in 1973 we started hearing about a strange burglary that somehow is connected to the White House and the president! We will take some time to unpack the bizarre scandal that finally led to the first time in our history when a president resigned his office - only two years after w...

Text us your questions! This was one of the most exciting and monumental accomplishments by Americans, right ‘up’ there with the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s! It was also one of the most visible victories we had in the Cold War with the Soviets since they had been seeking the same goal in the space race. We will take a look at the primary events that you might, or might n...

Text us your questions! We will continue our study of this incredibly controversial war that tore our culture apart in the 60sd and 70s. How was it different from other wars, even from a biblical standpoint? What were the primary elements and events of this war, how many soldiers did we lose and how did it end for us? That we lost is not arguable since Vietnam is now a united, but communist countr...

Text us your questions! So how did the most powerful military on earth and arguably in the history of the world, lose a war to a largely agrarian-based, tiny tropical country with almost primitive weapons and fighting techniques? The fathers of the young U.S. soldiers who were drafted and sent to this small Asian country had won the greatest war in history just twenty years earlier, too. We will t...

Text us your questions! The second half of the 1960s could hardly have been more different than the first half if we had actually tried! Whatever ‘innocence’ we had from the 50s and early 60s was over - the Boomers were growing up (or at least older), JFK had been murdered, the Vietnam war was fast becoming a flash point of contention here at home, and drugs, sex and rock and roll were the hallmar...

Text us your questions! The Soviet communications satellite, Sputnik, sailed far over our heads in 1957 and produced a vast panic in the United States. Almost every aspect of life was affected by the subsequent and immediate drive to ‘catch up’ with the commies! The Space Race was on!. We will go through the amazing and almost eerie timeline of events that finally culminated with the U.S. winning...

Text us your questions! Was it a lone shooter or a vast conspiracy that killed JFK on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas? There are still websites, along with vast numbers of folks who still argue for the latter vs the former theory. In this episode, I will lay all doubt to rest, examine the evidence and seek to convince you that it was Lee Harvey Oswald and only Oswald who committed that horrific, p...

Text us your questions! The Boomers (including me) look back on the 50s and early 60s with some understandable fondness. Afterall, we were pretty much the center of attention from every part of American culture at the time. Everything from TV to medical advancements to newly built schools and neighborhoods to cars and supermarkets were all about meeting the needs and wants of the 76 million Boomer...

Text us your questions! Only five years after the shooting stopped and the rebuilding had begun, the U.S. military was called into action again. This time in a far away, Asian nation called South Korea. What brought us into what had been a civil war by any measure? This was the first ‘hot’ conflict of the Cold War and we will take a look at what is sadly called ‘The Forgotten War.’ If you want to...

Text us your questions! Johnny came marching home from the war in the millions, from overseas and from domestic service during the war. Johnny came home, married Suzie (not their real names) and lo and behold the Boomers were born! This is personal since I am one of those 70+ million babies born between 1946 and 1963. How was this generation different from those who came before, right from the dia...

Text us your questions! What were some of the obvious results of the largest and catastrophic war of all time? We will take a quick look at how it affected the major players in Europe, Asia and, of course, the U.S. Germany was divided up, as planned by the Big Three long before the war was over. What led to the Cold War, though? Why was it called that, anyway? We will look briefly at the amazing B...

Text us your questions! In addition to fighting successfully in battle after battle, the United States out-produced its enemies, to the point of not only supplying our troops, but supplying our allies as well. The Homefront in WWII was unlike any other effort we had united to do in our history. In spite of FDR’s often unwise and burdensome decisions, the overall result was amazing due to our indus...

Text us your questions! The Japanese had invaded hundreds of Pacific islands so we had to determine the key spots we had to re-take as we headed for Tokyo and victory in the Pacific. Battle after bloody battle would be required, often with Japanese losses in men being ten times that of the Americans since surrender was not an option in the Bushido warrior code. We will consider the horrible but ne...

Text us your questions! The immediate events in the Pacific following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were loss after loss for the Americans, including the Philippine Islands. But the score began to go the other way starting as early as May of 1942. Even without much direction or support from Washington, the U.S. Navy and the Marines showed their determination and skill over the summer of 1942...

Text us your questions! Much has been written about the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan since it was THE event that pulled us into the greatest war in history. There have also been many theories offered as to why we were so surprised instead of being prepared. We will briefly go over the key events of that day, as well as the impact it had on all Americans. Ultimately it was a tremendous miscalcul...

Text us your questions! The Battle of Britain lasted from July of 1940 until May of 1941. Hitler threw wave after wave of bombers against England but the RAF kept fighting and winning. Finally even Hitler had to admit that no invasion of German troops was going to succeed. Instead, he turned against his semi-ally to that point, the USSR, and began invading Russia in July of 1941. After Japan attac...

Text us your questions! Many people know very little about the Atlantic Theater or the Battle of the Atlantic. It was a critical field of World War II and saw some of the first actions of this war. The British may have had the world’s greatest navy, but the Germans had almost won the first World War by employing their submarines (U-Boats), so not surprisingly they used this tactic again in the Atl...

Text us your questions! Hitler’s generals kept telling him he was going too far as he made bold moves in 1936 and 1938 into German-affiliated regions. But no shots were fired and Hitler was proven right time after time. When he prepared to invade Poland in September of 1939, he had no real reason to think that now, after all he’d done, the Brits and the French would militarily act. He was wrong. P...

Text us your questions! The second World War was not only the obvious result of the events following the Great War, it was an ideological collision between two world views. One (Hitler’s) was based on evolutionary thinking, the other (the Allies) still held to basic biblical reasoning (even if not consciously). During the 30s the Great Depression was raging in the U.S. and most of the west. Hitler...

Text us your questions! As disastrous as the Great War was, you would think the European nations would do anything to avoid another collision. And France and Great Britain did indeed try just about everything, including conceding to a murderous fanatic - Adolf Hitler. We will unpack a bit of his background, as well as what was happening in other parts of the world that would lead to another, great...

Text us your questions! With Europe once again at war by 1940, the U.S. will supposedly try to stay neutral. “Supposedly” because FDR really wants to help the Allies. The 40s will obviously be dominated in the first half of the decade by the return to war for the U.S., but many other critical events happen during and after the war that we will examine. If you want to have a fuller background to th...