After the assassination of Razmara, Mossadegh’s oil committee voted unanimously to nationalise the AIOC. Iran went crazy for Mossadegh. It was Mossa-Mania. The British were furious and tried to appoint a new Prime Minister, the latest in the line of “guys they were sure could get the job done”. It backfired. Massively.

As the Yalta conference now turns to whether or not France should have a role in the occupation of Germany, the Allied Control Commission and the UN Security Council, we thought it was a good time to do a quick bio on France’s post-WWII leader, Charles de Gaulle, aka “The Big Asparagus Stalk”, aka “Chucky D”.

In this episode, Cameron and Ray pick up the Cuban Revolution story at its most fragile moment: Fidel Castro has just landed in eastern Cuba with 82 men, most of them dead, scattered, or captured within days. Batista’s regime confidently declares Castro dead, the international press runs with it, and the revolution appears finished before it has begun. But history, as usual, has other plans. From hiding under sugarcane leaves to scraping together a band of 19 survivors in the Sierra Maestra, Castro learns guerrilla warfare the hard way. The episode traces his first small victories, the brutal countermeasures of the Batista regime, and the human cost borne by peasants caught in between. The story then pivots to one of the most consequential acts of propaganda in Cold War history: Castro’s calculated courtship of the international press. Through Herbert Matthews’ risky journey into the mountains and his front-page New York Times reporting, the world learns that Fidel Castro is very much alive, organised, and growing. This episode explores how myth, media, theatre, and violence intertwine at the birth of a revolution—and how a handful of men with rifles, cigars, and a journalist changed global perceptions overnight.

We start in August 1942. Churchill is still in Moscow, getting down with Uncle Joe. Stalin accuses the British of being a bunch of pussies, too scared to fight the big bad Nazis.
To try to break up the UK/USA/USSR love nest, the Nazis dig up 3000 dead bodies of Polish generals (Katyn massacre) and lay the blame on the Soviets who deny it (but their fingers are crossed behind their backs). And Stalin dissolves the Comintern, pretending, for the moment, that he has no intention of trying to spread Communism any further around the globe.

Cameron and Ray pick up Fidel Castro’s story in 1948 as he returns from Colombia in the wake of the Bogotazo riots. We follow Castro through his early 20s as he campaigns for Eduardo Chibás, clashes with Havana police over accusations of corruption, and narrowly escapes being framed for murder. The conversation dives into the student-led bus fare protests—linked to shady U.S. business deals—that propelled Castro into the spotlight. We hear about his whirlwind romance and three-month honeymoon in the United States, his growing fascination with Marxist thought, and his balancing act between rival student gangs and political factions. The episode ends with the murder of his close friend, fellow activist Manolo Fuentes, a turning point that forces Castro to reconsider his alliances and the dangerous reality of Havana’s violent political landscape.

In this episode of Cold War, Cameron and Ray dig into the aftermath of Batista’s March 1952 coup in Cuba and how it shaped Fidel Castro’s early strategies. The conversation explores Castro’s proclamation denouncing the coup, his first failed attempts to rally the public, and why the Cuban people weren’t yet ready for revolution. We see how Castro pivoted from politics to pamphlets, protests, lawsuits, and eventually the realization that only a professional revolutionary force could succeed. Along the way, the hosts connect Batista’s propaganda playbook with U.S. media bias, draw parallels to Iran’s 1953 coup, and reflect on the timeless tactics of seizing power. They also detour into the Mob’s growing influence in Havana and the darker history of honeypot operations linking Epstein, Maxwell, and intelligence agencies.

Some people have said 1983 was the most dangerous year in human history. On four separate occasions, the U.S.A. and the USSR nearly ended up in a hot nuclear war. Soviet leaders apparently became deeply worried that the US was preparing to launch a surprise nuclear attack on the USSR under the cover of a NATO exercise titled ‘Able Archer.’ Brian J. Morra is a former U.S. intelligence officer and a retired senior aerospace executive who took part in the events of 1983 and has written an excellent and terrifying book on the topic, “The Able Archers”. He’s our guest today. We talk about the events of 1983, why 2024 might be even more dangerous, and why world leaders haven’t learned the lessons of 1983. 

Part two of our “quick” biography on Fidel Castro, using the New York Times’ obituary, breaking it down, line by line, to uncover the propaganda. And we’re making these Castro episodes free to guests.

When the U.S. troops landed in Cuba, it changed the nature of the war. The old racism returned. Of course, when the war was over in July, the U.S. had no intention of letting the Cuban people have their independence. As the commander of US forces in Cuba said: “Why, these people are no more fit for self-government than gunpowder is for hell.” In the fight for freedom, lives had been lost and the country had been wiped out economically. Yet the Cubans still weren’t going to get their independence.

Today we interview Andrea Balis & Elizabeth Levy, co-authors of the book “Witch Hunt: The Cold War, Joe McCarthy, and the Red Scare”, a cutting-edge look into a pivotal moment in US history: McCarthy’s infamous “witch hunt” for communists during the 1950’s Red Scare.

In this episode, Cam and Ray bring their trademark banter and historical nerdery to the story of Fidel Castro’s first attempt at revolution — the ill-fated 1953 Moncada Barracks attack. What starts as a coup joke about Batista’s boredom quickly spirals into a lively mix of history and comedy. We follow a 26-year-old Fidel as he decides that ballots and lawsuits won’t topple a corrupt regime, so he turns to bullets instead. The episode explores his planning, paranoia, and sheer audacity as he leads a small group of poorly armed men in a doomed assault on one of Cuba’s largest military garrisons. Along the way, the boys detour into mobsters, Catholic apostles, ham-radio fanatics, and whether Ray actually has friends who play pool. By the end, we’re left with Fidel’s first great failure — the Moncada disaster — and the foreshadowing of the revolution to come.

In this episode, Cam and Ray kick off their deep dive into the life and legend of Fidel Castro. Picking up from the Batista coup of 1952, they trace Fidel’s early years—born illegitimate on his father’s sugar plantation, educated by Jesuits, and shaped by political violence. We follow Fidel through elite boarding schools, law school radicalisation, and his early attempts to overthrow regimes across Latin America. From jumping ship with a machine gun to surviving student death threats, Castro emerges as a man driven by revolutionary ideals, a hunger for justice, and an almost messianic sense of destiny. Along the way, we encounter Perón, Guevara, Trujillo, and Gabriel García Márquez—and we get a glimpse of the revolutionary vanguard that would eventually upend Cuba forever.