A NSFW LONG-FORM PODCAST ABOUT
THE COLD WAR
The US vs the USSR.
From 1945 until 1991, the world’s two superpowers played a dangerous game of nuclear brinkmanship that very nearly brought human civilisation to an end. How did it start? Why did it start? How did it end? Did it end? These are the questions we are exploring in detail.
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#178 – Scare The Hell Out Of Them
In 1947, Truman’s popularity was plunging. The CIA came out of his attempt to scare the hell out of the country. Exit Director Vandenberg and enter Rear Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, Allen Dulles, the National Security Council and some loosey-goosey wording in the CIA’s charter that you could drive a semi-trailer through.
Latest Episode
#178 – Scare The Hell Out Of Them
In 1947, Truman’s popularity was plunging. The CIA came out of his attempt to scare the hell out of the country. Exit Director Vandenberg and enter Rear Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, Allen Dulles, the National Security Council and some loosey-goosey wording in the CIA’s charter that you could drive a semi-trailer through.
Your Humble Hosts
Recent Episodes
#177 – Director of Centralized Snooping
After Truman’s decision to shut down the OSS, Wild Bill Donovan’s deputy, Brigadier General John Magruder, met secretly with John McCloy, the assistant secretary of war, taking advantage of the fact that Henry Stimson, secretary of war and a huge opponent of the idea of an “American Gestapo”, had just retired. Together they decided to countermand Truman and keep the OSS together. After Truman eventually realised he had made a mistake, he appointed the deputy director of naval intelligence, Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers, a rich Democrat from Missouri, to be the director of the Central Intelligence GROUP. Admiral Leahy wrote his office diary for January 24, 1946: “At lunch today in the White House, with only members of the Staff present, RAdm Sidney Souers and I were presented with black cloaks, black hats, and wooden daggers” by Truman, who then knighted Souers as chief of the “Cloak and Dagger Group of Snoopers” and “Director of Centralized Snooping.” But Souers didn’t last long, and six months later, General Hoyt Vandenberg became the second director of central intelligence.
#176 – The CIA (part 1)
According to Truman, he never intended for the CIA to be a “Cloak & Dagger Outfit”. It was intended to be a centralized reporting agency, not to act as a spy organization. Today we start a series about how the CIA rose from the ashes of Wild Bill Donovan’s incompetent OSS after WWII.
#175 – Domestic Happiness
Tito’s form of Communism quickly became much more liberal that those in the Soviet bloc countries and China. The question is why? The collectivisation of land was put in reverse. The police were reformed and the press was given additional freedoms. Tito turned the tables on Stalin, accusing the USSR of abandoning socialist principles in favour of imperialist expansion.
#174 – SMERSH
Tito has his own Central Committee member Žujović arrested for treason, which leads the Cominform to expel Yugoslavia. This creates a rift between the pro=Soviet Yugoslav Communists and the pro-Tito Communists, and Tito sends thousands of “Cominformists” to slave in the camp on Goli Otok. To show that he could out-Stalin Stalin, he announced there would be ‘greater boldness and a faster pace in setting up collective farms’, which caused violent resistance in certain areas of the country. Stalin then sends agents from SMERSH to assassinate Tito.
Welcome To The Cold War Podcast!
1. There are TWO OF US. This is a conversation, not a lecture.
2. It’s LONG FORM. Which means we will take hundreds of episodes to tell a story. If you want a quick overview, this is not the show for you!
3. It’s NSFW. While we take the history very seriously, we also know that learning is more effective when you’re having fun. Sometimes (okay, quite often) “having fun” for us translates as bad language and dirty jokes. Let’s face it – this history is violent and sexy. This is NOT a child-friendly show, nor is it safe for work.
4. We CHARGE MONEY for the latest episodes. We do this for a living and put a lot of time and effort into making our content. So you can listen to the first couple of years worth of episodes for free, but the more recent episodes (produced this year) require a paid subscription. Feel free to listen to the free ones and then, if you like them, register to listen to the rest.
Learn more about the show and hosts.
Turn everything else off
★★★★★ in Apple Podcasts by nicknamesaretaken671 from Australia on July 7, 2019
After listening to an informative, fact based cold war podcast I was looking for deeper analysis. Hello Cam & Ray!! Having come across this in 2019 I have had a lot of catching up to do. Doing a podcast a day (at normal speed) has made me laugh to the point I had to pull over. Listening to these guys, well mostly Cam, has been extremely enlightening. I had completely forgotten about Stalins musical exploits. The Yalta confernce…. no detail was missed over what was probably 612.7 hours of podcasting gold. No stone was left unturned including a double podcast on the political and social implications of the serviette rings at the first dinner, the in-depth discussion on the interior colour scheme of the plenary session meeting room and not play back Cams awesome Russian, American and English accents. Seriously this is worth the paltry investment. If you don’t know what part Count Dracula, a lemon tree and Chucky D played in rolling out the Cold War sign up now.. Sorry the rating only goes up to 5. Raf
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History, mockery and occasional drinking
★★★★★ in Apple Podcasts by kristinsg from Norway on September 30, 2019
These folks actually make history podcasts worth listening to. A great mixture of good historical analysis and phrases like “took a dump on the whole agreement” or having “testicular fortitude”. Love it. And love the fact that they are looking at things from several sides, not the usual “the Soviets were evil and hated freedom, but America won the war and saved the day”.
Amazing
★★★★★ in Apple Podcasts by Renato.uwu from United States of America on October 5, 2019
This is my favorite History podcast. I love the dynamic and structure of the episodes. My favorite episodes so far have been the mini Fidel Castro bio and the Philippines one. They were both incredible and I also really liked the episodes on the Cambridge 5. The whole show has been very eye opening and I really appreciate the comedy as well as the work Cam puts into the show and the ocasional looks into the future provided by Ray. My one small critique is that I think they’ve taken to long to outline WWII (which is not my favorite thing to study) but I’ve managed to stick with it and am very happy I did because I’ve learned a lot that was never mentioned in school. Even so I can’t wait till I get to the end of WWII hopefully by the end of the week. Thank you very much Cam and Ray for being my teachers and for the free student subscription it means a lot 🙂 <3 !
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CAM & RAY’s COLD WAR PODCAST
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