Mar 7, 2019 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
After the Haiphong incident, Ho started preparing Hanoi for an attack. First, he made a public speech appealing to the French to withdraw their troops. They ignored him. “If those gooks want a fight, they’ll get it,” declared French General Valluy. Ho, Giap...
Mar 1, 2019 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
Vietnam. 1947. The U.S. Consul in Saigon, Charles Reed, is the first American official to use the term “domino theory”. He’s talking about what will happen in Cambodia and Laos if Cochin China falls to the VietMinh, who he wrongly concludes are...
Feb 23, 2019 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
Vietnam. Late 1946. The gears of war are turning. One President commits suicide. Another continues to fight for a peaceful settlement. A new government is formed. Then the French army in Indochina decides to take matters into its own hands. They seize a Chinese junk...
Jan 30, 2019 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
Ho Chi Minh goes to Paris for the big sit down with the new French government. But right from the start, things do not go as planned. Meanwhile, the United States are doing their best to ignore the situation. And Ho finally gives in and admits publicly that this is...
Jan 26, 2019 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
Ho Chi Minh agrees to go to Paris for a second round of talks with the French about the independence of Vietnam. But just before he is due to leave, the French High Commissioner in Vietnam screws him over. And then, the next day, the French government collapses. Ho...
Jan 8, 2019 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
Andrew Roberts has a huge new biography out on England’s favourite son, Winston Churchill, and he was nice enough to come on the show to answer a few of our questions about the man. You may remember Andrew talked to Cameron and David about his Napoleon biography...
Jan 3, 2019 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
In Hanoi, a new provisional coalition government was established on January 1, 1946. Ho Chi Minh was to be named president and Nguyen Hai Than from the nationalist VNQDD party as vice president. The Vietminh and the Chinese controlled the north. The French controlled...
Dec 28, 2018 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
Peter Dewey was the first of nearly 60,000 Americans to be killed in Vietnam. Truman sells out the Vietnamese to keep De Gaulle happy. And the French arrive back in their old colony. Here’s a picture of the seahorse for reference. HOW TO LISTEN If...
Dec 22, 2018 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
After Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of Vietnam in September 1945, the British and Chinese troops arrived in Saigon and Hanoi to disarm the Japanese and prepare the return of the French – and the shooting begins. Some scholars thing that *this* was the...
Dec 7, 2018 | Latest, Podcast, Premium, Recent |
* As they grew stronger, Giáp’s forces took more territory and captured more towns* And then on 15 August they heard that the Japanese Emperor had declared his country’s unconditional surrender to the allies.* Unfortunately for Ho and Giap, the U.S. had a...
