Episode 19: Korean Background Part 2 picks up where we left off last time with an examination of Syngman Rhee, by examining his counterpart up North. Who was Kim Il-sung, and where did he come from to assume a position of unrivalled power in Pyongyang by 1950? Was this rise all by accident, or exclusively by Soviet design, and what was it that recommended Kim to Stalin in the first place? All of these are critical questions which we will examine here, as one of the leading antagonists of our nar...
Apr 15, 2018•36 min
NEW: Subscribe to WDF's newsletter for a weekly update on the latest in WDF, exclusive deals, stories, quizzes, perspectives and so much more that you won't get anywhere else. Cut through the cr@p and AXXESS the history with our weekly telegram service. Simply click on the link provided and add your email, and WALLAH! Link: https://mailchi.mp/a0d49eec863c/wdfpodcast Episode 18: Korean Background Part 1 examines, oddly enough, the background in Korea before the war broke out, in the early years o...
Apr 08, 2018•37 min
NEW: Subscribe to WDF's newsletter for a weekly update on the latest in WDF, exclusive deals, stories, quizzes, perspectives and so much more that you won't get anywhere else. Cut through the cr@p and AXXESS the history with our weekly telegram service. Simply click on the link provided and add your email, and WALLAH! Link: https://mailchi.mp/a0d49eec863c/wdfpodcast Episode 17: The Balancing Act contains several fascinating nuggets, as the US did its best to balance the needs of its policy towar...
Apr 01, 2018•32 min
Episode 16: Selective Perspective examines further the American policy towards South Korea in late spring 1950. We open the episode with the arrival of America's ambassador to South Korea John J Muccio (pictured) returning home, to plead in person for the things that Seoul desperately needed. While Muccio did this, the Truman administration set about crafting a perfectly coordinated image of its approach to South Korea, be that through suggestive magazine interviews or tactically ignoring Muccio...
Mar 25, 2018•39 min
Episode 15: Ignorance Is Bliss examines the behaviour of the US towards its South Korean ally. Since the American strategy was now to lure North Korea into attacking, we'll see in this episode exactly how determined the Truman administration was to chronically underfund and jeopardise the security of Seoul. Ignoring the protests, concerns and urgency professed even by some of its own State Department staff, the US behaved as though it had no concept of what was happening in South Korea in spring...
Mar 23, 2018•38 min
Episode 14: The Race To Ruin examines the Asian theatre in spring 1950, and the different concerns which the North Koreans, Soviet and Chinese leaders grappled with. At the apex of these concerns was the alternative plan of Mao's, as Mao desperately wanted to invade Taiwan, and end the Chinese Civil War once and for all before either American support or some form of republican resurgence on that island threatened China. This fear of the implications for Chinese security in Taiwan compelled Mao t...
Mar 19, 2018•37 min
In the final part of our conversation with Tomi, we talk through the process of telling his story. How hard was it, why did he feel compelled to speak after so many years of silence, and how does he feel about the current state of affairs in Europe today? These and so many other questions are lobbed in his direction, and Tomi was gracious and open enough to answer them. I shouldn't have to tell you how thankful I am to Tomi for giving us his very valuable time here, but I do recommend that if yo...
Mar 16, 2018•42 min
Tomi's story continues, as he talks us through his arrival in Belsen, a place his family members knew nothing of, and expected would be their final destination. Tragically, as we'll see, this was to be true for some of them. Tomi brings us through his harrowing experiences of life in a concentration camp, just as the Nazi system was falling apart. It contains detail which some may find upsetting, so I have marked it as explicit for this reason. Tomi's story is one which brings us through some di...
Mar 14, 2018•47 min
SKIP TO 12:00 TO BEGIN HEARING THE INTERVIEW IF YOU WANT TO SKIP MY INTRO! Today history friends we have something incredibly special lined up for you. All this week, we'll be letting loose three parts of an interview I did with Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental. Obviously, I am incredibly excited to bring this to you, but I am also deeply indebted to Tomi for coming onto the show and telling his story, a story which most of my Irish listeners, and some others, may already know, but which deser...
Mar 12, 2018•54 min
Episode 13: A Useful Bombshell examines the immediate reactions to the Sino-Soviet Alliance in the US. Now that their wedge strategy had been torpedoed, and the Truman administration had failed to save China again, the question remained as to what Dean Acheson could do next. Under pressure from foreign and domestic critics, it was imperative that something was done to reverse these negative trends, and get some kind of a win for American foreign policy. If you've been paying attention so far, yo...
Mar 05, 2018•41 min
**REMEMBER, 1956 - The Eventful Year is out NOW! 1956 is a brand new original series examining the eventful aftermath of the Korean War. Stalin was dead, the West was facing numerous troubles, and everything seemed in flux. It is an incredible story, and I really enjoyed researching it. It is absolutely free to listen to the first few episodes of 1956, but it is in a brand new podcast feed! 4 episodes in total and more to come are on the way, so please do follow these links so that you can subsc...
Feb 26, 2018•35 min
This is a VERY detailed episode, and can be best divided into three parts. 1) Explaining the different NSC reports and papers, and how they were reconciled as new developments affected a change in US foreign policy. 2) Stalin's decision to walk out of the UN Security Council, and why he did it! 3) Acheson's speech to the National Press Club on 12th January 1950 - so long lambasted as an example of the Secretary of State's carelessness, but in actual fact representing a veiled attempt to appeal t...
Feb 19, 2018•39 min
Episode 10: Sino-American Talks Part 2 concludes our take on where the Sino-American diplomacy led as 1949 became 1950. It provides a crucial bit of background to how the US reacted to the actual signing of the Sino-Soviet Treaty, so make sure you have a listen in, and as always, be sure to let me know what you all thought! The increasing supremacy of the communists, as well as the difficulties posed by the British, were among the complications that the Truman administration faced when its face,...
Feb 14, 2018•37 min
Episode 9: Sino-American Talks Part 1 introduces us to the OTHER side of Chinese diplomacy between 1949-50; that involving the US, and how Washington attempted to wrest some benefit out of the rapidly changing situation in China, as the Republican/Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek suffered successive defeats at Mao's hands. The US would attempt to drive a wedge between the USSR and the PRC during 1949 - a policy which we know, in light of the signing of the Sino-Soviet alliance, eventually fai...
Feb 12, 2018•33 min
Yay! We've finally had a Q & A, where you guys sent me a variety of lovely questions and I did my best to answer! Within are such questions as: What part of the KW do you find most fascinating? What have been your top 3 topics you have covered in order from 1-3? How do you decide what to cover? Is there any historical topic you just will not touch, under any circumstances? What would you consider a good day’s work in terms of your production schedule? What got you first interested in history...
Feb 08, 2018•31 min
Episode 8: Sino-Soviet Talks Part 4 is the final episode examining the scene in Moscow, where the defining alliance between the Chinese Communists and the Soviet Union was signed. It took a great deal of compromise...or wait, no it didn't. It required a lot of trust...no wait, that's not right either. Em, it was mutually beneficial to both sides thanks to a whole load of scheming and power plays? Yes that's a bit more accurate. The Sino-Soviet alliance wasn't your typical alliance - it was forge...
Feb 07, 2018•36 min
Episode 7: Sino-Soviet Talks Part 3 picks up in this developing story, as the Chinese and Soviets cautiously move ever closer to one another in world affairs. Stalin's mission was clear. He welcomed Mao Zedong to Moscow in December 1949, in the midst of rumours that the Sino-Soviet bloc were keen to furnish some kind of alliance. Stalin, much like Mao, wanted to have his cake and eat it too, and would put up several obstacles to the successful conclusion of an alliance treaty, blaming Yalt, the ...
Feb 05, 2018•36 min
IMP: Liu Shaoqi is Liu 'Shao-Chi' - NOT Liu 'Shao-Kwee'. Apologies for the mispronunciation! Love me anyway? Episode 6: Sino-Soviet Talks Part 2, continues the story from where we left off last time. The Chinese communists launch their final great offensive of the civil war against the Nationalists from April 1949, as Stalin watches his old strategy crumble. Faced with the emergence of a dominant Chinese Communist Party, rather than the divided Chinese state that he desired, how would Stalin res...
Jan 31, 2018•33 min
Episode 5: Sino-Soviet Talks Part 1 examines, as you may have guessed, the detailed and complex Sino-Soviet relationship, as we build towards the signing of the Sino-Soviet alliance in February 1950. Much like Stalin and Mao had much to do before that alliance was signed, so we have much to cover before we can get to that point in our narrative, and this episode here provides a good deal of background to the Sino-Soviet relationship in the late 1940s. ***** Music used: I used the song 'Maria' by...
Jan 29, 2018•36 min
Episode 4: The Cat's Mao looks at Mao Zedong, the man, the myth, the legend, the disgusting, horrible war criminal and mass murderer who...ahem. Sorry about that. Mao Zedong remains a controversial figure to this day. Some believe China would never have recovered in the manner that it did, and that China would never be the power that it is today, without Mao Zedong at the helm. At the same time, while some are content to name fast food restaurants after him, others decry his responsibility, both...
Jan 24, 2018•30 min
Episode 3: The Brittle Curtain, examines the actual situation Comrade Stalin faced when he considered his options in the post-war world. Exactly how strong, or powerful, was the Soviet Union, and how stable were its East European satellites? Was the USSR's control based on more than merely the threat of force, or was the power of fear the glue that tied the entire edifice together? All of these are important questions, and it is immensely important that we get to the bottom of exactly what the p...
Jan 22, 2018•46 min
In Episode 2: The Force of Peace, we examine the founding moments of the United Nations, where the idea for it came from, why it was established and how it developed as an institution in the 1940s to have a leading role in the post-war world. The UN, as we'll see, was quite effective when its aims didn't conflict with the American or Soviet world views. Limited cooperation was, it seemed, a possibility in this shattered, traumatised world. Yet, this cooperation would only go so far. Clouds were ...
Jan 17, 2018•41 min
Episode 1: America Dawns, looks at the situation which greeted US policymakers between 1945-50. As an episode it serves as a good roundup of all we've learned in the Cold War Crash Course, but a simple summary episode THIS IS NOT! We delve into the mindset behind the Truman Doctrine, ask what the goals of NATO were and investigate how Washington viewed Soviet moves by examining their additional policies and proclamations. We also look at the problems which faced the US in the late 1940s, includi...
Jan 15, 2018•40 min
In the final episode of this miniseries, we look at the several crises which accompanied the answering of the German question. The Berlin Blockade, as well as the Prague Coup, provided key pieces of evidence in the Western mind that Stalinism was expanding its reach through the use of intimidation and brute force. Stalin, it was clear, was determined to pose as the champion of his own brand of Soviet, expansionist communism, powered by the Red Army and the threat of force. It was vital in these ...
Jan 12, 2018•36 min
The question of Germany and how the east-west divide played a role in answering that question forms the basis of the latest episode in the series. The repairing and restructuring of Germany, so that it was strong enough to contribute to Europe's rebuilding, but not so strong that it pulled another war of revenge out of its hat, was a critical balancing act. It profoundly unnerved some people and inspired others. It puzzled some and excited others. Above all though, it was the legacy of Hitler's ...
Jan 11, 2018•30 min
In our latest installment of the series, we look at the person of Josef Stalin, a dominant figure for our wider Korean War series, and his security blanket he was in the process of creating in Eastern Europe. The spread of communism in Europe's shattered cities, combined with the looming threat of the Red Army and the sweeping impact of its soldiers into the East, created a new dynamic in Europe. At the head of this new dynamic was the will and ambition of Stalin, who had a direct hand in everyt...
Jan 10, 2018•32 min
In the second episode of the CWCC, we look at how the US managed to tie Western Europe closer to its orbit through political strategy, closer cooperation and sheer economic investment. The Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan and NATO were critical building blocks in the Euro-American relationship in the late 1940s, and we get to grips with them here. As the US worked with its beleaguered allies, the chronic lack of food as much as coal threatened disaster. With the dollar above all being the top curr...
Jan 09, 2018•34 min
"I thought you’d be there waiting for me…what greeted me instead was the lingering stench of ashes and the empty sockets of our ruined home." Polish citizen Samuel Puterman returns to Warsaw in late 1945. We begin our examination of the post-WW2 world by looking at the sheer impact the conflict had on the peoples, infrastructure and industry of Europe. Once considered the centre of the world, now Europe was its shattered, gloomy shell. It would take an immense amount of rebuilding, of money and ...
Jan 08, 2018•27 min
Is it the forgotten war, or simply a war we need to look at differently? Let's investigate. We need to make some things clear. We have to set out the structure and scope of this project, outline what sources we used and of course, talk a bit about how each one of the episodes will be structured. What music will we used? What will Patrons get? What will the series actually look like? This is the place to find out - the Sources and Structure of the series will be learned of here. You don't NEED to...
Jan 07, 2018•34 min
The Korean War is a project which I have been preparing for for several months. It is in this episode that I drop some knowledge on you guys, such as, above all, what my take on the Korean War will look like, and what exactly I have here that is so potentially controversial. My revisionist take on the conflict is a brave approach considering the conventional views, but I do hope you'll give it a chance. Either way there are some fascinating stories to get through, and we have so much to get thro...
Jan 07, 2018•44 min
