#97 – Ho Chi Minh I

#97 – Ho Chi Minh I

In 1919 a 29 year old Vietnamese man wrote a list of demands for political rights for his people to present to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference. Nobody paid him any attention. His name was Nguyen Ai Quoc. He devoted the rest of his life to...
#96 – Marshall Plan III

#96 – Marshall Plan III

* America’s approach to providing financial aid wasn’t popular with some of their allies either.* Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign Secretary, resented American dollar diplomacy, in particular the linking of desperately needed financial assistance to London’s...
#95 – Marshall Plan II

#95 – Marshall Plan II

* Something that Marshall mentions only briefly in his speech is the effect that would have on the US economy. (around the 7’20″ mark)* Europe’s economy might have been destroyed after the war, but America’s wasn’t looking too bulletproof, partly BECAUSE the...
#94 – Marshall Plan I

#94 – Marshall Plan I

* One of the greatest pieces of mythology to ever be produced in America is the “Marshall Plan”.* It’s right up there with the idea of glorifying the “Founding Fathers”, who were actually just tax dodgers who orchestrated a bloody coup.* It’s also of course one of...
#93 – The X Article

#93 – The X Article

* The X Article.* George Kennan, the Soviet expert who wrote the Long Telegram, wrote another piece, but this time published publicly and anonymously, in July 1947, just after Truman’s “Truman Doctrine” speech.* The actual title of the article was “The Sources...
#92 – The Truman Doctrine

#92 – The Truman Doctrine

* And so on March 12, 1947, before a joint session of Congress, President Truman articulated, for the first time, a comprehensive American foreign policy for the postwar world.* He did not mention the Soviet Union by name, or refer to the need to contain its power in...
#91 – The Baruch Plan

#91 – The Baruch Plan

* So here we are in 1946.* The Truman administration has decided on a “containment” policy.* But who is going to contain the containers?* According to the Novikov telegram, the Soviets felt like they had to contain the US.* And the U.S. felt like they had to contain...
#90 – The Novikov Telegram.

#90 – The Novikov Telegram.

* The last, and certainly most conspicuous, of the four events that transformed the political culture of Washington in 1946 was a speech given in early March by Winston Churchill at Westminster College in Truman’s home state of Missouri.* Like Stalin’s...
#89 – The “Long Telegram”

#89 – The “Long Telegram”

* Stalin’s speech in February 1946 wasn’t a declaration of war.* It wasn’t anything that couldn’t have been said in the past.* He issued no direct threats toward the United States, and emphasized above all else the security of the Soviet state and the communist...
#88 – Mine All Mine

#88 – Mine All Mine

* In October 1945, Navy Day 1945 in New York City, at the Commissioning of the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman gave a speech.* Here’s a clip.* https://youtu.be/BjUz4BPWwbc?t=2m21s* FAKE TRUMAN ACCENT: “We don’t seek any more land –...