#98 – Ho Chi Minh II

#98 – Ho Chi Minh II

* Ho’s speech to the French socialist congress in 1920 was 12 minutes long and delivered without notes.* It got some applause but that was about it.* He realised that French socialists were more worried about affairs at home than they were about colonialism in a...
#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...