S8 Ep274: COMMERCE AND THE ORIGINS OF THE FELLOWSHIP Colleague Charles Spicer. The Anglo-German Fellowship was headquartered at the Metropole Hotel in London in 1935, immediately attracting major business interests, including Unilever, which had vast assets in Germ

S8 Ep274: THE AMATEUR SPIES AND THE 1934 DINNER Colleague Charles Spicer. In December 1934, Ernest Tennant, a British banker deeply scarred by the loss of friends and family in the First World War, attended a pivotal dinner in Berlin with Adolf Hitler and Joachim v

S8 Ep273: THE 1975 COLLAPSE AND THE WAR'S STRATEGIC FAILURE Colleague Geoffrey Wawro. Following the 1973 peace deal and US withdrawal, Congressional aid to South Vietnam plummeted, leaving the ARVN deprived of essential logistics and air support. When the NVA laun

S8 Ep273: LAM SON 719 AND THE FAILURE OF VIETNAMIZATION Colleague Geoffrey Wawro. The 1971 invasion of Laos (Lam Son 719) exposed the failure of Vietnamization, as South Vietnamese troops were routed without US ground support, proving they lacked the leadership and

S8 Ep273: THE CAMBODIAN INCURSION AND DOMESTIC UNREST Colleague Geoffrey Wawro. In 1970, Nixon authorized an incursion into Cambodia to destroy NVA sanctuaries and supply lines, but the operation failed strategically as the enemy simply retreated deeper into the co

S8 Ep273: NIXON'S SABOTAGE AND HAMBURGER HILL Colleague Geoffrey Wawro. Richard Nixon won the 1968 election by using Henry Kissinger to secretly sabotage LBJ's peace talks, eventually accepting the same terms in 1973 after four more years of bloodshed. Once in powe

S8 Ep273: THE TET OFFENSIVE AND THE SIEGE OF KHE SANH Colleague Geoffrey Wawro. In 1968, North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive to deliver a knockout blow; while a military disaster for the communists, the televised breach of the US Embassy shattered American cla

S8 Ep273: SEARCH AND DESTROY AND THE FAILURE OF ATTRITION Colleague Geoffrey Wawro. General Westmoreland implemented a strategy of attrition aimed at reaching a "crossover point" where enemies were killed faster than they could be replaced, requiring the constructi

S8 Ep273: THE BATTLE OF IA DRANG AND NVA ADAPTATION Colleague Geoffrey Wawro. In 1965, the US introduced combat troops and air mobility tactics, showcased at the Battle of Ia Drang, where General Westmoreland used infantry as "tethered goats" to draw the enemy out

S8 Ep273: VIETNAM AS A POLITICAL WAR AND THE GULF OF TONKIN DECEPTION Colleague Geoffrey Wawro. Geoffrey Wawro explains that the Vietnam War was a political war of choice, where the Johnson administration manipulated the Gulf of Tonkin incident to secure a "blank c

S8 Ep272: MCNAMARA'S REDEMPTION AT THE WORLD BANK Colleague William Taubman. After leaving the Defense Department, McNamara sought redemption as President of the World Bank, shifting its focus to aiding the "poorest of the poor" and combating diseases like river bl

S8 Ep272: MCNAMARA'S PRIVATE TURN AGAINST THE WAR Colleague William Taubman. By 1966, McNamara had privately turned against the war, confessing to aide John McNaughton his desperate desire to "bring the boys home," yet he maintained public support for the conflict

S8 Ep272: MCNAMARA, THE KENNEDYS, AND JACKIE'S PLEA Colleague William Taubman. Fearing a political challenge from Robert Kennedy in 1964, Johnson used McNamara to monitor the Kennedys' intentions, specifically sending him to determine if Jackie Kennedy would public

S8 Ep272: MCNAMARA AND JOHNSON'S DANGEROUS FEEDBACK LOOP Colleague William Taubman. Following JFK's assassination, Lyndon Johnson retained McNamara, relying on his efficiency and self-confidence to counter his own insecurities and depressive episodes. A dangerous f

S8 Ep272: MCNAMARA JOINS THE KENNEDY CABINET Colleague William Taubman. In 1960, Robert Kennedy and Sargent Shriver recruited a reluctant McNamara for the Kennedy cabinet; despite McNamara's insistence that he was unqualified for the Treasury or Defense posts, he a

S8 Ep272: THE WHIZ KIDS AND FORD MOTOR COMPANY Colleague William Taubman. After the war, Tex Thornton recruited McNamara as part of the "Whiz Kids" team to modernize Ford Motor Company using statistical control methods, a role in which McNamara excelled and eventua

S8 Ep272: MCNAMARA'S ACADEMIC BRILLIANCE AND PERSONAL DRIVE Colleague William Taubman. Taubman details McNamara's academic brilliance, noting his induction into Phi Beta Kappa at Berkeley and his status as the top student at Harvard Business School, where he sought

S8 Ep272: MCNAMARA'S ROLE IN THE FIREBOMBING OF TOKYO Colleague William Taubman. William Taubman discusses Robert McNamara's service in the Pacific during World War II, specifically his role as a statistician under General Curtis LeMay in the Marianas. McNamara's a

S8 Ep271: PREVIEW FOR LATER TONIGHT: Professor William Taubman discusses his new book, McNamara at War, recounting a vivid episode from 1967-68. McNamara traveled to Harvard Yard to address students but unexpectedly encountered a hostile anti-war mob, a surprising

S8 Ep271: PREVIEW FOR LATER TONIGHT: Historian Geoffrey Wawro details how North Vietnamese troops used human wave attacks to "cling" to American perimeters. By holding Americans "by the belt," they neutralized US artillery and air power, making it impossible for th