A COLD WAR

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties. HUAC is best remembered for the Alger Hiss case and the Hollywood blacklists. But the American fear of socialism and communism pre-dates HUAC by a century. In large part, it was rooted in RWG's trying to prevent social progress. It also had some racist elements. After the Russian Revolution, Americans went to Russia to fight for the Monarchy. In 1919, there was the Overman Committee, a senate subcommittee to investigate Bolshevism in the United States.

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Finally, on Oct 7, 1947, the French made their offensive into the Viet Bac region: Operation Léa - aka Princess Leia. So-called because it was a smart, feisty, brave diplomat and warrior of a plan. But because he had less troops than he wanted, Valluy scaled down his plans. General Raoul Salan, the guy in charge of the operation, predicted it would all be over in three weeks.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED AGAIN. The Vietminh faded quietly into the jungle. Meanwhile Bao Dai talks to the French about forming an alternative government.

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Ho wonders aloud to a journalist why the Vietnamese were not being given the same opportunity as the Philippines, who had just been given their independence from the US, or India, which had just won its independence from the UK.

All the Americans seem to care about is whether or not he's a Communist.

Meanwhile French Minister of War Paul Coste-Floret declared, “There is no more military problem in Indochina. The success of our arms is complete.”

And France has Madagascar problems involving toxic nuts.

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Ho and his team disappear into the jungle north of Hanoi. The French think they have won. George Marshall dithers.

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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 and Truong Chinh came up with a three stage plan, borrowed from Mao. And so the First Indochina War begins in earnest.

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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 taking orders from Moscow.

Meanwhile Ho is playing Good Cop Bad Cop while making preparations for war. While the French are convinced the whole thing will be over in a matter of weeks, membership in local militia and guerrilla units from Giap's "Combat Villages" reach almost one million people.

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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 in Haiphong harbour - a deliberate provocation. The Vietminh fire on the French. The French respond by bombing the city. French Indochina High Commissioner d’Argenlieu made a bold prediction, especially for a Frenchman: “We will never retreat or surrender.”

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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 going to end up in a war and tells the story of the tiger and the elephant. Meanwhile, back in Vietnam, Giap is consolidating Viet Minh power. And a religious mystic is assassinated.

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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 goes anyway, but has to spend a few weeks in the luxury seaside resort of Biarritz waiting for the new French government to get its shit together. While there, he visits Lourdes and hopes for a miracle.

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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 a few years ago.

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