In January of 1989 Ayatollah Khomeini sent a letter to Gorbachev. He invites him to turn to Islam, but also gets his final digs in as the USSR crumbles. This letter is an interesting snapshot of the waning days of Gorbachev and the Soviet Union from a unique Cold War perspective we don’t hear from often.

Today we’re talking about the great Cold Warrior J Edgar Hoover and his 1958 book “Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America and How To Fight It”. This is a real gem from the red scare era of the Cold War. I leave you with a few actionable tips on fighting communism at the end. Enjoy!

Today we’re talking about a Cold War pop culture gem, The Manchurian Candidate. This book was written after the McCarthy era “red scare” began to cool down. A good satire on the era. Enjoy

We’re going right in to the danger zone tonight and discussing Top Gun, which I think was America’s on-screen Cold War victory lap. It’s a story of a nation regaining confidence and redemption after being shaken up by the experience of the Vietnam War. Enjoy the episode and let me know what you think. Share, subscribe and support reddragonherbs.net or I’ll have you flying a cargo plane of rubber dogshit out of Hong Kong.

Today we dig into the archives of the Des Moines Register to get reactions from when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first man made satellite into space.

There will be a lot of eyes on this year’s Victory Day parade in Russia because of the speech Vladimir Putin will have to give. What will he say? In this episode I give a rundown of how the parade goes. At the end of the day, it’s a great Cold War throwback, lots of Soviet nostalgia and stunning military pageantry. I also discussed “babushka z” and how she plays into the current mood in Russia.

In this episode we talk about Austria, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ukraine. There’s a little something for everyone, really

In this episode we’ll discuss DEFCON and the Doomsday Clock. I think these topics are relevant for understanding some of the information…and misinformation about the war in Ukraine

The second nation to step forward for Korea was Turkey. Today we’re talking about why they got involved, their experience and the mythos surrounding the Turks. We’ll also discuss the film “Ayla: Daughter of War”

Recently on the Jocko podcast he discussed Mcnamara’s Folly about Project 100,000 to draft substandard men into the armed forces. Today I discuss the Cold War considerations of the plan and how it relates to current American foreign policy. I’m all over the place on this one, enjoy!