History As It Happens

The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution's opening battles came and went with little fanfare. Colonial militia engaged British regulars at Lexington and Concord in April 1775. The Revolutionary War was underway. King George III would soon declare the American colonies in open rebellion. Is everyone saving their energy for next year's celebration of the Declaration of Independence? In this episode, historian Lindsay Chervinsky, the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, talks about the collapse of royal authority that was evident as early as 1774-75, well before formal independence was declared. The colonies were in a state of virtual independence, marking a transformation in the minds as well as the everyday lives of the American revolutionaries.

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This is the final episode in a three-part series marking the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.

America's humiliating defeat in Vietnam, punctuated by images of military helicopters evacuating desperate personnel from the embassy rooftop in Saigon, left deep scars on the country's psyche. It took decades to come to terms with everything that went wrong, although some insisted the U.S. should not have abandoned the South Vietnamese in their hour of need in April 1975. In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel delve into the enduring consequences of the U.S. debacle in Southeast Asia.

Jeremi Suri teaches history at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He hosts "This is Democracy" podcast and writes, with his son, the "Democracy of Hope" newsletter on Substack.

Jeffrey A. Engel is the founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University.

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This is the second episode in a three-part series marking the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.

The antiwar movement began on the campuses and exploded onto the streets of major cities. Throughout the late 1960s and into the 1970s, millions of Americans opposed their country's military involvement in Vietnam. They marched in massive demonstrations, held silent vigils, and burned draft cards. They pressured government officials to change course before America lost its soul in Vietnam. Were they effective? Historians Paul McBride and Carolyn Eisenberg delve into the genesis of the antiwar movement, its aims, and its achievements -- and compare the activism of a half century ago to today's campus turmoil.

Recommended reading:

Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia by Carolyn Eisenberg, winner of the Bancroft Prize

Further listening:

Defeat in Vietnam: Origins (Part 1, with historian Fredrik Logevall)

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This is the first episode in a three-part series marking the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.

Is Vietnam still with us? Does this misbegotten American war still have something to teach? In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Fredrik Logevall, a preeminent scholar of the long war in Southeast Asia, delves into why U.S. leaders defied their better judgment and plunged the country into a quagmire that would haunt America for generations. The story may begin in 1965, when President Johnson sent the Marines into Da Nang, but the deep origins of the war take us back to 1945.

Recommended reading:

Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall

Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall

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Since the 1980s, Donald Trump has been railing against what he calls unfair trade with a focus on Japan and then China. Also during the '80s, President Reagan, remembered as a free trader, was an interventionist when it came to the closed Japanese market. A decade later, Bill Clinton threatened punitive tariffs on Japanese luxury cars. Moreover, the question of what to do about the decline in U.S. manufacturing and living standards has weighed on policymakers and the working class for 40 years. In this episode, historian Nelson Lichtenstein traces the origins of today's backlash to free trade as President Trump tries, with the blunt force instrument of tariffs, to undo global economic arrangements decades in the making.

Recommended reading:

A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism by Nelson Lichtenstein

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The Trump administration says it will deny entry to immigrants for "suspected antisemitic activity." It is attacking prestigious universities over the antiwar protests that roiled campuses last year. It is snatching and jailing foreign students who criticize Israel. Does any of this promote the welfare of Jews, or is it a cynical weaponization of antisemitism allegations designed to protect Israel's reputation? Antisemitism is a very real and intensifying problem, not only in the United States but across the globe. In this episode, historian Omer Bartov delves into the origins of this ancient hatred and the agendas of those cracking down on alleged antisemitism today.

Further reading:

Infinite License: The World After Gaza by Omer Bartov (The New York Review)

Further listening:

What Is Zionism? with guest Ian Lustick

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A century after Kemal Atatürk galvanized the Turkish people and founded modern Turkey on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire -- and upon new principles of secularism, populism, and republicanism -- the current president is turning Turkey into an autocracy. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 71, has been in power for 22 years and is acting like he wants to rule for the rest of his life. He is jailing political opponents and critical journalists while stuffing the judiciary with friendly judges. In this episode, the Middle East Institute's Gönül Tol delves into Erdoğan's push for complete power while reflecting on the enduring -- and now endangered -- principles of Kemalism.

Further reading:

Turkey Is Now a Full-Blown Autocracy by Gönül Tol for Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations

Erdoğan's War: A Strongman's Struggle at Home and in Syria by Gönül Tol

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When did the Civil War end? April 1865? August 1866? April 1877? Historian Michael Vorenberg delves into why each of these dates, among others, might be considered the final chapter of the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil. April 9 is the 160th anniversary of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Fighting continued, however, and after the last rebel armies formally surrendered, terroristic violence and intimidation marred the postwar settlement as white supremacists fought to deny the newly freed African-Americans their rights.

Further reading:

Lincoln's Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War by Michael Vorenberg

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President Trump's "Liberation Day" unveiling of sweeping tariffs on just about everything imported into the United States pushed the world to the brink of a potentially destructive trade war. One of Trump's apparent aims is to coerce Canada into becoming an American state. This has been tried before! In this episode, University of Exeter historian Marc Palen takes us back to the 1890s when American leaders tried to make Canada bend to U.S. economic coercion through protective tariff rates. The McKinley tariff was named after Congressman William McKinley, "the Napoleon of protection." The punitive tariff didn't work: Canada drew closer to Great Britain, and the Republicans were shellacked in the midterm elections of November 1890.

Further reading:

Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World by Marc Palen

Using Tariffs to Try to Turn Canada into American State Backfired in the Past by Marc Palen (article at Time.com)

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Why was director Oliver Stone testifying on Capitol Hill today? After his 1991 film "JFK" reignited conspiracy theories about President Kennedy's assassination, Congress authorized the release of millions of classified documents. But it wasn't until this January when President Trump released the supposedly final 80,000 pages related to Kennedy's murder on Nov. 22, 1963. They revealed nothing new about the assassination itself. Lee Harvey Oswald was the killer, and he acted alone. However, the documents are filling in important gaps in our knowledge of what the CIA was up to in the 1960s: assassinations of foreign leaders, coups, election meddling -- and even a break-in at the French embassy in Washington! In this episode, national security experts Peter Kornbluh and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi delve into the fascinating record of CIA covert operations and their disastrous consequences.

Further reading:

Kennedy Assassination Records Lift Veil of Secrecy by Peter Kornbluh and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi for National Security Archive

JFK Papers Reveal CIA Spying Operations in United States by Peter Kornbluh and Michael Evans for National Security Archive

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