Geoffrey Wawro, founding director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas and author of The Vietnam War: A Military History,  joins the show to discuss the causes of U.S. failure in Vietnam.

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    •      01:21 Introduction

    •      01:50 Schools of thought

    •      07:45 Orthodoxy      

    •      13:24 A war of choice

    •      17:49 Ambivalence       

    •      20:15 Korean nightmare      

    •      23:53 Lessons

    •      28:38 Policy makers

    •      32:34 Obvious flaws   

    •      37:10 Ground war

    •      42:21 South Vietnam 

    •      51:30 Certain defeat

    •      56:21 Local politics

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Major Geoff Ball, USMC, co-founder of the Connecting File, commanded Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines during the evacuation at Kabul International Airport in 2021, including the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate on 26 August. He shares the story of his company and their extraordinary service in Afghanistan.

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Times

    •      01:51 Introduction

    •      02:03 The Marines

    •      08:20 Quantico     

    •      13:07 29 Palms

    •      16:32 On the job training      

    •      21:54 Ghost Company      

    •      26:44 The call

    •      32:10 Isolation

    •      38:30 Abbey Gate   

    •      46:16 Unity of effort 

    •      48:53 Who got through 

    •      51:40 The Taliban

    •      52:54 26 August

    •      56:52 Take command 

    •      59:47 No good choices

    •      01:06:42 The Fallen

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Barry Strauss, Corliss Page Dean Fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World's Mightiest Empire, joins the show to discuss the long, fractious, often violent relationship between Ancient Rome and her Jewish subjects. 

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    •      01:11 Introduction

    •      01:37 Rome and Parthia

    •      07:50 Judea    

    •      12:07 Roman control 

    •      17:58 Jewish warfighting       

    •      20:20 Herod     

    •      26:03 The Great Revolt

    •      31:06 Enter Parthia

    •      33:23 The Temple   

    •      35:01 70 years 

    •      40:24 Driven out 

    •      42:02 Parallels with today

    •      44:33 Donald Kagan

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Major General Mick Ryan, Australian Army (retired), Senior Fellow for Military Studies the Lowy Institute and author of the Futura Doctrina Substack, joins the show to break down the latest on Ukraine, from the battlefield to the White House. 

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   •       01:05 Introduction

    •      02:06 The front

    •      06:23 Fortress belt   

    •      08:38 ROI 

    •      10:55 Shifting feelings       

    •      14:41 A realistic settlement     

    •      20:53 After Alaska

    •      23:15 Boots on the ground

    •      25:45 Unpredictability     

    •      28:49 A different vibe 

    •      31:31 Stop the killing

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Colonel Peter Mansoor, U.S. Army (retired), General Raymond E. Mason Jr. Chair in Military History at The Ohio State University and authors of Redemption: MacArthur and the Campaign for the Philippines, joins the show to discuss the largest campaign of the Pacific War, the liberation of the Philippines. 

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Times

    •      01:08 Introduction

    •      01:30 Why West Point?

    •      06:11 Petraeus   

    •      09:55 A huge scale 

    •      11:25 War Plan Orange       

    •      16:25 Inevitable     

    •      20:07 The guerrilla war

    •      26:53 Mindanao & Luzon

    •      31:33 Leyte Gulf    

    •      37:52 A do or die campaign 

    •      40:04 Manila 

    •      44:34 Command responsibility 

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Joel Wuthnow and Phillip Saunders, both of the  U.S. National Defense University and authors of China's Quest for Military Supremacy, join the show to discuss the origins, organization, and strategic outlook of China’s military. 

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    •      01:22 Introduction

    •      01:57 Origins

    •      06:58 Crisis control   

    •      08:48 PLA structure 

    •      13:05 1960       

    •      20:17 Horizontal escalation    

    •      24:34 By land or sea

    •      28:23 American resolve

    •      30:54 Xi    

    •      36:41 A lack of experience 

    •      44:10 Military diplomacy

    •      48:17 Reading list

    •      50:43 Be unpredictable

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Marc LiVecche, McDonald Distinguished Scholar of Ethics, War, and Public Life at Providence and author of The Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury, joins the show to discuss Just War Theory and whether the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki fit in that framework. 

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    •      01:23 Introduction

    •      01:30 Misspent youth

    •      07:51 Moral injury   

    •      13:27 Conflicting views

    •      19:15 Richard Frank       

    •      28:53 Right not moral     

    •      39:12 Not the same

    •      40:36 Gifts from heaven

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Stephen Platt, professor of Chinese history at UMass Amherst and author of The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II, joins the show to discuss the incredible life of Evans Carlson.

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Times

    •      01:48 Introduction

    •      02:50 American quirk

    •      08:14 China 

    •      10:18 Soviet policy 

    •      14:01 Nicaragua       

    •      16:29 Edgar Snow     

    •      21:11 FDR

    •      24:42 8th Route Army 

    •      31:52 Embargo   

    •      38:30 Raiders

    •      42:40 Makin Island

    •      46:30 Force multiplier    

    •      52:44 1946

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Lawerence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London and author of ‘The Age of Forever Wars’  in Foreign Affairs Magazine, joins the show to discuss why protracted warfare seems to be a mark of the era.  

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Times

    •      01:32 Introduction

    •      02:01 Aligning strategy 

    •      04:37 Mass 

    •      07:14 Iraq and Afghanistan 

    •      11:14 Al Qaeda       

    •      14:25 Survive     

    •      17:50 Results matter

    •      22:04 Trade-offs 

    •      27:23 Avoiding mistakes   

    •      32:13 Why does Putin continue?

    •      38:29 Concessions

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Steven Rabalais, litigator and author of General Fox Conner: Pershing's Chief of Operations and Eisenhower's Mentor,  joins the show to discuss the extraordinary influence of now-forgotten General Fox Connor on the outcome of WWI and Eisenhower’s career.  

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Times

    •      01:51 Introduction

    •      03:10 Growing up with history 

    •      05:47 A southern story 

    •      07:44 West Point struggles 

    •      12:07 A reader       

    •      14:50 Coastal artillery     

    •      20:46 Rocks and airplanes

    •      23:51 Mechanism of victory

    •      27:54 WWI logistics   

    •      32:47 Summer 1918

    •      46:03 Eisenhower

    •      51:24 Panama   

    •      01:01:58 Foreshadowing

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