Dan Snow’s History Hit The Syrian Civil War: How it Started The recent events in Syria have seen the overthrow of the Assad regime, but in many ways Assad came to dominate because of the preceding civil war that brought his father to power. This episode with Shashank Joshi, the Defence Editor for The Economist traces through the history of Syria from WWI onwards, and the consequences of the French promoting the interests of the Alawite minority- a typical colonial-power strategy. I wish The Economist wasn’t so damned expensive: it has some interesting features.
The Coming Storm Season 2 Episode 2 Flight 007 My husband was listening to this in the car with me, and he disliked the way that Gabriel Gatehouse does not challenge the conspiracies being promulgated in these episodes. I don’t agree: I think that it’s perfectly clear that he is incredulous at some of what he is hearing. In this episode Flight 007 he discusses the conspiracy theories surrounding the Federal Reserve in America, right from its formation among bankers in 1913. He focuses on the John Birch Society and one of its leaders the Democratic Party Congressman Larry McDonald, who was killed when Flight 007 was shot down by the Soviets in 1983. A staunch conservative and anti-communist, and far more aligned to the old Southern Democrat politics rather than the modern Democrat party, McDonald’s death has fuelled further distrust of the three-letter agencies in America: a distrust that Trump has capitalized on.
In the Shadows of Utopia Episode 14: The End of French Indo-China Another long episode, with a lot in it, covering the period December 1953 – July 1955. By this time the Khmer Viet Minh controlled about 1/3 of Cambodia, but not in a clearly defined area. What mattered more was what was happening over the Vietnamese border where the Viet Cong defeated the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. This battle came eight years into the war, with the French already exhausted from WW2. It took place in a valley, with the French troops dropped by air into a clearing surrounded by jungle in the middle of a Viet Minh controlled area. The Viet Minh had brought in artillery under camouflage, with Chinese and Soviet support that had been freed up after the Korean War. It was a brutal battle with a very high death rate on both sides, and when it became trench warfare, it was likened to Verdun (in WWI). Both sides suffered from jungle sickness, and amongst the Vietnamese troops PTSD and fear was seen as being ‘rightist’, a marker of the ideological language that was used to describe behaviour. The battle was important, but even before then, there was strong international pressure for a diplomatic solution. This culminated in the Geneva Convention, where the four main powers (UK, US, France and USSR) were represented, along with China, Laos, Cambodia and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Omitted were the Khmer Viet Minh and Issarak. It was decided to divide Vietnam into North and South Vietnam, with Cambodia and Laos to be neutral and independent, with representative governments. So by the end of July, the first Indo China War was over, and a 300 day period was set aside for people to shift from one region to another, depending on their political affiliation. In Cambodia, Sihanouk was pleased with Geneva Accords, which put an end to Vietnamese and French interference and which left the Khmer Communists very unhappy. Some Khmer Communists went back to Vietnam or French, others stayed undercover, while others remained politically involved as an outward mask for their continued secret Communist activity. However, Sihanouk wasn’t so pleased with the “representative government” part of the Accords, because the Democratic Party was likely to win.First he held a very dodgy referendum to remind Cambodians of what he claimed as his role in gaining independence, then he abdicated as King in favour of his father (who would be no threat to him) and engaged himself in the elections in his own right. He formed a ‘movement’ based on personal loyalty to him, uniting centrists, elites and the ‘little people’ who felt aggrieved (sounds rather Trumpian to me). The elections were nasty, he suppressed the media, threatened assassination and jailed opponents. As a result his Sangkum Party won all the seats. Sihanouk played all sides: he proclaimed neutrality and to reject US overtures but accepted their money quite happily and he allowed the North Vietnamse communists to act clandestinely in Cambodia as a way of sidelining the Khmer communists.
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 