A one-legged Chinese Admiral and triad vigilantes make the most out of the period during the Battle of Hong Kong when the Imperial Japanese Army held the mainland side of the water and the British/Indian/Canadian/Hong Kong forces retreated within their island ‘fortress’. We experience the Battle through the words of ordinary people who were there. …

Mao pokes his nose into the Hungarian Uprising in 1956 and concludes, “Eastern Europe just didn’t kill on a grand scale…We must kill.” Paul Letters is a historian, journalist, educator and novelist. See paulletters.com for more history, including a daily ‘On-This-Day-75-Years-Ago’ Twitter feed and photographs. Plus the novel that combines: the real…

Noreen and Paul visit Berlin in November 1940 where Stalin’s Foreign Minister, Molotov, is wooed by Ribbentrop and Hitler: they want the USSR, already in bed with Germany in the Molotov-Ribbentrop (or Nazi-Soviet) Pact to join the Axis Alliance and carve up most of the world. However, Churchill gatecrashes the party. Paul Letters is a historian, jo…

Noreen and Paul delve into the reasons why China discarded their emperors and empresses for an unemployable medical doctor – and why he handed rule to an opportunist who makes Donald Trump look shy. Paul Letters is a historian, journalist, educator and novelist. See paulletters.com for more history, including a daily ‘On-This-Day-75-Years-Ago’ Twit…

Noreen and Paul examine the rhetoric of the first presidential debates, in 1960, compared with 2016 Trump v Clinton. We consider whether ‘civility’ was or is an important trait in US presidential candidates. (On air I mention an article I wrote on civility in global leaders.) Paul Letters is a historian, journalist, educator and novelist. See paull…

We focus on the Taiwan Strait Crises of the 1950s and how close the world came to nuclear war. We see how the tail wagged the dog as little Taiwan bent the US to its will in the 1950s. And, throughout the crisis, we will see how Mao’s provocations entice the USSR to help China’s nuclear development. Paul Letters is a historian, journalist, educator…

We look at war between the two communist giants, the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union – a conflict which began in March 1969. And we’re going to be joined by a special guest who, as a US air force pilot, found himself too close for comfort to the Soviet fleet off China’s coast just as they prepared to strike China in 1969… We hear ab…

Our irregular guest historian Bruce Gordon joins us. As well as being an eye witness to the Pearl Harbor attack, a US air force pilot in Vietnam and Korea and – inadvertently – saving the planet from World War III (click here for that podcast), Bruce was born in the Philippines. He has written about the 1899-1902 ‘Phil-Am War’, and today he tells u…

Why World War III didn’t happen – when it looked odds on in October 1962. And we look at the three-way war in China in 1940. We investigate the ‘evidence’ that made the world believe a famous pop star, who is still alive today, “died” in 1969. Paul Letters is a historian, journalist, educator and novelist. See paulletters.com for more history, incl…

We look at the first US presidential election debate in history, and we’ll see how an afternoon by a hotel pool helps win that election and save humanity from World War III. And we examine what provoked the Japanese to join in alliance with Germany and Italy – signing the Tripartite Pact – in September 1940. Finally, we ask, who is the biggest chea…

In the first half, we take ourselves to Shanghai in August 1937 and the forgotten battle for the city. We’ll see why Chiang Kai-shek decided to take a stand in Shanghai, making the Battle of Shanghai the first major clash between the Imperial Japanese forces and the Nationalist Chinese. Saturday shoppers strolling near the river suffer a tragic sho…

Chiang Kaishek and Winston Churchill in 1940: Churchill the Appeaser and Chiang the Artful? Also, we ask what is it about Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech that makes it so good? And we mention probably the greatest oratory on race delivered since the “I have a dream” speech And, seamlessly(!), we celebrate the birthday of probably the w…

Why did Churchill appease the Japanese in 1940 and close the Burma Road? How did a punk band, a writer and God end communism in Eastern Europe? We look the great Amelia Earhart, whose aircraft disappeared over the Pacific on July 2nd 1937 – and now the hunt is back on to find her. This episode was first broadcast on 2 July 2015 on Noreen Mir’s 1-2-…

Join us for a trip through June 1940 and June 1950. Get to know the Norwegian whose treachery added his name to the dictionary in at least five European languages. Find out why Mussolini waited until June to join in the war and why that delay helped my Polish grandmother to escape. Join us – and my gran – in Paris when it is declared an ‘open city’…