Show Notes
1962 OAS Averting Nuclear Standoff Serhii Plokhy, Part Two: Superpower tensions reached peak danger during Black Saturday when an American reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba and submarine B-59 nearly launched a nuclear torpedo. Kennedy and Khrushchev ultimately resolved the crisis by trading Soviet missile removal for American security pledges and secret withdrawal of Jupiter missiles from Turkey bases. (2)
More from The John Batchelor Show
1942 Wartime Alliance Diplomacy Robert Schmuhl, author of Mr. Churchill in the White House: The Untold Story of a Prime Minister and Two Presidents: Winston Churchill conducted crucial wartime diplomacy while staying in the White House Rose Bedroom. Dictating endless memos, he successfully persuaded Franklin Roosevelt to adopt a Germany First military strategy and addressed joint sessions of Congress. Years later, Churchill revisited Dwight Eisenhower, enjoying a sentimental Gettysburg farm tour together during 1959 visits. (1)
1970 Flawed Kabul Withdrawal Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson, Part Two: Diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad negotiated the Doha agreement while marginalizing Afghan leaders. President Biden enforced a strict six hundred troop limit, forcing military commanders to abandon defensible Bagram Airfield in favor of vulnerable Kabul airport. Inflated Afghan troop figures and delayed evacuation directives produced chaotic panic when Kabul fell to Taliban forces. (2)
1919 KABUL Abbey Gate Bombing Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson, authors of Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End, Part One: During August 2021, American forces faced immense chaotic crowds while managing Kabul airport evacuation gates. The CIA utilized National Strike Units and Black Gate access to move endangered personnel. Meanwhile, snipers spotted suicide bomber Abdul Rahman al-Logari, freed earlier from Bagram, but lacked engagement authorization before Abbey Gate tragically exploded nearby. (1)
Cuban Missile Origins Serhii Plokhy, author of Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Part One: Upon discovering Sovietnuclear missiles in Cuba, President Kennedy faced intense political pressure while considering immediate airstrikes against a naval blockade. Soviet leader Khrushchev secretly deployed intermediate weapons and forty thousand troops to offset strategic missile imbalances. Both leaders struggled against miscalculations, communication gaps, and Berlinanxieties during October 1962 deliberations. (1)
1940 THAMES Examining Cambridge Five Infiltration and Activism Gaius and Germanicus: Speaking from first-century Londinium in 92 AD, the hosts discuss the legacy of the Cambridge Five, an elite Oxbridge spy ring recruited by Soviet intelligence during the 1930s. They contrast disciplined upper-class operatives, who successfully infiltrated British security organs out of ideological devotion, with contemporary political agitators. Modern street activists lack organizational discipline and aim merely to destroy government institutions rather than serve foreign powers. Meanwhile, progressive establishment figures work within existing state mechanisms and non-governmental organizations to advance globalist agendas. Consequently, contemporary institutional conflict centers primarily on internal domestic rivalries rather than classic covert espionage. (3)