Ukraine and A Brief History of Atrocities in Warfare and Empire

Websters defines atrocity as “a shockingly bad or atrocious act, object, or situation.”

Russian atrocities on Ukrainian civilians have been the top of the 24 second news cycle since the invasion began. Since the advent of industrial warfare at the end of 19th century, war has been waged increasingly on civilian populations than opposing military forces. Wars of attrition have had the goal of subjecting the populace to “shockingly bad” actions to force the downfall of its ruling regime or submission of a resisting insurgency. The 20th century is full of examples of this by the British, the Germans, the Japanese, the Russians, and of course, the Americans.

Listen in: https://apple.co/3vt9eth

As the stories emerge from the war between Ukraine and Russia, detailing atrocities committed on civilian populations, we thought it was a good moment to talk about some of this history. We start with the Civil War and World War One (early industrial wars), the advent of air power, brutal occupations in Nanking, Korea and Vietnam, bombings of Dresden, Tokyo and Hiroshima, U.S. wars in Korea and Vietnam, Central American death squads and the forever wars in the Middle East.

Oliver Stone’s JFK Conspiracy: The Buzzanco-DiEugenio Debate

Recently G&R co-host and award-winning historian Bob Buzzanco debated Oliver Stone’s writer on his documentary “JFK Revisited,” James DiEugenio, about Stone’s theory that the “deep state” had JFK killed because he was going to withdraw from Vietnam, thaw relations with Castro, and end the Cold War.

Listen in: https://apple.co/3DRb37h

They discussed Kennedy’s actual policies as president, his aggressive actions in Vietnam and Cuba, his continued imperial approach to Latin America, his tough approach to the Soviet Union.  They also discussed the minutae of Oswald and the Warren Report, the “scenery” and “parlor games,” in Stone’s own words, of the JFK assassination.

In this debate, Buzzanco makes the important points that people need to look at the evidence, the documents and archives of what Kennedy actually did, rather than anecdotes and stories told long after the fact.

War Pigs: Ukraine and the History of the Military-Industrial Complex

Recently, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes reported to his shareholders, “[W]e are seeing, I would say, opportunities for international sales. We just have to look to last week where we saw the drone attack in the UAE, which have attacked some of their other facilities. And of course, the tensions in Eastern Europe, the tensions in the South China Sea, all of those things are putting pressure on some of the defense spending over there. So I fully expect we’re going to see some benefit from it.”  While lauded in the press for his comments, Hayes’ thinking embodies structures established by government and private industry for over a hundred years.

Listen in: https://apple.co/34cn5KZ

Why Oliver Stone and “JFK Revisited” are Full of S**t!

Oliver Stone’s new documentary “JFK Revisited” have been hitting the airwaves of late claiming to have a “smoking gun” about the assassination of John F. Kennedy (JFK). Stone and his team of assassinologists main thesis is that the military-industrial complex conspired to have JFK killed because Kennedy was a secret dove and wanted to pull the troops out of Vietnam, end the Cold War and splinter the Central Intelligence Agency into a thousand pieces.

Scott interviews G&R co-host, author and professor of history Bob Buzzanco about Kennedy era foreign and military policy disproving the claims of Stone and his films.

The Reality of the Tet Offensive: Military Failure and Economic Crisis

embssy
Tet Attack on the Embassy

cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

by Bob Buzzanco

Tet was a pivot point of the Vietnam War, and it’s been misrepresented ever since……

At the end of January the media will commemorate one of the more important and decisive events of the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive. On January 30th, 1968 the combined enemy forces of the Viet Cong, the People’s Liberation Armed Forces in the South, and the People’s Army of Vietnam from the North attacked virtually every center of military and political importance in the Republic of Vietnam, even invading the U.S. Embassy grounds. Within sixty days, President Lyndon Johnson would reject a request for a massive reinforcement of troops to Vietnam, begin to de-escalate the war, and withdraw from the 1968 presidential campaign. Tet was as determinative as any event in the Vietnam era and has maintained near-mythic status since.

The Myths of JFK!

In this episode, we go myth busting. Our target is “Camelot” itself.

It’s the 60th anniversary of the election of John F. Kennedy and since his untimely death in 1963, he has been elevated to liberal sainthood by all parts of the establishment. We discuss JFK’s legacy, and debunk the many enduring lies that people–from Oliver Stone to QAnon to today’s liberal scholars and media– still believe about John Kennedy’s saintly acts, whose politics have lived on in Clinton, Obama, and now Joe Biden.

Listen in: https://bit.ly/MythsofJFKGandR

We get into John and Robert Kennedy’s relationship with the red-baiting Joe McCarthy; and JFK’s role as a  civil rights “hero” (while simultaneously wire-tapping Martin Luther King).  We also pierce the myth, perpetuated by Oliver Stone’s film “JFK”,  that Kennedy wanted to withdraw troops from Vietnam and end the Cold  War.

December 20th is also the 29th anniversary of the release of Oliver Stone’s film and we take particular aim at its falsehoods.

Noam Chomsky’s Life of Dissent with Prof. Clinton Fernandes

Today is Noam Chomsky’s 92nd birthday.  In this special episode, Bob goes solo and interviews Prof. Clinton Fernandes of the University of New South Wales, Australia about the influence of radical thinker, author, political commentator and activist Noam Chomsky, in particular with regard to the Indonesian occupation of East Timor and the American air war on Laos.

Listen here:https://bit.ly/NoamChomskyDayGandR

Professor Clinton Fernandes is a former Australian Army officer who  served in the Australian Intelligence Corps. A professor at the  University of New South Wales, Australia, he has published on the  relationship between science, diplomacy and international law,  intelligence operations in foreign policy, the political and regulatory  implications of new technology and Australia’s external relations more  generally. He is the author of several publications including “Island  off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign  Policy,”  and “What Uncle Sam Wants: U.S. Foreign Policy Objectives in  Australia and Beyond.” 

Buzzanco: Vietnam and Civil Rights

The latest U.S. history lecture from Green and Red Podcast co-host, and University of Houston history professor, Bob Buzzanco.

In the latest segment, Dr. Buzzanco gets into the Vietnam War. Including US involvement; Buddhist uprising; Gulf of Tonkin; Guerrilla War; My Lai; Tet; Vietnamization; Victory of the Revolution; Antiwar Movement; MLK’s A Time to Break the Silence.

He also talks about the Modern Civil Rights Era: The Modern Civil Rights Era, Racism, Law, Violence, the Economy–through Slavery and segregation to Black Lives Matter.

The Other Fifties with Professor Bob Buzzanco

The latest U.S. history lecture from Green and Red Podcast co-host, and University of Houston history professor, Bob Buzzanco.

In this lecture he discusses “The Other 1950s”; Beatniks (Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs). Rebels in film–James Dean and Brando. The sexual revolution of Kinsey and Hefner. Plus Mad Magazine.