From Mao’s Red Guard to conscription into the Chinese People’s Liberation Army

  Listen on Apple PodcassListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on OvercastListen on Pocket CastsListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! At twelve years old, Bing became a Red Guard—and for a few intoxicating months, he felt invincible. Growing up in Mao’s Beijing, Bing was taught to worship Chairman Mao, recite the Little Red … Read more

Outnumbered 8-1 : An untold story of the Korean War

Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! At Chosin in the Korean War, a US Army force of 2,300 soldiers—a unit known as Task Force Faith—was positioned on the east side of the reservoir to protect the Marines’ flank but was overwhelmed by a Chinese force … Read more

Shaking Hands with China’s Second Most Powerful Man

 Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron!   Bill Hodes was an American school child in 1950s Revolutionary China and this is the second part of his story.  You can listen to episode 1 here. Among many stories we hear how he had the unique … Read more

New Orleans to Beijing: An American Childhood in 1950s Revolutionary China

 Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron!   Bill Hodes life was steeped in the complexities of Cold War politics. Born to Communist parents in the United States, Bill’s early years were anything but ordinary. Growing up in a politically active household, he was surrounded … Read more

Korea: War Without End

Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! The Korean War is often called “the forgotten war”—a brutal, complex conflict that claimed millions of lives but has largely faded from public memory, particularly in the West. Yet its consequences are still very much with us today, shaping … Read more

Surrounded and captured in the Korean War

Today is Veterans Day in the US and Armistice Day in the UK and to commemorate I’ve gone back into the archive to remember and share vivid testimony from Korean War veteran Tommy Clough who sadly passed away a couple of weeks ago. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome … Read more

The 1989 US Invasion of Panama & the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre

Every weekday on the History Daily podcast, Lindsay Graham takes you back in time to explore a momentous moment that happened ‘on this day’ in history. 1989 was a pivotal year for the Cold War. The fall of the Berlin Wall, free elections in Poland, and the almost bloodless revolutions in the other Warsaw Pact countries … Read more

Ron – a veteran of the Korean War & the Malayan Emergency

Ron Knight served in the Royal Marines on HMS Belfast during the Korean War of 1950-53. He was a gunner and describes the shore bombardments and how his gun was used in anti-aircraft defence. We also hear Ron describe life aboard the Belfast during this period Ron also served with the Royal Marine Commando during … Read more

Korean war veteran & prisoner of war

70 years ago today would have been the middle of a desperate battle by outnumbered British forces at the battle of the Imjin River in Korea. The Korean War was among the most destructive conflicts of the modern era, and one of the few times when the Cold War turned hot. There were approximately 3 … Read more

The China civil war and the independence of Taiwan 1949

  The events of 1949 in China reverberated across the world and throughout the rest of the century. That tumultuous year saw the dramatic collapse of Chiang Kai-shek’s ‘pro-Western’ Nationalist government, overthrown by Mao Zedong and his communist armies, and the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. I talk with author Graham Hutchings who … Read more