Introduction
In this final episode of our series Shocking Events That Made History, we will talk about shocking events related to leaders and losers, and shocking events that happened in wars, although it’s safe to say that any war is shocking enough to make it on our list of events.
Audio Episode
Episode Transcript
0:03
Whether by dint of force or natural charisma, political leaders are often perceived as larger than life. But what happens when their ways of governing aren’t so brilliant? From Imperial Russia to Communist China, people have suffered at the whims of monsters and fools, blood relatives betrayed gruesome executions and cruel power plays. These distasteful and sometimes downright evil attempts at governance are best left in the past, despite their poisonous persistence. Are you wondering what this episode is about? Well, this is the last episode of our series shocking events that made history and today we’re going to talk about shocking events related to leaders and losers. We’re going to talk about the Roman Empire, Ivan the Terrible the real Dracula, Richard the Third the Bullins, the end of the house of bourbon, Hitler’s regrettable ninth life, Mao Tse dongs terror Dean’s April cruel day for Saddam Hussein son, cannibal kings. And then we’re going to talk about some shocking events related to war. So don’t go anywhere. This is your host, Danny and this is a new episode from English plus podcast. And again, this is the last episode of our series, shocking events that made history whether this is the first time you’re listening to this series, or if you’ve been following the series since the beginning, you don’t want to miss this episode, because it has a lot of exciting and of course, shocking events that made history that’s coming next. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back. Now, let me remind you that you can find the transcript of this episode on my website English plus podcast.com. You can find the link in the show notes. And while you’re on the website, check out the different fun learning opportunities you can find on the website. And if you want to unlock all the possibilities on the website, you can become a patron and there has never been a better time to becoming a patron because starting next week, we’re going to have new premium audio series and a lot of benefits specially made for patrons. I’ll be talking a lot about that tomorrow. So stay tuned and listen to the episode tomorrow. That is kind of the introduction of a new kind of episodes. And at the same time, I’m going to tell you about all the changes that are happening in English plus now without further ado, let’s start our episode with the Roman Empire and the Roman revenge and emperors meeting their end. This is coming next. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be
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right back. Roman Emperor Caligula may have been one of the most depraved rulers in history, a self proclaimed God who slept with his own sisters and blissfully reveled in the bloodletting a friend and foe alike. But it wasn’t his cruelest excesses that ultimately did in the half mag monster. Rather, it was his incessant teasing of a particularly sensitive member of the Praetorian Guard. By most ancient accounts, Cassius Korea was a strong and brave soldier, but he was saddled with an unfortunate high pitched voice that psalm attributed to a war wound he sustained in the genital region. Caligula rarely missed an opportunity to mark and humiliate his guard as the ancient chronicler so toniest reported, whenever the emperor had Korea kiss his ring, he would hold out his hand forming and moving it in an obscene fashion. Fed up with the Emperor’s constant taunt Korea plotted his assassination attracting other disaffected Romans in the process. On January the 24th, the year 41 AD, the deed was done with prior purchase delivering the first thrust of the knife. Royal assassination became something of a trend in the centuries after, but the Roman Empire hit a new low on March the 28th 193 ad. That’s when the elite and swaggering Praetorian Guard slaughtered Emperor pertinax ruler of just three months are trying to restore order and discipline among their ranks. Later the same day, the guard offered the Imperial throne to the highest bidder at auction. And the ancient historian Herodion of Syria wrote, when this proclamation was known, the more honorable and weighty senators and old persons of noble origin and property would not approach the guard barracks to offer money in so vile a manner for a BIST merge sovereignty. But there was one wealthy senator, DDS Juliana’s, who saw an easy opportunity for advancement prodded by his ambitious wife and daughter Juliana’s rushed over to the barracks to make his bid. He offered a four Qin and eventually one, the people of Rome were disgusted by the charade rather than obey since they threw rocks at the new emperor, and as Herodion reported, hooted and reviled him as having bought the throne with luchar at an auction. Two months later, Septimus Severus disposed him, and here Julianne has reportedly cried but what evil have I done, and he cried that as he was dragged away to be beheaded, he also cried and said, Whom have I killed, and he was the third to be killed that same year, with two more to come, suggesting that the most dangerous position in the Roman Empire might be ruler. So that was about some shocking details in the history of the Roman Empire. Of course, that’s not the only shocking that you can find in Roman history. But that’s one of the most shocking things that made history back in the Roman Empire days. And next, we’re going to talk about Ivan the Terrible so don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.
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Before Ivan the fourth became the terrible only animals suffered the gleeful child Prince hurled dogs and cats from high towers, but things started to get nasty when on January the 16th 1547, Ivan was crowned at age 16 as the first star of all the rushes. Soon entire city suffered from the tsar’s increasingly imbalanced fury, most notably the city of Novgorod in 1570. But dangerously paranoid Ivan convinced his people plan to betray him in favor of the King of Poland ordered the city to be thoroughly sacked. 1000s of men, women and children from the elite to the lowliest peasants were systematically massacred. The rampage continued in Moscow that summer when hundreds of the tsar’s enemies were skinned, boiled, burned, or broken in an orgy of retribution on Red Square, as if that wasn’t enough to earn his dreadful epithet. Ivan reached a new low when he murdered his oldest son in a fit of fury. Three years later, in 1584, Ivan himself was mercifully dead. So Ivan the Terrible he was called for very good reasons. But that’s not the last shocking event we’re talking about that is related to leaders and losers. Next, we’re going to talk about the real Dracula who might be even scarier than the one we find in Bram Stoker’s book. So don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back to talk about the real Dracula.
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For centuries before Bram Stoker’s published his tale of the famously bloodthirsty count in 1897, blood, the third of all Lakeya or Vlad the Impaler, the real Dracula, created a spectacle of death far more frightening than fiction. Floods principality set on the lower Danube River in present day Romania was a gruesome battleground as Ottoman forces pushed westward into Christian Europe. As veo voted, Vlad had stopped paying an annual tribute to the Ottoman Sultan and his animosity toward the Turkish or any threat to his power was known on the night of June the 17th 1462 of Laad and his army surprised the slumbering camp of invading Ottoman Turks but in all the mayhem he missed killing his intended quary the Sultan himself Muhammad the conqueror, so Vlad prepare something more chilling for his enemy, approaching will AKs capital of Targoviste, the Sultan and his army met a horrific display, Dracula’s specialty, a virtual forest of spikes, impaled upon which were the corpses of some 20,000 captured Turks. So ghastly was the site that even the sultan was repulsed, retreating straight away with his terrified army. So do you think the real Dracula is scarier than fiction? Or maybe the fictitious Dracula is scarier? I don’t know you decide. And by the way, in the latest Hollywood Dracula movie, they kind of brought the story to the movie. Of course, they made him larger than life and he was a vampire and he could fly and everything. They added some elements of fiction, but they also added some details from history from the real Dracula. They kind of mixed it up. I don’t know if you watched the movie saw my best type of movies or whatever. But it was kind of different from the typical Dracula movies where you find him in a coffin. And just like he goes out at night and drinks blood and stuff like that. It’s different. So if you haven’t watched it, you might want to watch it anyway. It’s not a horror movie anyway, but that was about Dracula. And that’s not the last shocking event in today’s episode. The next event we’re going Talk about Richard the Third, the original Tricky Dick. That’s coming next. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back. Thanks to the titular play by Shakespeare, King Richard has emerged as the wickedest uncle in English history. While there’s no definitive proof that he caused the deaths of his young nephews, it’s indisputable that he made life miserable for the boys after the death of their father, King Edward the fourth on April the ninth 1483. It was Richard who intercepted the new king 12 year old Edward the fifth as he made his way toward the Capitol. It was Richard who installed the young sovereign in the Tower of London with his younger brother. It was Richard who managed to have both young men declared bastards and ineligible for the throne. And it was Richard who ended up wearing the crown. The young princes were never seen again. In 1674, while the Tower of London was being renovated, the bones of two young men believed to be those of Edward the fifth and his brother Richard, Duke of York, were uncovered beneath a stairway had their uncle ordered their deaths, as many historians believe no one knows for sure, but he’d at least effectively removed them from any real place in English history. So that was Richard the Third. And of course, Shakespeare contributed to his fame as the wickedest uncle in English history. And next, we’re not going far we’re going to stay in English history, and we’re going to talk about the Bullins so don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.
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Thomas bowling could not have been soaring higher in the court of Henry the eighth. He was the king’s father in law and relish the bounties that this exalted position afforded, but in May 15 36, ghastly accusations arose, charging incest between his children, Queen Anne Boleyn and George Viscount Rushford, the Queen the salacious indictment read and hereby quote, tempted her brother with her tongue in the said George’s mouth and the said George’s tongue in hers, and also with kisses, presents and jewels. Many historians dismissed the allegations as an excuse for King Henry the eighth to free himself of Queen Anne, who had yet to bear him a male heir contemporaries called the bluff to a few even bet on George’s widow. Yet the siblings were condemned in separate trials held on May the 15th, the Bolens maternal uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, was left to pronounce the death sentences. Thus, in addition to his prized royal standing, Thomas Boleyn, lost his only son to the headsman acts on May the 17th and his daughter and to a friend swordsman two days later, so that was about King Henry the Eighth and the unfortunate end of the Berlin siblings. And next we’re going to go all the way to France and talk about the end of the house of bourbon. That’s coming next don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back. The execution of Louie the 16th in January 1793, and later that year of Queen Mary Antoinette ended what was known as the Oceania regime in France. But for the surviving members of the bourbon royal dynasty, it was only the beginning of their troubles, bad luck and poor decisions played the family for the next three decades, until it finally buried them altogether. The Bourbon monarchy didn’t quite end when the guillotine severed Louie the 16th head in 1793, his only son automatically became Louie the 17. But there will be no crown for the seven year old boy only isolated imprisonment and vile mistreatment at the hands of his captors. And one time a doctor was allowed to see him and the doctor reported that the child was a victim of the most abject misery and of the greatest Abandonment when the child’s succumb to disease in 1795. His uncle succeeded him in exile as Louis the 18th. But Napoleon Bonaparte was destined to rule France next So Louis the 18th bided his time as a guest in other kingdoms until Bonaparte stumbled by invading Russia and was driven into exile at elbow. The Bourbon restoration seemed assured as Louie was invited back to France in 1814, to rule as a constitutional monarch, and except for a brief exile the following year when Napoleon escaped Elba and stormed back to France, the obese and Gowdy king ruled in relative peace until his death in 1824. Then his brother and successor, the ultraconservative Charles the 10th blew it for the Bourbons once and for all. The new king was determined to rule as an absolute monster, as if the lessons of the Revolution had been lost on him entirely. Charles dispensed with the constitutional restraints his predecessor had adopted by August the second 1830. In the midst of a burgeoning second revolution, the last bourbon of the direct royal line was forced to abdicate taking with him any notion that rule by divine right could be reconciled with France’s new leanings toward democracy. So with Charles the 10th came the end of the house of bourbons in France. Next, let’s move all the way to Germany to talk about the infamous Hitler Of course, and to talk about his regrettable nice life. That’s coming next. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.
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Adolf Hitler was born in Austria on April the 20th 1889 was that he had shared the fate of his siblings Gustavo, Ida, Otto and Edmund, who all died before the age of six, the bloodiest conflict in human history might have been avoided. Although I do believe that it was going to happen anyway with or without Hitler. If there was no Hitler, there would be a Hitler. But anyway, let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about Hitler’s regrettable knife life, right? So Hitler didn’t die before the age of six like his brothers and sisters. Instead, Adolph survived his childhood, two significant injuries during World War One and at least six assassination attempts before his rise to power in 1933. An Englishman by the name of Henry Tandy may have also unwittingly assisted the future fewer when both were soldiers fighting on opposite sides during the Battle of Marco in in World War One, and injured Hitler is said to have passed through 10 DS line of fire 10 D recalled years later, and he said and here I quote, what Tandy said, I took aim, but couldn’t shoot a wounded man, so I let him go. Although some historians cast doubt on Hitler’s claim that he was among the men whom Tandy spared the young privates humane decision to hold fire would haunt him for the rest of his life. And here, I’m quoting dandy, if only I had known what he would turn out to be when I saw all the people, women and children he had killed and wounded, I was sorry to God, I let him go. So whether the story is true or not, whether he was really in the line of fire of 10 D, or that was just like one more thing for propaganda because Hitler tended to do that a lot. He used to brag about surviving all these assassination attempt, because he thought he was protected by God. And what a surprise. I mean, if you look at history, and see all these tyrannical maniacs, and murderers, almost all of them do all these hideous things they do in the name of God. Anyway, that was Hitler’s regrettable ninth life whether that story was right or not, but it was one of the most shocking events that made history and that’s why it made it to our series and to the last episode, where we’re going to talk about shocking events related to leaders are losers and wars. And next we’re going to talk about mob Z dongs terror teens, so don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.
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After nearly starving China to death with his failed Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong unleashed a brand new misery upon his people. his so called Cultural Revolution was meant to destroy every vestige of ancient culture or Western influence. It was enforced by surly teenagers who were transformed into Red Guards, millions of whom as reporter Robert elegant wrote, stocked across the vast nation like hordes of enraged soldier ants. This decade long spiral into insanity began on May the 16th 1966 and up ended the country’s traditional respect for elders, mere youths wielded ultimate control over personal property, human dignity and even life power. They sorely abused. Zang Hongbin was one of the millions of teenagers blindly beholden to Chairman Mao and left to cope with the wreckage of his own actions after Mao died in 1976. Zags denouncement of his own mother had led to her summary execution in 1970. And here I quote what Xang said in 2013, he said, I see her in my dreams just as young as she was then I kneel on the floor clutching her hands for fear she will disappear. Mom, I cry. I beg your forgiveness, but she doesn’t respond. Never one Once has she answered me, this is my punishment. I mean, of course, that was just one example of the atrocities that happened. And I want to make something clear here when we talk about people. I mean, we talked about Hitler, well, that doesn’t belittle the German people or Germany as a country in any way. And also Mao Zedong that doesn’t belittle China in any way. I mean, China has one of the richest cultures in our history. And we’re not talking about people who belong to certain countries. Now, if you’ve been following along in the series, you know that there is no discrimination. And I talked about almost everybody. But the point is that certain people were given the power, or they kind of seized an opportunity they had, and they were kind of lucky. And I can’t explain why luck comes to people like that. And of course, they were coming. They were clever in a way, megalomania, so of course, but they were clever nonetheless. And while they had the chance to use all that power, they had to bring peace and prosperity upon their people. They made their people and some of them even the rest of the world suffer, and millions of people died because of it. So I can’t imagine anything more shocking than this. But that’s not the last shocking event in today’s episode, because we still have more and next we’re going to talk about Turkmenistan’s lunatic leader. That’s what we’re going to talk about next. I’ll be right back.
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Though Turkmenistan gained independence from the USSR on October the 27th 1991, it was left with a dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, who Raya Paul Soro described as one of the wealthiest and most powerful lunatics on earth. He bent beards and ballet car radios, the opera and gold teeth which were ordered to be extracted, he commissioned bizarre feats of engineering with a vast wealth he blundered in part from his impoverished country’s natural gas profits, reminders of nirsoft, omnipotence and preening narcissism were raised everywhere, on banners, billboards, paper currency and in schools. A 250 foot gold plated statue of him stood atop the arch of neutrality in the capital city of Ashgabat, and constantly rotated to face the sun. He has of once told a journalist and here I quote, of course, I admitted there are too many portraits, pictures and monuments of me. I don’t find any pleasure in it, but the people demand it because of their mentality. Fortunately, Turkmenistan’s era of being a gigantic Madhouse run by the maddest patient, as Thoreau described it expired when the dictator himself did in 2006. But if you think he was the only lunatic in modern history, think again, because next we’re going to talk about Saddam Hussein’s son all day, and what came to be known as April cruel day. That’s coming next. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back. When Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s mania called sun all day, he wasn’t torturing people to death or plundering the state to fund his lavish lifestyle. He loved the good gag, and what better occasion than April Fool’s Day or as it is cold in Iraq is Bethany sang, which are the Arabic words for April lie. On April the first 1998, the Eau de owned newspaper Babil published a front page article declaring that the UN sanctions imposed after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait would be lifted. On the second page, readers were letting on the job which no doubt left 1000s of deprived and malnourished Iraqis howling with laughter, or they topped himself the next year with the outrageous announcement that meager food rations would henceforth be supplemented with bananas, chocolate and soft drinks a few years and more perverse shenanigans later, a deadly raid put an end to day and his antics. And next we’re going to move all the way to Africa, and we’re going to talk about one of the most distasteful coronations in history, so don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back. On December the fourth 1977 and accused cannibal crowned himself emperor of the Central African Republic. Despite the nation’s abject poverty, John videl, Bokassa insisted on a coronation ceremony as lavish as his hero Napoleon’s a century and a half before, it costs nearly $25 million, which is almost a quarter of his nation’s annual income to prepare for the extravaganza Wakasa turned to France, the country that had backed his coup in 1966, a sculptor constructed a two ton gilded throne in the shape of a Eagle with outstretched wings on coronation day. His Imperial Majesty was be decked in a tire designed by the 200 year old French firm that had dressed Napoleon himself. Most of the world’s leaders declined invitations to the event. After the crowning guests feasted on piles of caviar and sturgeon washed down with 1000s of bottles of vintage wine and champagne. Evidently, there was another less palatable delicacy on the menu too. When the guests had consumed their fill, the Emperor whispered to French Minister of cooperation, Robert galley, and here I quote, what the emperor said,
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you never noticed, but you ate human flesh. So I don’t know how shocking that might be. But it is very shocking. And the problem is that sometimes those maniacs, those lunatics, those even cannibals, they are backed at some point by some of the most sophisticated countries in the world. So there is kind of controversy. I know, I’m not saying that France is bad, of course not. But what I’m saying is that sometimes because of those dirty politics, and because of some benefits, they want to get, they are ready, some countries are ready to back the devil to enslave all the people and get his ways even, you know, just like for this book, Casa cannibal, it cannibalism, I know, this is all kind of unimaginably crazy. But maybe that’s kind of a red alarm for countries who have power. I mean, we all know that you have the power to support and even to implant some kind of ruler in developing countries, or as politically incorrect known as third world countries. When you want to support someone and bring that person to power, just make sure you’re not bringing a lunatic to power. But it’s kind of difficult, you know, because this person has to agree to sell his country in return of him becoming a ruler. So it’s kind of a trade off. And it’s kind of difficult to find a righteous man to accept such a deal. But anyway, we’re not talking about politics here. And I’m not going to get any further into politics. But these examples should raise alarms. And to be honest, it’s not efficient, because most of these people failed. And the people who backed them failed with him. So maybe he just for change, look for some righteous people and back these people, maybe to build countries that will become your allies in the future. Even the people of these countries would become your allies, not just a couple of rulers here and there. Anyway, let me just stop talking about politics because I don’t know where that will take me. And next we’re going to move on and talk about shocking events that have to do with war and discord. Now, of course, war is always shocking. Any kind of war is shocking, because there is no reason in the world. We should kill each other over anything. But we do. And this thing is not going to change, I guess because we’ve been doing it since the dawn of man. And we’re going to continue doing this until the sunset of man as well. Maybe one of these wars will just bring our downfall eventually, but anyway, next, we’re going to talk about the charge of the blind king, so don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back. King John, the first of Bohemia was a brave warrior, no doubt about that. But he was also blind well, which was obviously a distinct disadvantage in any battle, particularly so on August 26 1346. When John and his ally Philip the sixth of France faced the English army of Edward the third at gresty. With the introduction of the lethally efficient English Longbow warfare took a decided turn in this Clash of Kings. John, however, was undeterred. Eager for action, the cyclists monitored who was at age 50. Well past his prime gathered his most loyal comrades around him. And according to the contemporary chroniclers off or south, King John said to those comrades, and here I quote, serves, you are my men, my companions and friends in this journey, I require you bring me so far forward, that I may strike one stroke with my sword, to accommodate their King and guide him into the thick of the battle. The men tied all the reins on their horses together and charged as for Sal concluded his account of the ill fated effort, they had ventured themselves so forward, they were their old slain, and the next day they were found in the place about the king. So here you might say that was kind of a brave thing to do. But for me, it’s kind of a stupid thing to do. Because why would you just go to your death? Because of what what’s the point? Why would you just like so valiantly go to death? To defend what to defend your king who cares nothing about Do you or who just wants to die a glorious death? But of course, I will have to say that this happened a long time ago and back then ideas were different, but till now, some people are still doing it well, not for a king. But for people who care nothing about them. They are ready to die for people who don’t give anything about them. Anyway, that was the charge of the blind king, our first shocking event that has to do with wars, but it’s definitely not the last we’re going to talk about an unfortunate footnote to the Civil War. That’s coming next. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.
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Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865, prompting his union counterpart Ulysses S. Grant to declare and here I quote what Grant said the war is over. The rebels are our countrymen again. But it was not to be one final skirmish would prolong the bloodshed on May 12 and 1318 65. Union and Confederate forces confronted one another along the banks of the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas in what became known as the Battle of Palmito ranch. The fighting started when Union Colonel Theodore H. Barrett ordered an attack on the Confederate camp, possibly because he was eager to see action before the war’s end, or possibly because he needed horses. Whatever the case, what followed was a small, insignificant class with relatively few casualties on the heels of the bloodiest four years in American history. The Confederacy triumphed with the capture of dozens of Union soldiers, but it would not change the reality that the South had been defeated. among the casualties of battle was the luckless union, Private John Jefferson Williams, who earned the dubious distinction of being the last soldier killed in the civil war that had already ended. So that was something shocking, of course, the civil war in its entirety was shocking. But, you know, we’re just talking about some shocking events that you might not have heard of, I’m pretty sure that you know a lot about the Civil War, but maybe not about this little detail I just mentioned as one of our shocking events that made history and next we’re going to talk about the wrong turn that led to World War One, so don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.
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Call it the bad day. That almost wasn’t the plot by a band of Serbian nationalists to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro Hungarian throne had failed, or so it seemed as the Archduke and his wife Sophie traveled through Sarajevo by motorcade, one of the six killers tossed a bomb at their car, but he bounced off the back and detonated under the vehicle behind them severely wounding the occupants and a number of bystanders. The motorcade sped away to a reception at the city hall, the Archduke decided to cancel the rest of the scheduled events for that day and instead visit those wounded by the assassination attempt. The plan was to drive straight to the hospital along the route that would avoid the city center but the driver was given wrong information and took a right turn on France Joseph Street, one of the assassins having dispersed from the scene with the others happened to be eating at a nearby deli when he spotted the Archduke scar, the young man sees the unexpected opportunity. The rest of the story is all too well known. The murder of Franz Ferdinand, in part triggered the inexorable march toward the First World War, one of the bloodiest conflicts in the history of man. So it was just this one wrong turn that kind of of course, that was not the only reason. But that kind of led to World War One that was shocking enough to make it to our series shocking events that made history and it is not the last one, we still have a few more shocking events before the entire series is over. Because remember, today is the last episode of our series shocking events that made history so don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back. Now, this shocking event is not exactly related to war, but the shocking thing about it was kind of caused by the war and we’re still talking about World War One, but it has to do with a movie that happened in 1917. producer Robert Goldstein made a seemingly patriotic revolutionary war epic called the spirit of 76 an earnest recreation of such all American episodes as Paul Revere is midnight ride and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. There were also less wholesome depictions of the villainous British bayonet eating babies and dragging away American Girls by the hair. And that’s where Goldstein and his film ran afoul of the US government. The United States was just entering world or one in May 1917, when the spirit of 76 was screened in Chicago with its patriotic themes, the timing of the film’s debut seemed perfect. The authorities thought otherwise. Goldstein was ordered to cut the scenes of British atrocities lest they inflame the public while the country fought side by side with Britain in Europe, the producer complied. But when the film premiered in Los Angeles on November the 27th, the excised scenes had been restored, Goldstein was arrested and charged under the recently passed sweeping Espionage Act, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. And though he served only three, his stilted representations of British atrocities from a century and a half earlier, had made him an enemy of the state, and he was a ruined man. So it’s kind of strange, you know, just like when the government tells you when to tell the truth and when not to tell the truth, because now it’s not the time and sometimes when you tell the truth, you may become a spy who knows. But anyway, again, let’s not get into politics. And next we’re going to talk about President Woodrow Wilson when he was out of his league that’s coming next. Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back. The Treaty of Versailles, especially its provision for a League of Nations was precious to Woodrow Wilson. He called it one of the greatest documents of human history reflecting as it did his vision for a New World Order. The President advocated for his treaty with uncompromising zeal, prompting French Prime Minister George Clemenceau to refer to him contemptuously as Jesus Christ. Wilson lagged divine inspiration. However, when it came to dealing with his political adversaries, particularly Henry Kabul Lodge, the Republican Senate Majority Leader, the two despised each other, Wilson neglected to include lodge or any of his Republican opponents in formulating the treaty in
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Paris. On July the 10th 1919, Wilson went to Capitol Hill to deliver the treaty concluding his speech to the Senate, the President asked, and here’s a quote, shall we, or any free people hesitate to accept this great duty? The answer from the Republicans was a resounding yes. Lodge was especially outspoken about his objections to the league, which he felt obligated the United States to intervene in international quarrels in which it had no interests with his cherished treaty imperiled. Wilson determined to tour the West and sell his vision directly to the American people. He had to cut the trip short because of failing health. And soon after he returned to Washington, he suffered a massive stroke, with Wilson debilitated large since the new opportunity to got the treaty on November the 19th. For the first time in its history, the Senate voted against a peace treaty. As far as the United States was concerned, the League of Nations was dead. Four years later, so was Wilson. When the President’s widow learned that Lodge was planning to represent the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at his funeral, she sent him a current note requesting that he not attend, he obliged. During the subsequent two years of instability in Europe, Hitler re mobilized and made Nazi Germany into a world power, which eventually led to an even bloodier World War than the first. Now next we’re going to talk about Neville Chamberlain’s fleeting peace, don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back, we have just a couple of more shocking events before we conclude this episode and our entire series stay tuned.
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Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from Germany on September the 30th 1938. With a pact he was certain would ensure peace for Britain. A crowd roared its approval when he read from the document he had signed with Adolf Hitler struck with the intent that our two peoples never go to war with one another again. Chamberlain and other European leaders had just negotiated the Munich Agreement, which allowed Germany to claim most of Czechoslovakia in exchange for the guarantee that the third Reich’s territorial ambitions would end there. For a nation with fresh memories of the great wars carnage. The Diplomacy made Chamberlain a hero returning to his residence, he shouted his immortal message to the masses. And here I quote what he said peace for our time. While his triumph was short lived Hitler’s soon broke the agreement and Chamberlain resigned in 1940, Winston Churchill who’d from the start declared the Munich Agreement, a defeat rallied Britain through the Second World War. And next we’re going to talk about something related to General Douglas MacArthur, so don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back. The end of the story Allied victory gives us General Douglas MacArthur the hero who returned as promised to liberate the Philippines at the close of World War Two. But his opening gambit in that conflict was less than brilliant. Indeed, it was a fiasco with a Japanese aerial attack that caught MacArthur entirely unprepared. Japanese bombers were surprised a day after Pearl Harbor to find such a vulnerable target outside Manila. Nearly half the entire US Army Air Forces in the Far East parked in need peacetime formation. They destroyed the base in a few hours and with it any viable defense of the Philippines. As one Japanese officer later recalled, we were very worried because we were sure after learning of Pearl Harbor, you would disperse your planes or make an attack on our base at Formosa, which is present day Taiwan. But for some reason, MacArthur did neither the generals biographer William Manchester called MacArthur’s inaction, one of the strangest episodes in American military history. So yes, the end of the story, we know that General Douglas MacArthur is the hero, but His start was not all that brilliant. And trust me, of course, I’m not saying that he was not a brilliant man in the end. But many of these victories were achieved by the blood, sweat and tear of the man on the ground of those soldiers who gave their lives to get these victories. And yes, of course, they were the strategists, those leaders, those colonels and generals, etc. But those men brought victory more than anybody else. Anyway, again, no politics, only shocking events in our series, and next we’re going to talk about something that is related to Lieutenant General George S. Patton, so don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back. Lieutenant General George S. Patton strode into a military evacuation hospital on August the third 1943 In the midst of the Sicily campaign of World War Two. He came up on private Charles H cool, slouched on a stool looking to well to be their patent demanded to know where he was hurt, to which private cool reportedly replied with a shrug that he was not wounded but nervous. The hard bitten pattern would have none of it. And here I’m quoting what his biographer Martin Bloomington wrote, the general immediately flared up curse the soldier called him all types of a coward then slapped him across the face with his gloves and finally grabbed the soldier by the scruff of his neck and kicked him out of the tent. The enraged general demanded that cool immediately be sent back to the front during a hospital visit. Seven days later, he encountered another Mullingar, private Paul G. Bennett, who had been removed from the front suffering all the symptoms of what was then known as battle fatigue pattern came up to the Shivering young man and asked what the trouble was. And Bennett responded, it’s my nerves. I can’t stand the shelling anymore. Pattern screamed here your nerves hell, you are just a goddamn coward.
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Shut up that god damn crying after slapping Bennett twice Patton bark, you’re getting back to the frontlines and you may get shot and killed. In fact, I ought to shoot you myself. You God damn whimpering coward. With that pattern pulled out his pistol prompting the hospital’s commander to physically separate the two. Panel left attend still yelling baton Superior General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appalled upon hearing of the slapping incidents and wrote to the general questioning his judgment and future usefulness in the aftermath, Patton was forced to apologize to the men he had abused, which he did grudgingly and was effectively sidelined for the next 11 months. Private call later took a benign view of the incident. And here I quote what he said about Patton he said Patton was pretty well worn out. I think he was suffering a little battle fatigue himself. Fortunately for the allies, the generals aggression was better directed on the battlefield. The Sicily campaign was a tremendous success, and his Third Army made major contributions to the Allied drive toward Germany AFTER D DAY. Well, sometimes these things are excusable. I mean, battle fatigue, the nerves, the pressure, it affects all men specially in times of war. But still, these were shocking things to hear about specially from a decorated general like George S baton. So that was one more shocking event in our series, shocking events that made history and we’ve come to the very last event and the very last shocking events in our series, and that’s something happened in Norway. The rockets Red Scare that’s coming next. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back. A bad day averted can still be a very bad day. And that was when the world was just a blink away from nuclear or annihilation on January the 25th 1995. That morning, a joint us Norwegian scientific team launched a four stage rocket from an island off Norway’s northeastern coast to study the Aurora Borealis only problem was the Russians were never alerted to the launch and the rockets appearance in the sky deeply unnerved them, it resembled us Trident missiles and came from a region the Russians had long considered threatening, what resulted was the single most dangerous moment of the nuclear missile age. And these were the words Peter Vincent Price, who’s a former CIA official used to describe that war scare President Boris Yeltsin and the Russian high command their fingers poised over the button that could lead to Armageddon had only minutes to decide whether to strike back with the 4700 strategic warheads at their disposal. Fortunately, for the fate of mankind, the rocket headed away from Russian AirSpace and fell into the seed, the button remained on pushed, and the lesson of that day became less about the Aurora Borealis, than rocket notification protocols. But you know what it’d be come to think about it, the whole thing is kind of crazy. I mean, would you keep a bomb at your own house, and you know that this bomb might trigger any minute. Now, of course, you had it under control, and you have your security protocols and whatever. But it may trigger any moment, maybe if one of your children kind of figures out a way to push that red button. Now, of course, I know, it’s not that simple as they show us in movies. But if they kind of figure out a way to trigger that button and blow up the house, what would you do, then? Of course, you wouldn’t do anything because you would be dead. But the point is, why would you have a bomb like this in your house in the first place? Why do we have all these nuclear weapons? Who are we going to destroy? We know that the moment we’re going to use one of these nuclear missiles on each other? It’s going to be the end of everything, to why are we keeping them? I mean, countries spend trillions of dollars building their nuclear arsenal? For what? Are they really going to use it one day? Are they really going to end life as we know it? And then we will be in one of those science fiction movies, or maybe even video games when there’s nothing but a wasteland and some kind of ugly creatures roaming around and just trying to kill us. And actually, we don’t need those creatures to kill us because we will be killing each other for resources for food and water and stuff like that. Anyway, it’s a grim picture. I know it is shocking, and maybe one of the most shocking things that can ever happen that we hope never happens. But you never know. All it takes is one mistake, or one foolish act by one foolish person. And I just told you about a lot of lunatics. And we have a lot of them in history and present day and we will always have these lunatics. What if they have the power to launch one of these missiles and just launch the entire world into this nuclear Armageddon? Wouldn’t it be wiser just to forget about this whole thing? To dismantle this whole arsenal? Why do we keep weapons that would kill each and every last one of us?
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I don’t know. That’s kind of power play that people who are as stupid as I am will never understand. But anyway, that was the last shocking event in today’s episode, and actually in the entire series, that is the last episode of our series shocking events that made history. Thank you very much for making it this far into the episode for listening to the entire episode, actually. And I would like to remind you that you can find the transcript of this episode on my website, the link is in the description. While you’re there, just take a look at the other learning opportunities, the other fun learning opportunities and other than learning as well on my website, and there’s something special for patrons so just check it out and become a patron and especially now it’s the perfect time to become a patron not only to support me and support my podcast, which is of course vital in order to survive and continue but also you will get in great benefits and starting from next week, we will have a lot of premium content premium audio episodes and series will be exclusively available to my Patrons on Patreon. The link is also in the description of the episode, take the link, go to patreon become a patron today and take your learning and fun to the next level. With that being said I’d like to thank you again for listening to another episode from English plus podcast. This is your host Danny I will see you next time.
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