Tag: history

WWII and Cold War history book – “War in the American Pacific and East Asia, 1941-1972” (University of Kentucky Press, 2019) – Hal Friedman interview

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Dr. Hal M. Friedman is Associate Chair of History and Professor of Modern History at Henry Ford College. He has published multiple books on U.S. national security policy in the immediate postwar Pacific. He recently edited a book on the same subject and we spoke about the subject matter and the process of publishing essay collections.

0:46 Hal talks about how he got into writing on this subject and how his father had fought in WWII.

3:25 – Hal wanted to do a collection that marked the 60th anniversary of Operation Crossroads. He talks about how this collection came about.

6:16 – Hal talks about the essays in the book and the Pacific thread that binds them together.

9:25 – Hal talks about his trilogy on American national security in the Pacific basin and how those connect to this book.   The U.S. dropped Japan as the main enemy and replaced it with the Soviet Union.

11:00 – Hal brings up the term American Lake for the Pacific.

15:00 – Hal talks about the goals of the US Navy before and after WWII.

21:00 – Hal talks about how the nuclear situation was addressed right after WWII.

24:20 – Hal talks about how European colonialism affected American security plans in the Pacific.

27:04 – Hal talks about how the US tried to eject all non-native foreigners, including European Catholic missionaries, from the Micronesia Islands.

30:22 – Hal discusses the economics of the American security program in the Pacific.

44:00 – Hal talks about how he put the book together.

46:19 – Hal discusses how R1 type institutions don’t respect other institutions as much as they should.

47:52 – Hal talks about the difficulties of putting together a book of history essays.

50:00 – Hal talks about the Association of the US Army authors’ day and how helpful University of Kentucky Press has been.

52:39 – Hal talks about his next project – U.S. war plans for the Pacific from 1945-1947.

53:39 – Hal can be found at the University of Kentucky Press website.

56:36 – Hal mentions that the history field is doing badly.

Links of interest

https://www.kentuckypress.com/live/title_detail.php?titleid=5527#.XY_4w397mM8

https://www.tamupress.com/search-results/?keyword=Arguing-over-the-American-Lake

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Hal Friedman

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, crossroads, naval history, pacific war, kentucky, henry ford, micronesia, navy, marines, marshall, chiang kai-shek, okinawa, Soviet Union, Japan, communism, nuclear war, spruance, colonialism, Interior, AUSA, OPLANS

16th century Spanish New World history book – “A Most Splendid Company” (University of New Mexico Press, 2019) – Richard Flint interview

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Richard Flint is a historian who has been writing on the 16th century Coronado Expedition for many years. His latest book deals with the global context of the expedition and we spoke about it.

0:59 – Richard talks about how he got into studying and writing on the Coronado Expedition.

4:16 – Richard talks about how this book differs from their previous books on the Coronado expedition.

12:15 – Richard addresses how military focused the expedition was.

14:40 – Richard talks about the armor used on the expedition.

19:00 – Richard describes the evidence that the expedition was not looking for gold but rather was looking for trade routes.

21:03 – Richard talks about what the motives of the native Mexican warriors on the expedition were.

25:45 – Richard talks about how they did the research to determine the roster of the expedition.

51:47 – Richard talks about non-Spanish documents that would be helpful for this research.

57:00 – Richard talks about a document he found about a slave sold four times in one day.

1:08:01 – They have a website coronado.unm.edu for more information.

Links of Interest

https://unmpress.com/books/most-splendid-company/9780826360229

https://coronado.unm.edu/

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Richard Flint

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, conquistadors, spain, mexico, coronado, antonio de mendoza, armor, men-at-arms, helmets, chainmail, slaves, archives, book merchants, italy, china, trade route, glyphs, priests, expedition

Cold War history book – “Spy Pilot” (Prometheus Books, 2019) – Francis Gary Powers, Jr. interview

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Francis Gary Powers, Jr. is son of the famed U-2 pilot who was downed during a mission. Gary has spent years researching his father’s life and developing the Cold War Museum. We spoke about his new book that covers his father’s and family’s life and career.

1:06 – Gary explained why he wrote the book on his father.

4:00 – Gary talks about he structured the book. He discusses who he interviewed for the book and FOIA requests.

5:53 – Gary talked about how he got the government to help him with his research.

10:18 – Gary talks about how the US government initially refused to believe that the Soviets had missiles that could have reached his father’s plane.

12:00 – Gary talks about how he got into this research.

15:50 – Gary talks about the various sections of the book.

17:01 – Gary talks about how his book adds to the history of this event.

18:40 – Gary talks about the Soviet pilot who was shot down chasing Gary Powers.

21:25 – Gary talks about how the Russians celebrated their pilots.

25:20 – Gary talks about his involvement with the movie “Bridge of Spies.”

28:56 – Gary talks about the Cold War Museum.

34:51 – Gary talks about some of the interesting spy and other items held at the Cold War Museum.

41:51 – Gary talks about the similarities between early NASA and the military.

44:00 – Gary talks about old audio recordings his father had made [that] years ago.

46:42 – Gary talks about the extensive physical and mental testing U-2 pilots went through.

53:58 – Gary has sites at coldwar.org for the museum. Gary has garypowers.com or spypilotbook.com.

Links of interest

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/576973/spy-pilot-by-francis-gary-powers-jr-and-keith-dunnavant/9781633884687/

http://garypowers.com/

http://coldwar.org/

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Francis Gary Powers, Jr.

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, U-2, spy missions, cold war museum, Gary Powers, veterans, CIA, Air Force, medals, missiles, eisenhower, krushchev, latvian rugs, vladimir prison, bridge of spies, afghanistan