Podbit · The Rest Is History
The cherry tree story is a lie. The kneeling-in-the-snow scene is a lie. Both were invented by a single man — Parson Weems — who made a career of fabricating Washington hagiography. Reagan repeated them with gusto; historians have been trying to undo the damage ever since.
Where this was said
At 13:15 · chapter starts 10:20
Drawing on Ron Chernow's prize-winning biography, Dominic introduces Washington as the most elusive figure in American history — more revered than truly loved, an impossibly stiff figure carved from marble. Tom Holland then delivers perhaps the best anecdote in the episode: Alexander Hamilton's bet that Gouverneur Morris would not dare slap Washington on the shoulder [1] — Tom Holland "The icy quality of Washington's stare as he greeted this slap on the shoulder was so terrifying that he would not do it again for a thousan…" 11:16 . Morris did it; Washington's icy glare was so terrifying that Morris vowed he would not repeat the act for a thousand dinners. Dominic then builds a physical portrait of the man: 6 feet tall, hugely powerful, hands so large he had special gloves made, a thin breathy voice (caused by pleurisy — 'he speaks like Marilyn Monroe'), and teeth rotting from as early as 1760. The cherry tree story is immediately labelled a lie, invented by the wonderfully named Parson Weems — a recurring villain in Washington mythology who 'basically goes around making stuff up.' The key to Washington, Chernow argues and Dominic agrees, is his extraordinary self-discipline: a man of fierce hot passions and a volcanic temper, all kept under glacial, inflexible control.
Alexander Hamilton bet Gouverneur Morris a dinner that Morris wouldn't dare slap Washington on the shoulder. Morris did it. The icy quality of Washington's stare was so terrifying that Morris said he would not do it again for a thousand dinners. The dinner must have been ruined.
Washington wasn't the saintly monument he became. He was a 6-foot Virginian with enormous hands, terrible teeth, a thin breathy voice, a ferocious suppressed temper, and a deep chip on his shoulder after being denied a royal commission. The marble exterior was real — but so was the man inside it.
Washington stood 6 feet tall, exceptionally large by 1740s standards, with a powerful frame and hands so large he needed specially made gloves.
Washington's teeth were already decaying as early as 1760, long before the war, and by 1789 he had just one working tooth remaining.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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