Podbit · The Rest Is History
Britain had the navy, the professional army, and the Hessians. But no 18th-century power had ever won a war 3,000 miles from home. North America's vast forests made pitched battles irrelevant. Washington's only job was not to lose — and eventually, Britain would give up.
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At 24:08 · chapter starts 22:50
With fighting already underway at Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress votes to create the Continental Army and must choose a commander. Washington is the obvious candidate: he has Seven Years' War experience, he comes from the most populous and oldest colony (Virginia), and — crucially — he is 'a bit vanilla.' He says nothing offensive, offends nobody, and a Connecticut delegate's description captures the essential qualification: 'No harem scare 'em, ranting, swearing fellow, but sober, steady, and calm.'[10] Dominic then unpacks the 'great underdog' narrative. Yes, Britain has the Royal Navy, a professional army of up to 50,000 men, and 30,000 Hessian mercenaries. But citing the recently deceased historian Gordon Wood, Dominic points out that no 18th-century power had ever won a war 3,000 miles from home[5]. North America's vast forests make guerrilla warfare devastatingly effective. Washington's strategy — never get caught in a pitched battle, keep melting into the woods, outlast British political will — is essentially the same as the Viet Cong's two centuries later.
Britain fielded a professional army of up to 50,000 men and additionally brought over approximately 30,000 German mercenaries known as Hessians.
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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