Podbit · Empire: World History
Mark Twain said he didn't want the American eagle's talons in any other nation. Ken Burns loves Twain — but points out he conveniently forgot what was already happening to Native nations across the continent. The man who invented American literature couldn't see America's original sin.
Where this was said
At 32:48 · chapter starts 30:45
Anita raises the TR question through an unlikely lens — the TV show Blue Bloods — and Burns meets her with a clear-eyed assessment. [1] — Ken Burns "Teddy Roosevelt famously invited Booker T. Washington to the White House — then caved to political pressure and never invited another Black…" 30:45 Theodore Roosevelt's personality is so attractive that it tends to define what is deemed good history, insulating him from scrutiny of the racism and eugenics he reflected. The Booker T. Washington White House dinner is the perfect case study: it became a symbol of Roosevelt's extraordinary courage in the popular memory, but if you expand the lens, you find that he caved immediately to the political pressure it generated and never invited another Black person to the White House. Roosevelt is a wonderful president and an amazing person, Burns concedes — but we are fortunate that there was no major war on his watch. The Spanish-American War was something he was 'delighted to help finish,' not start. His fifth cousin Franklin was simply the more important president.
Teddy Roosevelt famously invited Booker T. Washington to the White House — then caved to political pressure and never invited another Black person again. He reflected the eugenics of his era. His fifth cousin Franklin was the more important president. We're lucky there was no war on TR's watch.
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.
We use essential and analytics cookies to run Vuci. To understand how the site is used: Privacy Policy.
Install Vuci on your phone
Add it to your home screen for a faster, app-like experience.
Install Vuci on your phone
Tap the Share button, then “Add to Home Screen”.
A new version is available
Reload to get the latest Vuci.