SNAFUBAR
SNAFUBAR
Podcast Description
SNAFUBAR explores American military mistakes from the beginning of the country’s founding to the present day. Environmental Historian Jeff Crane and Professor of Religious Studies Sara Hart bring an honest and candid look and analysis at costly errors, victory culture and the fetishization of the military in the United States.
Presented by Cal Poly Humboldt's College of Art Humanities & Social Sciences.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast covers themes of military history, societal reflections on war, and critiques of the American military culture. Specific episodes explore George Washington's military decisions, such as his leading role at the Battle of Jumonville Glen and the implications of military failures, while addressing the tradition of romanticizing military actions and the support issues faced by veterans.
SNAFUBAR is a show about strategic and moral military errors and mishaps, and the myths that both lead to and then justify them. The histories they look at will make clear the degree to which the U.S. is a warful nation, contrary to the myth of a peaceful nation regularly compelled, against its will, to go to war. Through every episode, the show uncovers how we romanticize and fetishize the military while not always providing the support it needs to carry out its intended (or stated) goals, or to meet veterans’ needs when they return from combat.
In 1953 the CIA conducted a covert operation to overthrow Muhammad Mossadegh, the democratically elected leader of Iran. This was the CIA’s very first mission dedicated to regime change and done in collaboration with British intelligence in order to install a government that was sympathetic to western business interests.
The consequences of this action were severe and lasting, casting a long shadow. Join us as we unpack the details that led up to the overthrow, the people who played a role in this operation, and the suffering and death that followed.
SNAFUBAR is hosted by Sara Hart, Chair of the Department of Applied Humanities at Cal Poly Humboldt, and Jeff Crane who is an Environmental Historian and Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Cal Poly Humboldt.
Research and writing for the show is done by Liam Salcuni and Roman Sotomayor
SNAFUBAR is produced by Abigail Smithson and brought to you by the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Cal Poly Humboldt.
Works Cited:
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954, Iran, 1951-1954
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library: The Creation of the CIA
Office of the Historian: National Security Document 68
Office of the Historian: National Security Act of 1947
Office of the Director of National Intelligence: National Security Act of 1947
Steven Kinzer, All the Shah’s Men, 2003
Teaching American History: The Long Telegram
The Mossadegh Project: Biography
The Mossadegh Project: Mossadegh and Truman
Winston Churchill, “The Sinews of Peace Speech, 1947, International Churchill Society
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