I helped fact-check this podcast for The History Channel, digging into locations of presidential palaces, and how a 14-year-old Fidel Castro wrote a friendly letter to FDR, claiming to be 12.
New Year’s Eve, 1958. Cuba’s president, Fulgencio Batista, is throwing his annual New Year’s Eve party at his home in Havana. It’s usually a blowout. But this year, the vibes… aren’t so great.
Government officials and Cuban elites drink champagne and pick at arroz con pollo as the clock ticks closer to midnight. But there’s a palpable anxiety in the air. They aren’t just counting down to the end of the year - they may be counting down the final minutes of Cuba as they know it. A revolution is underway, and rebel forces, led by a young Fidel Castro, have taken city after city throughout 1958. As the year comes to a close, Havana – the last stronghold of Batista’s government – is in their crosshairs.
December 1, 1969. Millions across America are tuned in to the same TV broadcast. They see a bland stage with some government workers behind desks. But there’s also a large, plastic container filled with small blue capsules. In each of these capsules, a birth date. The order in which they’re chosen will determine who is eligible to be sent off to fight in the Vietnam War. This is the draft lottery, an attempt by the Nixon administration to make the selective service process seem more fair, and restore some trust between the U.S. government and its people. It does not work.
Today, public trust and the Vietnam War. How did this conflict, the first televised war, permanently alter the kind of faith that American citizens put into their leaders? And as a country, have we really ever recovered?