Military History Podcast

US Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, is divided up into the following. I will talk about each individual unit listed.

• Army: 75th Ranger Regiment, Special Forces (Green Berets), 160th SOAR (Night Stalkers)
  
• Navy: SEALs, and SWCCs (Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen)
• Air Force: Pararescuemen (PJs), Combat Controllers (CCTs)
• Marine Corps: Marine Force Recon
• Joint: Delta Force, DEVGRU, 24th Special Tactics Squadron, Intelligence Support Activity

For more information, read:
US Special Forces by Samuel Southworth
Chosen Soldier by Dick Couch
That Others May Live by Jack Brehm
Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell
Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden

Military History Podcast is sponsored by Audible (visit audiblepodcast.com/militaryhistory for a free audiobook download)

This episode answers four basic questions:

• Why were both North and South so unprepared for war?
• Which side had the initial advantage?
• Did the South have to secede?  Did the North have to respond with military force?
• Was Northern victory inevitable?

For information on sources, email me.

Vicksburg was a Confederate fortress guarding the Mississippi River during the American Civil War.  It was the only thing stopping the Union from taking control of the all-powerful Mississippi waterway.  Although the Vicksburg Campaign is most famously associated with General Ulysses Grant (whose capture of the fortress is considered a major turning point in the war), there were many earlier Union campaigns to take control of Vicksburg.  One of these campaigns, led by Navy Admiral David Farragut, is the focus of this episode.

The script for this episode was written by Jacob Bains from Texas.  If you would like to submit your own script, please send it to militaryhistorypodcast@gmail.com

Why has democracy failed in Iraq?  Here are some potential theories, with their originators in parentheses:

• Modernization (Rostow, Lipset): Iraq is not wealthy, urban, modern, or secular enough to support democracy.  It has not followed the same path to development that Western democracies have set out, and thus, it is not yet ready.
• Cultural (Huntington, Weber): Iraqis are not inherently suitable for democracy, simply because their culture favors an authoritarian style of government.
• Marxist (Moore, Marx): Iraq still has a strong landed elite and a weak bourgeoisie, meaning that it is not ripe for class conflict and thus, it is not ripe for social and political development
• Voluntarist (Di Palma): Iraq lacks the strong leadership needed to usher the country into a democratic phase.

Each of these theories has its flaws and counterexamples, which will be discussed in this episode.  This is not meant to define one theory as better than the rest...it is simply meant to put all ideas on the table.

For more information, read:
Huntington's Third Wave
Di Palma's To Craft Democracies
Bellin's Authoritarianism in the Middle East
Colton's Putin and Democratization
Johnson's Political Institutions and Economic Performance
Lipset's Political Man
Marx's Communist Manifesto
Moore's Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth
Selbin's Revolution in the Real World
Skocpol's Social Revolutions in the Modern World
Varshney's India Defies the Odds
Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

This episode focuses on the decision-making strategies that President Bush used in December of 2006 before choosing to commit the troop surge.  Things discussed include: the release of the Iraq Study Group Report, the 2006 midterm elections, Bush's meeting with Generals Keane and Downing, and Bush's relationship with General Petraeus and Secretary Gates.  At the end of the episode is a recap on the success of the troop surge, as well as an analysis of President Bush's leadership during December 2006 and January 2007.

For more background information on Iraq, listen to: Iraq Study Group Report Assessment, Iraq Study Group Report Recommendations, Invading Iraq, Occupying Iraq, Iraq's Environment, and Medal of Honor in Iraq.