Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Radio War Nerd EP #492 — The First Time America Tried "Reshaping The Middle East" 1947-58 (pt. 1) (Patreon)

Published:
2025-01-11 01:18:50
Imported:
2025-01
Tags:

Downloads

Content

Recorded: January 9, 2025

With all the boasting in Washington about "reshaping the Middle East" today, we look back at the first time the US Empire tried "reshape the Middle East" from the early Cold War years up through Ike's 1958 intervention in Lebanon, using ex-CIA agent Wilbur Crane Eveland's memoir, Ropes of Sand, as our thread.

This episode: Eveland's arrival in British-ruled Iraq in 1950, up to the eve of the 1956 Suez Crisis...

Photo above: CIA officer Kermit Roosevelt, who led Iran coup in 1953 installing the Shah; and backed Egypt's 1952 palace coup putting Nasser in power.

*Photo below: CIA officer Miles Copeland II (left), who oversaw several coups in Syria and ran bags of money to Nasser; and son Stewart Copeland (far right), future drummer for The Police

Total time: 1:29:09Direct link to this episode's mp3 here

*

Subscribe to Radio War Nerd at patreon.com/radiowarnerd

Sound production by Telescope Audio

Check out the Radio War Nerd Merch store here!

Order your print or ebook of John Dolan's new book Erdogan Pizza: Dispatches from a Violent & Grotesque World

 

Files

Comments

Garibaldi

War Nerd flexing on us by mentioning that he doesn't sleep alone. Meanwhile we plebs sleep alone, and have no one interested in hearing about the small arms advantages of the PAVN

Garibaldi

At the very small liberal arts college I went to, there was as student many years before my time, a math prodigy, who had self-immolated on campus down by the waterfront in a very beautiful spot. There was a shrine to him in some of the maintenance tunnels under the dorms, maintained so that his legend endured.

Horseloverfat

Thank you for associating fireworks with neubaten, maybe I can finally enjoy them now

Lord-Admiral of the Pyrenees

You guys need to do a War of 1812 episode given the incoming administration’s foreign policy. Maybe an episode on “Filibusters” too

blazed uncle

Re: getting jumpy at fireworks I generally like fireworks but during covid lockdown I lived in a fifth floor apartment in Brooklyn. Turns out the fifth floor is exactly the height that the mortars bored teens shoot off explode at. A few weeks of that every single night and I got real jumpy at the sound.

Your Guide AL

einsturzende neubauten 💯💯💯

Michael S. Judge

I brought up the deep weirdness of the Copeland family on Twitter one time, and then I started getting DMs from a woman who described Miles Copeland III as "the most evil person [she'd] ever met," and who showed me a load of insane political screeds attributed to The Children of God + The Family International that were actually written by Miles III. He's apparently not so keen on publicizing his links to an apocalyptic End Times rape cult, but people who have escaped the CoG/Family nightmare are real familiar ol' Miles

Michael S. Judge

(a lesser sin, but Stewart Copeland is also widely known as one of the biggest assholes in the music industry)

Philippe Duhart

Something to add to the discussion of Israel’s status early on: ETA and its Basque separatist supporters looked to Israel in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a model of a successful separatist movement battling powerful militaristic states. By the end of the 1960s they shifted to the PLO and especially its leftwing rivals.

a clash of purple

Combining that with what Dolan and Ames were saying in this ep about the self-righteous moralizing from the Dulles brothers and the rest of these guys really paints a picture of the American ruling class, doesn't it. The "evil" authoritarian communists seem pretty tame by comparison to these freaks.

a clash of purple

It's a generational thing, I think. In Dolan's time, even war nerds could get significant others. Nowadays everyone is painfully, eternally alone. Unless you're the same age as Dolan, in which case I can't help you.

a clash of purple

The psychology of the American ruling class would make a fascinating case study. They set out to align the Middle East towards the United States' sphere of influence. At the time they started, the region was neutral to friendly towards the U.S.. There was a real opportunity there to build some positive relations, especially since we could strike a contrast with the European imperialists. We managed to do that in places like the Philippines, after all. But as Nasser pointed out to those dopey, deluded guys from Washington, we allow Israel to define our whole Middle Eastern agenda, to everyone's detriment. I try to look at things through a materialist lens, but I think the relationship between the U.S. ruling class and Israeli zionists can really only be understood in terms of psychological pathology. It's like a toxic codependent relationship, but between nations instead of people. From a realpolitik perspective, it really doesn't make much sense, at least on the American side. The zionist agenda is completely insane and unrealistic, but if you take it for granted then I suppose they're relatively rational actors. But I have no idea what the American ruling class thinks they want from Israel or what they think they get from their diehard support for this genocidal rogue state. Even if the goal was just to sow chaos in the region, we hardly need Israel for that.

CR

Anyone who calls a spree or mass or whatever killer crazy is either stupid or lying. Crazy people do not kill others. They harm themselves and they are disproportionately the victims of physical violence. It’s a cop out or a deflection or bad faith and every time someone even well intentioned (i.e. liberals) says we need to improve mental health or some bullshit after some attack, they are just feeding into this. People aren’t sick. Society is sick. Treating individuals isn’t going to do anything.

CR

Every accusation is a confession

a clash of purple

"Crazy" is not a clinical term, so people can use it however they want. And plenty of mentally ill people hurt those around them, physically or otherwise. I'm not disagreeing with your main point, but it's disingenuous to claim that saying a crazy person is crazy comes from a place of stupidity or dishonesty. Not all killers are crazy, but some of them definitely are, and you have to figure that any military veteran (even one who has never personally been in combat) has a strong likelihood of developing mental and emotional pathologies that might lead to them doing violence against themselves or others that they wouldn't otherwise do.

Lojban Chauvinist

What are the odds the Syrian Kurds take Israel's bait and become their client like the Israelis have been very publicly offering? Has an Israeli/Turkish proxy conflict already begun?

William

More like miles coupland ii

William

In the 40s-60s, If your last name wasn’t Dolan, you could fall out of window, land in a hay cart, topple out of that into a rain barrel, and come out of the barrel with the equivalent of a six figure job, if your handshake was strong enough and you looked the guy in the eye, or whatever bullshit

William

From what I’ve heard, isreal has slipped through the cracks of accountability in part due to high level connections within the cia (Angleton in charge of the “isreal account”?) and iirc, there was a similar level of Zionist influence at the top of British politics at least with Balfour and others at the turn of the century

Carson Vines

If anyone is interested what Mark is saying around 48:30 in regard to FBI fabricating evidence to justify their existence there is a great book recommendation. Its called “Strength of the Wolf” by Douglas Valentine and is primarily focused on the FBN (federal bureau of narcotics) which has to do the same thing to justify its existence. Great book I highly recommend!

Tariq

Houstonian here — swamp ass almost year round.

aaron Thomas

I live in Houston and also get nervous at night when my wife is away. I feel like this was made for me.

Akoros

Re: Zionist bombings of the Jewish community in Baghdad in the 40-50’s. The historian Avi Shlaim, himself an Iraqi jew, proves the accusation of Zionist involvement in his latest memoir, Three Worlds. His family fled Baghdad for Israel after the bombings. It’s a great read and he would be a fascinating guest!

Doug Cartel

That's very funny that the Americans just mindlessly deferred to the British on intelligence during the Cold War. Ira Hirschmann wrote in "the embers still burn" that US diplomatic staff in germany circa 1946/47 were laughing at the brits behind their backs because the brits thought every single anti-colonial rebellion was being controlled from Moscow, when anybody with half a brain could tell you the rebellions were entirely homegrown. Once we started depending on them for intelligence, we got the same brain virus that the brits had. Well, long before then probably.

Jason Thompson

From the public know-nothing level, it’s just anti-Arab racism and “Exodus” warm feels for Israel (and the misperception/overcorrection that supporting Israel is pro-Jewish), isn’t it? But I agree, I don’t know if this ideology extends all the way up to the highest circles, or if not, what they are getting out of it.

Michael Conlin-Elsen

So, on the topic of the New Year’s attacks: Two former green berets who were both stationed at Fort Bragg use the same app ‘Turo’ (have you heard of it before?) to rent out cars to carry out big spectacular attacks at roughly the same time in the two biggest party cities in the US on the biggest party day of the year. Then, the LV attacker’s ‘manifesto’ (of questionable authenticity; we don’t even have a copy or a picture of the original email) turns up on some incredibly spooked-up podcast that seems to appear out of thin-air, on which CIA officers suddenly appear in order to push the crudest, cheapest, caricatured 9/11 style propaganda about Iranian ( and ‘ISIS’ apparently? Best friends?) terrorists and weapons systems coming across the MEXICO BORDER? Then, an ultra-Zionist NY Post reporter is invited by federal authorities to do a TikTok realtor-style walkthrough of the NOLA attacker’s home, an active crime scene (with no gloves or accompaniment by any type of lead-investigator figure) with evidence strewn about willy nilly and ‘bomb making equipment’ (CPU processor thermal paste spread on a piece of paper and a store receipt) visible in a neatly organized fashion on the guy’s desk? She conveniently finds 7 new copies of the Quran on his bookshelf, and a Keffiyeh prominently and conveniently displayed in the bedroom? What kind of Hollywood bullshit is this? This stuff puts Clarissa Ward from CNN to shame for sheer brazenness and chicanery. And all you guys wanna do is speculate about these guys’ individual neuroses and *Dun dun dun* … “living in Houston?” Come on guys, let’s get real. We are in the midst of an American Years-of-Lead, and the Feds are getting sloppier and more brazen and bizarre than any time in the past, including the 60’s-70’s period of domestic counterinsurgency. I hope we get to hear you both grapple with these possibilities; I believe they are highly consequential to our moment, esp as we move into another crazier, more openly fascist second Trump term. Maybe a GLADIO throwback episode with Annibale?

Tammy

🫡 love the pod, how can I subscribe and check out the collections? Heard wonderful things about the US Civil War series! Apologies if I missed this being shared already.

Cary Confino

By 53, Dulles was convinced that Arbenz was a Russian sleeper cell. Eventually the NATSEC community acknowledged that he wasn't even a socialist let alone aligned with the Kremlin. The moscow brain virus is a defining feature of the last 70 years of foreign policy

Camden

Also interested in the subscription process

JoR

What exactly would "the feds" gain from the LV attack? It was a joke lol. If it was a false flag, wouldn't the bomb take out the whole hotel? Not just incinerate the Tesla. Yes, anything is possible but we don't need this show to turn into a schizo circle jerk hyper analyzing every possibility of any attack.

Michael Conlin-Elsen

Well for one, they get an opportunity to use a crazy public spectacle to push insane China drone mothership and Iranian/ISIS MANPADS propaganda through their Intel-bro podcast circuit, which we are being told by LITERAL CIA OFFICERS to accept at face value - all to beat the war drums against US official enemies and create a sense of threat and precarity in the population to legitimize militarism overseas and domestic security state overreach. Has happened many times before in many US client states, in many cases with direct CIA/NATO involvement. Pretty clear how a spectacle like that is leveraged by the state to push its own narratives. It would be more schizo to accept the wild narratives pushed by the Intel-bros and their CIA OFFICER GUESTS than to call into question the obvious incongruities in the official story. This stuff is really, by definition, war nerd filet mignon. But I guess it's only fashionable for the respectable lefty podcasts to talk about that stuff twenty years later when the NYT/Atlantic type publications do limited hangouts on it! I don't know what "taking out the whole hotel" would have anything to do with what I brought up in my initial comment.

Auragami

Dolan family redemptive arc.

Trazdat

Awesome. You should consider getting Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt on, or at least listening to his interviews on American Prestige. He goes through a lot of this same era from the Iraqi perspective.

JoR

The post attack narratives are completely bullshit, yes lol. What you're proposing is entirely possible too but your initial insinuation that the show doesn't cover this shit with a critical eye is disingenuous.

Michael Conlin-Elsen

No, it's a legitimate point of critique. I love everything they do, but I think they could and should go deeper on this one.

Graham Isom

Do you know how many people have been at Fort Bragg lmao

Michael Conlin-Elsen

Two guys who committed spectacular terrorist attacks on the same day with a startling amount of similarities and with security state cover stories to achieve political ends, as I described above.

Michael Conlin-Elsen

Why do the people responding to me feel inclined only to snicker and call me disingenuous, as opposed to addressing any of the points I made in my original comment? I'm not being disingenuous; I'm using my legal name and real likeness to publicly say things that I 100% mean. You guys don't look very sophisticated.

Lojban Chauvinist

The "American Gladio" hypothesis does not sit comfortably in my mind with the mainstream media narrative, which is that these attacks were the work of lone nuts. I'll fully admit to having a pro-mainstream bias. The coincidence you point out is incredibly weird – using the same obscure app for similar attacks on the same day, and both being stationed at Fort Liberty/Bragg. There are about 100,000 soldiers at Fort Liberty/Bragg, but that's still suspicious. What I don't see is evidence of a deep state conspiracy to sow panic. Because mainstream media, as opposed to a certain podcast circuit (which may be big, but still fringe in comparison) played down the Las Vegas attack as a mere self-immolation suicide and denied that there was a credible connection between the two individuals. Believing this tends to make you less panicked than if you believe in some conspiracy. I never saw any mainstream media fearmongering about Iran or ISIS in this regard. Americans are weary of mass shootings and other inexplicable acts of violence, and even attacks like the New Orleans massacre don't move the needle. Unless you were personally affected, the country has already moved on. One could argue that the point of the Deep State conspiracy is to confuse and demoralize by employing decentralized, random violence – but I'm replying to your hypothesis, which suggests a propaganda campaign to invent an organized threat, and in this case, everyone but the cranks are downplaying the threat.

Michael Conlin-Elsen

It's interesting to call the Shawn Ryan Podcast fringe: A glossily-produced Joe-Rogan adjacent show with 3.9 million subscribers (and counting) hosted by an Exmil/CIA character who has on guests directly from the NATSEC apparatus - people from said apparatus also go on to get jobs at CNN and MSNBC. But apparently viewership of this this guy's show is higher than CNN and MSNBC combined! Doesn't sound very fringe to me. Sounds like this stuff *is* the new mainstream for the MAGA lumpenproletariat. The American Gladio hypothesis doesn't have to sit comfortably in order to be a distinct possibility. It's very uncomfortable to consider, but increasingly likely in the late days of imperial NATSEC bloat and chicanery. Aaron Good's podcast "American Exception" and his book by the same name deal with this kind of deep political subterfuge in a very thoroughly cited, academic way. In the same vein as people like Peter Dale Scott, Michael Parenti, David Talbot, etc.

Matt Colston

This makes you kinda miss guys like Nasser. Aspirational almost compared to what leaders we have.

Mark Ames

That's insane. That family sees the world as their playground. There was never any doubt they'd all be barons.

Michael S. Judge

This person didn't supply every detail, which I wouldn't either in her position!, but she mentioned that she was living in Cambodia, I asked why, and she said, "Because I had to go somewhere this far from home to get away from Miles Copeland." There's some spooky business around The Police themselves too: it's a longstanding rumor that Miles II was a big help in their quick rise to global celebrity, getting them bookings & audiences at the prestige venues in nations he was "familiar with," not just because Stewart's his son, but because he (They?) saw The Police as the ideal Good Liberal antidote to the prevailing politics in punk and new wave, i.e. serious leftists like the Clash and This Heat, serious anarchists (if that's not an oxymoron) like Crass, broad Third Worldist sympathies in the UK in particular where punk so quickly spliced itself with the music of Jamaican immigrants, or all-out violent nihilism of the sort that might actually burn down something important. Sting's song "Russians" is one of the most hysterical, in all senses, culture relics of the Cold War: while of course our dear even-handed Mr. Sting, as Frank Zappa called him, had cock a very mild snook at Reagan, the prevailing theme of the song is that we might all die in global nuclear holocaust because no one knows if The Russians are actually human beings. Every chorus ends with some variation of "... I hope the Russians love their children too." (And, as a bonus, the 20th-and-21st-century lib ethos distilled into one chart-topping couplet: "There is no monopoly of common sense / On either side of the political fence!" You tell ’em, Mr. Sting.)

radiowarnerd

subscribe via patreon. You can't subscribe via the patreon app on iphone, but you can go to patreon on any browser on your laptop or phone and subscribe that way. Thanks!

Tammy

Will do! Thank you!