Our irregular guest historian Bruce Gordon joins us. As well as being an eye witness to the Pearl Harbor attack, a US air force pilot in Vietnam and Korea and – inadvertently – saving the planet from World War III (click here for that podcast), Bruce was born in the Philippines. He has written about the 1899-1902 ‘Phil-Am War’, and today he tells us about the Filipinos’ day of victory and why subsequent American revenge still affects US-Philippine relations today.

Later on, Noreen and Paul discuss how the Communists won the Chinese Civil War despite the cards appearing to be stacked in the Nationalists’ favour. How Chiang dealt with communist sleeper agents didn’t help.

On air, I recommend both The China History Podcast and Jung Chang/Ian Halliday’s biography, Mao: The Unknown Story.

This episode was first broadcast on 21 September 2016. Click ‘Subscribe’ to receive future podcasts automatically. Each month on Noreen Mir’s 1-2-3 Show (RTHK Radio 3), Paul Letters examines events from this month in history. Recorded on RTHK Radio 3’s 1-2-3 Show, at Radio Television Hong Kong Studios, Broadcast Drive, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Paul Letters is a historian, journalist, educator and novelist. See paulletters.com for more history, including a daily ‘On-This-Day-75-Years-Ago’ feed, with photographs. Plus the novel that combines: the real history of the Allies’ first strike against Nazi Germany; Paul’s granny’s escape (as a teenager) from 1939 Poland to 1940 Paris to wartime London; the ‘Double-Cross System’, the Special Operations Executive and assassination in Prague.

Cover work by Gill Bertram.