season eleven

In this special edition, we look back at the remarkable life of the longest serving female Senator in American History, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California.  A Democrat that I almost never agreed with on anything except forestry management and protecting endangered fish.  She was a champion of gun control, was an entrenched fighter of the pro-abortion agenda and spent her career working on environmental and liberal social agenda items.

So what in the world could we possibly be thinking doing a tribute to her career in these weeks following her passing away at age 90.  Diane Feinstein was a liberal Senator, but she was also a very warm, respectful, good natured happy warrior.  Feinstein often went out of her way to find common ground in order to work with her Republican Colleagues.  One of her closest friends n the Senate was Senator Lamar Alexander , a Tennessee Republican. Ironically, as her health dramatically declined , after her husband died and she reached the age of 89, it was most often her Republican Colleagues from Lindsey Graham, to Ted Cruz, to John Kennedy, to even Mitch McConnell who more often than not were the people who defended her against vicious attacks from the liberal wing of her own Democratic Party. 

For it was Dianne Feinstein, at the end of the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court Hearings, who reached out to Senator Lindsey Graham to say we as Americans can be proud of the way we worked together through differences during the hearing.  She wanted to do more work like that for the good of our country even though she was also opposed to the appointment of Barrett to the Court. She was repaid with some of the most disrespectful treatment I have ever witnessed a senior elected official receive from the members of her own party.  It was in a word, disgusting to listen too. 

Our show, wants to remember Dianne Feinstein here for the giant she was in the history of the country, and show our gratitude to the last major figure in America to try and "bridge the political gap" that is currently driving our nation full speed into a wall.  We feel like we need more representatives in government, and everywhere else in society for that matter, who behave like Senator Feinstein and for that we honor her long and illustrious career with this special edition of our podcast. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In the season finale of our 11th Season, we have the equivalent of the "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of DALLAS mixed with all the excitement of the end of a Roger Moore "James Bond" movie. 

In the second part of our look at "A Bloody Christmas" we look back at the suddenly swift, and deadly fall of Romanian Dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu.  He had been the absolute ruler of the nation of Romania for nearly 25 years. In that time, he had been the Communist Ruler with at least some good relations with the West because he had often been at odds with his fellow Communist in the Soviet Union.  He had even condemned the invasion of Czechoslovakia. 

Inside his country he had ruled with an iron hand, and a well armed secret police force and as Ted Koppel would say he had created an atmosphere where it was as insane as having an insane asylum run by the inmates.  Romania under Ceausescu was every bit as bleek and foreboding a place as the Dracula mythology had portrayed it to the world.  Then suddenly, after a bloody confrontation in the town of Timisoara, while the dictator was mid sentence in one of his long speeches on the balcony of the Palace of the Parliament, the people rose up, Ceausescu panicked and fled, and the country plunged into absolute chaos in what would be the only bloody revolution amongst all the Communist collapses in Eastern Europe.   

This episode, using an extraordinary ABC News Special Report by Ted Koppel titled "The Death of a Dictator" and mixed with contemporary news reports, and interviews with historians, we will tell this most incredible, almost to strange not to be fiction tale of the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu , from the panicked speech , to the frantic helicopter escape, to the car chase with two stolen cars, and finally the three hour trial and immediate execution. This is an incredibly wild ride through the history of the bloodiest revolution during the communist collapse that changed the World.  

A link to the video "The Death of a Dictator " by Ted Koppel of ABC News is available in the chapters section 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

This is the start of our two part Season 11 conclusion, A BLOODY CHRISTMAS. Two major events occured at the sametime over the Christmas holidays in 1989, the invasion of Panama, and the Romanian Revolution. Both were bloody affairs and both were plotlines no novelist would have ever made up. 

In this episode we look back at the invasion of Panama and its dictator Manuel Noriega, described by one Cabinet Official as "The Mouse that Roared" . He actually declared war on the United States that December as though the Panamanian Army was a match for one of the two Superpowers on Earth.  The situation got worse from there and after a military officer was killed and another was wounded and his wife attacked, George Bush had had enough. 

In this episode, we will take a look at Noriega's life and regime, and then lead you through the events that led to his ouster and the invasion.  Noriega himself proved hard to find for several days until turning up at the Vatican's Consul office where he held up for a few weeks before finally surrendering in January 1990. 

He was then taken back to the United States where he was tried on drug smuggling and money laundering charges, the first former head of state, tried for criminal acts outside of his own country.  It was an interesting end for "The Mouse that Roared" 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this episode we look back at the moment it was clear the Cold War was essentially over.  The story actually begins in 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev is elevated to power after a succession of elderly, Communist leaders, all of whom went back to the early days of the Soviet Union.  

Leonid Brezhnev had been a hard line, old school, Communist leader, that had been in power throughout the Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and early Reagan Years. He had presided over the Soviet Union's military rise as a Super Power but also had seen the nation's economy become weak.  He, however, was not, and when he took power as part of a team in the 1960's he had consolidated his position and was clearly the man in charge in the Kremlin for most of his 18 years as General Secretary.  

Brezhnev died in November 1982 and  would be succeeded by Yuri Andropov ,  the former head of the KGB, for just over 15 months, before dying at age 69.  Andropov would then be succeeded by Constantine Chernenko who would serve for even less time passing away just 13 months after being named General Secretary.  It was then that the protege of Andropov would emerge, and at age 53,it was clear Mikhail Gorbachev was not going to die anytime soon. 

On the other side of the ball, was Ronald Reagan, a career anticommunist often ridiculed for his unwillingness to work with his Soviet Counterparts. An unfair charge given that all of them had died about once a year since Reagan had been elected.  When Reagan and Gorbachev finally met they had an instant chemistry and thus forged a warm relationship that helped turn the corner on what had been an icy , untrusting , mutual existence between the United States and the Soviet Union since the end of the Second World War. 

What Reagan and his CIA Advisor William Casey had figured out was that the Soviet Union, while militarily strong, was a dying nation inside its borders and they pushed them to the bargaining table. In Gorbachev, they finally found a Soviet Leader, who was more concerned about the future of his people than the future of it's revolutionary global desires. We will look back in this episode at the relationships that both Reagan and Bush  had with Gorbachev, and the circumstances that led to this meeting in Malta on the heels of the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Gorbachev was trying to negotiate a way to save his struggling nation. 

This episode was produced over one year ago, and is dedicated in memory to CBS News Correspondent Bill Plante, who died at that time we were producing this episode, and who also produced for CBS News one of the historic  reports we used for this podcast. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

The Fall of the Berlin Wall was the most significant moment recorded in an era when it became obvious that the winds of freedom were about to sweep through Eastern Europe and around the World.  It came without warning at the end of a rather boring press conference when the Communications Director for East Germany read a final statement ending the press conference that if East German residents wanted to leave they could and if they wanted come back they would be allowed with a VISA, but all applications would be accepted. 

Suddenly, the very symbol of oppression throughout the world, The Berlin Wall, that seperated the East Germans from the West Germans basically meant nothing. The East Germans came through the gates like a tsunami over a broken sea wall. It was a flood of people and a flood of emotions for the German people who had been separated by that wall for 28 years. 

For so many people alive today, who did not live through the Cold War, the significance of the moment, may be hard to explain.  Since the end of World War 2, the world had been divided between the free people's of the World and the people trapped in a Communist system that stifled innovation, and controlled every aspect of the people's lives. The results were nowhere more evident than simply looking on one side of this wall and comparing it to the other. On the West side of the wall was a thriving , bustling West Berlin , full of opportunity, prosperity, and the freedom to live life as you chose, on the East side was a drab, decaying, city in economic despair and where the people were trapped inside the borders of their own country.  

My step father, Larry Bulmer,  was in the  Canadian military and his memory of the era was that of the horrified East Germans driving the ragged , old, limited Soviet made automobiles in terror as they tried to navigate the German autobahn, being passed by the modern West German cars doing over 100 MPH.  It was a dramatic change, and welcome one for the world, and it marked the beginning of the end of the Communist rule over Eastern Europe.  

All of this momentous change occurred  under the cautious, watchful, magnanimous leadership of George. H. W. Bush, the single best manager of government we have seen in our lifetime and to paraphrase the famous  Carly Simon song,   "Nobody could have managed it better" 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

Deng Xiaoping was the People's Republic of China's Paramount Leader for over a decade.  A decade,  in which the nation rose from a backwards, isolated, command economy,  Communist Nation, to the front doorsteps of becoming an unquestioned World Power.  It is hard to find an argument against Deng Xiaoping's status as one of the most important figures in the history of the 20th century.

While all of that is true it is also true that most Americans probably know almost nothing about him and the remarkable life that landed him in the position to lead the World's most populous nation almost singlehandedly for over a decade.  He had been politically shunned more than once during the years of Mao Zedong. His own son was tossed from a building and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair because of it. He was even forced at one point to wear a dunce cap, and shipped off to the Chinese hinterlands.  

However, once Deng Xiaoping assumed power, in his 70's, he moved quickly to change the nation into an industrial an economic power. While other leaders like Chairman Mao are more famous none are as important to the nation we now see as our chief rival as the most powerful nation on Earth. The fact that China is now the number two economy in the world, moving quickly to fill the power vacuum around the world created by the end of the Cold War, can be directly attributed to the  leadership of this one man. 

This episode will introduce you to him. We will hear from many of the American diplomats who dealt directly with Deng Xiaoping while he was in power,   and we will listen in on the news coverage available when he passed away in 1997.  Ironically, Deng Xiaoping was often overshadowed by others. So often,  Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai have been  lauded for their roles in Revolutionary China,  the outreach they did to President Nixon and the United States, and the dominance they held in China for so many years, all of which  often overshadowed Deng Xiaoping's role in the eyes of the World, and even in his own country.   It is my opinion, and the opinion of many historians, that  eventually  his mark on World history will probably be far more consequential than any of the rest of the leadership China has had to this very day. 

Here in this episode we put  the spotlight on Deng Xiaoping,  and his axiom " To get Rich is Glorious" 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

President George Bush had been the first envoy to China during the Ford Administration. A job he had loved.  He was a friend to the People's Republic of China, and he actually picked the nation to be the first place he went on an official trip as President. 

Which put him, and his administration, in an awful spot when Deng Xiaoping ordered the military to crush a student demonstration that had gone on for several weeks in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. It would take the deft management of this skilled diplomat to weather the storm of outrage  in our country as this tragedy unfolded on the other side of the world. 

This is that story,  of how President Bush went about defending the human rights of the students victimized in the square, while also keeping a very idealistic American Public from seeking a severe response against the nation that had become a major trading partner  and ally of the United States, and while also keeping our relationship with China from a collapse at a pivotal moment at the end of the Cold War. 

It is the first major moment in what would become a long list of major moments in the foreign policy of the United States as the Cold War came crashing to an end.  George Bush seemed to know as it all unfolded,  that in the long term,  it would be China that would one day be the Communist World's nearly sole survivor.  

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this episode we take a look back at one of the biggest environmental disasters of all time. The Exxon Valdez oil tanker hit the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989 and dumped 10.8 million gallons of oil into the water.   Prince William Sound was so remote that it could only be gotten too by boat or air, and that made getting to it in order to clean the spill up nearly impossible for Exxon and the Government.  The result was that the oil drifted everywhere, eventually covering 1300 miles of the coast affecting dramatically a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals , and various bird, and other wildlife. 

President Bush was forced to act as fast as possible to reverse the damage before it laid waste many of the natural resources Alaska needed to survive.  All of this tragedy was blamed on Captain Joseph Hazelwood who was accused of being drunk at the time of the accident. That proved to be untrue, and Hazelwood won a criminal case in 1990 ending that widely believed mythology. He was , in fact , not even on the bridge at the time of the accident.  He had not been drinking while on the job and the accusations stemmed from a DUI arrest he had received some 6 months earlier while off from work. 

Years later , Exxon was found to have been negligent in how it operated its supertankers.  Three factors would eventually be listed as the cause. They were :  (from Wikipedia) 

• Exxon Shipping Company failed to supervise the master (ship's captain) and provide a rested and sufficient crew for Exxon Valdez. The NTSB found this practice was widespread throughout the industry, prompting a safety recommendation to Exxon and to the industry.[13]
• 
  
• The third mate failed to properly maneuver the vessel, possibly due to fatigue or excessive workload.[13]
• 
  
• Exxon Shipping Company failed to properly maintain the Raytheon Collision Avoidance System (RAYCAS) radar, which, if functional, would have indicated to the third mate an impending collision with the Bligh Reef by detecting the radar reflector placed on the next rock inland from Bligh Reef for the purpose of keeping ships on course. This cause was brought forward by Greg Palast and is not presented in the official accident report.[14]

It would be the Bush Administration that would supervise the clean up of the Sound, and implemented the reforms that helped make the oil industry far safer after the spill. This is that story, and the story of the nearly two decades of struggle for the Alaskans who had to try and pick up the pieces after the spill was over and the attention of the world had moved on. 

This show also discusses our host , Randal Wallace's own involvement in the debate over offshore drilling in the Carolinas, where he supported drilling for Natural Gas in an era before electric cars had so transformed the energy market in America.

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this episode we look as President George H. W. Bush looks head on into one of the most expensive financial disasters the nation had seen up to that point.  The Savings and Loan industry had long since operated without the same constraints as normal banking operated under and it led to a meltdown for investors and those who had deposited money in them in 1989 just after President Bush tool office. 

He could have let it collapse and done nothing, which actually would have been a popular position but instead he stepped up to the plate and bailed out the industry. He did so by reaching across the aisle and getting the opposition party to come on board with his proposals to save the day.  It was a tough call with plenty of political risk but in the end Bush was determined to do the right thing and protect those depositors who had unwittingly placed their life savings in these Savings and Loans. 

It would not be the last time that Bush would step up to make tough , politically damaging decisions but decisions that proved to be beneficial for the country in the long run. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

This episode takes a look at the team President George H. W. Bush put together in order to run his Administration.  They were an impressive group that helped guide the country through the many historical events that this administration faced during its four years in office. 

From the Savings and Loan debacle, to the Exxon Valdez disaster, to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Panamanian invasion, the fall of the Romanian Government, the Gulf War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.  In this episode we will hear from several of the key players on the team assembled by George Bush and hear them talk about the man they worked for and the way he dealt with the consequential decisions he made in all of these situations he faced. 

Then in the subsequent episodes we listen in as Bush deals with each of these events that occurred in 1989 as we finish up our 11th season.  It is a fascinating portrait these figures paint of a man who was humble, strategic, and cool under fire, who had built personal relationships around the world that he was able to call on as he dealt with issues everywhere and for the most part navigated it all successfully. 

Most of these interviews were collected when President Bush passed away after November 30, 2018, 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

This episode opens on the joyous occasion of President Bush's Inaugural event and his walking down Pennsylvania Avenue. You will hear from George W. Bush, then a Texas Oilman who had little to do with politics other than working for his Father,  and NBC News personality Willard Scott from the parade route. It was the happy culmination of years of hard work and following a winding road that had finally led George Bush to the White House on his own 

Then we will move on to the speech given at Texas A&M University that would lay out the strategy that Bush would follow as the world changed all around them. For on this eve of the start of his term, the world was still dominated by two Superpowers, one who stood for Freedom and capitalism, and another that believed in no freedom and and a command economy, which was failing all around the world. 

Here you will see the first steps toward the end of the Cold War. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

Henry Kissinger, a giant of American History, and arguably the nations greatest diplomat died on November 29, 2023 at the age of 100. 

In this episode we look back at his extraordinary 100 years as he worked with Richard Nixon to bring peace to millions of people around the world and keep our nation safe here at home. 

His passing comes at an unusual moment as our rebroadcast of the Nixon Podcast Documentary  is,  in December,  coming to the section that brings to a close the end of the Vietnam War. The bulk of the coming episodes is a window into this extraordinary partnership between one of the four greatest Presidents in American History and one of its  greatest diplomats, as they bring to a close a war that ripped apart the American people as few things have over its nearly 250 year history. 

We invite you to tune in, in December, to a month that will be dedicated to the memory of Henry Kissinger as it shows you in real time the true story of how the Vietnam War ended.  So please join us at "The Richard Nixon Experience" (a link is provided in the chapter lists)  or go through our back catalogue here at "Randal Wallace Presents" for a chance to deep dive into the most comprehensive examination of the Nixon tapes available online, other than at Luke Nichter's www.Nixontapes.org website. You can also visit www.RandalWallace.com to hear our show and read all about these podcasts. 

We want to thank CNN News and FOX News whose reports and two interviews  we used to tell this story, as quickly as we could.

Henry Kissinger was 100 years old. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this episode we hear from George H. W. Bush as he addresses the nation in his Inaugural Address in 1989. 

It would begin a single term in office that would see the face of the entire world change dramatically from its start to its finish.  The final triumph for a generation of American Leaders who rightfully could be called the Greatest Generation. 

We will also see one of America's Greatest leaders leave center stage as Ronald Reagan flies away to California after laying the foundation for the triumphs to come. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this final episode in our 8 episode look at the 2023 Myrtle Beach City Council Race we bring you to the end of the run off election and the fate of the final seat available on the Myrtle Beach City Council. 

In the final  race Bill McClure was elected and we have all the coverage here for you plus a little house keeping about some of the coming episodes and special editions on tap for December and into 2024. 

Thanks for tuning in and if you want to learn more about the Dickens Christmas show here is the website for Myra Starnes legendary event held each November here in Myrtle Beach. 

WWW.DICKENSCHRISTMASSHOW.COM  and if you want to learn more about our host and the things he is busy doing, plus listen to our back catalogue of episodes of our podcasts please venture over to WWW.RANDALWALLACE.COM  too. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this episode we do a deep dive on one of the most famous speeches ever given by an American President. It was when Ronald Reagan went to the Berlin Wall, just as Mickael Gorbachev had loosened up restrictions on the Soviet and Communist world, and demanded that Gorbachev prove he was serious about change and tear down the wall that divided the people of East and West Germany. 

We found a lecture from the Ashbrook Center with Reagan Speech writer Peter Robinson where he tells the story of how the speech came to be, and how the famous line "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down this Wall!!" was placed in the speech and the efforts of the State Department and several of Reagan's closest advisors to remove it even though Reagan himself was determined to leave it in the speech. 

Then you can listen to President Ronald Reagan as he addresses Berlin in one of histories most consequential addresses in its entirety. A speech that laid the foundation for the story to come and the fall of communism around the world. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this episode we tune in to the race between Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis and Vice President George H. W. Bush. as they debate each other in a debate that saw Dukakis answer one of the hardest hitting questions ever asked in my memory of any candidate. His answer came off like a robot and with that the slide began that would lead to Bush's victory. 

We will join an August, 24, 1988 campaign rally in California that will feature George Bush's other ace in the hole, the then current President, Ronald Reagan. You will see a vintage Reagan as he delivers a speech in the effort to elect his Vice President to carry on the work he had begun over 8 great years as President. 

Finally you can relive the election of George H. W. Bush as we drop in on the coverage on election night 1988 when George Bush closes in on victory after climbing over a 17 point deficit with the voters and eventually defeats Michael Dukakis to become the nation's 41st President. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this episode we get an overview of the 1988 Presidential election field of candidates. On the republican side the race has 8 candidates but it really is a battle between two:  George H. W. Bush and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole.  There is also a new rising force that would play a major role in the campaign primaries and continue to do so to this day.  It is the role of Evangelical Christians.  their leader , televangelist Pat Robertson, would turn the Iowa Caucus on its head with a far stronger showing than anyone had predicted and hand Bob Dole the win and the lead finishing second and knocking Bush to third. 

George H.W. Bush would have to claw his way back into the race in New Hampshire and he would do it with some of the most skillful use of television ever produced. It would be a fight that would lead to an angry eruption from his vanquished foe on primary night. 

On the Democratic side, we see a little known Massachusetts Governor emerge after helping the early demise of a Senator  who had widely been seen to that point as a rising political star for nearly two decades. Senator Joe Biden had been elected at the age of 29, and had risen in the Senate to Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Michael Dukakis would see to it that it was a short lived campaign for Joe Biden, the first of possibly five Presidential forays the Senator has made on the Presidential level over the past four decades. 

We will also tune in on the campaign of Jesse Jackson, that really did shatter the race barrier for national elections, that would open the door twenty years later to the election of Barack Obama as President.  

It was 1988, a historic campaign year, that showed an entire generation of political consultants the rules to the game, of what to do, and what not to do, in order to win. They have been perfecting it ever since. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

On November 9, 2023, The City of Myrtle Beach opened its new World War 2 Memorial on the grounds of Warbird Park, just past the front entrance going into the Market Commons area of Myrtle Beach. This was, for nearly a half century, the front gate of the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base until it closed in 1993.  In the years since the city of Myrtle Beach has tried to preserve its history as a military town.  

This Memorial was the brain child of Myrtle Beach City Councilman Dr. Phil Render, whose father was a World War 2 Veteran, who aided at the landing at Bougainville in the Pacific.  This Memorial was very special to us at this podcast as we have been trying to educate people on the great leadership lessons that the Greatest Generation showed us in the half century they ran the American Government.  In this episode, we actually use materials from the various episodes we have done covering the military events of the era. We use footage from interviews with Senators Dan Inouye, Strom Thurmond, and Bob Dole, we also feature George H.W. Bush and survivors from the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.  Much of this audio materials is mixed in with the recent event in Myrtle Beach. 

At that event the city was able to gather together 11 World War 2 Veterans for an amazing moment to share with the last living links to this incredible era. The Former Mayor of Myrtle Beach Robert  Hirsch spoke at the event and we have his  speech in its entirety on this broadcast.  Mayor Hirsch, who served as Mayor from 1973 to 1977, was also a World War 2 Veteran and American fighter pilot, who served in Europe and met General Patton among many of the giants of the era. He tells that story and many more in his speech at this event. Mayor Hirsch just recently celebrated his 100th birthday. This episode is a real treat, and an honor to have been able to put together , as we honor the Greatest Generation both on our show and with a beautiful Memorial in Myrtle Beach. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In our final full episode on the 2023 Myrtle Beach City Council Election special series we take you along on election day with a candidate in the race (who is also the host of our show) In it you will hear him talking to people, checking the poll numbers, (which as a candidate he is allowed to do) and talking with people as he goes from precinct to precinct on Election Day. 

We also take a look at the changing dynamics of our city, Myrtle Beach, as this election moves from an old school type political structure, with lifelong, or 30 year residents serving on council to the first run off in the city's history that will feature two candidates who have lived in the city for less than a decade.  It is the dawn of a new era and we try and take you along for the ride. 

Our host Randal Wallace,  was a candidate in this race, and as he will discuss his long shot bid, with only the materials from his attic, his own two feet, and his desire to continue serve the people he had represented for nearly two decades,  he managed to come within 250 votes of winning a spot in the election runoff against candidates endorsed by the heir to the Budweiser Distribution fortune, who is the  current Mayor of Myrtle Beach, who not only publicly selected and endorsed her candidates, she helped raise and spend nearly a quarter of a million dollars in their efforts.  For Wallace it was a campaign against all odds , that even featured  one final sneak attack by dark money special interests determined to stop the Cinderella campaign of Randal Wallace at the twilight hour, as he fought to return the city to responsible fiscal management, and to listening to the people again.

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

Dear Friends, 

As you may know I am a candidate tomorrow for the Myrtle Beach City Council. I am asking for and hoping you will vote for me in that election if you live in Myrtle Beach. I have recorded this special message for you and with it my hope to return to the city council and continue to work on your behalf to insure our city remains the great, family, working class beach it has been for over 80 years. 

We are a wonderful place that is why we are now the fastest growing, number one destination in America. We have a wonderful hometown and we need to protect it for the future. 

Please consider voting for me tomorrow, November 7th, if you live here in Myrtle Beach and if you know someone here please ask them to consider voting tomorrow for me too,

Thanks Again, 

Randal Wallace
Host of "The Randal Wallace Presents " Podcast 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!