Yesterday, we launched the vote for the new TimeGhost series on Patreon. Because there are many who support us directly here on timgehost.tv, just the Patreon poll is not enough. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet succeeded in making a closed off ‘member section’. So for now, if you support us and wish to share your preference for the upcoming series. Email your preference to community@timeghost.tv. Everyone who financially contributes to us via timeghost.tv is eligible to vote.
You can vote until Tuesday 28 January 15:00 PM Central European Time.
Here are the topics that you can choose from:
1946 The Indonesian war of independence in five episodes . This is a conflict that was framed by the Dutch Colonial rulers as ‘police actions’ but led to between 100 and 200 thousand deaths. In many ways this is the beginning of a long series of colonial independence wars after WW2, and most people outside of Indonesia and the Netherlands know very little about it.
1956 The Suez Crisis in five parts. In this one crisis, all the themes that dominated the second half of the 20th century happen at the same time and in one place. Decolonization and the decline of Europe, the rise of America, the beginning fo the Cold War, the Middle-Eastern chaos and the Arab/Israeli conflict. The crisis gets really hot during the first week of November 1956, and it’s that week that we focus on mainly.
1963 Beetlemania and the Youth Revolution in seven partshalf year by half year . In March 1963 the Beatles release their debit album “Please Please Me” in the UK. That year, the first baby boomers of the post war generation, born after 1945 are coming of age, right in the middle of an economic and technological boom, the Cold War, the South East Asian wars, and a general increase of social and international conflict. They want nothing of it - they want sex, drugs and rock and roll - and they will have it and nothing will ever be the same agin. A later Season 2 will cover what happens after the sex…
1964 The Faked Gulf of Tonkin incident - How the US provoked war in Vietnam - four episodes covering each day of the incident - In the night of August 2, and August 4, 1964 the US Navy destroyer Maddox and her escorts are attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin, and engage them in battle. During the night of the 4th, US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces to the public that as a result of North Vietnamese aggression in international waters, he will order an increase of troops in Vietnam. This is the beginning of the Vietnam War. Only one thing, he’s not telling the truth. The attack on the 3rd is a provocation by the US in Vietnamese territorial waters. The attack on the 4th is the US Navy shooting at ghost ships during a night of bad weather.
1969 The Troubles, decade by decade in four parts . Now, the conflict in Northern Ireland is pretty much common knowledge as such, but not so much the details. And in this year of Brexit, we felt it made sense to have a look at what actually happened. How the violence came about and escalated in the 1969 riots. The extreme violence from both sides in the1970s, and the ensuing long war, waged by the Irish Republican Army, the IRA, then the peace process of the 1990’s, and finally the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall in four parts, day by day . When the Berlin Wall falls on November 9, 1989, without a single shot fired or other act of violence, the fizzling end of the Cold War has already begun, but this is the event that marks the outbreak of the Velvet Revolutions that will lead to the breakup of first the COMECON, and eventually the USSR. The opening of the East and West German border is however neither predicted nor intentional. It is a chain of near comic, belief defying events - administrative mistakes, miscommunication, and leadership on vacation - that within hours cascade into the sudden collapse of the GDR.
I voted for Indonesia, Suez Crisis, & The Troubles. I think Gulf of Tonkin & Berlin Wall might work better as parts of series on the Vietnam War & the Fall of Communism in Europe.
Berlin Wall, Troubles & Suez Crisis for me! I picked those three due to personal interest. While the Indonesian War of Independence sounds interesting, it’s not as interesting as my three choices above. The Gulf of Tonkin I know a bit about already and would prefer a Vietnamese independence special than just Gulf of Tonkin. And Beetlemania & the Youth Revolution isn’t interesting as it seems like a generational shift without any really new change taking place. To my limited knowledge, the 60s seemed like the 20s all over again. Sex, drugs and counter-culture, all describe both periods. TimeGhost did a really great job covering the 20s so I’ve got my generational shift content covered.
I’d often joke that the '60s were the stinkier version of the '20s, at least the latter half of the decade. Also, that generational shift in the '60s is still somewhat of a controversial issue today, at least from my experience. Tell me if I’m wrong on that.
Another still-controversial issue is Vietnam. Even without the Gulf of Tonkin “incident,” U.S. involvement was bound to happen in one way or another (this is the Cold War, after all). Hell, they were already interfering before the “incident.” The U.S. was giving small-scale assistance to South Vietnam (even sending the Green Berets in 1962), but not leading South Vietnamese forces – that was what changed after the “incident.” It’s not that the U.S. got themselves in Vietnam after the “incident.” It’s just that the “incident” scaled it up to 11 and made the U.S., along with some other nations, the (somewhat) main players.
A U.S. crewman runs from a crashed CH-21 Shawnee troop helicopter near the village of Ca Mau in the southern tip of South Vietnam, on December 11, 1962. Two helicopters crashed without serious injuries during a government raid on the Viet Cong-infiltrated area. Both helicopters were destroyed to keep them out of enemy hands.
I put forward the troubles as my grandfather knew a few who served in the RUC battling against Molotov cocktails and cars deliberately set on fire targeting them.
With Brexit taking full shape next Friday it would be handy to revisit a turbulent period of history.
Seeing as how good the Indonesian series is, I’m sad that Indochina (specifically Vietnam) wasn’t an option. I’d love a miniseries of maybe up to a dozen episodes on the 1945-1954 period. You can use Dien Bien Phu as a sort of open ‘ending’ (well, we all know it didn’t end there even though it should have).
The fall of the wall sounds cool but IMO must include the other events in Hungary, Poland, the US etc etc and the events leading up to it as well. Possibly a “day-by-day account” emphasizes the isolation and the nation that this was a purely Germanic event. It was totally and utterly unexpected at the time by the way. Reagan was ridiculed at the time when he called for bringing down the wall, a lot of countries were quite happy with a non-unified Germany (unification is war), and hey no one ever thought the situation would change anyway. Also no one suspected that the West Germans still would pay the SOLI(darity tax to East Germans) or would have expected the applauding crowds at Rostock.
There is quite a lot to this subject and to me an example that the unexpected might happen in history.,
Now that Barbarossa is ‘going on’ I’d be interested in seeing a sort of ‘sister series’ of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.
There are so many sources that richly detail many of the things that happened (such as my favorite book written by Adam Zamoyski, Napoleon’s fatal march on Moscow but also many others).
I’m not sure it is still feasible but it would really help to ‘visualize’ how slow the going eventually became for the Germans and how reliant on ‘horse-n-cart’ supply the Germans were.
Napoleon reached Moscow by mid-September whereas the Germans still weren’t there by late November and even the two month ‘stop order’ for Army Group Center does not fully explain this.
Well I hope after they get done with the other 5 series. That they will do a week by week account of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The reason why is because it was a pivotal moment that had major consequences for the future.
Hi All ; they are all interesting subjects, the gulf of Tonkin incident and the /56 Suez crisis in particular . if I had to vote for one it would be the Suez crises . It showed that the old powers of Britain And France were on longer the world powers they were and that was passed on to THE USA and Russia .
I would love to see the fall of the berlin wall covered. I was born in 1986 and this period leading up to it was the first thing I can remember about the world at large. I can still remember the soviet union being a thing and the news coverage.
