Hardtack

Visit the Pacific Theater of World War II during 1942 and '43 with Military Historian Jeff Ballard. Here, Jeff and I delve deep into an operational overview of the Pacific Theater, the Japanese response to American initiative after Midway, failures and successes in naval leadership, and new doctrine.

Jeff Ballard holds a Master’s in Military History with a concentration in World War II. He is on the editorial staff of the Saber ...

In this episode we have a very special guest, Dr. John McManus. He is a military historian with 15 books published and holds the position of Professor of Military History at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Some of his works include The Americans at D-Day: The American Experience at the Normandy Invasion, The Dead and Those about to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach, and To the End of the Earth: The US Arm...

American military intervention in Korea at the end of June 1950 began with a clearly defined and just goal in response to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) invasion of their sovereign rival below the 38th Parallel. U.S. President Harry S. Truman’s foreign policy goals in Southeast Asia, the defense of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and containment of communism in the region, were threatened by the invasion. The United...

Fueled by events that reflected Gilded Age American economic, cultural, and political interests in the preceding years, the presence and role of sensationalist styled news medium known as “yellow journalism” found its place into the fray and was woven into the fabric of America’s foreign affairs. “Yellow journalism” furthered American ambitions of empire and aided foreign policy efforts in advancing overseas expansion through the e...

Shortly after Japan launched its surprise attack on Naval Station Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, resulting in over 100k West Coast citizens and residents of Japanese descent into incarceration camps. Racism against Japanese Americans rapidly increased as distrust ballooned. What many Americans failed to realize was that Japanese Americans were also inflamed at the attack on Pear...

Tune in to this episode of Hardtack for an interview with a special guest, the producer, director, writer, and editor of the five-part documentary series, War Movie: The American Battle in Cinema, Steve Summers.

War Movie is a documentary series that examines not only the history of war in American cinema, but how this medium has shaped our country's perspective on conflict, foreign policy, race, masculinity and national identi...

Standing five feet six inches tall and weighing just 145 pounds, the hazel eyed Catholic man of Eastern European descent fit the profile the FBI and Army Intelligence department were looking for in 1966 for a “special assignment.” The brown haired, spectacled man spoke Czech and German, had an understanding of Russian and several other Slavic languages. More than that, their man had proven himself to be of quick wit, assertive, and...

The Battle of Tannenberg was one of the first major battles of World War I, fought between Russia and Germany in East Prussia. The early decisions of German leadership in World War I, and consequently the Eastern Front, resulted from the German war plan of 1914. However, Eighth Army’s operations in East Prussia did not adhere to the plan’s original course of action. Although outnumbered, the Imperial German Army successfully and ov...

The Sengoku Period, or Warring States Era, of Japan began in 1467 with the Onin War. Feudal Japan was characterized by violence between warring states, where kinsmen cut each other down in bids for territorial superiority. Independent warlords among the domains unleashed their samurai and fighting men on each other in anarchic attempts to gain dominance. Rivalries ebbed and flowed. Alliances formed and were shattered. Allegiance am...

In 27 BCE, Rome transitioned from a republic to an empire. Emperor Augustus Caesar reinstated past political institutions and championed reform that enabled peace, prosperity, and targeted corruption. The rule of Augustus brought about the beginning of Pax Romana, or Roman Peace, a nearly 200-year period that is considered to have been Rome’s “golden age”. During this time, the Roman Empire reached the pinnacle of its expansion, it...

Historian Richard A. Gabriel neatly summarized Philip II’s legacy, “Had there been no Philip to bring the Macedonian national state into existence, to assemble the economic and military resources to unite Greece, to create the bold strategic vision of conquering Persia, and to invent the first modern, tactically sophisticated and strategically capable military force in Western military history as the instrument for accomplishing th...

The year was 9 CE. Autumn winds, rain, and cool air blew through the trees of western Germania’s forests. The waters of the Rhine River were beginning their annual swell in the wake of summer’s heat. Though the autumns of Germania were relatively moderate, the season was one of transition and marked by a climate subject to swift change, even week to week at times. So, it was in September in the north of the Germanic central uplands...

The year was 1962. In February, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. The World’s Fair took place on April 21st in Seattle, Washington and the Space Needle, which stands at 602 feet tall and features a rotating SkyCity restaurant, was unveiled to the world. Black student John Meredith attempted to enroll at the University of Mississippi leading to public backlash and rioting. Marvel’s Spiderman swung onto the com...

Executing a plan developed and approved by the Eisenhower administration, President John F. Kennedy deployed a brigade of 1,400 Cuban exiles to overthrow Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro in 1961. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was terribly executed and a significant disaster for the Kennedy administration. 

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The Imperial Japanese Army was born of, and found its conclusion in, violent conflict. Westernization had come to Japan during the mid to late nineteenth century and divided the nation, for a time reversing the unification efforts of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Consisting of warring clans and provinces governed by a militarily ordered form of government, feudal Japan was a nation designed from warfare, and warfare had long been an esse...

The year 1915 was a significant year for the participants of the Great War, and a great many memorable events occurred. The Gallipoli Campaign commenced, along with the Raid on the Suez Canal, the Second Battle of Ypres began, the RMS Lusitania passenger ship was sent to the seabed by a German U-Boat, to name a few. A lot was happening. The Great War was heating up. These campaigns, events and battles are definitely areas of WWI th...

The United States Army Chemical Corps conducted classified human medical experiments at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland between 1955 and 1975. During the twenty-year span, the US Army Chemical Corps exposed approximately 7,000 volunteer soldiers to over 250 chemicals ranging from alcohol, LSD, nerve agents, to simple caffeine in research focused on disabling enemy troops in combat scenarios. Strap in because this is going to get trippy.