1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,920 Speaker 1: Hey, y'all were rerunning two episodes today in Troy, the 2 00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: show Hi There, Welcome to this day in History class, 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:11,440 Speaker 1: where we stifted through the artifacts of history seven days 4 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:23,200 Speaker 1: a week. The day was June nineteen eleven. Luise Walter 5 00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:27,880 Speaker 1: Alvarez was born in San Francisco to Walter and Harriett Alvarez. 6 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:32,280 Speaker 1: Alvarez was a physicist who worked on radar projects during 7 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:35,640 Speaker 1: World War Two, an inventor and winner of the Nobel 8 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:40,440 Speaker 1: Prize in physics. Luise's father, Walter, was a physician and 9 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:44,760 Speaker 1: later a research physiologist, and early on Louise would go 10 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:48,880 Speaker 1: to the lab with him. When Louise was eleven years old, 11 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:52,800 Speaker 1: he and his dad made a radio together. Later, Louise 12 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:57,000 Speaker 1: attended San Francisco Polytechnic High School, but ended up moving 13 00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:01,800 Speaker 1: to Rochester, Minnesota. While he was enrolled, they his father 14 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: worked for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and Louise began 15 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: apprenticing at the Mayo Clinics instrument shop and being tutored 16 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:13,080 Speaker 1: by machinists while he was still in high school. Alvarez 17 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:15,959 Speaker 1: went on to study physics at the University of Chicago, 18 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:20,400 Speaker 1: where he got his bachelor's, master's and doctorate. As he 19 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:24,080 Speaker 1: was finishing up his pH d, he married Geraldine Smithik. 20 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: The two of them later had two children, as well 21 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: as a daughter who died at birth. They later divorced. 22 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:36,040 Speaker 1: Louise then completed a lot of work in California. After 23 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:39,399 Speaker 1: getting his PhD. He got a job with Ernest Lawrence 24 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:43,679 Speaker 1: at the University of California, largely through connections his father 25 00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:48,200 Speaker 1: and sister had With Lawrence, Alvarez worked on the cyclotron, 26 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 1: a type of particle accelerator, in the radiation laboratory at 27 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:56,000 Speaker 1: the University of California at Berkeley. He also worked in 28 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:59,880 Speaker 1: a metallurgical laboratory of the University of Chicago and Loos, 29 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:04,320 Speaker 1: the most laboratory of the Manhattan District. Alvarez was a 30 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 1: prolific scientists, but we'll touch on just some of his 31 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:11,640 Speaker 1: discoveries and achievements. He discovered the East West effect and 32 00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:15,360 Speaker 1: cosmic rays, a discovery that gave evidence that cosmic rays 33 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:20,160 Speaker 1: include positively charged particles. Once he joined the radiation lab 34 00:02:20,200 --> 00:02:24,080 Speaker 1: at the University of California, he focused on nuclear physics. 35 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:28,440 Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty seven, he gave the first experimental demonstration 36 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:32,320 Speaker 1: of k electron captured by nuclei, which was a phenomenon 37 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:36,000 Speaker 1: that had not yet been proven. He also developed a 38 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:40,800 Speaker 1: method for producing themes of very slow neutrons. Alvarez also 39 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:43,320 Speaker 1: developed a mercury vapor lamp with one of his students 40 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:47,480 Speaker 1: named Jake Waen's. That development established a new standard of 41 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:51,720 Speaker 1: length that the U. S Bureau of Standards adopted, but 42 00:02:51,880 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 1: as World War Two broke out, his career shifted gears. 43 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:59,000 Speaker 1: In nineteen forty, Alvarez went to work on radar technology 44 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:02,919 Speaker 1: at the masha US Institute of Technology, where he worked 45 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:06,720 Speaker 1: on a microwave early warning system and the Eagle high 46 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:12,320 Speaker 1: altitude bombing system. He also invented the Vixen radar system, 47 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:16,040 Speaker 1: which deceived skippers into thinking an Allied plane was flying 48 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:19,480 Speaker 1: away from a German submarine and allowed attack planes to 49 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:23,200 Speaker 1: destroy the U boats. Luise also figured out a way 50 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:26,280 Speaker 1: to help planes land and bad weather when he invented 51 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:31,640 Speaker 1: ground control approach. When Louise left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 52 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: he went to work on the Manhattan Project. He worked 53 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:39,400 Speaker 1: on nuclear bombs in Chicago, created detonators for plutonium bombs 54 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:42,560 Speaker 1: in New Mexico, and was on the plane that conducted 55 00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:46,040 Speaker 1: the first ever atomic bomb test. He was also on 56 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:49,960 Speaker 1: the plane that dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy, on Hiroshima. 57 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:54,720 Speaker 1: Before Fat Man, the second atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki. 58 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,200 Speaker 1: Alvarez wrote a letter to a Japanese physicist he knew, 59 00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:01,560 Speaker 1: urging him to tell Japanese leaders that if they continued 60 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: in the war, another bomb would be dropped on the country. 61 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,840 Speaker 1: Though Avarez recognized the horror and devastation that the bombs caused, 62 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:12,680 Speaker 1: he believed that the bombs would end the war and 63 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:15,960 Speaker 1: bring some sort of peace to the world. He also 64 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,799 Speaker 1: thought that the U. S should continue research and develop 65 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:23,400 Speaker 1: a hydrogen bomb. After the war, he went back to Berkeley. 66 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:27,680 Speaker 1: He designed and constructed a forty foot proton linear accelerator. 67 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:30,960 Speaker 1: He also did a lot of work with large liquid 68 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:35,440 Speaker 1: hydrogen bubble chambers, and he helped identify many new particles. 69 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty eight, Luis won the Nobel Prize for 70 00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:45,360 Speaker 1: his quote decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular 71 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:49,000 Speaker 1: the discovery of a large number of resident states, made 72 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:52,799 Speaker 1: possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen 73 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:57,320 Speaker 1: bubble chamber and data analysis. After this point, he spent 74 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:00,400 Speaker 1: a lot of his time studying in cosmic raise. His 75 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:04,919 Speaker 1: later life took another surprising, yet not indecipherable turn. He 76 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,200 Speaker 1: put a lot of effort into figuring out the details 77 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:12,080 Speaker 1: of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and he 78 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:15,719 Speaker 1: and his geologist son Walter theorized that an asteroid impact 79 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:19,360 Speaker 1: had led to the extinction of dinosaurs and the end 80 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:23,120 Speaker 1: of the Cretaceous period. The new theory caused an uproar 81 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:26,039 Speaker 1: in the scientific community, as it was believed that a 82 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: volcano had killed the dinosaurs. Alvarez died of cancer in 83 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:34,480 Speaker 1: nine By the time of his death, he had received 84 00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:39,600 Speaker 1: several awards and honorary degrees. I'm Eve Jeffcote and hopefully 85 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:42,560 Speaker 1: you know a little more about history today than you 86 00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:46,200 Speaker 1: did yesterday. And if you haven't gotten your fill of 87 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,880 Speaker 1: history after listening to today's episode, you can follow us 88 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:54,720 Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at T D I h 89 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:58,560 Speaker 1: C podcast. And if you'd like to learn more about 90 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:01,960 Speaker 1: Luis Alvarez, listen to the two part episode of Stuff 91 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:06,159 Speaker 1: You Missed in History Class called Louise w. Alvarez. The 92 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:09,159 Speaker 1: link is in the description. If you listen to the 93 00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: show every day, you probably already know that I have 94 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:15,000 Speaker 1: a new show that's called Unpopular about People in History, 95 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:16,960 Speaker 1: and if you haven't gotten a chance to check it 96 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:20,880 Speaker 1: out yet, please do. Thanks again for listening and we'll 97 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:30,640 Speaker 1: see you tomorrow. Hey, y'all, I'm Eves and welcome to 98 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:33,360 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class, a podcast that brings you 99 00:06:33,400 --> 00:06:36,560 Speaker 1: a tip bit of history every day. And if I 100 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:39,800 Speaker 1: sound any different, it's because I am no longer recording 101 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:43,120 Speaker 1: from the closet that was my unofficial studio for a minute. 102 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:45,560 Speaker 1: Um I moved, which required me to switch at the 103 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:49,320 Speaker 1: set up, But as we all know here as history enthusiasts, 104 00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 1: change is inevitable. On that note, I wanted to also 105 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,080 Speaker 1: take a moment to acknowledge the huge moment of change 106 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:59,080 Speaker 1: that we are currently living in, from COVID to the 107 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:02,360 Speaker 1: demonstrations that began in response to the murder of George 108 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:05,880 Speaker 1: Floyd by a police officer. It's literally a moment for 109 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:08,479 Speaker 1: the history books. And if you've been listening to the 110 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:11,600 Speaker 1: show for a while, you probably know that I think 111 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:14,440 Speaker 1: it is deeply important to cover the history of black 112 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:18,000 Speaker 1: people around the world, and you also probably know that 113 00:07:18,080 --> 00:07:22,280 Speaker 1: I care about covering the history of social movements, black protests, 114 00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:26,160 Speaker 1: and of resistance generally, and black lives matter to me 115 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:30,240 Speaker 1: forever and for always. I hope that y'all can look 116 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:32,320 Speaker 1: back on some of the episodes that we've done in 117 00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:38,200 Speaker 1: the past on black revolutionaries, organizers, artists, and uprising, as 118 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:41,240 Speaker 1: well as the episodes that detailed the injustices that black 119 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:45,640 Speaker 1: folks have faced because of racism, to gain some perspective 120 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:50,120 Speaker 1: and some context and to develop informed opinions. I hope 121 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:52,600 Speaker 1: that you'll find a way to take action, and you 122 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:56,160 Speaker 1: can find resources online on how to help the efforts 123 00:07:56,200 --> 00:08:00,680 Speaker 1: against police brutality and racism. You can protest, can donate 124 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:03,960 Speaker 1: to the families of people affected by police brutality, and 125 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:07,480 Speaker 1: you can donate to bail funds. If that's not something 126 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:10,800 Speaker 1: that you can do, you can also share anti racist resources, 127 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:14,160 Speaker 1: and you can do things like have hard conversations with 128 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:17,920 Speaker 1: people who you care about. You have the tools, so 129 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:21,360 Speaker 1: stay safe out there, y'all, be bold and don't be 130 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:32,480 Speaker 1: afraid to learn and unlearn. Now let's get into today's episode. 131 00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:37,640 Speaker 1: The day was June nineteen seventy one. The New York 132 00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:43,040 Speaker 1: Times began publishing excerpts from the Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers, 133 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:46,000 Speaker 1: officially called the Report of the Office of the Secretary 134 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:49,760 Speaker 1: of Defense. Vietnam Task Force contain a history of US 135 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:54,560 Speaker 1: political and military involvement in Southeast Asia from to nineteen 136 00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:58,760 Speaker 1: sixty seven. In June two eleven, the complete report was 137 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:03,120 Speaker 1: declassified and east to the public. In nineteen sixty seven, 138 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:06,800 Speaker 1: U s Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara commissioned a report 139 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:09,920 Speaker 1: on the history of the Vietnam War. The exact reasons 140 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,880 Speaker 1: McNamara commissioned the report are unclear and remain a subject 141 00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:17,960 Speaker 1: of debate. McNamara claimed that he wanted a written record 142 00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:22,520 Speaker 1: of the US's involvement in Southeast Asia to preserve for scholars. 143 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:26,680 Speaker 1: Neither President Lyndon Johnson nor Secretary of State Dean Rusk 144 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:30,839 Speaker 1: believed that claim. Some people believe that McNamara ordered the 145 00:09:30,880 --> 00:09:34,600 Speaker 1: report to help Robert Kennedy get the Democratic presidential nomination 146 00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:38,280 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty eight. Regardless, the study was completed in 147 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:41,560 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine. It was made up of seven thousand 148 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:45,920 Speaker 1: pages bound into forty seven volumes that included three thousand 149 00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:49,839 Speaker 1: pages of historical studies and four thousand pages of government documents. 150 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:54,160 Speaker 1: Fifteen copies of the report were made. Some of the 151 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:57,480 Speaker 1: people involved were concerned about the paper being destroyed or leaked. 152 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 1: At the time, the federal government class to find the 153 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:04,719 Speaker 1: Pentagon papers as top secret, but Daniel Ellsberg, who had 154 00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:08,040 Speaker 1: worked at a think tank called the Rand Corporation, contributed 155 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 1: to the study. He opposed the Vietnam War. The report 156 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:15,600 Speaker 1: revealed that US involvement was greater than the government had acknowledged. 157 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:19,440 Speaker 1: Among many other topics, it addressed the overthrow of South 158 00:10:19,520 --> 00:10:23,560 Speaker 1: Vietnam's President Go Dandem, the build up of US forces 159 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:28,720 Speaker 1: in Vietnam, and the Johnson administration's response to pressures for negotiations. 160 00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:32,800 Speaker 1: With the help of his former colleague Anthony Russo, Ellsberg 161 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:35,480 Speaker 1: photocopy the report. When he took the info to the 162 00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:38,520 Speaker 1: National Security Advisor and U S Senators, they refused to 163 00:10:38,559 --> 00:10:41,760 Speaker 1: hold hearings on the papers, so he took the report 164 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:45,440 Speaker 1: to Neil Sheehan, a New York Times reporter. The New 165 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:47,760 Speaker 1: York Times was the first paper to publish parts of 166 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 1: the Pentagon Papers, starting on June thirteenth, ninete. The first 167 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:57,520 Speaker 1: article published was titled Vietnam Archive. Pentagon Study traces three 168 00:10:57,520 --> 00:11:01,760 Speaker 1: decades of growing US involvement In it, Sheen said that 169 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:06,680 Speaker 1: the study quote demonstrates that four administrations progressively developed a 170 00:11:06,760 --> 00:11:10,720 Speaker 1: sense of commitment to a non communist Vietnam, a readiness 171 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:13,360 Speaker 1: to fight the North to protect the South, and an 172 00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:16,920 Speaker 1: ultimate frustration with this effort to a much greater extent 173 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:20,920 Speaker 1: than their public statements acknowledged at the time. The Times 174 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:23,920 Speaker 1: published three articles about the study in two days. A 175 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:27,480 Speaker 1: federal court injunction forced the paper to stop publishing the articles, 176 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:31,600 Speaker 1: but soon the Washington Post began publishing articles on the 177 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:35,880 Speaker 1: Pentagon Papers, and on June the Supreme Court decided that 178 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:39,400 Speaker 1: the injunctions the Nixon administration sought against those publishing the 179 00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:45,040 Speaker 1: papers were unconstitutional prior restraint. Ellsberg and Russo were charged 180 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:49,640 Speaker 1: with conspiracy, misappropriation of government property, and violations of the 181 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:53,080 Speaker 1: Espionage Act, but the charges were later dismissed due to 182 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:58,240 Speaker 1: investigations that took place during Nixon's Watergate scandal. The release 183 00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:02,600 Speaker 1: of the Pentagon Papers incited international controversy over US actions 184 00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:06,760 Speaker 1: in Southeast Asia. In two thousand eleven, the entire study 185 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:11,679 Speaker 1: was declassified and released with no redactions. I'm eve Chef Coote, 186 00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:14,400 Speaker 1: and hopefully you know a little more about history today 187 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:17,560 Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. And as always, if you have 188 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:20,600 Speaker 1: any comment source suggestions. You can send them to us 189 00:12:20,800 --> 00:12:23,800 Speaker 1: at this day at iHeart media dot com. You can 190 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:26,439 Speaker 1: also hit us up on social media on Facebook, Twitter, 191 00:12:26,559 --> 00:12:30,559 Speaker 1: or Instagram. Where at t D i h C podcast 192 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:33,680 Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening to the show and we'll see 193 00:12:33,679 --> 00:12:41,520 Speaker 1: you tomorrow. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit 194 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:44,200 Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 195 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:45,120 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.