Speaker 1: We take it for granted, but American independence was not
Speaker 1: a foregone conclusion. The Revolutionary War was long, more than
Speaker 1: six grinding years between the first shots at Lexington and
Speaker 1: Conquered and the British surrender at Yorktown, and they all
Speaker 1: too oft an unpaid, ill equipped, underfed patriots were almost
Speaker 1: always playing defense, one battle away from total defeat and
Speaker 1: the very real risk of capital punishment as traitors to
Speaker 1: the crown. Father of his country. George Washington earned that title,
Speaker 1: but Washington wasn't at Saratoga in upstate New York, site
Speaker 1: of arguably the most important turning point in the war.
Speaker 1: In the summer of seventeen seventy seven, about eight thousand
Speaker 1: troops under British General John Burgoyne came down from Canada
Speaker 1: and through the Hudson River Valley, expecting to join British
Speaker 1: troops moving up from New York City. The colonies would
Speaker 1: be split into a classic divide and conquer and the
Speaker 1: rebellion would be put down. But those other British troops
Speaker 1: didn't show, and on September near the town of Saratoga,
Speaker 1: the British Burgoyne met a line of American troops after
Speaker 1: an initial bloody confrontation, the British and the Americans, under
Speaker 1: the cautious leadership of General Horatio Gates, engaged each other
Speaker 1: indecisively for almost three weeks. Then, on October seven, the
Speaker 1: British launched an attack, trying to break through American lines,
Speaker 1: but before Gates could issue a command, another American general
Speaker 1: flew into action. No man shall keep me in my
Speaker 1: tent today, this general raged. I am without command, and
Speaker 1: I will fight in the ranks. But the soldiers, God
Speaker 1: bless them, will follow my lead. Cursing, rallying the patriots,
Speaker 1: he charged out on horseback, straight into the fray. He
Speaker 1: was our fighting general. A comrade later wrote, as brave
Speaker 1: a man as ever lived that general's name, Benedict Arnold.
Speaker 1: Anyone would be hard pressed the point to a officer
Speaker 1: in the Continental Army who was a better general. In
Speaker 1: the first years of the Revolution, Arnold's horse was shot
Speaker 1: from right under him. He suffered a terrible wound to
Speaker 1: his leg, but he and his men prevailed, routing the British.
Speaker 1: Ten days later, Burgoyne surrendered. As a result of that victory,
Speaker 1: the French entered to the Revolutionary War on the side
Speaker 1: of the Patriots. As the writer R. W. Apple Jr.
Speaker 1: Put it, it marked the beginning of the end of
Speaker 1: the British Empire, and it breathed life into the United
Speaker 1: States of America, in no small part thanks to Benedict Arnold.
Speaker 1: This is the hidden part of Arnold, the Arnold before
Speaker 1: he went back, but just three years later, Benedict Arnold,
Speaker 1: the hero of Saratoga, would betray his country, his name
Speaker 1: consigned to infamy. Whom can we trust? Now? That was
Speaker 1: the question that Arnold made all Americans face. This episode
Speaker 1: will tell you the story of Benedict Arnold before he
Speaker 1: became synonymous with treason, and will tell you the surprising
Speaker 1: backstories of some of history's other villains. You have summoned
Speaker 1: the Prince of Temptation fo what Purpose? From CBS Sunday
Speaker 1: Morning and I Heart I'm Morocca. And this is mobituaries,
Speaker 1: This mopit Benedict Arnold, Peanuts and satan before they went bad.
Speaker 1: You know what are you doing studying my script? I'm
Speaker 1: in the school play. Oh it's wonderful, I'll plan Benedict Donald,
Speaker 1: Benedict Arnold. Yeah, it's a great part. Well, it is
Speaker 1: if you like being a trader that's from a nine
Speaker 1: two episode of The Brady Bunch. Middle son Peter Braby
Speaker 1: gets cast in the school play as Benedict Arnold, and
Speaker 1: it's making him a pariah, so much so that he
Speaker 1: fakes being sick to get out of the play. I
Speaker 1: want you to level with us. You don't want to
Speaker 1: be in that play, don't you. No. I don't why, Peter,
Speaker 1: you said you were going to be the best Benedict
Speaker 1: Donald ever. Well, you don't know what it's been like.
Speaker 1: Everybody riding me, booing and hissing me because I'm playing
Speaker 1: a trader. I understood Peter's predicament. I don't know about
Speaker 1: the kids today, but when I was growing up, to
Speaker 1: be called a Benedict Arnold was a really insult, wasn't it. Oh? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: but it was weird. My mom always said her hero
Speaker 1: was Bennedicgonald, and so that just confused me as a kid.
Speaker 1: Bennedicdonald epitomizes being a trader, being evil. He is the
Speaker 1: snake in our garden. Historian Nathaniel Philbrick is the author
Speaker 1: of three books on the American Revolution, including Valiant Ambition,
Speaker 1: about the relationship between Benedict Donald and George Washington. But
Speaker 1: hold on a second, what was your mother's rationale for
Speaker 1: saying he was her hero? She was a contrarian. But
Speaker 1: I think back in the day she read ken Robert's
Speaker 1: series of novels about the American Revolution, and Benedicdonald is
Speaker 1: portrayed largely as a sympathetic character. Kenneth Roberts was a
Speaker 1: popular writer of historical fiction in the first half of
Speaker 1: the twentieth century. He wrote a couple of books focusing
Speaker 1: not on Arnold's eventual treachery but his earlier military daring
Speaker 1: do But my mom latched onto this with a vengeance
Speaker 1: because it just appealed to her, being against the grain
Speaker 1: of most people's thinking. Now, I know some of you
Speaker 1: may be thinking focusing on Benedict Arnold's early heroics for
Speaker 1: this episode is kind of like talking about how great
Speaker 1: Richard Nixon was for creating the e p A without
Speaker 1: mentioning Watergate. But Nixon was kind of great for creating
Speaker 1: the E p A. People are complicated, get over it.
Speaker 1: Don't worry. We'll get to Arnold's betrayal in the third act.
Speaker 1: But first, what kind of a family did Benedict Donold
Speaker 1: come from? He came from a large, lead dysfunctional family
Speaker 1: of a family that was living in the shadow of
Speaker 1: their forebears. Those forbears were also named Benedict Arnold. Our
Speaker 1: protagonist was the fourth born in seventy. Arnold's great grandfather,
Speaker 1: the first Benedict, was a governor of the Rhode Island Colony.
Speaker 1: But after Arnold's father left Rhode Island to start a
Speaker 1: life in Norwich, Connecticut, multiple tragedy struck. Four of Benedict
Speaker 1: Arnold's five siblings died before the age of ten. Benedict
Speaker 1: Arnold and his sister Hannah would be the only survivors,
Speaker 1: and his father went to drinking and Arnold his later
Speaker 1: life I think would be kind of a repudiation of
Speaker 1: his difficult childhood because he had a chip on his
Speaker 1: shoulders from the very beginning, and he wanted to make
Speaker 1: something of himself, because I think he had this sense
Speaker 1: of coming from a place of shame. After a seven
Speaker 1: year apprenticeship with an apothecary, he started his own pharmacy
Speaker 1: and bookselling business in New Haven. He was doing okay,
Speaker 1: but young Benedict had long craved adventure. He wanted to
Speaker 1: be the person that he idealized the swashbuckling man of action,
Speaker 1: and physically he was fearless, you know, he was a
Speaker 1: kind of athlete. One person described him as the best
Speaker 1: skater he had ever seen skater as an ice skater. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a funny observation. But there are several anecdotes about
Speaker 1: his youth that he was a daredevil. There was a
Speaker 1: water mill in Norwich and he would grab onto the
Speaker 1: water wheel, rided all the way up and then dive
Speaker 1: off into the stream. He was not a big guy,
Speaker 1: but one of those guys with that kind of athletes
Speaker 1: swagger and built very solidly, and someone who could intimidate
Speaker 1: other people, not only in terms of yelling at them,
Speaker 1: you know, just his physical presence. It's funny because you
Speaker 1: write that he claimed he was a coward until fifteen
Speaker 1: years of age. He said that his bravery was learned,
Speaker 1: and so, according to his own account, at about fifteen,
Speaker 1: you know, which is a time in life when all
Speaker 1: sorts of stuff is usually happening in the life of
Speaker 1: a teenager, he made this decision, I'm going to be
Speaker 1: a badass, and that's what he would be. By the
Speaker 1: time Arnold was in his twenties, he had taken to
Speaker 1: the high seas a successful merchant, captaining his own ships,
Speaker 1: sailing as far south as the Caribbean and as far
Speaker 1: north as Canada. He began to build what would be,
Speaker 1: if he had ever finished it, the most opulent house
Speaker 1: in New Haven. Who was a man on the make,
Speaker 1: a man to be admired, and a budding patriot. When
Speaker 1: the British wanted to tax the Americans without giving them
Speaker 1: representation in Parliament, you remember all of that, Arnold found
Speaker 1: a cause he could fight for. He became a smuggler,
Speaker 1: rating his businesses in open defiance of the British tariffs.
Speaker 1: He joined the Sons of Liberty, the secretive group that
Speaker 1: carried out the Boston Tea Party. Then on the morning
Speaker 1: of April nineteenth, seventeen seventy five, the British fired on
Speaker 1: colonial militiamen at Lexington. The Revolutionary War had begun, and
Speaker 1: Benedict Arnold lapped into action. When I heard about Lexington conquered,
Speaker 1: he led a group right to the Boston area. You know,
Speaker 1: getting on a horse and riding around and giving orders
Speaker 1: was exactly the kind of thing. Ben MacDonald was wired
Speaker 1: for his years as a merchant and a Mariner had
Speaker 1: prepared him well for this moment, and because of his
Speaker 1: knowledge of the geography of New England and Canada, he
Speaker 1: realizes that strategically, the Americans need to have control of
Speaker 1: Lake Champlain. Lake Champlain wasn't just a crucial waterway just
Speaker 1: to its south, stood for ty con To Roga with
Speaker 1: more than sixty cannons firepower that George Washington's Continental Army
Speaker 1: desperately needed. So he proposed to the powers that be
Speaker 1: in Boston that they take Fort Ticonda Roga, a kind
Speaker 1: of extraordinarily aggressive move, but the Powers that Be agreed
Speaker 1: with him and gave him a commission to go up there.
Speaker 1: At off he would go, leading one of the most
Speaker 1: important military actions of the beginning of the American Revolution.
Speaker 1: Arnold took Fort Ticonda Roga, though he had to share
Speaker 1: credit with Vermont or Ethan Allen. Yes, Ethan Allen was
Speaker 1: a real person, not just the name of a furniture company.
Speaker 1: Neither man liked sharing credit, but soon Arnold would surpass
Speaker 1: Allen in heroics with an audacious attempt to capture the
Speaker 1: British Canadian province of Quebec and make it our fourteenth colony.
Speaker 1: This involved a legendary and brutal three hundred fifty mile
Speaker 1: trek through the wilderness of Maine. It was the fall
Speaker 1: of seventeen seventy five. The weather was getting bad, but
Speaker 1: Arnold was all for it, and Washington, who was impressed
Speaker 1: by Arnold, sent him on this desperate journey through the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Almost half the men would desert or die or starve.
Speaker 1: It was just one of these incredible tests of endurance,
Speaker 1: but somehow Arnold would make it and be dubbed the
Speaker 1: American Hannibal. I traced his route through there, and that
Speaker 1: part of Maine is still so remote that just about
Speaker 1: every road you see has Arnold on it, as if
Speaker 1: he was. About the last time anyone was up there
Speaker 1: was when Arnold went up there during the American Revolution.
Speaker 1: Are you serious that their roads still named after him? Yeah,
Speaker 1: They're a part of the landscape up there in the
Speaker 1: wilds of Maine. You can see tangible evidence of Arnold's
Speaker 1: bravery and adventurous ambition. I'm thinking these areas are so
Speaker 1: remote they still haven't heard about the betrayal that happened
Speaker 1: later on, hasn't, right, it's still news. Yeah. The Siege
Speaker 1: of Quebec all timidly failed. Arnold's left leg was shattered
Speaker 1: in battle and the Americans retreated. But Arnold's actions helped
Speaker 1: slow the British down, and for his valor he was
Speaker 1: made a brigadier general. George Washington praised him as a
Speaker 1: persevering and enterprising officer. In some ways, was he a
Speaker 1: more talented general than George Washington? Judged by the evidence, yes,
Speaker 1: I think you'd have to say that. And the thing is,
Speaker 1: Benedict Arnold knew he was that good. The brash confidence
Speaker 1: that made him a hero on the battlefield was matched
Speaker 1: by an arrogance off of it. What did Arnold's men
Speaker 1: think of him in the midst of battle? They loved Arnold.
Speaker 1: He was someone who, in the heat of the moment,
Speaker 1: behaved with a quiet calm and yet a forceful, inspiring charisma.
Speaker 1: The trouble with Arnold occurred after the battle. You know,
Speaker 1: he was prickly. He could be completely condescending and judgmentel.
Speaker 1: He did not brook any kind of what he perceived
Speaker 1: as incompetence, and as a consequence, there were just as
Speaker 1: many people who despised the man. And when I say despise,
Speaker 1: I mean they hated him. There's two reactions, and there's
Speaker 1: no one that seems in between. You either love the
Speaker 1: man or you despise him. Someone who despised Arnold early
Speaker 1: on was a militiaman named John Brown. No, not the
Speaker 1: nineteenth century abolitionist. This John Brown was part of the
Speaker 1: force that had seized for Takonta Roga. Soon after that,
Speaker 1: he accused Arnold of attempting to defect during that battle.
Speaker 1: Arnold was cleared to that allegation, but Brown would go
Speaker 1: on to write in a pamphlet words about Arnold that
Speaker 1: proved prophetic quote. Money is this man's God, and to
Speaker 1: get enough of it he would sacrifice his country. We'll
Speaker 1: continue with the story of Benedict Arnold on the other
Speaker 1: side of the break, but first, before they went bad,
Speaker 1: Philippe Petan. During World War Two, Francis Philippe Petan betrayed
Speaker 1: his country by collaborating with Nazi Germany. The German juggernaut
Speaker 1: rolls on on to Dunkirk, on to Paris. After Hitler's
Speaker 1: Germany seized France in nineteen forty, Petan was appointed head
Speaker 1: of the nominally independent French state known as v she France.
Speaker 1: He soon proclaimed that collaborating with Hitler was the only
Speaker 1: way to repair the ruin caused by Germany's conquest of France.
Speaker 1: I say, obviously, actually John the accipi. The French puppet
Speaker 1: government put up no significant resistance to Nazi demands and
Speaker 1: voluntarily implemented anti Jewish legislation, even rounding up Jews. Over
Speaker 1: seventy five thousand French Jews would die in the Holocaust.
Speaker 1: Payton's very name became a byword for collaborationist quizzlings, which
Speaker 1: is quite the turn for someone whose first act was
Speaker 1: so honorable. As an army general in World War One,
Speaker 1: Payton was in charge of halting the seemingly unstoppable German
Speaker 1: offensive on the French city of their Done over what
Speaker 1: would be the longest and most brutal battle of the war.
Speaker 1: Initially pneumoniaus stricken and commanding troops from his sick bed,
Speaker 1: Payton skillfully reorganized the French front line, made innovative use
Speaker 1: of artillery, and inspired his demoralized and outnumbered rank and
Speaker 1: file Miraculously verdon held Pathan emerged a national hero and
Speaker 1: was awarded the title of Martial, one of France's highest
Speaker 1: military distinctions. Three decades later, the story was much different.
Speaker 1: This is the Pali de Justice, where peta marshal of
Speaker 1: France and Hiro Verda, is on trial for his life
Speaker 1: on charges of plotting against the internal security of his
Speaker 1: country and collaboration with the enemy. After Payton's conviction for
Speaker 1: treason in French, leader Charles de gaul is said to
Speaker 1: have remarked, the Marshal is a great man who died
Speaker 1: in ninety five. I think we forget how frightening a
Speaker 1: revolution is. The whole underpinnings of what was your life
Speaker 1: have been ripped apart, and suddenly you have to make
Speaker 1: decisions about a future that you have no idea where
Speaker 1: it is headed. And so I had sympathies for loyalists
Speaker 1: and patriots. That's historian Nathaniel Philbrick again. He says that
Speaker 1: throughout the revolution the colonists were a lot more divided
Speaker 1: than we might like to imagine. I don't know what
Speaker 1: I would have been. You know, I love my country,
Speaker 1: I love America. Basically, they are a third of the
Speaker 1: Americans are definitely in the patriot cause, and the third
Speaker 1: of the Americans are loyalists. To say, you know, why
Speaker 1: are we having a revolution? We are the freest, most
Speaker 1: prosperous society on earth. What is wrong with this picture?
Speaker 1: And then there's the other third who really don't care.
Speaker 1: They just want to live their lives. Remember, this is
Speaker 1: three years into a war with Great Britain and Empire,
Speaker 1: with vast resources at its disposal. It's really no wonder
Speaker 1: that there were lots of colonists who thought the British
Speaker 1: would ultimately prevail. But early in the Revolution, Benedict Arnold
Speaker 1: continued to prove himself a patriot on land and see.
Speaker 1: In the fall of seventeen seventy six, at the Battle
Speaker 1: of Valker Island, Arnold commanded America's first naval force. He
Speaker 1: supervised the construction of part of the fleet, and while
Speaker 1: the British won that battle, Arnold successfully stalled them long
Speaker 1: enough to prevent a larger incursion. He is clearly the
Speaker 1: most talented general on Washington's staff, and he's up for promotion.
Speaker 1: At this point, Arnold was a brigadier general looking to
Speaker 1: become a major general, but due to the Continental congress
Speaker 1: As rules on military promotions, a bunch of lesser generals
Speaker 1: kept getting promoted past Arnold. Arnold had an important friend
Speaker 1: in George Washington, though, who very much disapproved of Congress
Speaker 1: passing him over. Washington couldn't believe that this had happened.
Speaker 1: He told Arnold, please hold on, I'll check into this.
Speaker 1: But Washington's please on, behalf of arn Old went nowhere.
Speaker 1: For a military guy, it's all about the rank, and
Speaker 1: here five people who were below him and who had
Speaker 1: had shown none of his talent and abilities had been
Speaker 1: elevated past him. Arnold finally did get his promotion after
Speaker 1: getting his horse shot from under him twice at the
Speaker 1: Battle of Ridgefield, but the damage to his ego had
Speaker 1: been done. By the time of his heroics at Saratoga,
Speaker 1: where we began this episode, Arnold was already embittered. It
Speaker 1: didn't help that at Saratoga his leg was crushed after
Speaker 1: his horse was again shot from under him. Being Benedict
Speaker 1: Donald's force was apparently the most dangerous job during the
Speaker 1: American Revolution. During his long recovery, Benedict Arnold brooded and
Speaker 1: seethed over the credit he hadn't been given. And so
Speaker 1: this is where the demons begin to whisper in Arnold's ear,
Speaker 1: why are you doing this? In seventy eight, George Washington
Speaker 1: made the now physically compromised general the military governor of Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: But the city of brotherly love was in a state
Speaker 1: of near civil war, fiercely divided between patriots and loyalists.
Speaker 1: You needed someone of great compassion and judgment to try
Speaker 1: to keep a lid on this. That was not Arnold.
Speaker 1: It was the worst possible situation. So Washington, trying to
Speaker 1: do as well by him as as he could, I think,
Speaker 1: actually put Arnold in the position that would lead him
Speaker 1: down the road that he would eventually followed to treason.
Speaker 1: Philadelphia wasn't just politically riven, it was a hotbed of corruption.
Speaker 1: Opportunities for profiteering abounded. Benedict Arnold, who had left a
Speaker 1: lucrative business behind to take part in the war, who
Speaker 1: had spent much of his own fortune in the fight,
Speaker 1: and who felt unthanked for his sacrifice, was not about
Speaker 1: to hold back. He thrust his hands into the into
Speaker 1: the treasury and through the till exactly and starts taking
Speaker 1: advantage of every opportunity he can. And he's not the
Speaker 1: only general doing this. I mean, all of these officers
Speaker 1: aren't getting paid and they're running out of money, But
Speaker 1: no one goes at it with the fervor of Benedict Donald.
Speaker 1: It's a volatile situation just looking to explode. At the
Speaker 1: same time he's lining his own pockets. Arnold begins cozying
Speaker 1: up with Philadelphia's British loyalist set and meets Peggy Shipping,
Speaker 1: the daughter of a prominent family suspected of loyalist leanings,
Speaker 1: and falls desperately in love with her. Arnold is older
Speaker 1: than she is. Arnold's approaching forty. He's injured, but in
Speaker 1: kind of a sexy way. His left leg is shorter
Speaker 1: than the right, he has to put it up on
Speaker 1: a chair and all that, but he's resplendent in his
Speaker 1: major general's uniform and they have fallen love. One of
Speaker 1: the ways Arnold woos her he reuses parts of a
Speaker 1: love letter he wrote to someone else. He thought the
Speaker 1: letter was pretty darn good because he would basically reuse
Speaker 1: the entire paragraphs, if not pages, of this letter when
Speaker 1: he sent it to Peggy, cutting and pasting a mash note.
Speaker 1: I know he's really starting to sound like a jerk,
Speaker 1: and I think this is an index to character. You know,
Speaker 1: he has social ambitions, he has romantic conditions, but you
Speaker 1: know there's no need to get too carried away here.
Speaker 1: If you did a good job the first time, you
Speaker 1: can reuse it. You know, there's a certain utility there. Now.
Speaker 1: It's not entirely clear what role Peggy plays in Arnold's betrayal,
Speaker 1: but she had long maintained a correspondence with a British
Speaker 1: spy named John Andre and only a month after marrying
Speaker 1: Peggy Benedict Arnold makes his first contact with the British
Speaker 1: Army and they begin a secret correspondence in which Arnold
Speaker 1: begins feeding them information about what's happening on the Patriot
Speaker 1: side while also negotiating a very good settlement. If he
Speaker 1: should actually be of some use to the British, is
Speaker 1: he putting men in mortal danger? Absolutely, he is feeding
Speaker 1: information about troop movements. He informs the British that the
Speaker 1: Americans are woefully under manned in Charleston, South Carolina, that
Speaker 1: Washington is unable to get the arms and men they
Speaker 1: need to defend that city. At the same time that
Speaker 1: this is happening, Arnold stands trial in a military court
Speaker 1: for his profiteering activities. The court martial trial results in
Speaker 1: a slap on the wrist for Arnold, but and this
Speaker 1: is important. Under pressure from Congress General Washington for the
Speaker 1: first time ever publicly rebukes Benedict Arnold. After this, there
Speaker 1: is no turning back for Arnold, and I think Washington
Speaker 1: was the one figure that was keeping him potentially in
Speaker 1: the Patriot camp. In the summer of sev Arnold asks
Speaker 1: for command of the strategic stronghold of West Point. Washington
Speaker 1: still a believer in Benedict Arnold. Despite that, court martial
Speaker 1: says yes, west Point became the locusts for the most
Speaker 1: infamous betrayal in American history. Could he have gotten George
Speaker 1: Washington killed? Yeah, he could have. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: a psychopath. This is someone who really doesn't care what
Speaker 1: ultimately will happen to those he at one time loved,
Speaker 1: if not revered. Benedict Arnold breaks bad after the break,
Speaker 1: but first before they went bad. Peanuts banned from schools,
Speaker 1: kicked off of airplanes. In recent years, it hasn't been
Speaker 1: smooth sailing for America's formerly favorite snack. E er Visits
Speaker 1: among kids from food induced anaphylaxis have been on the
Speaker 1: rise for years, and the proteins found in peanuts are
Speaker 1: the biggest culprit. Indeed, because of allergies. Some schools have
Speaker 1: declared themselves peanut free zones, and some airlines have put
Speaker 1: peanuts on the no fly list. Quite a reversal of
Speaker 1: fortune for a snack with a proud history. Native to
Speaker 1: the Andes, peanuts were offered by Incas as a sacrifice
Speaker 1: to the gods. Over the centuries, peanuts would become staples
Speaker 1: in cuisines throughout Southeast Asia and India. Enslaved Africans were
Speaker 1: the first to bring peanuts to North America. In both
Speaker 1: Africa and America, peanuts were an important part of their diet.
Speaker 1: Wealthier white Americans initially used peanuts primarily for animal feed,
Speaker 1: but by the late eighteen hundreds, the peanut had become
Speaker 1: a popular snack. P. T. Barnum started selling hot roasted
Speaker 1: peanuts in his circus tents. On the sports front, peanuts
Speaker 1: became one of the go to snacks for baseball bands.
Speaker 1: Take me out with the braun, peanuts and bragg. I
Speaker 1: don't carry if I never get Meanwhile, on the scientific front,
Speaker 1: George Washington Carver, the first African American to hold a
Speaker 1: master's in agricultural science, pioneered the use of peanuts to
Speaker 1: restore nitrogen to soil depleted from the growing of cotton.
Speaker 1: Peanuts were a hit, and not just with people. In
Speaker 1: A boy named Elliott used a trail of peanut butter
Speaker 1: candies to lure an extraterrestrial out of hiding and into
Speaker 1: his home. But once peanut allergies began exploding in the
Speaker 1: mid nine nineties, things got sticky. Planters killed off Mr
Speaker 1: Peanut in a Super Bowl commercial. Right, maybe that, but
Speaker 1: the peanuts future may not be so brittle. That's the
Speaker 1: best I can come up with. An increasing number of
Speaker 1: experts are suggesting that schools relax their restriction on peanuts,
Speaker 1: and in the FDA approved a drug regimen to treat
Speaker 1: peanut allergies. Maybe that's why later in that same Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: Planter has brought Mr Peanut back, has a baby? Is
Speaker 1: that a baby nut? Ps? A peanut isn't actually a nut,
Speaker 1: it's a legume. I think Washington saw a lot of
Speaker 1: himself in Benedicdonald. I'm talking with historian Nathaniel Philbrick. Temperamentally funded, mentally,
Speaker 1: George Washington was a lot like benned Iccdonald if he
Speaker 1: had not consciously changed his behavior. Philbrook says George Washington
Speaker 1: had been a hothead and impulsive in his younger days,
Speaker 1: but as he got older he figured out how to
Speaker 1: manage his anger. He consciously strove to be someone he
Speaker 1: naturally was, which is an extraordinary characteristic. I think most
Speaker 1: of us are who we are and there's not much
Speaker 1: we can do about it. And Arnold was that kind.
Speaker 1: There was no filter with Arnold, no ability to step
Speaker 1: back and say, wait a minute, you know, get Ahold
Speaker 1: of your anger. Here you see Washington doing that all
Speaker 1: the time. Arnold was incapable of that kind of filter.
Speaker 1: He was who he was and who Benedict Arnold was
Speaker 1: in the fall of seventeen eighty was the commander of
Speaker 1: West Point, a vital defense for the Patriots and a
Speaker 1: bargaining chip for Arnold. September, The Treason of Benedict Arnold,
Speaker 1: You Are There. In one episode of CBS's seminal historical
Speaker 1: reenactment series You Are There, host Walter Cronkite explained the stakes.
Speaker 1: For five long years, the rebellious American colonies have been
Speaker 1: fighting a desperate, defensive war. If the British forces now
Speaker 1: occupy New York City were to strike northward, uniting with
Speaker 1: British forces coming down from Canada. They could divide New
Speaker 1: England from the southern colonies, cut the Americans in half,
Speaker 1: and conquer each half separately. But in order to do
Speaker 1: that they must take the Hudson Valley, and in order
Speaker 1: to do that, they must first capture the American stronghold
Speaker 1: on the River, the strategic center of the rebellion, the
Speaker 1: forts at West Point. All things are as they were then,
Speaker 1: except you are there. Can I just say I wish
Speaker 1: I could call on Walter Cronkite to set the stage
Speaker 1: for me on every historical turning point. In the special,
Speaker 1: we watch as Arnold welcomes a British spy named John Andre.
Speaker 1: He's the one Arnold's young wife Peggy had introduced him to.
Speaker 1: Who's how smain that of a friend of his Majesty
Speaker 1: and his Majesty's parlam Arnold reviews the terms of their
Speaker 1: devilish deal about let us to business. Twenty pounds was
Speaker 1: the agreement equivalent rank and the British Army while the
Speaker 1: war continues, and half pay when it is concluded, military
Speaker 1: commissions for my sons and a pension in London for
Speaker 1: Mrs Arnold. In other words, the Brits would pay Arnold
Speaker 1: twenty thousand pounds and make him a commander in their
Speaker 1: army in exchange for West Point. What's more, Arnold told
Speaker 1: the British when George Washington would be present at the fort,
Speaker 1: putting his former ally, mentor and supporter in mortal danger.
Speaker 1: On the way out the door, John Andre refuses to
Speaker 1: shake Benedict Arnold's hand. You refuse my handswer, and yet
Speaker 1: you are in this as deeply as I am. I
Speaker 1: am a soldier honoring a trust. You are a soldier
Speaker 1: betraying one. I hope, sir, you recognize the difference. That
Speaker 1: response from Andre is what the kids today call a
Speaker 1: pretty sick burn. It's also a bit of dramatic license
Speaker 1: from the you are their producers, but it gets at
Speaker 1: an important distinction between the two men. John Andrea was
Speaker 1: loyal to something, in his case, the Crown. Arnold was
Speaker 1: just a turn coat. Now, Benedict Arnold's plan almost works,
Speaker 1: but long story short, Andre is intercepted by three Patriot militiamen.
Speaker 1: They discover the deal's plans and take him prisoner. When
Speaker 1: the word gets back to Arnold, he makes a run
Speaker 1: for it and narrowly escapes a or the British warship
Speaker 1: fittingly named the HMS Vulture. John Andre is hanged as
Speaker 1: a spy on the banks of the Hudson River, and
Speaker 1: American officers and British officers alike mourned Andrea's passing, viewed
Speaker 1: him as the victim of Arnold's betrayal. Arnold starts a
Speaker 1: new life as a brigadier general in the British Army.
Speaker 1: He leads attacks on towns in Virginia and Connecticut that
Speaker 1: leave them devastated, but make a little difference militarily. Of course,
Speaker 1: as we all know, the British ultimately lose the war.
Speaker 1: Arnold receives only a fraction of the agreed upon some
Speaker 1: for his betrayal, since the plot to surrender West Point failed.
Speaker 1: That's right, he didn't even succeed in selling himself out.
Speaker 1: How did Americans react to the news of his treason?
Speaker 1: This was I think incredible wake up call for the
Speaker 1: American people. You know, they had spent all these years
Speaker 1: fighting the British, only to discover that the real threat
Speaker 1: is not the British but ourselves. This is a test
Speaker 1: of character, This is a test of our ability to
Speaker 1: function as an alternative to Great Britain, and are we
Speaker 1: up to this? Just a year after the betrayal came
Speaker 1: to light, the Americans are victorious in the Battle of Yorktown,
Speaker 1: the last major conflict of the Revolutionary War. Arnold tried
Speaker 1: to frame his defection as a noble cause in an
Speaker 1: open letter he wrote to the American public, but his
Speaker 1: name was ruined. American General Nathaniel Green lined Arnold's treason
Speaker 1: to the fall of Lucifer. Ben Franklin compared him to
Speaker 1: Judas and George Washington, once his greatest champion, or judge
Speaker 1: his men to hang Benedict Donald if they ever captured him.
Speaker 1: Arnold was burned in effigy in Philadelphia and in cities
Speaker 1: and towns up and down the Atlantic seaboard. The graves
Speaker 1: of his father were violated by the angry citizens of Norwich.
Speaker 1: He became a figure as archetypal in his own way,
Speaker 1: as Washington of an evil incarnate of the trader of
Speaker 1: the Rock within the rock with it exactly, and I
Speaker 1: think a troubling figure two, because everyone had to acknowledge
Speaker 1: he was one of our best. As Washington would say
Speaker 1: when he first heard, whom can we trust? Now. Arnold
Speaker 1: lived out his final days in disrepute in London, and
Speaker 1: after a long battle with gout, died June fourteenth, eighteen
Speaker 1: o one. He was buried without military honors at sarah
Speaker 1: Toga National Historical Park, site of perhaps his greatest feat
Speaker 1: of heroism. There's a monument dedicated to Benedict Arnold. It's
Speaker 1: a boot carved from stone, representing the leg he injured
Speaker 1: in service of the Revolution. The monument describes a brilliant
Speaker 1: soldier who was desperately wounded in the decisive battle at Saratoga,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't bear his name. He has been written
Speaker 1: out of the scriptures of America. That boot is the
Speaker 1: only thing left of Arnold worth respecting. We leave you
Speaker 1: now with one final installment of Before They Went Bad, Satan,
Speaker 1: get the behind me, Satan, let's face it. Satan has
Speaker 1: an image problem when blamed for the fall of man
Speaker 1: gets laid at your feet. That can happen, but let's
Speaker 1: give the devil his you. Before descending into hell and
Speaker 1: getting branded lord of the underworld, Satan was riding high
Speaker 1: as an angel in heaven. He had fame, wisdom, authority,
Speaker 1: and power, and he was great looking. The poet John
Speaker 1: Milton describes a being with hair that bristles like the
Speaker 1: tail of a comet. In fact, Satan's alias Lucifer means
Speaker 1: light bringer. But Satan became blinded by that light, grew
Speaker 1: resentful of God, and began viewing himself as an equal
Speaker 1: to God. Is it possible that Satan loved God too much?
Speaker 1: Was he actually jealous of God's love for those far
Speaker 1: less perfect beings known as humans? Some believe so. Regardless,
Speaker 1: Satan's designs didn't endear him to his creator, who kicked
Speaker 1: him out of the house and down into Hell. In time,
Speaker 1: Satan reinvented himself and began a fruitful career of leading
Speaker 1: us into temptation. Here he is slithering around Eden in
Speaker 1: a video series from the people behind the popular Beginner's Bible.
Speaker 1: It's nice food, isn't it. Why not give it a shot?
Speaker 1: Just a tiny, tiny key. God probably won't even notice.
Speaker 1: Satan has always made for great reading material. He gets
Speaker 1: name checked fifty six times, and the King James Bible
Speaker 1: is the unlikely protagonist of Milton's Paradise Lost, in which
Speaker 1: he proclaims better to reign and hell than serve in heaven.
Speaker 1: He also pops up in Dante's Inferno in the infamous
Speaker 1: Ninth Circle of Hell frozen into a block of ice.
Speaker 1: The story of Satan's fall is a warning to the
Speaker 1: venal and virtuous alike. Disregard your better angels, and you
Speaker 1: too can be in for quite a tumble. So times
Speaker 1: I think we're not recome. We are that there's such
Speaker 1: a big world up there, I'd like to give it
Speaker 1: a trung. Now. My favorite modern depiction of Satan comes
Speaker 1: in South Park movie. This Satan is tender and love lorn,
Speaker 1: is emotionally abusive relationship with Saddam Hussein, and badly disenchanted
Speaker 1: with the nether world. This Satan longs to quit his
Speaker 1: fiery home and to send to brighter, earthly shores. I
Speaker 1: really hope you enjoyed this mobituary. May I ask all
Speaker 1: you loyal listeners to please rate and review our or podcast.
Speaker 1: You can also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and
Speaker 1: you can follow me on Twitter at Morocca. Here all
Speaker 1: new episodes of Mobituaries Wednesdays. Wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: and check out Mobituaries Great Lives Worth Reliving, the New
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Speaker 1: It includes plenty of stories not in the podcast. This
Speaker 1: episode of Mobituaries was produced by Morocca, Jake Harper, Aaron Shrank,
Speaker 1: and Wilcome Martinez Cacceto. It was edited by Moral Walls
Speaker 1: and engineered by Josh Hahn, with fact checking by Naomi Barr.
Speaker 1: Our production company is Neon Humm Media. Our archival producer
Speaker 1: is Jamie Benson. Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart.
Speaker 1: Indispensable support from Craig Swaggler, Dustin Gervei, Alan Peg, Reggie
Speaker 1: Basil and everyone at CBS News Radio. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Robert Marston, Maureen Dowd, David Dacovny, and Alberto Rebina. The Indubitable.
Speaker 1: Aaron Shrink is our senior producer. Executive producers for Mobituaries
Speaker 1: include Steve Raises and Morocca. The series is created by
Speaker 1: Yours Truly and as always, thanks to Rand Morrison and
Speaker 1: John carp for helping breathe life into Mobituaries