CLASSIC: Attack of the Aswang: How the CIA Used Vampires as Weapons of War

Ridiculous History

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.3 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Horror fans can tell you there's more than one type of vampire -- in fact, there are hundreds of vampire-like fiends in cultures around the world. In most cases these are dismissed as spooky stories for children or ancient myths, but when the CIA needed to oust a group of Communist rebels in the Philippines, they decided to make the myth of the Aswang a reality. Join Ben and Noel for a bizarre adventure in this week's Classic episode.

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0:00.0	fellow ridiculous historians.
0:01.6	Welcome to this week's classic episode.
0:04.9	Noel, we were talking off air a little bit.
0:06.9	And this is one of my favorite ones.
0:08.8	I went through an obsessive face with this.
0:11.1	With what, the ass-wang?
0:12.9	It's ass-wong.
0:14.8	All right.
0:16.2	But ass-wag is...
0:18.0	If you nasty.
0:19.0	It's way funny.
0:20.0	Yeah, Miss Jackson, if you're nasty.
0:21.9	Look at this one as a crossover in a way.
0:24.3	This is the kind of stuff we talk about on our other podcast that we do with our dear, dear pal, Matt Frederick.
0:30.4	Stuff they don't want you to know.
0:31.9	This is the story of how the CIA used vampires.
0:35.5	Weaponized psychology strikes again as weapons of war. Not like they had a
0:42.3	stable of vampires that they would like set free on their enemies, you know, who would feast upon
0:47.3	their blood, but just the idea of vampires, right? The Aswanga is a fascinating, legendary creature creature monster, and it's well established in the folklore of the Philippines.
0:59.8	So, as we'll see in this classic, when the CIA needed to take care of a group of communist rebels over in the Philippines, they got super weird with it. They're really thinking outside the box.
1:14.3	You are absolutely right, Ben. Myth-making at its finest, you know, for the purposes of control.
1:21.6	Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. This is an I-Heart podcast.
	...

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