Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 2

The Preamble

Sharon McMahon

Education, History

4.9 • 15.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Secret Police, CIA operatives, The Pentagon Papers, and The Most Dangerous Man in America. There was a time in the not-so-distant past, when the nightly news changed the game in how Americans felt about the war in Vietnam, the first “television war.” What was more of a shock to some though, was the realization that the American public had been lied to for decades by the U.S. government, spanning four presidential administrations. How did this influence the Watergate scandal? And how did the lavish “gathering of the Century” in Iran, attended by Vice President Agnew, tie into future allegations of broad political corruption

Transcript

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0:30.5	Hello, friends. Welcome. Welcome to episode two of our new documentary series about the 1970s.
0:42.2	Today, we are revisiting 1971, and it was definitely one for the records, from astronauts to a billion-dollar feast.
0:53.6	The passage of the 26th Amendment to the Pentagon Papers,
0:58.1	1971 ushered in political and cultural shifts that still reverberate today. And stay tuned
1:07.2	until the end of the episode where I have some facts that didn't make it in to today's story.
1:13.1	Let's dive in.
1:15.2	I'm Sharon McMahon, and this is the preamble podcast.
1:22.5	The year was 1970, and Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlavi of Iran had an idea.
1:30.3	An idea to throw a lavish three-day, no expense spared celebration of the
1:37.0	2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire.
1:42.7	In the desert, with no infrastructure, and scorpions and serpents everywhere.
1:51.0	He started by rounding up all of the undesirables, which were the creepy-crawly animals he had poisoned,
2:00.2	along with students, activists, and dissidents,
2:04.3	he imprisoned. He closed the borders and shuttered all schools and universities. He created the image
2:11.0	of Iran. He wanted to project a perfect image. One of lavish wealth, no poverty, and definitely no human rights violations.
2:23.5	He wanted to connect his leadership with that of Cyrus the Great, the first ruler of the Persian
2:30.7	Empire. And for those who may have missed it in history class, the Persian Empire lasted roughly from 539 BCE until it was conquered by Alexander the Great in 334 BCE.
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