I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by

their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism with me,

Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC

World Service with me, Max Pearson, the past brought to

life by those who were there. This week, the French defeat at DMBM Fu in Vietnam.

First of all, the French were too confident, and they didn't anticipate the united spirit of Vietnamese

army and people. Plus, Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus movement.

I was aware, after what I had done already, as an architect,

that in order to really penetrate,

that couldn't be done by one person alone.

You have to build up a whole school.

And the birth of a global television phenomenon.

For kids, it has that sparkle.

For teens and early 20s, it's funny.

It's got a sense of humour.

It's got the celebrity element to it.

That's all coming up later in the podcast.

But we begin this week with something which has been a recurring theme in America for more than 50 years, the struggle to deal with illegal drugs.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs, increasing the effort the American authorities put into fighting the use of and the consequences of drug consumption.

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