Surviving Saigon in 1945

Published on Jan 1, 2022 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Thierry de Roland Peel, who will shortly release his first book “Ashes from Annam,” which tells the story of how his mother and her family survived the incredible upheavals in Saigon at the end of World War II when the occupying Japanese realized they had lost.Central to the story is the family dog, Mephisto, a lively Groenendael, who delivered secret messages to the outside world as the frontlines surrounding their home changed constantly with the Japanese, French, British, and Vietnamese communists vying for control and influence.De Roland Peel also serves-up a delightful history lesson about a time and place that deserves greater attention, in particular how Japan kickstarted the first Indochina war, drawing the United States into....

Afghanistan Back Then

Published on Dec 1, 2021 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Chris WoolfT. hirty years ago, Abdullah Abdullah guided former BBC “History Guy” Chris Woolf and a colleague through a horrific war zone that they’d wandered into from Kabul. Abdullah would later become the chief executive officer in a unity government reached with President Ashraf Ghani, eventually heading the High Council for National Reconciliation in hopes of engaging the Taliban in peace talks.When Woolf met Abdullah, the Soviet Union was withdrawing from the country, paralleling this year’s events and the exodus of the United States after a 20-year conflict that resulted in the Taliban’s return. Click here to listen..

Twenty Years after 9/11

Published on Aug 27, 2021 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Dan Boylan. American journalist and communications consultant Dan Boylan has worked across the Muslim world over the last two decades as a reporter and then as an advisor to the U.S. State department, the Pentagon, and governments in Iraq and Afghanistan.He spoke with Luke Hunt about 9/11 and the next 20 years which has culminated in an American evacuation of Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban.Listen here..

Luke Hunt Interviewed by RTHK

Published on May 16, 2020 by Luke Hunt

On Hong Kong Heritage this weekend… As a student, longtime Hongkonger and Australian veteran journalist Luke Hunt first learned about Pham Xuan An, a South Vietnamese who spied for the Communist north during the Vietnam War. An worked as a journalist for Time and Reuters and through propaganda this spy for north Vietnam helped convince the Americans that it was time for their troops to go home. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Pham Xuan An became disenchanted with the Communist government but continued to live in Vietnam until his death in 2006. He told Luke that he could write a book about his life, once he was dead. On Hong Kong Heritage this weekend, Luke tells me about....

Wrap: East Timor 20 Years after the Massacres

Published on Sep 5, 2019 by Luke Hunt

East Timor is commemorating the 20th anniversary of a referendum that delivered its independence but sparked widespread massacres that left 1,500 people dead and displaced about half-a-million people. here is a collection of stories from Dili written by Luke Hunt.East Timor Remembers a Vote and a Bloody RampageEast Timor Massacres Remembered by Australian SurvivorsTimor-Leste Dancing to Indonesia’s Tune despite 20 years of IndependenceEast Timorese Retain a Soft Spot for AussiesEast Timor’s Bloody Road to IndependenceTimor-Leste Forged in Blood, Struggles with Peace and Independence.

Australian Family Abandons Thai Surrogate

Published on Aug 3, 2014 by Luke Hunt

The Thai surrogate mother of a critically ill twin baby abandoned by his Australian biological parents says she is determined to bring him up in her impoverished village with her two children aged six and three.Read more from Lindsay Murdoch at The Age .

Vietnam: Dancing with the Scars of ‘79

Published on Feb 18, 2014 by Luke Hunt

Governments and their militaries have well established traditions when it comes to commemorating battles that define a nation. Those traditions dictate that formal ceremonies are held every five and 10 years to remember the fallen.Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat..

Found, Cambodia's Lost City

Published on Jun 20, 2013 by Luke Hunt

Archaeologists using revolutionary airborne laser technology have discovered a lost mediaeval city that thrived on a mist-shrouded Cambodian mountain 1200 years ago. The stunning discovery of the city, Mahendraparvata, includes temples hidden by jungle for centuries – temples that archaeologists believe have never been looted.Read more from Lindsay Murdoch at Fairfax Media..

Invading Iraq: Lindsay Murdoch on Iraq and Lies

Published on Mar 24, 2013 by Luke Hunt

I was not aware the Pentagon had called me a liar. I was sitting at the time in a knee-deep hole in the Iraq desert wearing a chemical warfare suit and flak jacket, helmet strapped on and gas mask within grasp. An editor in Sydney took the call from the Pentagon’s Lieutenant-Commander Jeff Davies a day after the beginning of the ground war in Iraq 10 years ago today.Read more from Lindsay Murdoch at Fairfax..

Hong Kong Before the Handover

Published on Mar 14, 1998 by Luke Hunt

Love is a Many Splendoured Thing was a fitting 1950s Hollywood tribute to romance. Hong Kong war correspondent falls in love with local girl. He dies. She cries. A decade later, Honkers is a Cold War transit lounge where boy spy meets girl spy, they sleep together then part. Now it’s The Kong and Luke Hunt tries to explain.Rosie doesn’t see herself as a whore, after all she is discerning. The term prostitute is equally insulting and Rosie is uncomfortable. She fidgets – and with some pride proclaims: “I’m a barfly.”Indeed, she is the classic barfly, which in The Kong has its own peculiar definition, and is the last line in a game that is structured by the local rackets....