Latest / Ridiculous History / CLASSIC: The War of the Stray Dog: How Far Would You Go For Your Pet?

Transcript

CLASSIC: The War of the Stray Dog: How Far Would You Go For Your Pet? · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, folks. Is that time of the week where
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: we share one of our favorite classic episodes.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Max.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Look, man, you and I are both animal people, as
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: is RPELLNL. I love love, love, love pretty much every
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: non human animal, and I was thinking about this as
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: we're going to today's classic episode. Two questions for you, Max. One,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: have you ever seen John Wick?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is amazing. Actually, I was introduced the series
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: with John Wick.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Two.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: I had a friend group of friends that would go
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: to matinee movies together. This is back when we're all bartenders,
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: so doing stuff Tuesday afternoon was like our go to
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: no one around and we were off right. I never
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: seen the first one. They're always come to see this.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: I'm god, I don't want to see some dumb action movie.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Oh my god.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: It captured me immediately.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: I'm like, this is so awesome.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: And that's the that's the second question there, building off
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: our mutual adoration of John Wick. How far would you
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: go for your pet?
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, I would. I would start a world war.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: I mean nukes would.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Fly, nukes would fly, heads will roll, as the yeah
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: yeah yeah said. This classic episode is about something called
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the War of the Stray Dog. As we're going to
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: find after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, these newly
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: independent nations started beefing over their borders, Greece and Bulgaria.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: This was one of those slow.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Burned things, right.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: It starts with small transgressions which escalate. There's an untenable,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: unsustainable situation, and it reaches a breaking point in nineteen
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: twenty five when a border guard's dog runs away. Here
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: we go the War of the Stray Dog. Ridiculous History
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio. Let's open today's show with
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: some statistics. It's often said that people could be either
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: dog people or cat people, meaning they prefer one pet
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: over another. According to a fairly arbitrary poll reported by
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: today dot Com, seventy four percent of us listening today
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: find ourselves being dog people, and a way to get
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: into today's episode is to ask how far would you
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: go for a dog? Welcome to the show. My name
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: is Ben.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: My name is no Ben. When you say do people,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: do you mean some sort of hybrid Island of Doctor
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Moreau type monstrosity or talking about dog efficient fans of dogs?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, as mentioned people who prefer dogs or people who
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: prefer cats. We have yet to ask our super producer
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Casey Pegram and this question. So I'd like to ask
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: both you guys. Noel, you strike me as more of maybe.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: A cat person. I am a fan of the movie
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Cat People and the accompanying Georgio Moroder soundtrack, and I
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: do like cats. I don't know why. They're a little
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: less needy.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: They're less work. They're they're less work.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: They're self sufficient. Dogs. While they do give you unconditional love,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: sometimes I feel like they just vomit love on you
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: to the point where you're like, can we turn off
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: the love hose please?
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I feel like sometimes I get the sense, and I'm
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: not going to profile you, but I've gotten the sense
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: before when we hang out that you don't like dogs.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing. I'm dating a girl and have
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: been for a while who has a lovely little dog
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: who I enjoy. He does some cute things like he
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: gets under the covers at night and kind of spoons
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: with my leg, which I enjoy, But he also does
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: things we're in the middle of the night. He'll get
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: on top of my head and start flipping his body
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: around in circles like he can't get comfortable. And he's
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: a humper, and he's he just does something. He does
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: some things that rubbed me the wrong way. I'm not
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: gonna lie, but he also does something that I enjoy.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: So you're you're maybe on the fence about dogs in general.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I'm cat people. Yeah, oh what about you? Casey?
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: Oh man, this is this is tough. I'm real fifty
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: to fifty on this. I love dogs and cats. I've
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: had more dogs than cats. But the one cat I
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: did have lived to be about eighteen or nineteen years
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: old and was a great cat. So I'd say, I'd
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: say both.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: That's awesome, you know, And that seems like that seems
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: like the kind of answer I would expect from Casey.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: You know, Casey on the cat and Dog case.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: And today's episode, Well you haven't said yours. Yeah, no,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I haven't. Today's episode brings us to no, no, sir,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: no sir, my friends, well being a decent human being.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: I love dogs and cats. Wow, that was that was
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: very pointed, very pointed.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Now I'm messing with you. I don't I love I
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: love animals in general, and it's not to be to
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: bleak about it, but it's true that in several generations,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: a lot of the wild animals that we can see
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: today are going to be gone. So I'm a little
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: bit bittersweet about it. You know, we created dogs in
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: a very real sense, right they are if you think
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: about it, dogs are genetically modified organisms or GMOs.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean the purebred ones are kind of
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: those Island of Doctor Moreau monstrosities in some ways.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: We're talking about some I believe. Now I'm not a
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: you know, a dog doctor, I'm not a veterinarian, but
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I believe that there are a couple of breeds that
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: require human assistance, yeah, to reproduce.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: That's right, what I mean, even like just the features
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: that humans consider cute or desirable sometimes are not good
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: for the health of the dogs, right as bread them
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: to be something that we like, but not necessarily with
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: their best interest in mind.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Whereas cats self domesticated, which I think is fascinating. But yeah,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: so I am a lover of all animals, including serpents
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: and insects. There are a couple animals I wouldn't necessarily
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: want to have in my house all the time, like
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: a snake, like snakes. Snakes are very happy outside and
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: that's where I will leave them.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know listeners right in, Am I a monster?
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I don't think you're an acquiring minds wants to know mine.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: My mind wants to you want to know if you're
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: a monster. I want to know if my others think
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: I'm among.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Not everybody, not everybody cares for dogs. And there's nothing
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: wrong with that. I did.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: I let me backtrack a little bit. I did not
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: say I didn't like dogs. I said there are some
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: qualities they have that annoy me a little bit, but
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: I do, I do see the good in them. Okay,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: I believe specifically, the phrase was vom at love. Yes,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: but turn off the love houses, And I said, yes, yes, yes.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: But we can agree that overall, in general people love dogs.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll often put themselves in harm's way to
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: protect them.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: There we go, nineteen twenty five. Boom, we got there.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: We did.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: So to explore this story, we have to look at
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire ruled an area of
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: the world that included a lot of different people, nations, languages, religions,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and ethnicities, and two of the peoples that they ruled,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: or two of the nations that were under the rule
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: of the Ottoman Empire were the Greeks and the Bulgarians.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty two, Greece becomes independent, and then in
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: nineteen oh eight Bulgaria becomes independent. And this is a
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: very big deal to them because while they were under
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: the thumb of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire was
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Islamic and the Greeks and Bulgarians were Christians of the
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Eastern Orthodox Church.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: And Bulgaria is considered a Balkan nation, and it is
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: along the coastline of the Black Sea. It has a
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: very vast and varying terrain, including mountains, and includes the
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Danube River, the famous Blue Danube of classical music fame.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: And it also, to some of what you said, Ben
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: has a very culturally diverse population. And this plays into
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: our story in terms of dividing up some of these
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: areas post war.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Right exactly so, the Ottoman Empire falls, the Balkan League
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: begins to carve up the European side of this empire,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: forming Albania, which many of us will recognize from its
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: multiple references in films like Taken and They Left Macedonia
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and Western Thrace. Bulgaria and Greece ostensibly had a lot
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: of reasons to get along. They shared a religion, they
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: both were independent from a former empire. They both also
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: wanted Macedonia and this led to tension. This resulted in
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: a number of conflicts between the two sides along the border,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: leading to the Second Balkan War of nineteen thirteen. And
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: as we know just from hearing that date, nineteen thirteen,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: there is a much bigger war on the horizon. World
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: War One breaks out. Bulgaria sides with Germany, Austria and
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Hungary and launches an attack against Serbia, and then they lose.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: The Allies win, and Greece has sided with the Allies,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and so they are rewarded for participating with the good guys,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: a job well done. For a job well done, Winners
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: write the history books. And Bulgaria is forced to give
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: up Western Thrace. And this is a big deal because
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: giving up this specific area means that they lose their
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: access to the Aege and c It's.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Right, and so here's the thing. By nineteen twenty five,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: the tension between Greece and Bulgaria were kind of reaching
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: a boiling point. This region is no stranger to these
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: kinds of tensions that have continued on throughout history, but
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: this is one in particular we're been talking about. The
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: two countries had been at each other's throats for many,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: many years, and there were these, I don't know what
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: you'd call them, kind of little splinter factions, peasant groups
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: that would cross the border between the countries because they
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: shared a border, and they would do all kinds of damage,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: property damage, mischief, plundering livestock, and often there would be
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: little skirmishes that would result from these seemingly innocuous enough
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: kind of acts of anarchy. But you know, there's a
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: powder k kind of situation and one little spark can ignite,
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: you know, a forest fire, right.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Right, And it's still sort of you know, technically it's
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: terrorism to not to drop the T word to arbitrarily,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: but yeah, you're right. And all these were groups like
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization MRO and the Internal Threecian
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Revolutionary Organization ITTRO IMRO and ITTRO, and these organizations had
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: some control, you know what I mean, over specific areas.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: There was a town called Petrick in southwestern Bulgaria bordering Greece,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: and it was run by MRO. It was almost an
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: autonomous area, They ran the town, you know what I mean. Like,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: you've ever heard those stories about areas in a city
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: where even the police won't go watch out kid, you
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: know what I mean?
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because they only they like you know, it's sort
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: of like a Gangs of New York kind of situation
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: where they literally have everyone in their pocket, they own
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: the streets. They it's sort of like a mafia kind
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: of situation almost.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of similar, just in terms of control, That's
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: what I mean. We're not equating these at all.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: I mean in terms of like the ubiquity of a
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: territory being owned by sort of a shadowy organization.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm I think your examples. But the reason I'm
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: doing a little bit of prologue with mine is because
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: this is how the Islamic stayed at operated.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: But these groups, we would imagine were not as as
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: violent and did not commit as many reprehensible acts, but
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: they were there. They were challenging rule of law. They
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: were also greatly contributing to these growing tensions. And in
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: nineteen twenty three, there's a prime Minister of Bulgaria's name
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: is Alexander Stamboliski. He tries to he tries to get
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: everyone to chill out just a little bit, you know
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: what I mean. He says, let's Greece, let's get along.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Can't we all just get along? And then for the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: rest of the European continent, Hey, Bulgary is not that bad,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean, We're not crazy. And then
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the people of Bulgaria responded by ousting him in a coup.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, I want to point out one little detailed
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: we've gotten to you. Yeah, after World War One and
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: after the Balkan War, Bulgaria and Greece were for the
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: first time independent nations, and they weren't used to this, right.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: This border was a super fuzzy prospect, the idea that
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: now we're two different things, where exactly is this border?
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: That was a big part of why these tensions were there,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: because it was sort of like, no, you don't get
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: to say where the border is. And it just feels
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: like they maybe didn't do the leg work of properly
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: defining the border in the immediate aftermath of being free
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: of the Ottoman Empire.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Right, Well, that's the thing about borders, man, That's right.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: They both felt like they defined it very well. They
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: just didn't agree on what the good definition was.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: That's absolutely right. So during one of these what would
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: have been discurbaged, yeah, exactly, up to seventy up to
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: the numbers, a little fuzzy Bulgarians were killed, and this
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: was really starting to contribute to suspicions by the Greeks
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: that Bulgaria was actually supporting this Macedonian movement for independence
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: that was going to lay claim to this territory within
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: the Hellenic border. Can we talk a little bit about
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: this notion of the Hellenic border? Ben sure.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. As we mentioned earlier, the thing about this region
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: is that this separation, this independence created a conflict because
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: of these areas that the folks just couldn't agree on.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: And those areas were what we call Western Thrace and Macedonia. Right,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: So Greece believed the Bulgaria was encouraging a Macedonian separatist movement,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: you know, because they were.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and most likely for completely selfish reasons, in order
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: to kind of upset the apple cart and maybe get
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: some allies with the Macedonian separatists.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: It's some of that sweet sweet land, you know what
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: I mean. So everyone is itching for a reason to
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: have a genuine fight for this border tension to spark
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: an out and out conflict.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: And they have.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Guards at the border, as you do, right, And there's
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: a border guard on the Greek side. And this guy,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: like many people, owns a dog, and he's so used
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: to being on the border, or so used to these
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: border tensions at least, that he brings his dog along
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: with him. But he Greece at the time, doesn't have
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: a leash law. That's the problem.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I guess that's kind of why maybe this
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: is dubbed the War of the Stray Dog, which I
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: would argue is a misnowherre because this dog was not astray.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: This dog belonged to this man who was a very
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: loving gentle master. But the dog did stray from ah
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: see that this is a semantic Yeah, yeah, So the
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: dog strays, the dog makes a run for it. I
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: don't know, you probably saw a squirrel or something, you know,
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: one of those famous Bulgarian squirrels.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we know, so well, they're great. They're top
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: notch squirrels.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Big big squirrels, very huge, very large physically. So the
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: dog bolts for the Bulgarian side, right, And the way
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: I've read it was the gentleman gives chase to the
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: dog and then ends up in Greek territory.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: And this is on October eighteenth, nineteen twenty five. It's
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: a police called the Demere Couple pass and naturally, as
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: you said, no, the guy goes after his dog. It's like, oh, no, Sparky,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: you can't be here, or mister pickles, what are you doing?
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Or whatever whatever. The most popular Greek name for a
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: dog is Casey. Will you make one up, just to
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: make up a dog name, mister sprinkles, mister sprinkles, Casey
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: on the case.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: On the case. I would argue god names would be
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: good for dogs Greek gods. So you got like Zeus
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: the dog or Apollo. You know, Artemis would be a
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: good dog. You call it Artie for short.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: What about muses? You know, I've always been partial to
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the name Calliope. And we don't know the gender of
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the dog. But anyway, this guy is yelling for his dog,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: like ah, you can't be here, come back, come back,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: and he chases after his dog because he's a responsible
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: pet owner, as he said. But in the Bulgarian side
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: of the border, there are also centuries, and they're also
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: guards and so a century shoots the soldier dead and
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: the guy the guy never reconciles with his pooch, and
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: this proves to be the first shot of what we
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: now know as the War of the Stray Dog. As
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: soon as one shot goes off, both sides of the border,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: guards on both sides start firing their rifles. There's a
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: lull we can imagine people are reloading. A Greek captain
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: goes into the the no man's land under a white
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: flag and he's, you know, he's waving his flags like
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: everybody calm down. Maybe he's saying, where's the dog. Maybe
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: he's saying, just stop shooting. This is a misunderstanding. The
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Bulgarians see the flag and they shoot him too, along
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: with his private who came along as a sidekick.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Damn yeah, I know. Not cool. There was some real
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: hot headed triggerman going on over there on the on
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: the Bulgarian side. This was of course, also near the
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: border town of Petris, which gives a subtitle to this conflict,
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: the Incident at Petrick Slash the War of the Straight Dog.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: And things may have ended there. Some would say, I
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: don't think so, because at this point the Bulgarian size
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: killed three people.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but they'd killed seventeen had died before, right, sure,
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: and that didn't start the war. So what happens we
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: have It takes not just the killings. It takes sort
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: of a wily, crafty military mastermind to kind of set
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: things in motion, right.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Right, right, forty seven year old Lieutenant General Theodoros Pangolos,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: who is a dictator of Greece. He's the military dictator.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: He learns about these killodes, he as we can only imagine,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: slams his fist on the table and says, the Bulgarians
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: these treacherous dogs, which would be a poor choice of
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: words on his end, but you know, who knows if
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: he knew about the dog. At this point, this guy,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: being a military dictator, was very much authoritarian, ruling with
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: an iron fist. He said, we are going to show
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: these Bulgarians what's what. And this is again, just weeks
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: after this guy installed himself as the leader of the country.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: He orders an entire army corps to the area, and
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: he sends a forty eight hour ultimatum to Sophia, the
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: capital of Bulgaria, where he says, I demand the following
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: first apologize for the shootings. Second, prosecute any soldier who
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: fired a shot, and third, compensate the families of the
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: fallen soldiers. Compensate them six million Greek drachmas. And that's
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: within forty eight hours. If not, there will be a war.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: I will evade.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing, Noel, after he issued that forty
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: eight hour ultimatum, he went ahead and invade it before
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the forty eight hours up, just.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: To really show them that he meant business. And I
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: don't know, that seems like a weird flex.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: It's sort of like I make the ultimatum, if you're
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: just gonna break it before the other side has a
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: chance to act.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like it was just a pr thing.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Maybe for his domestic side. He wanted war. So they
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: go through Bulgaria, this Greek army corps. They're doing horrible things.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: They're burning villages, they're looting, they're pillaging. They also start
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: striking out at anything they consider a Macedonian enclave, like
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: you're not so separate, now, are you?
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Pop Pop pop, And this is all for it's from
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: the Greek perspective, like if he's looking to use us
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: to his advantage, it's to what claim more sweet sweet Land,
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: claim more territory, just to move that border further and
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: further away from them.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's complex because it's it's partially that ultimately that
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: that's gonna be one of their goals to increase their
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: geographic holding me they're holding. But also it's a hearts
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: and minds thing on the dictator's end, because he wants
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the people to see him as a competent and powerful leader.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean. He's still got that new
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: car smell on him, dictator wise, so he wants to
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: prove that he's Look, the easiest time for a dictator
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: to be conquered in a coup is shortly after they
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: have been installed in a coup that they create, That's right.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: So he needs to get as popular as he can
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: before the next angry, hot headed lieutenant general takes his head.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: This doesn't exactly apply, but I think it's just a
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: great line. There's a line in Red Dead Redemption two
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: where a general is trying to start a conflict with
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: the Native Americans because they keep breaking the basically, the
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Americans keep breaking treaties with the Native Americans, and there's
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: a line where one of his lieutenants is kind of
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: like he understands the plight of the Native Americans. He
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: says of his boss. Last war didn't go so well
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: for him, so he figured he'd start a new one.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Maybe yet, you know what, that's a good lie So
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: how do they do these belligerent Greek soldiers fair with
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: their looting and pillaging?
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, initially, pretty well they had the element
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: of surprise. I maybe that's why it was the element
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: of surprise. They say, we're going to give you a
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: clock on this, and then when they just go ahead
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: and do it, Yeah, it doesn't really Yeah, it's not
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: very sportsmanlike, shall we say? Right? So yeah, So initially
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: they blast in there, knock down the enemy's defenses and
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: drill into Bulgaria, of course, raping and looting on and
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: I'm adding raping. You gotta assume there's a little raping
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: going along with and burning all these I mean really
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: really scorched earth kind of warfare. Not nice, right.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Their idea is that they're going to occupy that town.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I mentioned TODP. Patrick because they wanted to incentivize the
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Bulgarian government, I guess. But but more more was an
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: excuse to invade, and as you said in the beginning,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: they are they're doing okay primarily because they have this
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: element of surprise. So once that element of surprise wears off,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the Greek army finds itself in a bit of a quagmire.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: It's still recovering from getting walloped, getting its can I
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: say this on air, getting it's ass kicked from the
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen to nineteen twenty two war with Turkey, and
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: so it didn't have all the infrastructure needed to sustain
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: an army and operate in Bulgaria. So Pangalos decides that
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Greece needs allies, and Athens ask Serbia to help them
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: punish Bulgaria. And then they say, look, if you help us,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: if you help us fight the these dirty Bulgarians, then
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: we're going to give you a railroad corridor to a
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: port city as well as the zone and control in
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: the region.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: This is so funny to me because this sort of
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: like making counting your chickens before they hatch kind of logic. Right,
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: It's like saying, hey, here's what I'm going to give
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: you if we reign supreme here once we control all
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: that sweet sweet borderland.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Right, But that's I mean that's how they game.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: That's how the game is played. It's very much making
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: the T shirts before you make it right. You're placing
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: bets on who the winner will be. And if you win,
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: you win big. If you lose, you look like a
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: real Vegas baby.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know why. I just like that phrase. So
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the Bulgarian side does the same thing in their difference
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: of course. Oh no, like you said, every said, that's
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: what what is, it's what is done, what is done.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: But they don't go to just a single nation. They
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: go to the brand spanking new League of Nations.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: Now, if you're asking me, I would add a caveat
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: like a bunch of babies.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Why why would you're at that?
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: I just feel like that's sort of like cry going
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: to your mommy and saying, like, you know, little Stevie's
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: picking on me, come help, come, you know, give him
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: a spanking.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: But that's literally what the League of Nations was supposed
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: to be for, right, It was.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: To prevent I don't know, man, I just figured sort
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: out your own stuff, leave the League out of it.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: It was all right, I'm being a little hard. It
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: was meant though, you know it.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: It was meant to, at least on paper, exercise diplomacy
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: between nations to prevent multi national wars, you know what
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: I mean. So this should be exactly what the League
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: of Nations is good at doing. They intervene in the
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: war through diplomacy, and they go to the dictator of
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Greece and they say, hey, hey, Buckeroo, you know, I
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: know you're a big deal, and you gotta you know,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: rule your people with an iron fist and all that
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: slow jazz, but stop invading folks. And whatever they say
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: persuades the general now and he says, all right, you
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: guys rule that I can't can't keep invading h So
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna pull my troops back. But by the time
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: he finally comes to heal, I feel like I'm using
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: so many dog terms.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: Well that's important. By the time your pun game is strong,
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: that's is that even a pun?
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: You know?
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: It's sort of like Elanis Morrisett's song ironic. Is anything
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: in that song actually ironically? I don't know.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Well, we will doggedly chase upon it if we can
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: find one. Fifty Bulgarians are dead. By the time the
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: guy finally says okay, League of Nations l own.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: I'm out. I comply with your ruling, okay, and I
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: you know what, I'm gonna walk back what I said
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: about the Bulgarians being babies for one of the League
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: of Nations. You're right, Ben, it is what it's for
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: because Greece was super overstepping, right they were. Well, I mean,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: you know, war is what is it? War never changes,
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: you know, from the Fallout games, it doesn't matter. I
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: feel like Pangalos was being super opportunistic and overstepping and
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: really jumping the shark, shall we say, in his invasion efforts,
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: and also not to mention the non sportsmanlike way, he
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: totally gave them a clock on the offer of reparations
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: and then completely went back on that very dirty So
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: here's the thing. The League of Nations side with the
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Bulgarians and they give them a little help. They send
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: them some troops from some member nations.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Correct, Yeah, And then they say, look, we don't want
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: this to get ugly.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know why.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: In my head these guys are all calling calling this
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: dictator these weird names like Bukaroo, Bucky Partner. They do ask,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: they do ask for the dictator to pay some kind
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: of financial compensation to Bulgaria.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Well, he did burned down like villages. I mean, there's
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: gonna be you know, some rebuilding costs associated with this.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Did you see how much they asked them to pay?
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: It wasn't an insignificant amount.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: It was forty five thousand pounds, forty five thousand British pounds.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: That's it. That's it. That's not much. That's not much
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: at all. That's not gonna that's token. I think this
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: has recent enough been that we could inflation calculate that
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: bad boy.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Or correct casey, could I get the queue for a
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: handy dandy inflation calculator calculating perfect All right, forty five
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: thousand pounds in nineteen twenty two is equal to dramatic
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: pause two point four nine or so million pounds in
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: And we didn't really see a figure for how much
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: damage the Greek invasion costs. But I've seen many sources
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: indicating that there was much burning and pillaging and looting
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: and sacking going on. So right, this seems like a
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: pretty insignificant sum. But Pangelos was still very unhappy with it.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: He felt that the League of Nations had given him
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: a raw deal because they had they had cided against
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: him before as well, hadn't they been well, he.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Already felt that they were incredibly imbalanced and hypocritical because
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: he said, he said, look, we all know that the
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: League of Nations has two sets of rules, one for
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: nations that are powerful like Italy, ah, and one for us,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: the little guys like Greece, and you guys are unfairly uh,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: punishing us for things that you would be absolutely fine
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: with another nation doing.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, we're just trying to make our make our nut,
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, we're just trying to flex a little
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: bit of you know, why why can't we be conquerors?
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: Everyone else gets to conquer?
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Why is everybody so pro Bulgarians? That's that's we're we're
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: taking some poetic license here, but yeah, yeah, he is.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: He is not happy with it, and he feels that
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: he has been humiliated in front of his nation and
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: on salable stage. He feels that Greece as a nation
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: has been humiliated with his name on the marquee and uh.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: Because here's the thing, man, when you're a dictator, I mean,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: your source of power comes from your ability to like
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: flex and be a strong man, and like say, you know,
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: I am a beyond reproach and I have an iron
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: fist and no one can mess with me. It's like
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: the same as being like a I don't know I'm
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: using this example again, but like being a mob boss.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: As soon as someone sees weakness in you, or you
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: are messed with and not paid or whatever it is,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: you are open to being overthrown, my friend.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: And yeah, as I had mentioned earlier, when is the
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: most likely time for a military dictator to be overthrown.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: It's right after he overthrows someone, that's right, Or you know,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: it's right after they overthrow somewhere.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: He attempts it anyway.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so we can only imagine that at this time, Penglos,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: General Penglos, is privately worried that this may affect his
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: ability to rule or the people's trust in him. And
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: it turns out that he is absolutely right. He has
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: been seen as weak on the domestic and international stage.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: So the very same people, the very same cadre of
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: officers that helped him become dictator, by that summer, they
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: overthrow him and they replace him with the old guy,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: the earlier president of Greece.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: Just you know, I mean, oftentimes these powerful men are
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: representative of something going on beneath the surface, and when
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: the shadowy cabals that run things for real beneath the service,
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: even under a dictatorship, has to answer to somebody a
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: lot of the time, right, right.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Like, even in democracies like the US, the president has
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: to answer to Cheryl Crow at some point.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: She is such a monster.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: I had no idea we had picked such a powerful enemy.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: But yeah, you're absolutely right. No, you're absolutely right. He
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: is overthrown. He vanishes from the public eye. We know
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: a little bit about what happens to him next, and
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: it's not especially pretty, nor is it noble or glorious.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: He's implicated in a corruption scandal. He resurfaces to endorse
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: the pro Nazi collaborationist regime in Greece during the you know,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: the rise of the Nazi Party. He passes away in
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty two. But get this, his grandson, who shared
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: the name Theodoros Pengalos, became deputy Prime Minister of Greece.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: So they kept her in the family.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they really did. And O G. Panglos withdrew from
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: public life and wasn't really hurt from again, and you know,
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: because he kind of retired in shame. And this, this
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: whole all because of a straight dog, all because of
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: a dog.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: We don't even know the dog's name. But I think
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Casey made an excellent choice with mister Sprinkles.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: I like it too. I'm gonna go with Zeus the dog.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Here we go a Zeus.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we we. I guess we could speculate and
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: say the guy, the guy probably named his dog something Greek, right, Hey,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: maybe it was Pangelos. Maybe that's why the dictator got
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: so mad, But we sadly don't know what happened to
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: the dog afterward. And for playing a very small part
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: in this story, this unknown dog has one that has
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: won the name in history. It's called the Incident at Patrick,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: but a lot of people nowadays call.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: It the War of the Straight Dog.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: We hope that you have enjoyed this episode, this brief
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: look into one of the many ridiculous causes for war
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: throughout human history. Let us know some of your favorite
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: stories about ridiculous causes for war. And hey, if you
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: have any cool pet pictures, you can send them. I
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: don't want to volunteer both of you, guys. I just
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: love seeing other people's pets. You can send them to
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: us on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. You can also
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: find our favorite part of the show your fellow listeners
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: on our Facebook page.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: Ridiculous Historians can also check us out on Instagram or
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: we are Ridiculous History. You can check me out independently.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: If you want to see pictures of me walking around
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: eating croissants with my kid, that is at Embryonic Insider.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: And if you want to see my various misadventures here
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: and abroad, as well as disguises and costumes, you can
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: follow me at Ben Bolan on Instagram. Thanks to our
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: super producer case Pegram, thanks to Alex Williams who composed
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: our track, Thanks to our research assistant Gabe and Noel.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Thank you man. You know, I don't think you're a monster.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: I think you're a pretty cool dude. Be you sure? Yeah?
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: You kind of hurt my feelings at the top of
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: the show. Really why because you said you're a normal,
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: nice human being who likes all animals, and that imply
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: that I am some sort of sub human monster. No,
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: not at all. I'm just kidding. I am if nothing else,
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: I am melodramatic.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: We all need a bit of drama in our lives.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: And I'll tell you what. I can confidently say that
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: none of the three of us would start a war
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: over a dog. Okay, I can with ninety percent certainty.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Even as I was saying that, I was thinking, well,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It depends on the dog, and it
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: depends on the board.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: Really well, back about it. I mean, you know, if
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: you see you see an opportunity, I say, go for it.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: to your favorite shows.