War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its size,

and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history

through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. host, James Early. Hi, everybody.

I have a special episode for you today.

This episode is not in keeping with the current theme that we're going through.

This has nothing to do with the war we're discussing at the present time. However, I wanted to run it and take a break from the series, and then we'll get

back to it next week. This is a conversation that I had recently with podcaster and blogger

Howard Dory, and it is on the topic of Washington's incompetence.

Howard has a wonderful podcast called Plotting Through the Presidents and a blog that matches it.

And we talked about how Washington's early career was not a career characterized by military brilliance,

but a lot of mistakes. But eventually he learned from his mistakes and grew into a great leader.

So I hope you enjoy this conversation with myself and Howard Dory.

Also, be sure and check out his podcast and blog as well, plotting through the presidents.

All right, without any further ado, here's the episode Hello

And welcome to

Plotting Through the Presidents

I'm Howard Dory

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