Episode 3

Available for over a year

1964. At the Pentagon, America’s future in Vietnam is played out in two rooms. The war game is meant to test whether bombing North Vietnam can force a communist retreat. But the simulation points to a devastating conclusion - whatever America does, the North will keep fighting, the Viet Cong will keep being supplied, and the war cannot be won on Washington’s terms. The CIA sees the warning clearly. John McCone tries to make LBJ listen. But the hawks in the administration dismiss the game as theory — and when the Gulf of Tonkin gives them the trigger they need, America steps towards a war the Agency already knows is doomed. Starring Kim Cattrall, Kelsey Grammer and Johnny Flynn. Eloise Page..........Kim Cattrall Lyndon Baines Johnson..........Kelsey Grammer Richard Helms..........Johnny Flynn Young Eloise Page..........Elena Delia Robert ‘Bob’ McNamara..........Rob Benedict Desmond Fitzgerald..........Donald Sage Mackay John McCone..........Tim Ahern Peer de Silva..........Ian Porter Barbara Robbins..........Lily Lefkow Admiral Grant Sharp..........David Menkin Tom Karamessines..........Akie Kotabe Gerri Whittington..........Nettie Chickering All other parts played by the cast Original music by Sacha Puttnam Written by Greg Haddrick, who created the series with Jeremy Fox Sound Design and Editing by Adam Woodhams, Andreina Gomez Casanova and John Scott Dryden Assistant Director: Flynn Hallman Sonica Studio Sound Engineers: Mat Clark & Paul Clark Margarita Sound Engineer: James Moore Sonica Runner: Lily Lefkow Director: John Scott Dryden Producer & Casting Director: Emma Hearn Executive Producers: Howard Stringer, Jeremy Fox, Greg Haddrick and John Scott Dryden. A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4